How's your Diesel performing?

we all know there's no need to have air conditioning in ireland - it's an added extra on some models but we never need to/get to use it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

anyway for fuel efficiency just use normal blow through ventilation - tis plenty good enough haha.
 
Jack The Lad said:
Surely the opposite is true? Constant speed = better fuel consumption?
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Aparently Cruise control is not as fuel efficient as a driver who can skillfully maintain a desired speed.

For example compare someone cruise controlling at 90km/h, and a driver without cruise control doing around 90km/h

Whenever there is a hill, the cruise control will quickly open the throttle, using more fuel to maintain at 90km/h.
The fuel efficient driver with no cruise control will allow his car to decellerate a fraction until he gets to the top of the hill (to avoid opening the throttle), and then accelerate gently to 90km/h on the next level piece of road or downslope.

However Cruise Control has a lot of advantages, and I was wrong to say it's not fuel efficient. It is fuel efficient in many driving situations (i.e. intercity motorways)
 
hey who ru. I love my climate control, and I find it had no effect in the fuel consumption. Emissions maybe a little. There is no need for it all the time but it's nice to have it and turn it off when i don't need it! You will use more fuel with the windows down as you create more drag. I get about 700 miles from full mark to last red mark on my Audi A4 1.9tdi 130bhp. And it's the multitronic automatic. They are a very effecent gearbox more so than dsg box but not as much as the 7speed dsg. Which is lighter on fuel and less emissions than a 6 speed manual. I am getting better fuel consumption since I switched to continental premium contact 2's. About 5-7 better and I have them at 34psi. Hi whiskey I find cruise not to be as efficient I think because people only hit the brakes when their car gets too close to the traffic, which wastes fuel. the trick is to judge the distance and keep off the brakes as much as possible. Works for me! and here is a more accurate way to calculate your fuel consumption, Your cars clock is usually always set to about 5mph more. So your mpg is going to be off a little. http://www.torquecars.com/tools/uk-mpg-calculator.php
 
Mad_Lad said:
hey who ru. I love my climate control, and I find it had no effect in the fuel consumption.
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Your climate control will have no effect on fuel consumption unless the aircon kicks in. And in Ireland, the aircon will seldom need to kick in unless you set the temp low.

I think climate control is a fantastic thing. I can't understand why its such an expensive extra when buying a car, compared to buying a car with aircon and no climate control.

After all what is climate control apart from thermostatically controlled temperature, or is there more to it than this ?
 
excuse my ignorance... but how can you work out how much diesel the car uses .when I fill up every week it costs around €75/€80 approx. I do on average 1000km per week. the diesel cost €1.27 a litre..
 
Keep an eye on amount of fuel rather than price. I had to put 62 litres of fuel in my car this weekend to fill up. 570 miles covered including 300 mile round trip to castlebar helped my economy on this tank.
 
tech3 said:
excuse my ignorance... but how can you work out how much diesel the car uses .when I fill up every week it costs around €75/€80 approx. I do on average 1000km per week. the diesel cost €1.27 a litre..
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If you spend 80 euros, and its 1.27 a litre, you use about 63 litres.
(80 divided by 1.27 = 63)


63 litres moves your car 1000km, thats 6.3 litres/100km


It's about 41 mpg in the old system.That's not great fuel efficiency for a diesel. A lot of diesels manage 5.5 litres/100km
 
I just switched over to diesel about 2 months ago (just as the prices started to rocket! not taking it personally though!).

I drive a 1.6 Ford Focus TDCI. I am currently getting about 54mpg / 5.2l/100km (both on the trip computer and by manual calculation whenever I fill up).

My driving is approx 90% good N roads and 30 mile twice daily commutes. I use cruise control as much as possible and just turn it off to slow down rather than using the breaks (where safe to do so)!

Was happy enough with this until I saw toyotas and peugeots getting 60+ mpg.

One of the reasons (albeit a low priority one) I choose the focus over the Auris was because the manufacturers fuel economy figures for the focus were better!

I find driving at 90km/hr to be painfull as everyone is just itching to overtake you and will do so even when not safe, pulling infront of you causing you to break more, so probably not as efficient as it should be! Maybe when the roads are quiet!
 
I really think at this stage. That to save money you should NOT buy a new car. If you think about it. It's nice to have a new car but diesels cost a lot more to buy, are cheaper to fuel I know, But you will have to drive many miles to make up the difference, Chances are you will be trading it in before you even begin to make a saving. Then there is the mad depreciation. If you drive 30 k Miles a year I would say it's worth it to buy a 2nd hand diesel. But after that depreciation will Hit you very hard, and so eliminate any savings you made in buying a diesel in the first place. I bought my A4 Last july the 1st and have done 26k Miles since, Cost me €17,000 with 100k miles on the clock. Perfect service record, only fault was the Air-con Compressor. Which was fixed for €600.00 Euros local mechanic, Audi wanted €1500. I Got the compressor from England myself. I know the engine will go for 300k Miles if I want it to. It’s a very good car to buy 2nd hand. So I'm not too concerned that The A4 is not the most fuel efficient car in the world, But 700 miles from an automatic diesel. 70 Litre tank. Is more than good enough for me! I may change my mind If diesel Hybrids Make an appearance or if the Prius 3 next year has better figures than the current one. But the prices of such technology are insane.
 
Mad_Lad makes some very interesting points but i would add that Diesels are getting cheaper because of the VRT reduction. In my case I don't believe in buying new normally but have ordered a new Octavia 1.9TDI for July simply because the retail price is dropping by €2400 and will only be €150 a year to tax and should do 58MPG. I believe bit by bit the retailers will increase the price so now is probably a good time to take advantage of the VRT reduction. I gave some thought to buying second hand but I would be paying €400 a year extra in motor tax. I probably won't buy a new car again. I would also add that Audis/VWs/Volvo etc can be nice but can be pricey - I believe that Skoda's might not be speculator but offer value for money. Alot of Diesels are dropping 3-4K in VRT which will make them as cheap if not cheaper than the petrol models
 

That sounds a little on the low side. Perhaps you need to change up a gear a little earlier and use the engine torque for acceleration rather than pushing hard on the accelerator?

I used to have an Audi and I never averaged lower than 45 mpg usually 47-49 on extra urban driving at 70 to 80.

Are you unfortunatly stcuk in non-moving traffic? It would hit your over all mpg big time
 
Hi PaddyH. I was looking for an octavia, but couldn't get a dsg in the 2.0 TDI. Nor the spec I wanted. It seems people here only order the basic spec car. But the octavia is a great car. But you will have big depreciation all because of the skoda badge, and it is a crying shame. The tax for me is €590 per year. It's a shame they didn't give the environmentally conscious driver that bought the more fuel efficient car the reduction in tax before july. But If I was going to buy a new car I would buy a golf. For the ONLY reason is that it will hold its value much better than most cars on the road. But I wouldn't buy a new golf they are far too boring and have no character. I would buy the new bravo they are really much nicer than the golf. Or buy a passat 2nd hand and get a better spec more comfy car than the golf! Another cheaper way of motoring would be to buy a 2nd hand diesel and convert it to ppo (pure plant oil). Anyway this new tax system is useless because the big suv’s are not expensive enough for the people that can afford to buy and run them. And we will see a lot more tolls in the future. Then there is carbon tax which will be introduced in the not too distant future. And then there is the commercial driver who can buy a big pickup or suv without back seats and pay €50-00 vrt, not to mention the tax they will get back on fuel if you are vat registered! The only sensible way to do it is pay per kilometre, It would work out more expensive for the long distance driver but it is the best way from an environmental point of view! But I will go back to my previous point that for the cheapest way of motoring would be to buy a well maintained 2nd hand car and benefit from someone else paying the vrt and getting the big depreciation hit. Buy 1.6 diesel from Peugeot or citroen get the 110hp and you have a very economical car, and if you drive using the engine torque as Werner rightly points out you should easily see 75mpg as I did in a van version, although afaik it was only the 80hp 1.6 c4 van. Sorry for the long posts
 
Caveat said:
Is this correct? To me, for a 1.9 diesel, that sounds pretty poor.
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I have the same engine in my Alfa and it gets 38mpg on round trips to/from work, up & down through the gears.

That can go up to high 50's mpg on long runs at 120kmh
 
most cars will not be efficent in towns or slow stop start traffic. That's where the prius comes in.
 
I have a rover 75 diesel. It has the bmw engine, similar to 320d and 520d and gives about 45-50 average. Very cheap to buy too.
 
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