Fuel Economy On Petrol I20

[stuart.haycock@gmail.com]

So, the book says I should be averaging about 54mpg, with a best of around 65mpg. Since I consider myself an economical driver I figured this must be easily achievable, but so far I've only managed 41 -45mpg. The worst figure was on a 65mph cruise to Southampton and back where I would have expected much better than that! Light throttle, gentle acceleration, correct tyre pressures and light loading should allow me to hit the official figures surely?

Looking through the forums on the interweb it does seem that this is an issue for others too. Mine is an early 2010 model, 1.25 petrol bought with just 3000 miles on the clock. Anybody else suffer this way or have any ideas why?

[fred bloggs]

QUOTE (ericthellama @ Dec 31 2010, 04:19 PM)

So, the book says I should be averaging about 54mpg, with a best of around 65mpg. Since I consider myself an economical driver I figured this must be easily achievable, but so far I've only managed 41 -45mpg. The worst figure was on a 65mph cruise to Southampton and back where I would have expected much better than that! Light throttle, gentle acceleration, correct tyre pressures and light loading should allow me to hit the official figures surely?

Looking through the forums on the interweb it does seem that this is an issue for others too. Mine is an early 2010 model, 1.25 petrol bought with just 3000 miles on the clock. Anybody else suffer this way or have any ideas why?

I think you're probably getting the best MPG you ever will, you will never get near the official consumption figures as they are massaged to meet CO2 emissions figures rather than to reflect real life driving.

[stuart.haycock@gmail.com]

The thing is, I usually get better than the manufacturers quoted figures. My '97 diesel automatic Land Rover Discovery regularly gets over 32mpg and that's a two tonne steel box. I don't usually get as low as manufacturers claim so it seems strange that I'm so far adrift. My brother gets over 70mpg from his TD Golf which is pretty close to manufacturers figures. It does seem that the i20 is a long way off the mark.

What do you other guys get?

[taeasz]

I would agree with Fred that in the real world the manufacturer's quoted mpg figures are rarely if ever achieved. At 3000 miles the best I have achieved in my 1.25 is 48mpg, and that was on a fairly gentle 200 mile cross-country drive at no more than 65mph. I generally average around 42mpg on a tankfull of liquid gold with a mixture of short runs around town and longer trips. My method is to zero the trip meter after filling-up until the pump cut-off and working out mpg after the next fill-up to a full tank. An average over several tank fulls should give you a realistic figure,

[mrtrout]

QUOTE (Alan60 @ Jan 4 2011, 02:32 AM)

I would agree with Fred that in the real world the manufacturer's quoted mpg figures are rarely if ever achieved. At 3000 miles the best I have achieved in my 1.25 is 48mpg, and that was on a fairly gentle 200 mile cross-country drive at no more than 65mph. I generally average around 42mpg on a tankfull of liquid gold with a mixture of short runs around town and longer trips. My method is to zero the trip meter after filling-up until the pump cut-off and working out mpg after the next fill-up to a full tank. An average over several tank fulls should give you a realistic figure,

That's the best way to do it, forget all the computer gizmos, for a true reading follow Alans advice.
I too am an extremely light footed driver, but if you can average 42 to 45mpg in the 1.25 you wont get any better, believe me.
S.

[stuart.haycock@gmail.com]

Ok, so I've been keeping tabs over the last few tanks and we're still at an average of 43mpg for 1.25 petrol. I'm a little surprised at your placid acceptance of these sorts of figures since the car is sold as averaging 54mpg and peaking at 64mpg on a run. I was getting 50+mpg around town out of a '96 Renault Clio of the same engine size and I'm sure that technology has moved on since then!

So what are you guys actually getting out of your i20's? Your experience seems to reflect mine at 42-45. With the current increases in petrol prices, and the fact that it's costing over £50 to fill the tank, I'm thinking that a 20% shortfall in advertised performance shouldn't go without come comment. The dealer is getting the car back to investigate this week but please post me your consumption figures. I'd be very interested indeed.

[Lester985]

This topic has been addressed before on this forum.
My best ever reading on the computer was 60mpg
on a motorway run of 200 miles.
I still hit the low 50's on continuous driving where there is
no great variation in speed but on what is commonly described
as urban driving I only manage around the low 40's at best.
The i20 is quite heavy in comparison to vehicles such as the Mazda 2
(and my 1995 POLO). I think this has something to do with it.
It would be interesting to compare with the i10 using the same engine
on a smaller car.

Lester..

[stuart.haycock@gmail.com]

Thanks Lester, that's very interesting. My driving is a mix of town, urban dual carriageways and motorways so I am expecting 50+ on everyday stuff. My motorway consumption was awful at about 41mpg for the tank used, and that was gentle cruising. The average over several tanks is coming out at about 42-43mpg, a figure which even startled the dealer when I dropped it off this morning for investigation. I will keep checking and see how it goes. My style of driving normally allows me to match or beat the official figures so I remain optimistic in the long term. It's the only thing that really lets down an otherwise excellent little car.

My partner has an i10 with the same engine but as a District Nurse she does a lot of stop-start around town. Nevertheless we will checking hers too! It's got the same 1250 Kappa engine but with slightly lower emissions. Watch this space.

Update : Car went into the dealer from whom it was bought yesterday to resolve a lighting issue and they assured me that it is running exactly as it should. Which was depressing. 42mpg this tank full. They couldn't resolve the lighting thing either and first thing this morning I was confronted with the sort of flickering, flashing light show that would have put a Pink Floyd concert to shame. So I took it to another more local dealer who offered to sort the lights out and assured me that the fuel consumption would improve as it got nearer to 10,000 miles. The suggestion was that I drive it a little harder and a little more aggressively, and that might speed up the bedding in process. Interesting advice but who am I to argue?

Update : When I discussed the problem with Hyundai they simply weren't interested. Their only suggestion was that I talk to the dealer. I raised the suggestion of an LPG conversion but they assured me that would invalidate the warranty on the engine. Unhappy? You bet! To be using 20% more fuel than official figures suggest takes it from being an economical small car to one consuming more fuel than many much larger vehicles.

Updates on your experience with the fuel consumption would still be appreciated.

[stuart.haycock@gmail.com]

Ok, I admit it . . . . you're right.

Even Hyundai assured me that the 'Official Fuel Consumption Figures' are meaningless and shouldn't be trusted. I'm not sure if you're allowed to publish links here so will just advise that you Google Wintons World and search for the Fuel Consumption article on that site. It shows that most manufacturers actual performance is between 15 -30% lower than the official figures they publish. In fact, in an emailed conversation with Mr.Winton he said that the Fiat 500 TwinAir he just tested achieved just 42mpg against a claimed 67mpg so Hyundai aren't the only fibbers!

Am I fed up? Of course. Even though they all lie, it doesn't make it easier to swallow. I'm stuck with 42-45mpg and if it goes up from that I guess I will be happy. Hyundai said that an LPG conversion would invalidate the warranty on the engine so I'll have to think about that one before acting. I was sure that they offered a dual fuel model in other markets.

Given that my 14 year-old Land Rover Discovery is twice the weight, and has twice the engine capacity and an automatic gearbox, and still manages to give me 32mpg, I have to wonder what progress has been made over the years. I'm spending more on fuel in my little 'economical' Hyundai than I was on the 200,000 mile Mercedes I gave up to buy it! Pah.

I'm still interested in your fuel consumption figures though, so please post them here.

[jamstaruk]

only had my new 10.5 1.2l confort for 3 days highest ive had is 39.6 mpg im not happy with that either as after filling up at over £50 it recons il get just over 300miles according to onboard trip meter