the momentum of the car keeps the engine turning at this speed. pretty simple lads come on!

I always wondered though, does that apply to both fuel injection and carb engines? Surely the engine is still producing a vacuum even if you're not accelerating, so fuel is getting pulled into the engine through the carb just like at idle.

I get 45 mpg too, yet again I prove Saxos are better than Polos

45 mpg from a Mk2 Polo, and that's not even being particularly careful.

i brake stupidly early for anything slowing down gradually lol

Could be part of your problem...the key to economy is to never ever brake!

Braking itself uses no fuel but you then have to use fuel to speed up again, whereas if you just hang back, and keep a constant speed you would use less fuel overall.

If you brake,you were obviously going too fast for the impending conditions,and hadnt allowed the engine to drop speed naturally whilst changing down gears.

I've been told my brake lights are out when they weren't - no surprise,given that my car is the only one in a line of traffic approaching a roundabout with no brake lights,sometimes.

Keeping my distance instead of hugging the car in front gives me the margin i need to do this. I can stop too,sometimes using first once down to jogging pace and only using the brake to hold the car (though i'll usually use the brake at this almost-stopped speed).

My own car is tuned to only require 4th and 5th if traffic is okay - it'll cruise uphill at under 30mph in 5th at 1,200rpm quite happily,with the accelerator cable barely tensioned. If i wanna accelerate,it'll pull straight out of it with no need to change down,with acute throttle movement achieved by little more than full cable tension.

That's the result of an 86mm crank in a three quarter ton car though - tiny capacities are a false economy in my experience,as 1.0 at 3k is drinking more than 1.6 litres at 1.5k,but whilst this seems to be straying from the point,acceleration should only be at the rate that the engine can keep up with,without labouring hard. And that's universal.

When i see the way some people drive,its no wonder they can only get 40mpg and less about towns/cities/rural.

I average 20.5mpg :(

I think I get around 45 mpg.

Don't know what the polo does to a tenner, did 45 miles on £3.50 once though :-D

Some cars are this thread sound well broken, my rocco is 20 years old, done 154k, has stainless 4-2-1 manifold and full stainless straight exhaust, yet I've had 42 mpg out of it!

did 45 miles on £3.50 once though :-D

haha thats gotta be a record IMO

When i see the way some people drive,its no wonder they can only get 40mpg and less about towns/cities/rural.

Thats the same in Aberdeen...where it seems no one can drive economically even if they think they are.

People here don't seem to realise sitting in traffic with your engine running uses quite a bit of fuel and that changing at 2,000rpm even when speeding up to 70mph uses more fuel than a blast in 2nd up to the limit then straight into 5th to cruise.

I've also noticed people here brake for bends on 30mph roads...like brake hard down to 20mph for the slightest of bends then speed up to 30mph again whereas in a 30 zone I like to hold 30 everywhere.

And now the winter months have started I've been reminded of the most annoying drivers I have ever encountered. Its the people who insist on doing 40+mph through towns and cities 30mph roads then as soon as they see a national speed sign they slow down and just do 35mph everywhere. And they shake their heads and flash their lights at me when I overtake them doing 60mph in a national zones.

But never mind rant over :)

When i see the way some people drive,its no wonder they can only get 40mpg and less about towns/cities/rural.

Thats the same in Aberdeen...where it seems no one can drive economically even if they think they are.

People here don't seem to realise sitting in traffic with your engine running uses quite a bit of fuel and that changing at 2,000rpm even when speeding up to 70mph uses more fuel than a blast in 2nd up to the limit then straight into 5th to cruise.

I've also noticed people here brake for bends on 30mph roads...like brake hard down to 20mph for the slightest of bends then speed up to 30mph again whereas in a 30 zone I like to hold 30 everywhere.

And now the winter months have started I've been reminded of the most annoying drivers I have ever encountered. Its the people who insist on doing 40+mph through towns and cities 30mph roads then as soon as they see a national speed sign they slow down and just do 35mph everywhere. And they shake their heads and flash their lights at me when I overtake them doing 60mph in a national zones.

But never mind rant over :)

TRUTH

I was stuck behind someone similar, but they held 45mph NO MATTER WHAT the speed limit was, so they were speeding (dangerously) through villages and then holding everyone up in national speed limit. Weird.

I was stuck behind someone similar, but they held 45mph NO MATTER WHAT the speed limit was, so they were speeding (dangerously) through villages and then holding everyone up in national speed limit. Weird.

then they shout and flash at u when u overtake them in a 60 zone... i love corsas that are up my arse all the way through town n villages (30 zones) then i hit the national speed limit and i cant see them anymore :\

Yeah I took them eventually, I was driving mum's Diesel Mk4 Fiesta. It was a fairly new Volkswagen Golf they were driving, and the bloke driving it wasn't really old or anything.

Yeah I took them eventually, I was driving mum's Diesel Mk4 Fiesta. It was a fairly new Volkswagen Golf they were driving, and the bloke driving it wasn't really old or anything.

my grandads rover was fun lmao automatic 2l so its pretty quick compared to my 1.4 lol driving rather chilled down this long road towards oldham and manchester when these lads in this corsa come blasting up my arse grandad looks at me tells me to floor it put foot down look behind me and they're overtaking me corsa redtop haha well it must have been i wasnt going slow

Yeah i was in a row of traffic today,between Aylesbury and Buckingham,and it was all twisty single carriageway A-road. Noone was overtaking anyone,all going to the same place at the same speed.

But the Passat in front of me kept flashing his brake lights regularly,because he was so close to the car in front of him. What was the point in that? So he used his brakes 10% of the journey (i dont think i touched the brake pedal once) and subsequently had to use extra fuel to offset that braking. Which he did by constantly accelerating more than the car in front,hence braking it all back off,all the time.

He probably struggled to average 40mpg during the circa 50mph journey - when the car in front probably averaged at least 50mpg - and both took exactly the same time to get from Aylesbury to Buckingham.

All for tailgating (or 'hugging' as i tend to call it)

Yeah i was in a row of traffic today,between Aylesbury and Buckingham,and it was all twisty single carriageway A-road. Noone was overtaking anyone,all going to the same place at the same speed.

But the Passat in front of me kept flashing his brake lights regularly,because he was so close to the car in front of him. What was the point in that? So he used his brakes 10% of the journey (i dont think i touched the brake pedal once) and subsequently had to use extra fuel to offset that braking. Which he did by constantly accelerating more than the car in front,hence braking it all back off,all the time.

He probably struggled to average 40mpg during the circa 50mph journey - when the car in front probably averaged at least 50mpg - and both took exactly the same time to get from Aylesbury to Buckingham.

All for tailgating (or 'hugging' as i tend to call it)

i used to tailgate before overtaking because i thought id get round faster (mates still do) read in redline that if you drop back abit then you can see further down road and use less petrol because you are not on and off the accelerator constantly... this is what i do now lol... although i think iv got a problem not because i put £10 about 9.5 litres have driven 18 miles and my petrol gauge is on the bottom of the red bar :(

Yeah you get used to overtaking in a small engine car. Drop really far back, so you can get a good look and so you can accelerate before you pull out onto the other side. I still jam the throttle right open though, need every bit of torque the engine can give!

That don't sound right, £10 lasts me 80-90 miles even if I don't try.

arghhh not another mpg thread LOL

haha sorry I've only been driving for about 5/6 months and always wonderd if my polo had a good mpg lol sorryyyy

hahaha dont worry mate, i did'nt mean it in a bad way to you, its just mpg is such a hard thing for people to understand and judge

As heartagram said thats the only way to measure it, anyone who says "i got XXX from £10 of fuel" it can not be accurate

Its the fact that its so precise with the miles but quite casual about the actual amount of fuel.

It's still good to get an estimate, like I can tell you that 9.5 litres for 18 miles ain't right (unless you're American har har).

It's still good to get an estimate, like I can tell you that 9.5 litres for 18 miles ain't right (unless you're American har har).

tell you what I'm gonna do get petrol can fill it stick it in boot and drive round untill petrol runs out see how many miles it does on the £10 :\ but there has to be something wrong with the gauge as its constantly changing its mind about how much there is in tank

going to college today there was a taxi holding up the right lane of a duel carrige way going about 45mph about 3 cars all behind him so i went and under took him as he was acting like a cock and i went back into the right lane and he flashed me i loled

going to college today there was a taxi holding up the right lane of a duel carrige way going about 45mph about 3 cars all behind him so i went and under took him as he was acting like a cock and i went back into the right lane and he flashed me i loled

i love doing that altho undertaking maybe slightly illegal hehe long as no-one seen u

It's still good to get an estimate, like I can tell you that 9.5 litres for 18 miles ain't right (unless you're American har har).

tell you what I'm gonna do get petrol can fill it stick it in boot and drive round untill petrol runs out see how many miles it does on the £10 :\ but there has to be something wrong with the gauge as its constantly changing its mind about how much there is in tank

I don't know about the one of the 6n but I can tell you that the one on my Mk2 is fairly consistent (it doesn't go up or down too much with cornering or pitch) but the one on my mums Fiesta varies quite a lot, so it's possible it could just be how it is. Is this a new thing?

My Fiesta van changes its mind on how much fuel you have when you go round a sharp corner. Then when your back to normal so is the gauge

I'm on 360 miles for £40 of fuel and the petrol light has just turned on which means I'm getting just over 40 mpg. I'm pretty pleased as the majority of the miles is short journeys when the engines cold.

going to college today there was a taxi holding up the right lane of a duel carrige way going about 45mph about 3 cars all behind him so i went and under took him as he was acting like a cock and i went back into the right lane and he flashed me i loled

i love doing that altho undertaking maybe slightly illegal hehe long as no-one seen u

yeh i no its pritty cool but it is illega l and i was driving today down the same duel carrige way and over took an ambulance OMG DO THEY GO!!! he clearly wasnt having any of it and just shot of before id even reached 80 he was doing atleast 100+ :( felt like such a tool and i could see him in the distance!!