Roadworks Do Have Benefits

[Phil O]

Just done a round trip to Bournemouth M6 M5 M4, A roads some B and town centres, return via A34 M40 M42 M6 and A34 again. No rush and all the time in world so decided I'd see just what I could get out of the car, nice steady run not exceeding 65mph. Solo. Several sets of roadworks which had mandatory 50 & 40 mph limits on the M6 & M5 and most unusual no queuing traffic anywhere on the route. As can be seen it achieved 69mpg at one point.

Bog standard engine, not tweaked.

Quite impressed.

[bob1982]

Spotting the elephant in the room. .. but the top photo seems to have been taken when you were travelling at 60mph. Hope your passenger was the one taking the photographs :-)

[logiclee]

Not bad Phil but very rare.

 

The M1 J28-32 widening roadworks and A453 dual carriageway upgrade roadworks are robbing me of about 10mpg per day at the moment.

Friday another 30 miles in one and three quarter hours. Usually average 55mpg, did 37mpg Friday in the stop start hell.

 

Just another 9 months to go.

 

Lee

[Phil O]

Spotting the elephant in the room. .. but the top photo seems to have been taken when you were travelling at 60mph. Hope your passenger was the one taking the photographs :-)

But of course Bob

[bob1982]

Thats good then. I thought so. :-)

[Phil O]

Not bad Phil but very rare.

 

The M1 J28-32 widening roadworks and A453 dual carriageway upgrade roadworks are robbing me of about 10mpg per day at the moment.

Friday another 30 miles in one and three quarter hours. Usually average 55mpg, did 37mpg Friday in the stop start hell.

 

Just another 9 months to go.

 

Lee

Was very rare indeed especially in the West Midlands region, Friday morning outbound and returned today (Sunday)

[DeeTee]

Neither the mpg nor the traffic conditions in the West Midlands are rare in my experience of regularly using, over many years, the M6/J10/10a to/from M6/J4a M42 to M40 to J9 for A34 where I continue on M40 to M25.

 

A similar round trip journey of 420 miles from West Cheshire via A41/ M54/ M6/ M42/ M40/ M25 A3 towards south West London regularly, in Summer, returns 61 mpg or more with the best recorded for the round trip being 71 mpg. In Winter the same round trip never exceeds 57 mpg and has been 54 mpg.

 

Over the past years during the construction of both the managed motorway section of the M6 north of J7, the alterations to the approach to Spaghetti junction from the west and the roadworks at the M6 junction with the M42 the longest delay I have experienced is twenty minutes and the mpg has barely been affected. I always travel on a weekday and the times at which I encounter the West Midlands section of the journey can vary from 0800 to 1100 when travelling south and from mid to late afternoon when travelling north.

 

Over the past three years the tug, a 2005 VW Passat 1. 9l diesel estate, has travelled 32,460 miles, 15% of which was towing. The average fuel consumption over that distance is 56. 7 mpg at an average cost of thirteen pence per mile travelled.

 

 

[Phil O]

Neither the mpg nor the traffic conditions in the West Midlands are rare in my experience of regularly using, over many years, the M6/J10/10a to/from M6/J4a M42 to M40 to J9 for A34 where I continue on M40 to M25.

 

A similar round trip journey of 420 miles from West Cheshire via A41/ M54/ M6/ M42/ M40/ M25 A3 towards south West London regularly, in Summer, returns 61 mpg or more with the best recorded for the round trip being 71 mpg. In Winter the same round trip never exceeds 57 mpg and has been 54 mpg.

 

Over the past years during the construction of both the managed motorway section of the M6 north of J7, the alterations to the approach to Spaghetti junction from the west and the roadworks at the M6 junction with the M42 the longest delay I have experienced is twenty minutes and the mpg has barely been affected. I always travel on a weekday and the times at which I encounter the West Midlands section of the journey can vary from 0800 to 1100 when travelling south and from mid to late afternoon when travelling north.

 

Over the past three years the tug, a 2005 VW Passat 1. 9l diesel estate, has travelled 32,460 miles, 15% of which was towing. The average fuel consumption over that distance is 56. 7 mpg at an average cost of thirteen pence per mile travelled.

 

Good cars those Passats, I was going to have myself one but saw the Merc and couldn't resist. That's excellent performance tho. Must add that over 17yrs of travelling from M6 j15 to Birmingham city centre (48 miles) for 9am and returning at 6pm on a daily basis only at weekends did I get the journey done in less than an hour, weekdays was approx 90 minutes. So for me it really was a rarity to be free flowing traffic. Edited September 14, 2014 by Phil O

[screenman]

183 miles today solo at 53 mpg average. Good old Passat 2. 0 diesel estate. Gives 31 towing.

[Woodie106]

I had the polar opposite in 4. 0 litre Cherokee. Test drove one & much to the annoyance of the dealer it has the same computer on board as my voyager. He had it set at journey time elapsed, so I flicked it on to current mpg. He tried to put it back to time, but I told him to leave it as I wanted to see what it did. As I booted it away from a roundabout for about 500 yards it was reading 1mpg. The most I got on a dual carriageway at a steady 60 was 22. After the test he offered a grand towards an LPG conversion, but wouldn't just gives the grand off the asking price so we walked away. The mpg didn't bother is that much as we knew it wasn't going to be great in a 4 litre 4x4.

[dreadly]

I had the polar opposite in 4. 0 litre Cherokee. Test drove one & much to the annoyance of the dealer it has the same computer on board as my voyager. He had it set at journey time elapsed, so I flicked it on to current mpg. He tried to put it back to time, but I told him to leave it as I wanted to see what it did. As I booted it away from a roundabout for about 500 yards it was reading 1mpg. The most I got on a dual carriageway at a steady 60 was 22. After the test he offered a grand towards an LPG conversion, but wouldn't just gives the grand off the asking price so we walked away. The mpg didn't bother is that much as we knew it wasn't going to be great in a 4 litre 4x4.

I have heard that the 6litre Hemi gives better fuel consumption than the 4litre unit. Not actually owned one or had that confirmed though.

[DeeTee]

My Passat shows a current mpg of 2 mpg when accelerating up the road in a low gear from a cold start. Under the same conditions the average mpg is also 2 mpg after driving 100 yards.

Edited September 15, 2014 by DeeTee

[Jaydug]

decided I'd see just what I could get out of the car, nice steady run not exceeding 65mph.

Reducing speed always makes quite a difference to fuel consumption. Recently I updated my tow car. I've changed the C5(138bhp) to a C5-X7(160bhp) Both are 2ltr HDis but I was interested to see what the new one would do economy-wise. One day last week I was in no hurry as I travelled back from my daughter's along the M23/M25 so I set the cruise at 60mph. As I left the M25 after 27miles, the fuel figure was showing 71mpg. When I reached home after a further 8 miles, the figure was down to 60mpg. Now after a couple of cold starts and 20 or so miles of stop/start driving, it's down to 49mpg.

[nigel207]

Not wishing to rain on the parade, but have you worked out the real fuel consumption (notwithstanding the excellent figure anyway)? I ask, because of the three cars we have, one of them actually gives a reading consistently 10% under the actual, whilst the other two are between 5 and 10% optimistic.

[Woodie106]

Not wishing to rain on the parade, but have you worked out the real fuel consumption (notwithstanding the excellent figure anyway)? I ask, because of the three cars we have, one of them actually gives a reading consistently 10% under the actual, whilst the other two are between 5 and 10% optimistic.

 

Your moggy has an on-board computer?

[DeeTee]

 

Your moggy has an on-board computer?

I seem to remember that a Babbage water cooled computer was an optional extra for the Moggy

[Woodie106]

I seem to remember that a Babbage water cooled computer was an optional extra for the Moggy

 

But could his difference engine make the distinction between towing & solo mpg?

[Phil O]

Not wishing to rain on the parade, but have you worked out the real fuel consumption (notwithstanding the excellent figure anyway)? I ask, because of the three cars we have, one of them actually gives a reading consistently 10% under the actual, whilst the other two are between 5 and 10% optimistic.

 

I understand what you're saying, but as it's built into the car I will take these readings as a point of reference whilst driving in the future, I now know what I can get out of it (according to the computer) when driving conservatively, I will be pounding the roads in my usual style and dragging the tin can everywhere so it's probably the last time the computer will be showing these figures and never again will I travel 400 odd miles and still have almost half a tank of fuel remaining (according to the gauge) anyway.

It was an exercise, my wife says I need exercise so how better to accomplish her wishes.

[Jaydug]

, one of them actually gives a reading consistently 10% under the actual, whilst the other two are between 5 and 10% optimistic.

 

I haven't done any tests with my present car, but with the previous one, several times I did the 1300 mile journey between Calais and Malaga and checked the 'fills' against the computer and the difference between the figures was negligible.

[nigel207]

 

Your moggy has an on-board computer?

 

Hey Woodie, you'd be surprised what the Moggie has as standard! It's got elastictrickery and all that sort of fing!

 

 

I understand what you're saying, but as it's built into the car I will take these readings as a point of reference whilst driving in the future, I now know what I can get out of it (according to the computer) when driving conservatively, I will be pounding the roads in my usual style and dragging the tin can everywhere so it's probably the last time the computer will be showing these figures and never again will I travel 400 odd miles and still have almost half a tank of fuel remaining (according to the gauge) anyway.

It was an exercise, my wife says I need exercise so how better to accomplish her wishes.

 

Phil, they are indeed very impressive figures, even taking into account any potential margin for error.

[DeeTee]

 

Hey Woodie, you'd be surprised what the Moggie has as standard! It's got elastictrickery and all that sort of fing!

 

 

 

Phil, they are indeed very impressive figures, even taking into account any potential margin for error.

Like this ?

[nigel207]

Blimey, I've been spotted!

[xtrailman]

I get great MPG from the CX-5, right up to the point where it performs a regen.

[Phil O]

Regeneration, the bain of the modern car.

[logiclee]

Regeneration, the bain of the modern car.

 

 

Edit. ...... "Modern Diesel Car.

 

DPF the reason that two of the three cars on my drive are petrol.

 

 

Lee

Edited September 16, 2014 by logiclee