25 replies to this topic

[beentheunseen]

Hey everyone,

My Mum has a new Fiat 500, which has a book MPG of 45 for urban driving. We have analyzed the data from the eco-drive system, and it is only averaging about 30 MPG. She took it to the fiat servicing centre, but was totally fobbed off by the mechanics there who said stuff like 'you're never going to get the book fuel efficiency' and 'they get those figures from a wind tunnel' or some nonsense like that. I buy that it probably cant be expected to get to 45 MPG, but it seems wrong that it's short by a full 15, especially when other users are reporting getting 45 MPG no problem...

Does anyone have any advice for what her next move should be? I was thinking maybe some kind of rolling road session with somebody who knows what they're doing to diagnose any faults? If this sounds reasonable, does anybody know a good place in the Nottingham area?

Thanks!

[Shifty]

I wouldn't touch the car, if its supposed to do 45 MPG and economy was the reason you bought the car(which i'm sure it was ), then this is a matter for trading standards.

I'd start with a recorded letter to the dealership stating how disapointed you are with it and how you were fobbed off when you complained.

Speak to "Consumer Direct" (trading standards as was) they'll give you the proper was to about this matter.

[adam_93rio]

I wouldn't touch the car, if its supposed to do 45 MPG and economy was the reason you bought the car(which i'm sure it was ), then this is a matter for trading standards.

I'd start with a recorded letter to the dealership stating how disapointed you are with it and how you were fobbed off when you complained.

Speak to "Consumer Direct" (trading standards as was) they'll give you the proper was to about this matter.

dont think this will work to be honest. it will be at best 45mpg, obviously if your foot was on the floor all the time it will be lower

i think theyll just say its down to driving style

[R1minimagic]

I have always brought this matter up myself, being in this industry. The official fuel economy figures are obtained by driving the car over a drive cycle on a chassis dynomometer which is nothing like what would be expected in real life so the figures are always higher than what you could expect to obtain on the road.

So, the actual published figures are quite meaningless in the real world, but are still quite usefull in a comparitive manner (i.e. a car with a higher quoted mpg will be better on the road against another car with a lower quoted mpg)

The other thing you have to take into account is that any car will have a loosening up period so the mpg should improve slightly over time.

At the end of the day there has to be a cycle which is used to obtain the mpg figure and no cycle will cover all driving styles/cycles or routes so that is what you have to take into account when looking at the mpg data i'm afraid.


And by the way - if you were to take the car to a rolling road, you would need to know the official drive cycle and even if you had that data, most rolling roads are not the correct type of dyno to be able to perform the test - please take this into account. To run an official mpg test would have to be done at a recognised body and would cost you thousands of pounds to run. It's not worth persuing this, believe me.

Edited by R1minimagic, 02 April 2010 - 05:39 PM.

[Shifty]

I wouldn't touch the car, if its supposed to do 45 MPG and economy was the reason you bought the car(which i'm sure it was ), then this is a matter for trading standards.

I'd start with a recorded letter to the dealership stating how disapointed you are with it and how you were fobbed off when you complained.

Speak to "Consumer Direct" (trading standards as was) they'll give you the proper was to about this matter.

dont think this will work to be honest. it will be at best 45mpg, obviously if your foot was on the floor all the time it will be lower

i think theyll just say its down to driving style

Tut Tut Tut!!

You give up too easily, I love stuff like this, I've spent many many happy hours arguing with big companies/insurance companies etc.

Then you demand to be given a hire car of the same spec so you can do a direct comparison, ask exactly how the figures were achieved, generally make sure they know that you aren't going away.

30mpg from a modern small engined hatch is poor anyway, fight the power!!

[adam_93rio]

I wouldn't touch the car, if its supposed to do 45 MPG and economy was the reason you bought the car(which i'm sure it was ), then this is a matter for trading standards.

I'd start with a recorded letter to the dealership stating how disapointed you are with it and how you were fobbed off when you complained.

Speak to "Consumer Direct" (trading standards as was) they'll give you the proper was to about this matter.

dont think this will work to be honest. it will be at best 45mpg, obviously if your foot was on the floor all the time it will be lower

i think theyll just say its down to driving style

Tut Tut Tut!!

You give up too easily, I love stuff like this, I've spent many many happy hours arguing with big companies/insurance companies etc.

Then you demand to be given a hire car of the same spec so you can do a direct comparison, ask exactly how the figures were achieved, generally make sure they know that you aren't going away.

30mpg from a modern small engined hatch is poor anyway, fight the power!!

i think 30 MPG is great (in comparison to mine)

[R1minimagic]

Even if you got another car to do a comparison, it would be impossible to repeat exactly the same test, it has to be done in controlled conditions on a chassis dyno!

[Shifty]

I'm going on the fact that 30 MPG is pretty poor for a small car, surely it should be up in the late 30's MPG wise?

[stevede]

Don't know if this will help but for reference my eldest daughter has an 08 plate 500 1.2 lounge and according to the onboard computer she seems to get 40ish on average. (obviously more on a run) Works city centre 9 miles each way but does quite a bit of driving outside of rush hours etc.

Car is 2 yrs old in May and has done 18k miles

For info, my wife had a Focus up until late last year 1.6 auto. Never got more than around 24mpg from that most of the time. (think that may have had something to do with the way she drove it though - Not speedy, just not smoothly)!!

Drop me a pm if you need more info.

[R1minimagic]

Yes it is poor i agree, but the other thing you have to take into account is the drive cycles used to run the emissions tests which no manufacturer can sell a car without passing those tests. The mapping of the ECU etc is done to pass the emissions legislation, OEM's don't care if it relates to real life driving or not, they just care about passing the test!! Hence mpg can be *poop poop* every where outside the specified drive cycle!! They have even been known to programme the ECU to recognise when the vehicle is going through a cycle and then revert to a different MAP to pass the test! A number of manufacturers have been found out and had millions in fines to pay.

[Shifty]

Maybe its just because i'm very argumentative when it comes to this kinda stuff, I'd be having a word with consumer direct and generally making an utter pain of myself until I was listened to and the car actually looked at.

If one car will do 40 and another 30 then thats a fair difference. I understand about the different driving style etc, but if it were my car then I'd expect to be getting high 30's, hell my Golf estate will do 38MPG with a trailer and a mini strapped to the back of it. Matter of fact I bet I could get a better gas milage for the O/Ps mum by sticking her car on my trailer and towing her to and from work!!!

[stevede]

Couple of thoughts:

1) Is the car brand new? MPG does usaully improve once the car has done a few thousand miles.

2) Check the tyre pressures. Sounds daft I know buut it can make quite a noticable difference. My BMW 1 series 2lt diesel will do 55mpg all day long but if the tyre pressures get low it can knock 50 miles off a tankful of fuel.

Driving style makes a huge difference also. Not suggesting mum is driving with foot to the floor but a smooth, fluid driving style will always deliver better MPG.

[Bungle]

just as another comparison

my daily is a clio van and spends most of the time full loaded doing short journeys

my average MPG is around 50 MPG

[R1minimagic]

Diesel by any chance?

[mini-geek]

tell your mum look at the floor, see that thing that looks like a foot, stop using it so much!

you will never get the book mpg fig unless you drive it like a saint, and belive me it's not that easy to do an eco drive!

as for complaing to fiat .......... good luck!