Optimistic mpgs, what's yours?

[iainrcz]

I track my car mpg. For some fucking reason.

I once did a short trip, 20 or so miles.

Filled it back up and it had done about 90 mpg.

Most of the trip was downhill, on electric, but still. 90mpg.

[Metal Guru]

53 minutes ago, iainrcz said:

I track my car mpg. For some fucking reason.

I once did a short trip, 20 or so miles.

Filled it back up and it had done about 90 mpg.

Most of the trip was downhill, on electric, but still. 90mpg.

Downhill doesn’t count.

On a trip to the French Alps, we stayed at a ski resort (in summer) and to go anywhere we had about a 5 mile drive down to the valley. Going down we got 99+mpg (off the scale) in a Passat 1.9Tdi but coming back it was under 30.

Even going from my house to a nearby town, barely discernible downhill but must have been as the road virtually follows a river down stream, our RAV4 D2D did 50mpg, but less than 40 coming back.

 

[PhilA]

6 hours ago, warch said:

My father in law in Australia still has a preference for old fashioned large capacity cars, although he has now chopped in the V8s for a V6 Stinger. They’d all do 30 plus mpg, auto and air con running constantly. 

Yup. A big engine, with a lot of torque can run slowly at speed. 45 in top gear is just on 1000 RPM. Also helps it shuts itself down to a 3.2 liter V4. 

Big engines aren't all bad.

[Popsicle]

14 hours ago, Purfleet said:

being particularly sad i have a spreadsheet for MPG on all my cars that i then average to a lifetime MPG

the N Reg vectra

The green Cavvy

The Little van

the Vectra Estate

I am quite happy with the old un's but disappointed in the little van as its only a 20 plate and a 1.5 diesel combo that carries no weight 95% of the time

 

nb there are others but i dont want to bore you even more

 

Can't beat a bit of spreadsheet action. Yours has given me an idea, I've never thought to put all the vehicles totals on one sheet - that'll keep me busy this weekend.....

[Purfleet]

2 hours ago, Popsicle said:

Can't beat a bit of spreadsheet action. Yours has given me an idea, I've never thought to put all the vehicles totals on one sheet - that'll keep me busy this weekend.....

yeah got them 1 sheet for each car and each fill up and then consolidated on to 1 sheet - i even got to use the datedif formula which made me very happy

i also take the mileages on the 1st of the Jan as well....

and yes they all have stupid names mainly to upset the wife

i also have a list of all the cars i own with approx  dates and then a count check - fuck me i am sad!

 

[Popsicle]

21 minutes ago, Purfleet said:

yeah got them 1 sheet for each car and each fill up and then consolidated on to 1 sheet - i even got to use the datedif formula which made me very happy

i also take the mileages on the 1st of the Jan as well....

and yes they all have stupid names mainly to upset the wife

i also have a list of all the cars i own with approx  dates and then a count check - fuck me i am sad!

 

Nicely done, I'll do some number crunching when I get time.

Early warning its gonna be boring.

[Marshall2810]

1 hour ago, Purfleet said:

yeah got them 1 sheet for each car and each fill up and then consolidated on to 1 sheet - i even got to use the datedif formula which made me very happy

i also take the mileages on the 1st of the Jan as well....

and yes they all have stupid names mainly to upset the wife

i also have a list of all the cars i own with approx  dates and then a count check - fuck me i am sad!

 

@Purfleet that's absolutely supurb!

[Purfleet]

5 hours ago, Popsicle said:

Nicely done, I'll do some number crunching when I get time.

Early warning its gonna be boring.

car stats are never boring!

 

[willswitchengage]

I have used Fuelly for long term average mpgs. I used to try and hypermile, not as much now. Some examples below of what I got real-life (all UK units):

Kawasakool ER5 motorbike: 71mpg

Mk5 Golf 1.9 TDI: 56mpg

Rover 218 Turbo 😧 52mpg

1990 Honda CRX (which would be at 4000rpm at 70mph): 49mpg

E90 Toyota Corolla 1.3 carb: 47mpg

Citroen BX 1.6 carb: 45mpg

Subaru Justy AWD 1.2 carb: 43mpg

Toyota Corolla AWD E120 New Zealand hire car: 41mpg

A Hyundai Elantra 1.6 hire car we did a road trip across Canada in: 40mpg

Saab 900i 16v: 36mpg

Subaru Outback 2.5 (current whip): 31mpg

Fiat Ducato 3.6 V6 petrol campervan for a USA roadtrip: 21mpg

 

[PhilA]

Filled up. Journey home. 43 miles. 

Town and highway driving, traffic jam and tractors today. 

Got back up to speed on the main road, holding that fast.

30 instant (36 UK), 26.6 average (31.9 UK).

Stamp on the loud pedal and that drops to 1-3 ish depending on how fast you're going.  

2023 Dodge Challenger 392 (6.4 liter).

 

Phil

 

Edit: Drove into New Orleans. Average now 28.8 (34.5 UK). The car really likes this tank of fuel.

[scdan4]

Commuter scooter 

 

[AnnoyingPentium]

On 24/06/2026 at 06:58, Purfleet said:

the N Reg vectra

If I'm not mistaken, this is an X18XE like my old one. If so, I'm quite impressed. I averaged about 37mpg with mine, although it'd hit 43mpg on a run.

Erm, that might have been my fault though.

I did track it via Fuelly, and do the same with the Fabia, which has averaged 40.8mpg since I started tracking it in 2022 (although owned it slightly longer).

[Purfleet]

1 minute ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

If I'm not mistaken, this is an X18XE like my old one. If so, I'm quite impressed. I averaged about 37mpg with mine, although it'd hit 43mpg on a run.

correct it is. she has only done 50k miles and is as tight as a drum, and i baby her everywhere i go
 

 

[EyesWeldedShut]

Here's ours - stuff we've owned for more than a few months since about 2013.
Yes - they all have names. Shite car ID  added so that it makes more sense t'others
 

[Purfleet]

1 minute ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

Here's ours - stuff we've owned for more than a few months since about 2013.
Yes - they all have names. Shite car ID  added so that it makes more sense t'others
 

ouch gordon is an expensive little one

do you celebrate landmarks with t shirt?

[barefoot]

I've been playing with fuelly for years and have been quite disturbed this week. After fitting twin, dual 40 carbs to my t2, mpg has improved from an average of 23mpg to an astonishing 33 & 28mpg at the last two tankfuls. 

[EyesWeldedShut]

9 hours ago, Purfleet said:

ouch gordon is an expensive little one

do you celebrate landmarks with t shirt?

Never 'been there, bought the T shirt' LIKE THAT - may look at that for 200,000 on the CLK (next year likely)

Gordon could have better as about 80% of the fuel used was LPG - add to that the fact that it was a 6 cyl 3.2 litre pezz, heavy car,  usually towing a horse trailer then no way he was ever going to be a MPG competition winner. (Still better than our single-point LPG injection 3.5 litre Range Rover - that struggled to return 10 mpg but LPG was <50p a litre).

The more modern stuff amazes me - CLK will show 50mpg + on the dash at 70mph on a motorway, the Berlingo was returning an overall average 55mpg just before it died (four new tyres and a full tracking job upped the mpg a lot.  Kid's 2012/13 C4 was in the low sixties.  Shame that a lot of manufacturers seem to have lost the plot after that and are building engines made out of toffee as they chase down better and better emission/mpg figures.

[95 quid Peugeot]

The very frugal Honda insight, 97.1mpg over the 58mile commute

[Metal Guru]

On 27/06/2026 at 08:13, EyesWeldedShut said:

Never 'been there, bought the T shirt' LIKE THAT - may look at that for 200,000 on the CLK (next year likely)

Gordon could have better as about 80% of the fuel used was LPG - add to that the fact that it was a 6 cyl 3.2 litre pezz, heavy car,  usually towing a horse trailer then no way he was ever going to be a MPG competition winner. (Still better than our single-point LPG injection 3.5 litre Range Rover - that struggled to return 10 mpg but LPG was <50p a litre).

The more modern stuff amazes me - CLK will show 50mpg + on the dash at 70mph on a motorway, the Berlingo was returning an overall average 55mpg just before it died (four new tyres and a full tracking job upped the mpg a lot.  Kid's 2012/13 C4 was in the low sixties.  Shame that a lot of manufacturers seem to have lost the plot after that and are building engines made out of toffee as they chase down better and better emission/mpg figures.

There have incentives to get better emission figures. They have no incentive to make engines that last longer than their warranty. 

[Simon_punto]

My brand new Sportage likes to lie to me daily.

 

 

[EyesWeldedShut]

CLK220 averages 44 mpg on the dash display.

If you stick 750kg of caravan on the back that drops to 32mpg over a 250 mile trip.

Unsurprising really 🙂

[Metal Guru]

Impreza always seems to get 25 mpg however hard it’s driven without too much risk to the licence. Can just about break  30 if driven carefully , but what’s the point in that? 

[paulplom]

'72 sportage hev. Drove from Cragside to Morpeth with aircon almost full. I wasn't hanging about either. I've seen mid 70s when trying. Not bad for 1.6 pez, 230hp and 1650kg empty.

[bangernomics]

being particularly sad i have a spreadsheet for MPG on all my cars that i then average to a lifetime MPG

the N Reg vectra

The green Cavvy

The Little van

the Vectra Estate

I am quite happy with the old un's but disappointed in the little van as its only a 20 plate and a 1.5 diesel combo that carries no weight 95% of the time
 
nb there are others but i dont want to bore you even more
 

This is outstanding record keeping.

[rantingYoof]

I did the 75 mile round trip to work and back last Tuesday in the C280. 

No thought given to economy. Used mainly 60 and 70mph roads to cruise there and came back across country. 

No computer, but it used a quarter of a 62 litre tank, which I crudey worked out to be around 22mpg. 

Which is worse than the V8 A8 now residing with @Flat4, but as it has a four speed slushbox and has only done 10,000 in ten years and around 100 miles in the last few years, not entirely surprising. 

Plus straight six noises are great. 

[Bradders59]

My Omega averages 23 - 24mpg, just like all the other *6 cylinder Vauxhalls Ive owned over the last 40 years.

|*Both Straight 6 and V6.

[rantingYoof]

48 minutes ago, Bradders59 said:

My Omega averages 23 - 24mpg, just like all the other *6 cylinder Vauxhalls Ive owned over the last 40 years.

|*Both Straight 6 and V6.

I took a 3.0 Elite to Llandow many moons ago where it averaged 9mpg.

On the very gentle drive away from Llandow east on the M4, between Llandow and Chieveley Services on the A34, going no more than 60mph with cruise control on, it managed 36mpg.

[Bradders59]

Yeah they can give decent mpg if driven sensibly on Motorways, but mine is probably 90% single carriageway road use.

[RayMK]

In my younger years when I bought a brand new 2cv6 (1975) for economy and man maths reasons to replace my burnt out (literally) Reliant Regal, the brochure said 50mpg or thereabouts. I achieved a disappointing average of 36mpg from fill-up to fill-up.  The Reliant had managed around 40mpg, both driven mostly flat out.  Later, I owned a 2nd hand Dyane which did about the same as the 2cv.

My current 2017 Mitsubishi Mirage CVT always does better than 45mpg (petrol) so I rarely feel the need to check.  At 70mph cruise, the engine is only doing 2300rpm.  It was designed to be light, practical and aerodynamic.  The designers did a good job on those aspects but their effort of the suspension was poor.  Roadholding is ok, it just can't handle any significant undulations at speed or sharp edged surface defects at any speed.   

[Popsicle]

As threatened promised last month, I've dug through my records and put them in one place.

So just 3.3 million miles! 

I can't take the credit for all the miles, Mrs P, the kids and others will have added some.

My computer records only go back to the turn of the century, everything prior to that was in diaries, I'm not sure what happened to them. Also a fair few cars/vans I never kept records for, so there is more to add to it all.

I've not included vans that others drove for me as that would get a bit silly.

Being a middle aged courier I often get asked how many miles I think I've driven, I always say about 3 million, looking at the above its probably nearer 4 million now, I did pass my test in the late 80's though.