Mpg

[gofar]

Hi

I have just bought a 1999 2.3 Ghiax.

Does anyone know what sort of mpg I can expect ?.

[Ivor_E_Tower]

Depends how and where you drive; 19-23mpg in town (but be prepared for that to fall too if the traffic is heavy); nearer 35 on dual carriageways if you stick to 70mph max!

[pj_andrew]

My average over 3000 miles is 26 mpg. (petrol 2.3)

[Guest SA Intruder]

Not going to upset you then.....

[gofar]

:( Not at all. Cost wasn't the issue. I just wanted a guestimate of the MPG !!!!!.

I have never been a fan of oil burners.

[Dally]

My 2.3 returns about 260 per tank ful if using air con regularly or about 280/290 without air con - mixed driving of couse.

 

On straight long runs at steady 80ish, I get around 320 per tank.

[Guest kd035050]

my 2.3 give me around 23 -25 around town and a max of 35 on motorways at 70mph however i use th cruise control all the time to save the temptation to push it along, also have an economy valve fitted? Have found though when the engine is started from cold for the first mile the fuel computer shows around 4 mpg, maybe time for a service?

 

Chris

[HJT]

You may not be a fan of oil burners but I get 39.8 mpg average according to the fuel computer and thats mostly around town. Motorways it can top over 50 mpg. Mind you both those figures drop when the wife drives, she treats the accelerator like a switch, full on or full off and she only stops at junctions if a collision is going to be completely unavoidable and then by slamming the brakes on.

Diesels these days are much better than the old tractor type units of 10 years ago. There is very little difference in noise level these days between petrol and diesel.

 

Howard

[Guest SA Intruder]

Over 8000 miles, 130 TDi has achieved 46.8mpg overall.

 

Agree with Howard, the diesel is quite refined nowadays.

 

Only thing I find is that at 80mph, 2500 rpm in 6th, the engine is at its "roughest".

 

Which is a bit annoying. Either side of that, fine.

 

In France, I maintained 90mph from Calais to Paris at 40mpg average, and the engine is very quiet and very smooth at that speed. I engaged cruise and never once had to disengage.

[CasaPaulo]

I shudder to think what a petrol auto would achieve in fuel consumption.

I certainly wasn't a fan of "old" diesel Tractor like engines but the modern TDi is just light yrs ahead in development terms from those. It ain't just economy but the performance & torque figures. My petrol head brother in law is now convinced at last, he's always had fast (ins group 20) petrol cars, sister a Porsche 968, but they too are converted after test driving a 330D BMW of modern diesels capability. Each to their own I suppose. But 50p odd a litre in France/Spain makes me smile a lot. My diesel auto gives 42mpg, climate always on, 30mpg around London. Wifes petrol Micra struggles to achieve similar in town.

[gofar]

Oops !.

Sorry if I upset the diesel lovers out there. But I only asked a simple question about the MPG for a 2.3 petrol engine. It was only a snide remark from a so called advanced member that prompted my remark about 'oil burners'.

If I had wanted the MPG for a diesel engine I would have asked for it.

As regards to the choice of petrol or diesel it must always be down to personal preference.

Just three more things:

a) Anyone who chooses a BMW diesel over a Porsche (628 or 911 ) must have water in their veins.

:blink: My first car is a Corolla T Sport (190 BHP)

I can get 40MPG in this, as long as I stay away from the rev limiter. My wife can get 30 easily?. The Galaxy is for relaxing in and going to the coast with family and the dogs, and carrying things that don't fit in the Corolla

c) I drive a diesel for work and it sounds like a 'bag of spanners in a washing machine', admittedly a good washing machine.

BFN

[grifjl]

The trip computer only estimates the mpg, it doesn't measure exact amount of fuel consumed. It's all calculated by a series of algorithms dependent on speed/revs, etc..

 

To prove we reset the trip computer to NIL and filled up - drove for 900 miles, one interim fill up and then one final fill up. Calulated the litres consumed and got around 36.8mpg in our 1.9TDi, but the trip computer was giving me 40.3. :blink:

[Guest SA Intruder]

It does measure the fuel consumed, since it has the fuel quantity as one of its measures.

 

It is not absolutely accurate, since it has to make allowances for idling and stop-starts.

 

It doesn't account for the auxiliary heater on the diesels either.

 

I have measured a similar fuel consumed means also....over 3000 miles.

 

I get the accuracy to better than 5%, unlike your 10% or so.

[Busman]

:blink: Anyone who bought a Galaxy for the economy of a 1ltr have really lost the plot enjoy driving a 7 seater , oil supplies are apparently drying up so burn it why you can!

[CasaPaulo]

re Oilers, it's a involuntary reflex reaction with the Oil versus Petrol debate in defending Diesel, cos I expect a slagging off AND truth is known I DO reckon they're so much better and I've driven sorta everything.

MPG for any 2.3 petrol? = always awful!

More things:

Water must run in my veins tho I like to think it's akin to real ale. I'd pay big bucks mostly not to use my sisters Porker 968, My wife was sick in it, harsh ride, service bills, fuel bills, insurance, cramped, grounding on local speed humps, speed cameras, looks of pure envy & hatred etc. Got a long bonnet though! All the go-faster striped lads just drool over it. One man's meat, personal choice etc. Now a 330D is THE absolute Dogs. Got to get a m/bike if'n you ever want to experience real speed anyway, only then is petrol acceptable by me! :blink:

[charles]

i'm very satisfied with my '97 2.3 petrol GLX. with last tankstop (mainly highway) i averaged 12 km per liter. For your info in miles and imperial gallons this equals 33.92 mpg.

[Ketchup]

I get between 310 and 330 miles out of my tank on my 98 2.3. I am a careful driver and generally stick to the speed limits. Happy with that but would like to kow more about this econo-valve

[gofar]

At last, someone on my wavelength. Well said Busman.

[HJT]

The very fact that fossil fuel supplies are being used up at an ever increasing rate is a good reason for wanting the best fuel economy possible from any vehicle and I don't think anyone who is concerned about this has "lost the plot".

I bought diesel for both financial and conservation issues.

 

Howard

[Guest Pete C]

The very fact that fossil fuel supplies are being used up at an ever increasing rate is a good reason for wanting the best fuel economy possible from any vehicle and I don't think anyone who is concerned about this has "lost the plot".

I bought diesel for both financial and conservation issues.

 

Howard

"I bought diesel for both financial and conservation issues"

 

 

I don't want to add fuel to the fire here (excuse the pun) but what sort of cost difference is there betwwen running a petrol Gal and a deisel Gal over ,say 4 years at 12,000 miles/year when you take into account purchase price and servicing etc? Just interested is all.

 

As for environmental issues isn't diesel a dirtier fuel....?Just going all the crap you see coming out of buses and lorries.

[Ivor_E_Tower]

Modern diesels are clean - there are the usual scare stories about particulates, but it is rumoured that petrol exhausts put out more finer particles than diesels - so fine that it's almost impossible to trap them and prove that they exist!

As to clean diesels - well I used to work for a supplier to Jaguar cars, and with a trap fitted to the exhaust, we could drive our van into the factory, alongside the production line to top up stocks - talk about "just-in-time" deliveries! 0- and this held true for any diesel-engined delivery vehicle that could fit through the access doorway. Petrol-engined vehicles were banned!

Black exhaust smoke is due mainly to badly adjusted diesels which are using too much fuel.

As to running costs over 4 years, it's hard to say because there are so many variables. How much extra do you pay for a diesel in the first place? Fuel costs for a diesel Galaxy will be about half those of a petrol. Servicing will, I suspect, be much the same except if you need a cambelt change (diesels) as most of the petrols (well, Ford 2.0 and 2.3) seem to use chain drive. Exhausts should lst much longer on a diesel too. Insurance costs are likely to be similar.

[HJT]

Wow this is turning into quite a lively, interesting debate. I bet Gofar never expected this with that innocent first question :rolleyes:

As Ivor says, with running costs there are many variables but basically, the longer you keep a diesel car the more you will save in the long run. I'm not the sort of person who regularly changes cars. I will buy new or nearly new then run it for ten years or so, therefore diesel makes financial sense for me. This is coupled with the fact that a diesel car physically burns less fuel and is therefore less wasteful on the environment. As for the emission and particulate debate, I did some research on this before going for a diesel and the situation these days is as Ivor explained above in that modern, well maintained diesels, are far less destructive on the environment than they used to be and give off less C02 than many petrol engines.

 

Howard

[Ivor_E_Tower]

...and you win on short journeys too. In a petrol car, the engine is running rich when cold, using more fuel and therefore also putting out much more CO2 etccompared to when it's warm. Our previous petrol car did about 35mpg around town, 45 on long runs but only about 20 on the School Run, whereas the diesel Scenic replacement does about 45mpg on the school run, in town and on longer runs. The Galaxy hasn't done the school run yet (hooray) but is turning in about 32 mpg around town and nearly 45 on my daily commute. Two journeys of about 100 miles each last week on M3 and A303 dual carriageway saw about 50mpg.

Oh - and our formel petrol car's exhaust rotted through annually on the school run whereas previously it lasted 4 to 5 years. Lucky I bought lifetime cover when I first replaced it, so the approx 8 sections replaced afterwards didn't cost me a penny!

[bushm]

Hey Pete C,

you haven't seen a really dirty diesel until you've been to one of the Eastern European ex-communist-controlled countries. The first time I drove to Poland was in 1995 and I could not believe how the government allowed some of these lorries to be on the road. I reckon they must have had burning tyres in their engine compartments, the smoke was so dense, black and acrid and they only seemed capable of 30mph max on main roads. In Krakow old town square, there is a series of LCD displays showing current CO2, CO and SO2 levels, its the only city where both my wife and I had persistent headaches until we left; at least that meant no more children were conceived on that trip!

[Guest kd035050]

I beleive someone was looking for info on the Ecotek valve goto: http://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/Forum/index.php?act=ST&f=53&t=501