Fuel Consumption

[ridway]

Did a tour of Scotland (1075 mile) recently during the really hot spell. Used the aircon the whole time. The Gal 2.3 petrol averaged 29.1 mpg overall. I thought this was a fair figure to acheive given two kids the wife, luggage and the Scottish hills. Some of my colleagues thought I could have acheived more.

 

I would welcome comments from 2.3 owners/users on how their vehicle relates to this figure. I adopted a style of driving to try to acheive the best figure without becoming painfully slow to other road users, sensible driving I suppose.

 

Rich

[Guest sgould]

We have had our 1997 manual 2.3 for over two years. I have never seen anything as good as that.

 

Long UK trips, even with my wife driving more gently, have never given more than about 25 mpg and on the daily commute to the office it's about 12, maybe even less in winter :D Have been too scared to check lately :D

 

Have had everything checked and they say it's all in tune and OK.

 

Now the kids have left home, it's probably time to get something more "interesting"

[Guest dehorridge]

I just got back from a 2800 mile trip to spain and back in my Gal 2.3 Ghia. My average was 20.2 MPG. Not to bad when you concider that my avergae speed was over 90MPH with the cruise control set at 110MPH.

 

I dream of getting 29 MPG.....

[Nige F]

Wish i could get this much. Have just returned from holiday towing a caravan with 2.3 and average for journey home was 14.8!!

[Guest steven.tunnicliffe@lineone.net]

I have a 2.3i zetec 1999, V Reg, 41,000 miles. I get 28 mpg whether I drive it easy, hard, aircon on/off, up hill down dale.

I was looking forward to working out how close I could get to 40mpg after a long motorway journey down to London...but no....28mpg :D

[ridway]

Thanx for that guys Seems I did ok at 29.1.

20mpg @110 sounds interesting, suppose it shows the engine runs more efficient when operating at full load :D

[Guest Kevin]

What these mpg figures do show is that if you don't pay the extra for a diesel Galaxy, you are going to put the money in via a petrol pump.

 

The worst mpg figure I ever had from our 115 pd Zetec was 33.1 mpg on a 100 + mph run to Normandy and back. And of course in France diesel is cheaper anyway.

Edited August 20, 2003 by Kevin

[Guest warnerj]

Hi,

 

I have a 2002 2.3 Ghia Manual.

 

If I drive normally (upto 60 ish on A roads, 80 ish on Motorways/Dual Carriageways) then I get about 28 driving from the Southwest to London (which I do every week) on the A303. If I slow down slightly (70 on motorways) and try not to rev hard when accelerating then I can achieve up to 33!

 

However when I come home I'll get no more than 28 no matter how I drive. I put this down to tail winds as they usually are westerly.

 

I never get less than 25 unless I'm doing journeys less than 3-4 miles (which are rare for me).

 

Cheers,

 

Jonathan

[Guest p1948040]

we average 28mpg from our 2002 auto 2.3 Zetec 145ps, using mixture of roads. I would say on a run we get over 30mpg.

 

yes compared to the diesel it costs us about

[Zork]

I've been getting around 24mpg from the 2.3 ghia doing mixed miles ( mainly using air-con). I have calculated this by how much fuel i have actually used and not by the computer. I'm certainly not a 'lead foot' either. Do people really get 29mpg. If so I'm very impressed. :D

[handy andy]

Just returned from a 1800 mile round trip to France.

I have 115PD diesel and the car had 5 people and was loaded to the roof in the rear with camping gear, plus some things on the bike carrier at the rear. I reckon I averaged 40mpg.

[Guest Dave S]

My 1998 2.3 Ghia does the equivilent of 45 MPG thanks to LPG :P

[Guest kd035050]

I have a 2.3 ghia and round the town I am getting between 23 - 26mpg depending onthe traffic. however on the motorway at 70 I get 32mpg and towing the caravan which wieghs 1300kg plus load over 600mile from scotland to cornwall I got 18.2

[pj_andrew]

2002 2.3 Petrol

 

(All are aircon on for 75% of time)

 

Around town: 25 mpg

Motorway 500 miles, cruise set at 80: 26 mpg

Motorway 500 miles, cruise set at 70: 28 mpg

Best ever (50 miles on motorway at 70): 30 mpg

[Guest rayman]

X reg 2.3 Zetec (State Blue of course!)

 

Recent trip to the west of France averaged around 19 MPG, towing a van at 75 mpg.

Torque was not too bad for a petrol engine, the undulating hills were not too badly negotiated.

Enjoyed the Bridges at le Harve, like a giant rollercoaster!!!

 

Watch out for 'twango' drivers as one made me snake badly when he cut me up at 75!! The van handled the incident with dignity and not like a 'Disco' that recently ended up on it's roof early Aug (A1 incident).

[gazza007]

Just returned from France too, fully loaded with roof box and the Mrs & 4 kids.

My TDi 115 has averaged just over 40mpg. I was worried at 1 point going uphill on the E60/N165 to Quimper, I started getting a vibrartion through the steering in 6th Gear doing about 80. It seems OK now, perhaps it was turbulance and my heavy loading. I also banged the tyre pressures up to the recommended loading which made things a bit hard.

 

One bit I did enjoy was waiting in the ferry queue at Plymouth and everybody comparing each others VW/Ford/Seat, the different types of roofbars, boxes & cycle carriers. It was nice to see so many of this car type from N reg plates to current. It proves how popular and liked this particular vehicle is. The numbers outweighed all other MPV types. :unsure:

[MarkM]

I have had a Dec 2000 2.8 V6 galaxy (with the uprated 204 BHP engine) since May. I've just completed a comparison of UL95 and UL98 fuel (Shell Optimax actually, which I gather is 98.5 RON). The drivers handbook says to use Super Unleaded (98 octane).

 

With 95 octane unleaded I averaged 26.8mpg over about 900 miles.

With Optimax (and UL98 in France) I averaged 28.9 mpg over about 1200 miles.

 

With the current price differential of between 5p and 6p per litre for Optimax and base price of UL95 locally at 77.9p, this means virtually equal fuel costs. Given the modestly improved performance with Optimax my judgement is that it's worth using it. If fuel prices rise and the differential stays the same it swings further in favour of Optimax.

 

Given that I seldom pass a filling station with discounted petrol (S. Cambs is a total rip-off for petrol), I will stay using Optimax for now. Going out of my way to find cheap fuel doesn't cost-in.

 

Mark

[Guest ANDY FITZGERALD]

:blink: Got To say, I dont know how you guys afford the fuel with kids and stuff.

I had a DAEWOO ESPERO 1.8 CDI, Courtesy car, couldnt wait to get the thing back, guzzled like nothing I have drove before.

Petrol motors just dont figure in my thoughts anymore.

 

Sorry but Gotta be a diesel !!

 

Andy

[_dg]

:angry:

 

Sorry but Gotta be a diesel !!

 

Andy

I thought there was some calculation you could do, as it is only worth buying a diesel if you did a certain amount of miles per year? The fuel and servicing costs are generally higher, so could cancel out mpg savings.

 

I did a weeks summer tour of Cornwall, with big roofbox, four kids, luggage etc and aircon all the time, and got about 30mpg from my 2.3 petrol.

 

I thought this was really good, considering the hills and gear changes. But I made use of the A roads where possible.

 

Incidently, I have always had petrol cars, and I have found that I have always had to fill up every 2 - 2 1/2 weeks, and seem the get roughly the same amount of miles between fill ups. So in that respect, it seems that my petrol costs have been the same whatever car I had.

 

I expected lower mpg with the galaxy though, but have been pleased with it as it is not costing me any more to run than the car it replaced.

[pj_andrew]

Worked it out when I got the Galaxy. The extra for the Diesel wouldn't pay itself back (through cheaper fuel) for 4 years. I'll be on to something else by then.