Hi RichardFX - my comment was meant in a positive way - hopefully that’s apparent:) As mentioned I think the data is pretty interesting - the scientist in me would be tempted to do some sort of analysis on it to see of the changes over time are significant. Attributing causality might be more of an issue - I think bedding in when new and wearing out over time will be factors, fuel changes as mentioned. Plus driving style. Plus mechanical issues as you mentioned. I will sometimes do a rough calculation if I fill up, but only very infrequently (and as I realised earlier so far never with one of my two MX5s). Hence your dedication to record data over ten plus years impressed me.
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My ND returned over 50 mpg over 3,000 miles last year over a one month period. It has hardly moved since March, I can’t think why.
I note the impact of seasonal temperature changes on mpg when driving our “other” car. Always a few mpg down during the cold seasons when compared to the warmer ones, probably 3 or 4 mpg on my regular journeys…
The mpg definitely improved over the first few tankfuls, ie the first few weeks, much more so than any changes in temperature or daylight, going from around 40mpg to closer to 46mpg.
So bedding in was significant.
To begin with it used quite a lot of oil, half a litre every 800 miles, ie two weeks, enough to be a catastrophe if I waited until the 9000 mile service point for more oil!
After 100,000 miles the engine had settled in nicely and it was using less than half a litre in 5000 miles, and for each of its last three years I was doing only about 3000 so the annual service at my very local MOT place took care of it.
Here are some OCD details from the spreadsheet which included everything spent on the car from purchase to scrap, dealer service every ~9000 (too busy to do it myself), tax, insurance, etc.
Its total lifetime cost was £39,785.58 for 19.41 p/mile.
It used 20,486.99 litres of petrol costing £13,980.72 for 45.44mpg.
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Thanks Richard - Initially I thought that’s a lot of money when added up but I think it works out to just under £60 a week, which sounds much more reasonable. I think your average cost for fuel was £3.10 a gallon, so the life costs would be much dearer today (although I haven’t factored inflation into your costs, which would increase them a bit). I ran a Porsche 944 for a while a few years ago - I stopped counting what that cost to look after as it was so expensive I’d have probably scrapped it if I’d thought about it. (I sold it immediatley after yet another £1,000 plus service bill). Overall my experience with the 944 makes me think I probably don’t count the costs like you’ve done as the figures would upset me. My last thoughts are of the old Astra - I had a lift in one of then fairly new GTE versions (possibly the version before yours) and recall its dashboard flashed up 126 MPH, which was its (impressive for the time) top speed. The person who gave me a lift then tried to show me an the other passenger just how fast it would go - which was almost 126 MPH on the motorway. Not possible today I supect with so many speed cameras.
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That brought back memories. I ran two successive Monza GSE-s in the 80’s and early 90’s.
Basically Senators on a coupe party frock. They had the Astra GTE 126mph digital dash.
Despite these mills being big lazy 6 pots, easy cruising returned + or- 34/36 MPG which, admittedly dropped like a piano down a lift shaft if prodded. One was a Courteney Turbo which got prodded a lot. Torque to berth an aircraft carrier.
I never found out what that one would do flat out…probably just as well.
I guess circa 240/250 BHP from the factory’s piddling 180bhp, and it was a ballistic missile when spooled…but went to circa 10-12 mpg in the short-burst process. It was actually more economical doing Ms Daisy than the standard one.
And so, better general/ real life MPG from an archaic GM old school 6 pots…than my Mk1 1840cc 4 pot.
Try finding a solid GSE now…forget it.
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My ND 1.5 Icon daily driver regularly returns 45 mpg except when I get stuck behind Miss Daisy then I’ve seen 55 mpg, my NB on a few trips to Norfolk averages 40 mpg. I did have a 1965 Ford Corsair 1500 GT with the pre x-flow inline 4, twin 40 dcoe weber’s and a Burton stage 2 head and that when pushed did 11 mpg, but at least it was fun, my Series 11A Land Rover 2.25 petrol did 14 mpg and didn’t go very fast in the process. 
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My ND2 2.0 has averaged 43mpg over the year. I did see 50 on a Solent run as it was a gentle route. I once had a Pug 106 Rallye that could do over 40mpg…or 11mpg, though that was rare as it was blooming hard work for the driver, and expensive on the special-one-model-only Pirellis!
Interestingly, I was getting 39.5 from my 2.0 2018 ND (I like to use its potential). Since a BBR Super 200 upgrade with nice new exhausts, giving me 206 bhp and a lot more torque, and trying it out properly 
I’m getting 42.0.
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I gave up monitoring fuel consumption when I had an XJ12 many years ago. My ex wife may have stumbled on the fuel receipts!! I once nonchalantly tossed a receipt for a full titanium exhaust system in the waste bin & thought nothing of it. The scars of the following argument after she found it remain with me today many years later!!
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My 2004, NB, Mk2.5, 1.8, has varied seasonally between 33 and almost 39 mpg, and is currently averaging 36.9 mpg, plus a huge but unrecorded number of grins per mile.
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For those who say they say they don’t build 'em like they used to ’ I can only agree. The 41 mpg my ND usually gives is only about 3 mpg worse than my 2 CV gave , and 10mpg better than an Escort 1100 . Even that most talented all rounder I drove in the 80 , the immortal Golf GTi Mk 2 , rarely strayed north of 32 mpg .
Ah happy memories!
My bitsa was a 1965 Corsair with Consul 375 back axle, 1600 Kent x-flow engine with 32DFM Weber (claimed to have been ex Formula Ford and had lots of nice extra features), diaphragm clutch with larger competition plate, gearbox from a scrapped Lotus Cortina, Koni selecta-rides on the back, Humber Hawk in-line brake servo, 5 1/2J flat ledge rims with 185 tyres. The speedo under-read by about 15% according to a stopwatch and the marker posts along the sides of motorways, showing 60 when it should have been 70.
103bhp at the rear wheels at 6000 measured with Lucas distributor vs 85bhp with Ford distributor, in a tinny car weighing only 1900lbs as standard, and the 1600 Kent engine weighed quite a lot less (I could carry it) than the 1500 lump I took out.
If I drove it like my Dad then it did about 18mpg, but if as if I had stolen it, with plenty of revs, then about 35mpg. Guess how I drove it? Guess how long the SP Sport rear tyres lasted with all the wheel spin?
I was young and stupid, but it was fun.
I wish I had known more about ARBs, especially on the back axle, and it desperately needed a front splitter.
They don’t build them like they used to.
Thank god for that!!
I remember contact points slipping half way thru a long journey and setting them in the rain on a grass verge more than once.
I remember 15mpg from a 1.6 cortina.
I remember putting a blanket over the engine on a cold night with a 60 watt bulb under the sump so I didn’t have to take the plugs out and warm them on the gas hob so it would start in the frost.
Not to mention CVH Black Death, 0-60 in 14 seconds, rust and rot, wind up windows, no synchromesh, rattles, bangs… old cars, you can keep em!
In 1990 things started to turn a corner and by 2000 there’s a notable step in reliability and usability. Modem cars are sooooooo much better than the scrap metal of old.
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Well that sounds like a tasty bit of kit.
Mine being a factory GT model had the Girling Powerstop servo as standard but it also had Cosmic alloy wheels and 175 tyres fitted, I fitted a 2000e gearbox from a later V4 Corsair and Paddy Hopkirk velour bucket seats purchased from my mums catalogue and paid for weekly. I did have to change the diff for a 1200 Anglia one as the ratio’s were a bit high and the thing was a bit of a slouch off the line. Your one sounds a bit more sorted than mine, you were obviously a bit more flush than me on the money front.
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I was working on a threadbare shoestring. Outgoings more than income because of mortgage and growing family, but with the promise of a pay rises to keep pace with Heath/Wilson’s galloping inflation…
The car was a junker bought in a hurry with duff engine and gearbox and blocked exhaust after the old Humber was written off when someone jumped the lights into it. Amazingly the Corsair strut tops had been done, and no other rust, so it was worth sorting the engine etc.
It was breakers yard bits for 5 wheels and gearbox all off a Lotus cortina, the servo and some pipes were left overs from my Humber. The blocked exhaust was fixed by punching out the inner baffles in the centre box.
The engine and manifolds were in a boxes of blueprinted bits from a friend at work whose Insurance company would not let him put it into a 1200 Anglia. I was told it was obsolete in FF because of the new overhead cam engine being allowed - I still don’t know if this was true or not, but the camshaft, special push-rods and double valve springs made life interesting with seemingly no rev limits. The dyno guy said keep it below 6000 just in case, but 7000 if desperate.
After assembly (including balancing, buretting, port matching etc) the MkII engine did not fit the Mk1 gearbox, simply because the spigot bush was different. So on a Saturday morning I took them both into work where we had lathes etc, hydraulic-ed out the bush, turned it up (in the right direction) a bit bigger inside to fit the gearbox spigot. That was when I realised how (relatively) light and easy to carry a 2737E engine was.
The only new parts I needed to buy were all the clutch parts, filters, stat, short throttle link, fluids, distributor (from the dyno tester), and eventually a straight-through Capri GT exhaust. After the first month I had broken the rusty eyes off both original rear shocks with the axle tramp and the Konis almost cost more than the car had, but worth it. I haggled a deal with a local tyre place for 5 SP Sports in exchange for the ER70s off my old Humber, so got them less than half price.
I converted it to -ve Earth so it would work with the second-hand hifi, and made a CD ignition system which guaranteed starting in the worst of winter.
That car lasted me until 1978 before the box sections supporting the rear spring shackles began to crumple, and I needed an estate car because improved finances meant the house was going to grow, so GLN983C was scrapped. But I kept the engine and gearbox which lived on in a colleague’s home-made Caterham a few years later.
Happy memories.
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My NC mk3.5 initially had a best of around 34 MPG and more often than not around 28-29.
Had it on rolling road as I thought there must be a problem and although nothing major was found it improved by almost 10%.
Had the Racing beat 4 into 1 fitted and another visit to the rolling road thinking it would improve horse power, which it did to 184BHP, and efficiency which it did not. Even on boring motorway drives with plenty of 50mph limits its still rubbish. Goes like a rocket though and using it properly drops consumption down to 24ish. All measurements were tank to tank. My 2009 Octavia VRS petrol regularly does high 30s with 40 on any decent long motorway run at 78 on the speedo(75) actual, greatly aided by a straight through stainless exhaust, performance an consumption improved with this.
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That was the good thing about Fords of the day, you could swop parts between models quite easily, funnily enough when I fitted the 2000e gearbox that, had a smaller spigot bearing than the old box but I didn’t notice until about a year later even though it had a vibration on over run and a couple of broken clutch plates. Happy days.
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An interesting topic for us nerds during these lockdown times. I’ve always kept a check on all my vehicles’ fuel consumption, a habit which stems from increased consumption being one of the first signs of an imminent problem. Current car is a 2019 ND 2.0 with c.13,500 miles on it, overall consumption throughout that time is 40.1 mpg with a best brim to brim of 49 mpg when I was in France last year. For comparison, before this car I owned a 2016 ND 1.6 for two years during which time my mileage was 18,250, overall consumption was 43 mpg and best brim to brim was 50 mpg, again whilst abroad.
FWIW I sometimes use Shell 4 star because I feel it can’t do any harm and may actually do some good but I’ve never noticed any significant difference in consumption between that or supermarket cheapest which is my normal fuel of choice.
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60s, 70, and even into the 80s fords used combinations of the same gear, I built a MK2 Escort track day car from a good 1981 shell and discovered that the leaf spring holders were Anglia parts originally, the 5 speed box came from something a Capri i think(??) and all the drive train, front and rear suspension + brakes were completely interchangeable , The only problem was that you could find metric and UNF fasteners on the same car. The 165BHP Pinto came out of a project car that the owner decided to drop a Sierra Cosworth donk in, completely rebuilt with all the right bits and 45 Webbers and all for £1,200 quid, about half my budgets for the bits alone.