Can anyone who actually works out their mpg (not what people at work say when I ask - “It costs me about £x a week” or “It costs me £y to fill it up” (FFS)) please advise on what I should expect for a 1.8 and a 2.0 for motorway consumption?
I weekly do several 100 to 150 mile round trips on motorway/dual carriageway and a return 650 mile journey twice a month.
I cruise at about 65 so not talking about thrashing along. I’m not too bothered about the ‘urban’ mpg as I do very little of this.
I really do want/need cruise control because of my use but disappointingly it looks like only to 2.0 Sport seem to occasionally have this fitted.
I have a NC2 2 litre sport roadster 2009 model and at 65 mph on motorways with a passenger get approx 42 mpg. Before that I had a NC1 2 litre sport roadster 2008 model and got about 5 mpg less (if memory serves) under similar conditions, (certain improvements were made to the NC2 models on introduction including fuel efficiency).
It also has cruise control but I almost never use it, nor on previous cars I’ve owned, (Ford Mondeo’s) don’t like it, millions do, just a personal thing.
I run a 2007 2 litre Icon with the five speed box. I keep a record of every drop of fuel I put in (sad!!) so I know exactly the true mpg of my car because I can work out the average over the three years plus I have owned it, converting litres to gallons at 4.54609 (Oh dear!). I live in Devon, fairly rural, but also use the car for continental runs. The exact average is 35.64 for the period. I know you can get more on long runs, as checking a trip to Germany cruising with other cars I got 42 to the gallon. I know it also depends on your style of driving, I certainly keep up with traffic shall we say!
Yes, I have an NC1 2008 2.0L Sport Coupe, and my fuel consumption on long runs involving motorways / dual carriageways is around the 37 mpg mark. Poodling round town with multiple gear changes etc can drop this figure to more like 30 - 32 mpg though.
Mine is a 1.8 Mk 3.5 with 5-speed box and since I’ve had it I’ve done 4,000 miles approx. at 34.8 mpg. Not too much help to you as my typical mileage is more ‘combined’ than yours but it should mean that you can expect better than this. What I really wanted to say is that I did have cruise control fitted by a local (highly regarded) auto-electrician. The controls are fitted on a stalk on the LH side of the column rather than the steering wheel but otherwise it works in just the same way as the OE or indeed any cruise control. Downside is that it cost over £500 with the VAT.
Mine’s an NC2 2.0 litre, 6 speed, I always work out the consumption when I fill up & brim the tank too. A few actual (i.e. calculated) figures as follows:-
860 miles on my holiday to Cornwall last year (including the 700 mile round trip there & back from Sheffield); averaged 43 MPG including 46 MPG on the 350 mile homeward journey.
Sheffield to Whitby & back, 218 miles; 48 MPG.
Sheffield to Scarborough & back, including the “scenic route” on the outward trip via the A168, A170, Sutton Bank & Helmsley - 46 MPG.
Round town it does about 30 MPG.
I don’t hang around & I have some fun with the car, I also always drive at the speed limit (if safe to do so).
Incidentally I find that the trip computer’s displayed average MPG is very accurate, always within a couple of 10ths of an MPG of the figures which I calculate.
While mine has cruise control as standard I rarely use it, just seem to switch it on when going through motorway roadworks with a 50mph limit & average speed cameras, or sometimes on smart motorways for the same reason (proliferation of speed cameras) so I’m not having to watch my speed very carefully, all the time, as well as keeping an eye on the usual tailgaters, sudden lane swappers & other assorted maniacs!
Sounds about the average with how others have found the MPG figures.
Last trip to Scotland fully loaded and touring round averaged 37 mpg. I did a similar tour of Northumberland but not so many miles and achieved 39 mpg.
With the OP’s mileage and speeds and road conditions or motorways 40+ should be easily achievable.
Hi and thanks for a useful post. We are also looking at a mk3 as a potential replacement for our current 1.8 mk2. (Which would seem to have similar mags to those quoted in this post).
I would be more than happy with an mpg similar to those being quoted above. If we do go the mk3 route (ie instead of a mk4), it would probably be post 2011 so hopefully with the more efficient engine…
Yes , try as I might , my 2 litre ND will not drop below 41mpg - and that’s plenty of 5000rpm + stuff and brisk cruising. Small, light , slippery - that magic combination that is hard to find now in mainstream production cars - 2250kg Range Rover anyone? And if that’s a bit svelte try the 2500 kg Bentayga . If you really , really must .
The price of later MK3 cars is such that it can be cheaper to buy a newer Mk4 if you keep the cars for 6 to 10 years as they will have a longer life in your hands.
Really useful so far. So it looks like the later 6 speed car is the way to go as the earlier 5 speed 2 litre and 1.8 share pretty similar figures. The down side of this is it puts me up to about £9k which is 3 more than I was planning on.
But for that money there are some lovely low mileage retractable hardtop versions with heated leather. As an aside, do you lose a lot of boot space with the hardtop?
Bizarely insurance quotes are the same for these as my very dull C3 Picasso that’s worth about £7.5k less.
I’m getting about the same with short journeys and lots of “stick shifting” on rural roads, probably get even better on longer journeys in more of a “cruise” mode.
No - the NC / Mk3 boot’s exactly the same size (150 litres) regardless of whether the car has a fabric top or the powered retractable hard-top. It’s the same size with the hard-top up & with it down as well, because the hard-top cleverly folds into the space behind the seats, instead of intruding into the boot area.
I measure tank to tank and have also found the trip meter to be prerry good on working out the average fuel consumption (as long as you reset it). 2010 2.0 Sport Tech with cruise and heated leather. I’m currently achieving 34 mpg on a mostly motorway/dual carriageway drive from South Yorks to Shropshire using cruise control set at a smidge over 70mph because of all the cameras on the M1 in our region.
On today’s run, I struggled to get above 31mpg but the winds were fairly fierce. Around the houses, by which I mean 20 minute runs, I usually get 30-33 mpg.
On a run from East Sussex to Bath at motorway speed for most of the way did 40.5 MPG on 2.0 with 5 speed. Perhaps the 6 speed box would be better on a motorway but never having one do not know if that is true. I would always buy a 2.0 instead of a 1.8 but that is my own personal opinion.