Fuel consumption for Anoraks!

[barefoot]

Asking around folk who have similar cars, I have heard, 'Oh, I get between about 40 & 45 mpg'.
I can't get anything like that.
Over the last year my 1.6GT has averaged about 36.
I tried to improve things by running on ultimate from August, but it then dropped to about 34.



This shows 17 fuel ups over the last year - 6421 miles.
It is my daily hack and seldom goes further than about ten miles each way.
Am I doing something wrong?

[wasted]

The mid-to-high forties mpg tends to be exclusive to the injection cars in my experience. My Scala can average around 50mpg on a steady run at 65mph. The carbed cars will not be as efficient (standard for carb vs injection), and additionally the smaller-engined cars may actually end up with poorer fuel economy outside town, as they are going to be working harder to maintain the same speeds.

In contrast, around town you should get better economy than the 1.8i - mine will do 28mpg from work to home if I'm lucky.

[Ryan]

It is my daily hack and seldom goes further than about ten miles each way.
Am I doing something wrong?

Longer journeys would most likely see an improvement on that.

[DT1]

It is my daily hack and seldom goes further than about ten miles each way.

That's part of the problem, if you are mainly using it for short trips you will be running on choke for a relatively large part of each journey.

[Nate]

1.8carb was usually giving me 38 - 40mpg, depending how i drove it. swapped the engine to a 2E with digipants from a passat and was getting anything up to 50, but my daily 10mile commute i was geting 42