Morris Minor Owners Club

My car has amazed me again. It's 100% standard 1098 2 door saloon.
Yesterday I went 145 miles towing a big trailer (with a big diesel engine & gearbox on board) that weighed nearly 3/4 ton in total. Return journey was another 145 miles with trailer empty
75% of the route was motorway, I cruised with the lorries and overtook them when necessary.
SatNav showed legal towing speed of 60mph was easilly obtainable for as long as wanted and not just short bursts or on flat / downhill.
The mileage was measured by SatNav and confirmed by two route planners and not by speedo.
I've checked fuel consumption this morning and it's averaged just over 41 mpg

What MPG go others get ?

Paul HUmphries

Just worked out one of my regular journeys and how much it costs.

Turns out I get 35mpg. (Well about 34.9... or something like that).

That's probably at an average speed of around 60 as its all A road driving bar entering and exiting the towns either side - there's nothing much in the middle.
As soon as I hit a stretch I'm usually doing 80, sometimes more if I'm 'toying' with other drivers.

Given I drive everywhere like a scolded cat I think that's not too bad. Wish I could be in the 40s though. My Dad gets high 40s in his petrol Civic regardless of how quick he goes. Time for a 5th gear perhaps?

I've always drove for economy.
Dropping your cruising speed down by 10 mph on motorway from 70 mph to 60 mph can, with a lot of car, cars gain almost that in decreased consumption !
I take friends to and from the airport when they go on holiday in their own car - a 2.6 V6 Vectra that has a MPG meter.
I just cann't get 42 mpg average - I think 41.7 mpg is the max I can get. My mate struggles to get 30 mpg - it's all down to driving style.
When I first started driving, like a lot of young drivers in early 70's, I fitted various accessories inclucing a vacuum guage.
This is one of the best things I've found to help develop a driving style that gives best MPG.
BTW in the familly car (2.0 Chrysler Neon auto) I get low 30's - even towing. My wife drives it most of the time and she only gets mid 20's solo.

Paul Humphries

In my Traveller, I get 39mpg average- shopping, driving to work, weekly trip to night school. 45mpg on a run- as good as a Prius!

In my 944 S2, average same trips as the traveller, 26mpg. 32mpg on a run. Pretty good for a 211bhp 3.0L car! The best I got out of the Porker was 36mpg on a run.

The fiat I'm driving at the moment (1.2 petrol) gets 47.3 around town and I've managed 58.5 on a long run!

chickenjohn wrote: 45mpg on a run- as good as a Prius!

Did you see the report on "enviromentally friendly" cars in US ?
The Prius (and Honda Insite) were quite low down on the list.
Seems they might be economical on fuel and produce low emmisions but use a lot of the earth resources to make plus a lot of energy. They are full of technology that is difficult to recycle and the batteries have a limited life. So when the batteries die the cost of changing them means that the whole car might be scrapped (at maybe 5 years old) because the cost of replacements are so high and more than the value of the vehicle !
Makes a 40 year old Minor far more viable if you want to "save the planet"

Paul Humphries

Hickup - If your Punto is anything like mine - you will find that these 'computer' figures are not borne out when you get to the pumps. But yes - on the computer - I could get these figures and not hanging about either!

i have a rover 75 deisel top of the range jobby

enough boasting

its got an average and i was towing my trav to peterborough and averaged 39

usually on a run if i'm taking it steady i get mid 40's but round town its high 20's

big dif hey and thats deisel !!!!
when i was taxi driving some 10 years ago we used to work out doing 100 miles to £10

I normall get about 5 miles to the gallon. the wife gets the rest.

paulhumphries wrote:

chickenjohn wrote: 45mpg on a run- as good as a Prius!

Did you see the report on "enviromentally friendly" cars in US ?
The Prius (and Honda Insite) were quite low down on the list.
Seems they might be economical on fuel and produce low emmisions but use a lot of the earth resources to make plus a lot of energy. They are full of technology that is difficult to recycle and the batteries have a limited life. So when the batteries die the cost of changing them means that the whole car might be scrapped (at maybe 5 years old) because the cost of replacements are so high and more than the value of the vehicle !
Makes a 40 year old Minor far more viable if you want to "save the planet"

Paul Humphries

exactly right, paul. And the Prius when tested by some motoring jornalists did actually get only 45mpg. Just a publicity excecise.

as for Punto's, My girfirend has a 1.2 Punto and that does around high 30's to mid 40's from fill to fill, in reality simmilar to a Minor, despite 40 years of technology "advance".

Dropping your cruising speed down by 10 mph on motorway from 70 mph to 60 mph can, with a lot of car, cars gain almost that in decreased consumption !

Yes, but, increasing your cruising speed by 10mph from 70 to 80 really winds up young lads in Novas who think you're easy prey in a Minor.

My best ever was 48 mpg, I did 215 miles on one tank of super unleaded

I have a 5 gallon tank

Does using super unleaded make enough of a difference to MPG that it's worth paying extra for?

BMC, unfortunately these figures are on a Panda. I assure you that while i can get these figures I really can't be done with driving while looking at a trip computer. I've settled on an average of 44-46, I seem to be putting no fuel in the car.....more money for the next mog! Although I'm sure these figures are hopeful to some degree.

Ahh - Panda supposed to be better mpg than Punto - and I thought Panda was only 1.1 engine ?

I just worked out the m.p.g for Wendys red traveller on the MOT.
In 1200+ miles mostly loaded with camping gear we averaged 42.7 m.p.g mainly on A type roads doing 55-60 mph.
I think this is pretty impressive if you consider how old the technology is.
No computers and not designed with access to a wind tunnel.
I wonder how it would have been with the engine Issigonis designed ? even better I'm sure.

My Mog averages 57 m.p.g. on a good run at 60 - 65 mph.

It's a shame the speedo isn't accurate.... it tends to overestimate how far I've been

Hm, think mine was in the high 30s mpg, I'll have to check it sometime - I seem to use about fifteen quid a week in petrol, but then I do an average daily run of forty-odd miles over either A roads or motorway.

Does using super unleaded make enough of a difference to MPG that it's worth paying extra for?

I find that for an extra 5 - 6% in cost, I get about a 10% increase in MPG, and the engine is much smoother at tickover - also better performance. So, in my opinion, definitely worth the extra!
As for consumption - about 35mpg around town, and on a long run (60 - 70 mph) I get 44mpg

Dom

Recently I did a straight run down to Birmingham from cheltenham and took about 1hour in the morris down the M5

On the way there I was trying to get the best MPG and so stayed around 60-70pmh (944cc morris engine 1959). The car drank petrol like there was no tomorrow.

On the way back I decided to open the baby up and was averaging around 80mph+, the wierd thing was that the fuel guage hardly moved on the way back?? any ideas??

And its not a dodgey fuel guage as i put £10 in to get there and then filled up another £10 to get back, so exactly the same petrol both ways!!??