Full of regret re. new car, I fucking hate it

[Whoknewitcouldbeso]

I traded in my 2007 Fiat Grande Punto for a 2014 Fiat 500L 0.9 twin air thing. I love the styling and the space, no problem, but it is meant to be fuel economic and fuck me it isn't unless you drive it like a total [word removed by MNHQ].

It's manual and suggest gear changes as you drive it. I noticed my average mpg was terrible by comparison to printed estimates. I know what they claim is never what you actually get but we are talking a HUGE difference. So we researched it, put it in ECO mode and the mpg improved somewhat.

My DP drove it yesterday on a pretty long journey and put it into 'instant mpg'. He is an engineer by trade and also a car mechanic having worked in his Dad's garage most of his early life. He comes back telling me 'you need to drive it like a diesel', which seems to translate to keeping it in high gears and not allowing the engine to rev in any low gears. Fine I think. Go out this morning and try and follow the suggest gear shift changes and they are constant. It wants you in 6th gear at 40!!! Then the mpg starts giving you something decent.

If I drove like this in a driving test i swear I would fail. It goes against everything I have been doing for 25 years. DP suggests I just stare at the dash and keep an eye on the instant mpg. I suggested it might be more pertinent to look at the road instead and try not to crash the fucking thing.

Honest to god I wish I'd stuck with my old car.

Also, the car has a 0.9l engine based on the info in the OP, whilst this will be different to an old style 0.9l as engines have improved a lot, you are still going to get into high revs pretty quickly if you want to be scooting in the motorway at 70 or even town driving above 30. the car is meant to be a little town scoot around.

However, at the end of the day if the OP isn't enjoying the car then she needs to look at seeing if she can cut her losses and trade it.

OneMagnumisneverenough

Driving style massively affects mpg though and you are not supposed to be having the car at high revs.

Low gear/high revs makes little difference fuel consumption compared to high gear/low revs at a constant speed; the only difference is friction of the moving parts inside the engine and the input shaft in the gearbox (and possibly the layshaft).

Acceleration in a particular gear is a different matter, but still if you accelerate at the same overall rate in different gears, the engine is doing approximately the same amount of work and therefore consuming the same amount of fuel.

The issue with the "official" figures from the NEDC test is not so much the gear used as the acceleration: it's so damned slow hardly anyone actually drives like that.

For example, in the Urban section of the test:
At 49 s, the car slowly accelerates to 32 km/h (19.9mph) in 12 s
At 117 s, the car slowly accelerates to 50 km/h (31mph) in 26 s

And Extra-Urban:
the car slowly accelerates to 70 km/h (43.5mph) in 41 s

Who takes 41 seconds to get to 43.5mph?! A full bore standing start in a quick car would see 0-100km/h (62mph) in about 5 seconds. Even someone taking their time would probably be at 60mph in 30 seconds or less.

The NEDC is in no way representative of real-world driving and the MPG figures are nothing more than marketing comparisons. Ignore them.

NNalreadyinuse
If the info given about the car is wildly inaccurate, would you not be able to force the garage to refund you? I think you would have to go down a legal route to force it because the garage are not just going to agree, but surely it is not legal to make claims which aren't even close to being true

Oddly enough, it's the other way round. Any advertising of a car's MPG must quote the official NEDC figures and only those figures. It is illegal for them to quote any other consumption figures.

by high revs I was meaning the acceleration - as in you move up gears smoothly and not using a low gear/high revs in order to accelerate quickly unless you actually need to - if you are looking and planning ahead as you drive then there is really no need to be accelerating hard unless circumstances on the road suddenly change.

This is why they fit black boxes in teenagers cars to keep the insurance low as it measures their acceleration rate and braking rate - it's not a desirable way to be driving really.

okay, you probably won't be driving at the optimum accelerations quoted in the tests but you should seldom need to get from 0-60 in 5 seconds either.

OneMagnumisneverenough

there is really no need to be accelerating hard

it's not a desirable way to be driving really.

There is a need and it is desirable because it's great fun. One reason why I don't: a) drive a Fiat 500 0.9l; and b) care about MPG.

OneMagnumisneverenough
okay, you probably won't be driving at the optimum accelerations quoted in the tests but you should seldom need to get from 0-60 in 5 seconds either.

As above, I don't need to but I sure as hell want to.

5 seconds is the extreme (and it's bloody difficult to actually achieve a quoted 0-60 time too), but the point is 41 seconds to accelerate to 44mph is utterly ridiculous. If you have a chance of an empty road and a passenger to time you, try maintaining a constant acceleration from rest to 44mph in no less than 41 seconds, and consider how it fits in with extra-urban driving (A roads, dual carriageways and motorways, 50mph limits and over).

my rate of acceleration depends entirely on how late we are for school in the morning.....

Most of the trip is not town driving though. I actually go through very possible speed limit on my daily commute. From 30 to 20 to 30 to 40 to 60 to 50 to 30 to 20 to 30 to 50 to 70 to 60 to 10 (work car park) and then the same home again. :)

....and I only do about 6000 miles a year so fuel economy isn't too big a deal either but the kids and I play a game when I am doing evening club drop offs and pick ups to keep the estimated remaining miles of petrol the same for the evening trips (as they are mainly urban) and obv the computer is basing usage on my school/work commute averages. Pick ups sometimes involve a mad dash up the motorway at top speed to get to school on time. Sometimes I can drive 10 miles of an evening not using any fuel at all....