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.