What's The Max You've Got Out Of A Tank?

[bondms]

Ok, my first contribution to the site. I've recorded every litre purchased and mile travelled in my 99 T plate 200 sport ( Yes I'm sad, and I can use MS Excel).

I too have always kept a record and here are my statistics:

Maximum fill: 64.45 litres (equates to 5.55 litres left in tank).

Maximum distance: 533.5 miles.

Best consumption: 40.09 miles per gallon (yes, really - but it was VERY careful motorway driving).

Average consumption over life of car so far: 34.06 miles per gallon.

When I first got the car I did mixed driving and averaged 30 mpg (slightly less in winter and slightly more in summer). I now do more motorway / dual carriageway driving and normally get around 36/37 mpg.

Other info.

- I always use normal unleaded, I've never tried Opimax.

- My warning indicator comes on when there is about 11 litres left.

[AdamT]

You really need to be able to feel the accelerator notches when lifting your foot off. And use the MPG guage

←

You mean there's an imbetween to foot down and foot up? :D

I will give it a try, i'm getting better at the OAP driving, my bank balance helps with this.

Thanks

[squarehead]

Slightly off topic but my Doctor (down to earth guy) was complaining last week about putting in £104 in his Mercedes S class (full tank)!!! With this in mind it certainly cheered me up!

And he showed me the receipt to prove it and it was at tesco :-( !

[mcwatson]

Slightly off topic but my Doctor (down to earth guy) was complaining last week about putting in £104 in his Mercedes S class (full tank)!!!

Jesus, in comparison to my car, that must mean he has something like a 140 litre tank on the basis that its about £53 to fill my 70 litre tank up!!!!

[michaelH]

My best figures are 490 miles on 63 litres, motorway and B-roads; no silly speeds or aircon (but for half an hour or so), but no cunning petrol saving techinques either. I could probably have squeezed at least 540 miles from the tank, had I risked running it until it coughed.

I did once run out of petrol, driving a chrysler sunbeam with a dodgy fuel gauge. I managed to coast into the nearest petrol station (slightly downhill) but somehow the guy inside knew. 'Run out of petrol did you?' he asked. Pretty sharp considering he had been inside with the window closed, but I suppose the approach to the pump had been rather slow.

[Monster-Mat]

why isnt Shell V-Power sold in the UK THOX...........

its bloomin brilliant stuff.and smells great

[Chris.S]

I've stopped using Optimax now and swapped to BP Ultimate, cause with the car seems to drink fuel when using Optimax

Example

Same journey 120 mile round trip - half a tank of fuel - same speed

Optimax - uses nearly half a tank and fuel light comes on

BP - still have quarter of a tank left after journey

[Gord]

i use BP to :D

[Chris.S]

Do you find the BP has better economy Gord ?

[Gord]

YES MATE i tryed it on the way back from santa pod chris as i was getting low on fuel and i only found BP garage and got better MPG on the way home.

[mcwatson]

Isn't petrol all supposed to be the same stuff made to the same standards ie. same octanes or whatever they are? Didn't realise it would be noticably different between distributors!! I know there are different types of unleaded ie. Optimax etc but thought the standard stuff was literally that, standard!

[Mike]

IS200S manual....driving sensibly

City driving- avg.....25/26mpg

Country driving -avg....30/31mpg

[aido]

Mat - you're not supposed to drink it mate :P

OT @ Gord & Chris - I thought that TTE recommended you use a minimum of 98 RON fuel when you have the supercharger installed?

Isn't Ultimate only 97?

To be honest I don't know what the best mileage is I get - tonight was the first night I've not been working for ages so I went for a little drive and used nearly half a tank - did have a little fun but didn't spend too much time at high revs :o

[Monster-Mat]

yep, TTE recomend no octane rating lower than 98

[Gord]

not sure on 97 aido will see next time im topping up

[Chris.S]

Can't see 1 octane can make much difference

BP 97

Shell 98

[Ravstar]

Hi Guys,

This is my first post on this site, so I will try not to offend too much!

I am sorry to say this, but from what I have been told, optimax doesn't make any real difference to a car compared with any other petrol that is available these days. I can say this as I know one of the main marketing guys that works for shell, and he has been responsible for selling optimax to the masses. He tells me that it is mostly a marketing/sales pitch, and that most of these additives found in modern day petrol are pretty useless- it's just a cheeky spin in most cases. If he is saying this, working for shell, then there may be some truth in it!

Anyway, nice to be on this site, I have read a few threads and it seems like a nice little community :D

Take it easy lads,

Rav

[Rob]

in europe every( nearly) petrol station has 98 octane, so it is easy to get hold of and isnt too expensive either which is prob reason tte recommend minimum 98 ron( and of course of the SC) as well, i have found germany is the most expensive for petrol, followed by france and then switzerland (98 ron 68P 95ron 66p)

[javadude]

Sorry to be boring and resurrect a dying thread but wow got 39mpg driving very carefully on a 200mile motorway/A road journey yesterday. I usually get mid to high twenties. Kept cruising in empty lanes around the speed limit and easing off on the accelerator til the mpg needle sat around the 40mpg mark. Never gonna manage that on an M4 rush hour commute but was interesting to try on a quite Sunday drive.

[eddiea1]

I think I may get over 350 miles on this latest tank of optimax on my IS300 (with the power switch on) now I have got new tyres and had them laser aligned properly

[MattCook]

I'd love to know what I'm doing wrong!

I seem to always get around the 300 miles mark on £50.

Thats filling to the brim shortly after the light comes on.

I managed to drive like a nanna for the duration of a whole tank, didn't seem to make any difference!!

Whats the secret?

You're not the only one, I get 350 miles out of £50 worth of fuel/a tank...

I've managed 420ish on a long motorway run, but thats about it!

[Chris.S]

Managed 500 miles on BP Ultimate last week when we went to London and back

[Monster-Mat]

412 miles on Shell V-Power.........

<------------in the monster

[Dorlyn Charm]

Wouldanyone recommend using a higher octane for improved fuel consumption or should I stick to the low grade unleaded ?

[jasestu]

From my fuel (dis)economy spreadsheet I can see that in the 3.5 months I had the Altezza I've done 4916 km (3054 miles), visited the pump 10 times (avg dist between fills is obviously 305.4 miles), with an average fuel economy of 25.1 mpg. Best figure to date was 27.7 mpg, worst 23.5.

The figures are with a 96 octane fuel here in NZ. I've only done one tank on 98 octane (there's none near home), and that's not enough to report on the figures.

I'll be interested to see what my economy is if I follow the nana driving approach outlined earlier in the thread. But I really don't think I'll be able to drive so placidly for a whole tank of gas...