What is the worst mpg car you have owned (or borrowed)

[Drago]

Yesterday I was hatting toma chapmover the road who has a Bimmer M6. The reckons sub 10MPG is quite normal, high teens if hes being sensible. I would suggest he likes to sample the grunt quite a lot.

 

[RichardB]

Yesterday I was hatting toma chapmover the road who has a Bimmer M6. The reckons sub 10MPG is quite normal, high teens if hes being sensible. I would suggest he likes to sample the grunt quite a lot.

A young lad I worked with had a super-duper Impreza Turbo. He reckoned 9 mpg while sampling the performance, 18 mpg if he drove like a vicar.

I once saw 6 mpg on the dash display while driving some tricky woodland in a 4.6 Range Rover.

 

[gbb]

Family member had a X5 and then a Range Rover, I believe the engine / transmission was the same. He'd get 25 mpg normally, 23 to 24 if he didnt bother about economy...it made little difference. He wasnt driving like a fool mind, just not driving for economy to get 23 / 24.

 

[rogerzilla]

My old MX-5 NA didn't care how hard it was driven and used to do between 35-39 mpg. What it hated were short trips of < 10 miles - they hammered the economy, even though I changed the stat and it seemed to warm up quickly.

 

[RichardB]

Family member had a X5 and then a Range Rover, I believe the engine / transmission was the same. He'd get 25 mpg normally, 23 to 24 if he didnt bother about economy...it made little difference. He wasnt driving like a fool mind, just not driving for economy to get 23 / 24.

Must have been the 2.5 diesel, which was a BMW unit, and not well suited to a 2-tonne plus vehicle. Dog slow, to be kind. Mine (a 1998 4.6V8) was remarkably consistent. 16 mpg day to day, 18 mpg on a long run if I was sensible, and 14 mpg towing a ton and a half at speed. It was only offroad it became silly, but well worth it for the awesome abilities. On road tyres, it romped around a trials course I had laid out, a course which defeated some Class 5 modifieds the next day.

Must. Stop. Thinking. About. Range. Rovers.

I. Can't. Afford. Another.

 

[RichardB]

My old MX-5 NA didn't care how hard it was driven and used to do between 35-39 mpg. What it hated were short trips of < 10 miles - they hammered the economy, even though I changed the stat and it seemed to warm up quickly.

You did well. I only ever got high 20s (Mk 2 NB, 1800) and I wasn't caning it. Well, not all the time.

 

[rogerzilla]

You did well. I only ever got high 20s (Mk 2 NB, 1800) and I wasn't caning it. Well, not all the time.

It was just managing 40mpg on its last trip before I pranged it. It was only a Cat D so someone put it back on the road. Great engine, once you worked out how to shut up the hydraulic tappets.

 

[RichardB]

It was just managing 40mpg on its last trip before I pranged it. It was only a Cat D so someone put it back on the road. Great engine, once you worked out how to shut up the hydraulic tappets.

Hmm, tappets on mine were fine. However, I had driven diesels for many years before I got it, and it took a while to learn that keeping it over 7000 was the way to enjoy it.

 

[rogerzilla]

Hmm, tappets on mine were fine. However, I had driven diesels for many years before I got it, and it took a while to learn that keeping it over 7000 was the way to enjoy it.

Mine were rarely a problem. I found (a) Mobil 1 0W40 usually kept them happy and (b) if they did clatter on startup, maybe every 2-3 years, a dose of Wynn's hydraulic lifter treatment just before an oil change cured it for another 2-3 years.

 

[oldfatfool]

Lowest mpg I have seen was 7 and the highest 66, strangely it was in the same car, a fabia mk1 vrs deisal, the latter on a motorway run, the former on the Nordschleife.

 

[RichardB]

Lowest mpg I have seen was 7 and the highest 66, strangely it was in the same car, a fabia mk1 vrs deisal, the latter on a motorway run, the former on the Nordschleife.

Hats off to you, Sir.

 

[rogerzilla]

ISTR that a rally car in full tune does about 4mpg in a race.

 

[johnblack]

280ps Skoda Superb 4x4 L&K I had it a couple of years ago, it felt like I was forever filing it up, not a bad car though. Would have another.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Late 90's BMW 540 Touring - 15-18 mpg when hoofing it a bit.

Early 2000's - Shogun Pinin GDi 3 dr Auto - bought to chauffeur our pampered pooch about to save the 'posh' car from being messed up by the very loveable but very grubby bugger. 19 mpg on our regular jaunts to the Scottish mountains.