New Mondeo Diesel Questions

[Smoke Pursuit]

Okay, so ive read that some of you guys are getting up to 1000 kays out of a tank of diesel, which I think is very impressive (got that little guy in my head ticking).

Now with this in mind how bad are they just around town, like wats the best kms out of a tank and whats the worse.

Finally are the diesels noisy or are they quiet inside the cabin? The thought of being able to drive 1000 kays without having to refuel sounds like a plan to me and could be my next work vehicle!

[monkeyboy666]

Mate,

I've had my diesel only 3 days so I'm only a novice, but I can answer a couple of your questions. First the diesel noise - stand outside, reach in through the window and turn the key and yup, it sounds like a Landcruiser. But inside is a different world. The Sydney summer has been kind so far so I've been able to drive it with all the windows open and the sunroof too and even then you can't hear the motor at all. With everything shut its as quiet as a mouse.

As to fuel consumption, again my comments must be taken with the understanding that I've only had it for 3 days, but my drive to work involves a 50km trip along a straight flat road at a constant signposted speed of 80km/hr, and as long as the one set of traffic lights is green I don't touch the brakes until I turn into the front gate 45 minutes later. Hence, the XR5 would be a complete waste.

My previous car was a 1999 Magna 3.5 litre which in its heyday returned between 8.8 and 9 litres per hundred km. So after 3 days of travelling that route I've attached a pic of the Mondeos result. I haven't done any urban travel (that will be tomorrow..) but I reckon it should still be under 7.5litres/100km..

[Turbodiesel]

Well if it helps, after 4 months of owning a Focus diesel which is probably a bit noisier than the Mondeo you can't go wrong with it. It's only a little noisy when idling but once you get going it's fine.

Fuel economy is great, the power is effortless. I'd imagine the Mondeo might be a little slower being heavier and an auto but regardless it's an awesome engine.

[GRT046]

Like Monkeyboy I have only had my TDCi Mondeo a few days so it is a bit early to make any assessments on likely economy.

I did make a trip today up the Blackall Range to Montville and the climb which is quite steep was absolutely effortless. While there is the normal diesel clatter at idle from outside the vehicle it is not pronounced from inside the vehicle and when underway particularly at highway cruising speed it is very quiet.

Assuming that the trip computer data is accurate it would appear that for highway and freeway driving a 1000 km range is likely. Economy for suburban commuting is less certain although I did see a readout of 7.8 l/100 km during the limited driving in these conditions.

The real test will be when I next fill which will be in 10 or more days at present usage. Will keep you posted

[Dusty1]

Had mine since 4 January. City around 8.6 that's with the a/c on. WHen I had a Ford Motor diesel, on a trip of around 500+kms, it got down to 6.6 ish. Pretty good. I've currently done over 500 kms, and still have a quarter tank left, and it's saying over 200 kms left to empty.

It is a bit noisier than my old Futura, but only if you really listen for it.

It's pretty impressive.

[Superoo]

I've done only 200 odd kms in mine with roughly a 70% city 30% highway split and my trip meter is showing over 600kms to go. When I picked up the car the economy was showing 27l/100km (lots of idling obviously) and is now down to 9.0l/100km. I estimate I must be getting about low-mid 8's to get it down that far. I'm very impressed considering it's only the first tank and things are still quite tight.

The engine noise is certainly noticeable compared to a petrol engine if you're listening for it but with the radio on its really no issue at all. Once up to speed and cruising, it's very quiet.

[RATT]

I have been driving a TDCi sedan since October and in city driving I am averaging 8.7/100.

Noise? Well you can hear the fact that it's a diesel, but it's actually relatively quite. At full throttle you obviously hear the engine clatter but there is that turbo whistle as well.

All up very impressive NVH.

[zetec]

Brent - just drive one mate. Stop looking for excuses NOT to buy one!!!!!

[barra240t]

These are selling really well too. So dealers are having trouble getting hold of them. The hatch is very popular.

[GRT046]

Well I have had possession of the TDCi for two weeks now and after 800km she had her first fill today.

Results were:

Distance travelled: 800.2 kM
Fuel used: 59.42 Litres
Economy: 7.43 L/100kM

Travel included a mix of freeway, country and some suburban motoring with virtually none during peak hour and assumes that the dealer gave me a completely full tank of fuel.

[monkeyboy666]

I'll be filling up tomorrow for the second time - I've done 940km on this tank and the computer reckons I've still got 230km 'til empty - thats an average of 6.3lt/100km which I have no complaints about, especially given the performance that the diesel has. At one point on a highway cruise I got it down to 5.9lt/100km for half an hour or so...

[GRT046]

Originally Posted by monkeyboy666

I'll be filling up tomorrow for the second time - I've done 940km on this tank and the computer reckons I've still got 230km 'til empty - thats an average of 6.3lt/100km which I have no complaints about, especially given the performance that the diesel has. At one point on a highway cruise I got it down to 5.9lt/100km for half an hour or so...

Not sure how accurate the onboard computer is as mine showed 6.8 l/100km when the actual usage was 7.43.

[zetec]

Damn them's some insane economy figures!

I'll be taking an XR5 Turbo to Melbourne in a couple of weeks, I'll let you know how that averages in comparison!

[vtr007]

Had my TDci for about 2months now averaging about 840-900km depending on the driving im doing, also have a DP Chip on order which should boost the fuel economy upto arouns 1000-1200km a tank while incresing the cars preformance.

cheers
tim

[Smoke Pursuit]

so do i!

Bloody fantastic economy!

[Superoo]

What sort of average speed are you guys doing to get close to 1000km out of a tank? I suspect a lot of freeway or constant speed driving? I filled up for the first time today and got 750km out of the tank (still had 90km to go according to the fuel range readout) but my fuel usage came out at around 8l/100km. I'm not complaining as it was only my first tank and my average speed was 35km/h so I suspect (hope) it will get better. I drive in quite heavy traffic so am quite used to seeing 14-15l/100km on my XR6T.

On a short 3-4 kay freeway run tonight I saw the consumption slip to 6.9 after sitting in a bit of traffic so I have no doubt it can do much better on a long stretch.

[monkeyboy666]

Originally Posted by Superoo

What sort of average speed are you guys doing to get close to 1000km out of a tank? I suspect a lot of freeway or constant speed driving?

Of those 940km, about 500 were 5 trips to work and back - which is a 50km each-way trip on an 80km/hr flat road with only one set of traffic lights on it so if they are green I don't hit the brakes until I pull into the front gate at work. (so I get heaps of mileage out of brake pads too!). The other kays were 3 return trips from the southern highlands to Sydney on the M5 (ask any Sydney driver what speeds you can do along there... stop/ start and averaging about 40km/hr.) I also did a trip down to south of Wollongong and back last Sunday (about 250km return) - fantastic run on the way down but got stuck on the way back into Sydney with heavy storms and then a hold up from a fatal accident on Heathcote Rd, so I'd count that as very heavy traffic.

All in all I'm more than happy with the economy, bearing in mind with the wimpy Sydney summer we are having so far I haven't needed to use the aircon yet.

Although there is a downside - when I do need to refuel and the only diesel bowser in the servo is usually being used by some semi putting 10 million litres into his tank..

The upside though - not really sure if it is - is that the price of diesel is always high and hardly moves compared to petrol so you can fill up on practically any day of the week...

[GRT046]

Originally Posted by Superoo

What sort of average speed are you guys doing to get close to 1000km out of a tank? I suspect a lot of freeway or constant speed driving?

Yes my 7.43 l/100km was achieved with a greater percentage of freeway and country driving including two trips up the steep Blackall range to Montville, (love the diesel torque up the climb) and averaging 54 km/h overall. It also included around 10km of stop/start freeway motoring, with maximum of <10km/hr, the result of the effect of an accident. I live only 3km from the M1 freeway so almost all of my trips have a portion of freeway driving.

All travel was outside normal peak times with no special effort taken to conserve fuel.

[Smoke Pursuit]

Wonder what these cars will be like when they loosen up?

Spoke to a guy at ford whos got one, he just went up north and did 4000 kays, and was whinging about an average of 7, im like gezzus my territory uses 13 !

[csv8]

FORD needs a diesel Falcon and Terrirtory ASAP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Fenno70]

I've done about 2,200 kms in my MB Mondeo Diesel and am getting 8.2 l/100km. This is mostly in peak hour traffic, where about 15kms out of 36km is freeway, and slow freeway at that.

Did a run in the country, about 300k rountrip and averaged 6.5 l/100km.

I have filled up twice with Caltex premium and once with BP Diesel. I think it ran better on the BP stuff. Sounded smoother and got better k's from that tank. Still, it's very early days and needs to run in.

Not bad for a big car. I was getting 9.9l/100km from a 3.2 Auto Vectra and that sucks premium.

Great car, very happy with it.

[AlanD]

Hi,

Took our one month old (according to us ;)) on a 2230 km trip to Adelaide and back a week ago. Here are the approximate calculated figures:

1. Healesville to Victor Harbour via Seymour, Bendigo, St Arnaud, Horsham, Tailem Bend, Strathalbyn then back to Mt Barker where we filled up. Healesville fill was with Shell. 934 km @ 6.3 litres/100km. At or just above highway speeds with the A/C running for the last 600km. Slight quartering tail wind of 10 km/hour. Approx 10 litres available from tank or another 160 km available. Majority of trip in Victoria and cruise control set for 105 Km/hour max by GPS. (I'm waiting to see if the radar trap outside of Nhill gets to send me a ticket : )

2. Mt Barker, Victor Harbor, Salisbury, Mannum, Tailem Bend, Kingston SE, Mt Gambier, Warrnambool. Mt Barker fill was with BP. A/C running non stop for entire trip. Cross wind of 15 km/hour approximately. 892 km @ 6.93 l/100km with about 100 km of city travel otherwise at or just above highway limits. Approx 8 litres left in tank for another 120 km. Majority of trip in SA so made use of the SA limit of 110 km/hour - set the cruise to 115 as indicated by the GPS.

3. Warrnambool, Pt Campbell, Beeches Forest, Colac, Geelong, Melbourne , home via the M1 in 4:00 pm traffic. Warrnambool fill was with Mobil. Intermittant use of A/C for last half of distance. Quartering tail wind of about 10 - 15 km/hour. 423 km @ 5.68 l/100km Approx 46 litres in tank for another 800 km. All in Victoria so 105 km/hour max

On this basis 1000 km looks to be pretty easy to do on a level highway in still air. I suspect that if the day was cool and you tootled along at a steady 100 km/hour (1750 rpm) 1200 km would be an easy achieve.

I'm not convinced that the Mt Barker fill got the tank full as we had four adults in the car and three of them stayed aboard while I filled. I suspect I got an air bubble trapped at the front of the tank at this fill, if this was a couple of litres then the first two consumption figures would get to be almost identical.

Whatever, in a brand new car (there were about 1200 km on the odometer when we set off) I can only say that we are very happy with the economy of the car, but I doubt that I will be able to emulate our WA friend who was seeing sub 5 figures on part of his trip, but as the engine frees up I think there will be slight improvements.

Oh, in our car a GPS reading of 100 kph shows as 104 kph on the speedometer, so an error of +4%. And if I regard the GPS figure as accurate (which I do) then the radar advise on the M1 outside Geelong is in error by a couple of kph at the mid 90s, but I'm damned if I can recall if it is high or low :

Cheers

[GRT046]

Just returned from a Brisbane - Canberra trip that showed 5.7 litres per 100km overall including 300km around town running in Canberra.

On the return trip I filled up at Sutton Forest, arround 160km out of Canberra and when I arrived home the DTE was showing 232km so I believe that Canberra to Brisbane, 1212km, on one tank is achievable.

All this was achieved with AC on and speed as signposted set to GPS readout which equated to speedo reading plus 4 kph

[ajay1940]

Just completed Melbourne to Merimbula and back on one fill. A/C on, car fully loaded and going as fast as legally allowed.
2007 TDCI Hatch.