Small engines; 200kms/day @ 100km/h?

[ebv8]

i bought a WT 1.6 5sp Fiesta for a 180km daily round trip with a mostly 100-110kmh speeds and a few hills, it hated it, it struggled to keep 110kph and needed constant push on the pedal and changes to 3rd and 4th gear to maintain speed.
used about 7.5l/100km and considering i get 9l/100km in my old VX wagon and 11l/100km from my GT, i don't see the point of small cars for highway use.

[Polyal]

Originally Posted by ebv8

i bought a WT 1.6 5sp Fiesta for a 180km daily round trip with a mostly 100-110kmh speeds and a few hills, it hated it, it struggled to keep 110kph and needed constant push on the pedal and changes to 3rd and 4th gear to maintain speed.
used about 7.5l/100km and considering i get 9l/100km in my old VX wagon and 11l/100km from my GT, i don't see the point of small cars for highway use.

That is a good point, if you are 90% highway then id stick with a falcon.

[Vesper Martini]

Really need to know what you currently have and what your budget is for the car to give any sound advice. ie can you afford a new diesel Euro?
The cheapest solution would have to be a bike, but I'm not sure Id do that myself..

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by ebv8

i bought a WT 1.6 5sp Fiesta for a 180km daily round trip with a mostly 100-110kmh speeds and a few hills, it hated it, it struggled to keep 110kph and needed constant push on the pedal and changes to 3rd and 4th gear to maintain speed.
used about 7.5l/100km and considering i get 9l/100km in my old VX wagon and 11l/100km from my GT, i don't see the point of small cars for highway use.

The WS seems like a big improvement on the WT, I've got a WS and we're getting 6.5L/100km, 5sp as well doing the same driving.

The only thing you have to remember if you go new small car as well, they usually want a minimum of 95 fuel wise these days.

Someone here owns a new Fiesta with the 1L 3 cylinder Ecoboost engine and they have a good experience? Worth considering?

[smoo]

Would not bother with diesel in a small car - false economy.
They come into their own consistently towing heavy loads, or as an alternative to a larger petrol in a big vehicle, like a Range Rover.

I had looked at a Peugeot 208 diesel earlier in the year as it was cheap. Did some research, saw they had a DPF. Rang up independent French garage to see what is involved in DPF delete. A coincidence that garage I rang does the work on this car. In 100,000k it had done three turbos, two sets of glow plugs and one DPF. So your 4.5l/100km diesel doesnt sound so great against the 1.6l petrol counterpart that uses 1.5l/100km more considering its had nealry 20 grand worth of parts/labour spent on it. Plenty of horror stories out there regarding the French stuff as I found out, maybe why their resale is pretty much nothing So I'd be careful - fuel consumption isnt the only cost of these things.

I did end up with a BMW 320d, which is more old tech, just what I wanted, easier to work on, generally more reliable and lower maintence than the newer Euro fwd stuff, but still false economy compared to petrol 318i. Rough calculations over 10,000km highway driving my diesel is better off by about $100 compared to the 2.0 petrol. Which will mean bugger all if a turbo or common rail pump ***** itself. On the plus side, on the highway it uses less fuel than my 1100cc Ducati and 675cc Triumph, and half the fuel of my XR8 ute.

[Franco Cozzo]

^ Though driving wise diesel is much nicer to drive when your only competition is a NA petrol engine of the same capacity, its nice having all that torque down low where you use it every day.

[ebv8]

the WS was the old Fiesta and the WT was the newer one. also the the WS had a/c that would cool anythign and the WT has slightly better a/c but nothing on a falcon

when i had my fiesta i chose to drive my old VX commodore as it was quieter and smoother

[steve.zissou]

I do that sort of driving in my diesel jeep grand Cherokee and I get about 6.7 L/100

not a small car but very comfortable and I can get over 1200km a tank easy.

Service is a bit more but i do mine myself and get the filters an stuff from the US.

but if you want to consider total cost of ownership - this page is a good start but it doesnt make alowances for different amount of KMS traveled.

http://www.carsguide.com.au/car-advi...8#.VCimbJ6UdVY

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by ebv8

the WS was the old Fiesta and the WT was the newer one. also the the WS had a/c that would cool anythign and the WT has slightly better a/c but nothing on a falcon

when i had my fiesta i chose to drive my old VX commodore as it was quieter and smoother

Oops yeah I was thinking the older one before the WS sorry, hmm thats odd and yeah the A/C sucks in my WS.

[mcnews]

Originally Posted by Polyal

That is a good point, if you are 90% highway then id stick with a falcon.

My tuned FG F6 could easily return 9 litres per 100km country driving and the supercharged GT returns around 10 on the highway but combined cycle at the moment is around 12. If economy and overall cost of ownership is your bag then the dedicated ECOLPI Falcon has to be the go, especially long term, as these dedicated gas engines seem to be good for half a million km without a single drama when on gas due to the clean burn etc. Have seen one pulled down after half a million km and it was so clean inside you would think it had done 5000km not 500,000km.

[mik]

it would be interesting to see a small diesel with 300,000 ks on it and the costing for that period along side a basic petrol engined economy car, with that you would have to include the initial outlay of both vehicles, im betting that in the long run the petrol would work out cheaper....... but im happy to be proven wrong.

[Soulsearcher]

If you're doing 200km a day, comfort and safety have to be at least as important as overall cost of ownership. Up until recently I was doing 260km a day (90 percent highway) and decided mondeo tdci titanium ticked all the boxes. Active cruise control, fairly solid, good on fuel. It's just hit 160k km and had no issues. If your budget permits, suggest you check out a low km 2011 or 2012 model with all the gadgets. Remember, with the km your doing its nearly 15 hours a week travel time............. make sure that you're doing the right thing by you.

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

[sgt_doofey]

I've owned a Peugeot 307 2.0L HDi now since new. Averaging 6L/100kms and servicing wise it's no more expensive than getting your car serviced by a dealer.
In that time, all that has gone wrong is sweet bugger all. A couple of early electrical gremlins replaced under warranty, but now it's all good.
We just had the clutch replaced on it as it had worn out. My advise is avoid any car with a dual mass flywheel as it'll double the cost of replacing a clutch. An auto might have been a better choice, but wasn't available when we bought it.
We're just about to tick over 170,000kms and are very happy with it.

We're due to get the cam belt and water pump replaced at around the 180,000km mark (first time and that's the scheduled timeframe). The mechanic we use is a Peugeot specialist here in Adelaide and has quoted roughly $1000 to do it.

A normal service is somewhere around the $300 mark with the major being somewhere around the $600 mark. With 20,000km service intervals, it's no more expensive than a petrol car.

If you want cheap cars to run fuel wise, either the small turbo diesels or a large car on LPG will cost roughly the same in fuel. Both will be cheaper than a 4cyl petrol buzz box.
My EL would get me approx 500kms from $40 of LPG. The Pug gets about 900-1000kms out of approx $85 of diesel.

[XR Martin]

Buy an AU sedan (most aerodynamic Oz car). Convert it to manual, put a 2.73 diff in it; remove wing mirrors, aerial, wipers and tape over upper grill. Install low rolling resistance tyres, lower it.
Other mods could also involve installing an undertray along the length of the car and removing weight.

Youve suddenly just created a car that should dip into the 6s/100km.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by XR6 Martin

Buy an AU sedan (most aerodynamic Oz car). Convert it to manual, put a 2.73 diff in it; remove wing mirrors, aerial, wipers and tape over upper grill. Install low rolling resistance tyres, lower it.
Other mods could also involve installing an undertray along the length of the car and removing weight.

Youve suddenly just created a car that should dip into the 6s/100km.

Except it would probably be using 2nd or 3rd gear to maintain 100km/h because it would be sitting at too low RPM in 4th

[Sprintey]

Anyone out there with an EcoBoost Falcon? They are comfortable, large and can apparently do under 6L/100km on a highway run. And they're cheap for 2012 model. Running costs cheap too? Surprised no one has mentioned it to the OP so far in the thread

[Polyal]

Actually I was sussing them out...you can get a decent one for $15k which is mental given its only 2 years old.

[Sprintey]

Truly mental. Have been looking at same thing. G6E a little more, but for 2 year old car?? Is it timing belt or chain?

[LeadFoot81]

Originally Posted by ebv8

i bought a WT 1.6 5sp Fiesta for a 180km daily round trip with a mostly 100-110kmh speeds and a few hills, it hated it, it struggled to keep 110kph and needed constant push on the pedal and changes to 3rd and 4th gear to maintain speed.
used about 7.5l/100km and considering i get 9l/100km in my old VX wagon and 11l/100km from my GT, i don't see the point of small cars for highway use.

I used to get 5.9 L in my 5 speed WS Zetec 1.6. 110km round trip every day which included some stop start.

Never had any issues maintaining speed when I did drive in hilly situations.

Always ran it on BP Ultimate. (Always run everything on BP Ultimate)

[XR Martin]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

Except it would probably be using 2nd or 3rd gear to maintain 100km/h because it would be sitting at too low RPM in 4th

Nope.
It would sit around 1750rpm.
Anyone who knows Falcon I6s knows they are happy at such low rpms.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by XR6 Martin

Nope.
It would sit around 1750rpm.
Anyone who knows Falcon I6s knows they are happy at such low rpms.

My EL has 3.45s and it wouldn't even hold 110 on cruise control without dropping back to 3rd for a hill and in some cases 2nd.

How would something with 2.73 do 1750 RPM in 4th if my EL does 2000 RPM with 3.45s @ 100, that seems like a big drop in diff ratio for not much drop in RPM?

[XR Martin]

Im talking manual trans and 110kmh for starters.

My ED from memory had never required dropping down a gear on the highway. It was happy to sit in 5th at under 70kmh actually

[XR Martin]

My ED doing 70kmh in 5th was turning 1500rpms and as I said was more than capable of maintaining that speed on the flat or slight inclines.

So theres no reason why an AU couldnt maintain 110kmh at 1750rpms either.

[cheap]

Originally Posted by XR6 Martin

My ED doing 70kmh in 5th was turning 1500rpms and as I said was more than capable of maintaining that speed on the flat or slight inclines.

So theres no reason why an AU couldnt maintain 110kmh at 1750rpms either.

Just remember, low rpm doesn't necessarily mean low fuel consumption.

[PitCrew]

Please note have not just thought small car! have been checking the net and doing research, that is why I put the comment on a forum, do get info and feedback from actual drivers.

Gas would be good but not an option, as sometimes Im not in the suburbs/city for a while and in the wheatbelt gas in not cheap ($1.10L) also don't like the no jerry can!

Safety is important that is why Im looking into a new/newer car, most have a 5star rating, sorry can't go bike.

The car would just be a get me to and from work, I have other cars for fun! Due to the high kms the depreciation value would be high so wouldn't want to spend too much. Euro cars use higher octane petrol and the service/parts are a lot more expensive.

Also have noticed a lot of new cars have crappy little spare tyres or none and have a puncture kit. No spare No car!

Again I appreciate all the feedback, and will check out the fuel efficient eco falcon.

[PitCrew]

Originally Posted by Sprintey

Anyone out there with an EcoBoost Falcon? They are comfortable, large and can apparently do under 6L/100km on a highway run. And they're cheap for 2012 model. Running costs cheap too? Surprised no one has mentioned it to the OP so far in the thread

Would like to hear from an actual owner but I'm seeing 8.5-9.5L/100kms

[mcnews]

YOu are seeing it yourself in one?
Or the official ratings?
You can always do way better than the official ratings.
If my tuned 730Nm 426hp FG F6 could get 9 per 100km on the highway I am sure the ecoboost would do perhaps 6.

[Sprintey]

Originally Posted by PitCrew

Would like to hear from an actual owner but I'm seeing 8.5-9.5L/100kms

There was one thread on these forums where members were discussing the economy, one fellow on the Pacific highway mentioned sub 6 IIRC

You are right for the combined figure, I think.

Edit: couldn't find the thread with a quick look, but you can see here

http://www.carpoint.com.au/all-cars/...-16425250&Cr=0

that if you click on 'fuel' - tested highway consumption is 6, urban 11.8, overall 8.1. Depends on your path to work - is it mostly highway?

[XR Martin]

Kia is about to offer 7 years warranty. Just get one and drive the crap out of it until the warranty expires.
Havnt driven a Rio, but I dont mind the Cerato. Kia's (and Hyundais) new car smell is shocking and if cancer has an odour it would be that.
Had a headache for days after driving a brand new Elantra in 40 degree heat.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by XR6 Martin

Kia is about to offer 7 years warranty. Just get one and drive the crap out of it until the warranty expires.
Havnt driven a Rio, but I dont mind the Cerato. Kia's (and Hyundais) new car smell is shocking and if cancer has an odour it would be that.
Had a headache for days after driving a brand new Elantra in 40 degree heat.

Everyone loves that new car smell though.

MMMMM PETROLIUM BASED FUMES I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!

We'll probably find out in 30 years time its carcinogenic lol.