Fifty's Nifty

Been monitoring the fuel consumption of my 200Tdi-equipped 90, with a view to finding out what it does and adapting my driving style to suit it. After a few wayward top-ups just after I got it, where it varied from 20 to 34mpg, it started to settle at 28-30, which was okay.

I then decided to try and keep my cruising speed to under 50mph on open roads, and generally keep the revs down a bit when accelerating - basically, don't let the turbo spool too much unless the situation warrants the extra power/speed for a moment. The driving has been mixed - a pretty even balance of motorway, A-road, B-road, back road, and a few miles of light off-road (lumpy track over moors).

247.27 miles later, I filled up with 27.55 litres of fuel, giving me 40.8mpg!

I should mention that this is a calculated mileage, based on comparing the milometer with a GPS - I added 5% to the actual reading of 235.5. (235/85x16 tyres - the speedo under reads a bit compared to the GPS as well.) On the actual reading, I'm still looking at 38.8mpg, and allowing for error in the GPS/milometer comparison, I think 40mpg is probably close to the mark.

I have to say, I'm impressed. It's doing over double the mileage I got out of my old IIa petrol many moons ago. I'm also surprised at how big an effect driving style has on its consumption - I've been doing the same mix of driving in my MR2 (work commutes and weekend runs) for nearly 4 years, and that hardly changes at all (+/- 2mpg, 30mpg average, some fills driven in granny mode, some with lots of back-road bootage).

I wonder what the Landy will do on a long run with minimal gear changing.

you can get a switch/relay/valve to vent the diaphram on the injection pump to air disconnecting it from the turbo I will be fitting one soon my dad has it fitted and he is quite anal about his MPG been doing it since I can remember and he gets 37MPG regularly once up to speed just flick the switch no more "extra fuel" is pumped in no matter what revs

Interesting, Jai. How does his driving profile and typical cruising speed compare to mine?

My old mans an old fart he will sit at 60 65 all day long but since he retired he doesn't do that many miles so its hard to compare. When my dads cousin hit my brothers Disco at a round about in Devon with his RRC and his boat my dad towed back the boat Heavy old wooden tub cabin cruiser must be close to 2 tonne with all the camping gear in it he got somthing like 28Mpg on the return trip up the A303 quite hilly and running about around town afterwards to empty the tank ow and I think that was inclsive of a little bit of driver training for my neices so a little bit of low range work aswell.

Devon to Luton Bedfordshire