Petrol Head

Regular readers here will know I became the proud owner of a Skoda Octavia 1.9tdi Elegance in February of this year after my old 2.0 petrol Mazda 626 was cruelly written off during Christmas.

 

After a month of commuting from Buxton to Derby on the Trent Barton Trans Peak service - a 6.40am start and getting back at 7.30pm, you can imagine the journey was wearing a little thin.

 

Anyway, after researching and plotting, the Skoda Octavia TDi was the obvious replacement - doing over 500 miles a week, I needed something a little more frugal.

 

At the suggestion of my father-in-law who's owned 3 Skoda's, I've been adding Miller's diesel fuel additive on every fill up.

 

Anyway, keen to see what sort of mpg I was getting, I started a log from the first fill-up. (see below).

 

monday (am) 14th feb - 47 ltr > 10.3 gal = 50.48 mpg - 520miles - £129.9 per ltr

tuesday (am) 22nd feb - 43.66 ltr > 9.61 gal = 51.71 mpg - 497 miles  - £129.9 per ltr

 

Always keen to be as frugal as possible, especially with fuel prices and diesel in particular rising to over £140 pence a litre, I thought I'd try a few weeks without the climate control on (which auto engages air-con) and see if it does really make a difference.

 

I must stress I've always driven steadily - rarely put my 'foot down' and although not driving at 'towing a caravan' speed, rarely get above 65.

 

Here's the results without the air-con on anyway:

 

Saturday (pm) 30th Apr - 46.26 ltr > 10.18 gallons = 57.07 mpg - 581 miles - £133.9 per ltr (morrisons voucher) - no air-con!

Wednesday (am) 11th May - 42 ltr > 9.25 gallons = 57.83 mpg - 535 miles - £138.9 per ltr (tesco) - no air-con!

 

So, in conclusion, a massive average of 5+ mpg more, over the course of a tank - that's nearly 50 miles (or a single one-way commute for me) which means eventually I'll get a 'free' journey - I'll let you do the maths.

 

p.s long periods of running without using the air-con in a car isn't recommended so I've taken to making one journey a week at least with the air-con on, just to make sure the system stays primed.