MPG? Yes, sir.

[sockpuppet]

Little university experiment here, thought we'd see just how economical I could make my 406 Hdi 90 with performance chip fitted to the common rail. Wanted to get the mpg's as high as possible, and achieved 134.6mpg doing 26mph, downhill, in fifth gear.

not the most exciting road test of all time, but worth it just to see treble figures.

[Welly]

16 degrees C

I want to move to Sunderland each Winter

My display would show 999.9 MPG off throttle

[cardaft]

Wow, its not been 16 degress in the north east for a while now!

Thats pretty good mpg on the avaerage display, although i bet that wasnt ove rmany miles?

[DiscoPol]

Im with welly on this my read out will say 999.99 on the instantaneous MPG read out every time im coming off the motorway, but i have to say Im enjoying my own attempts at Hypermiling my best so far is an average over 35 miles of 74.3mpg which makes the 406 est a very economical way to transport the family.

Im off on a european trip in the new year with a round trip distance of about 3000miles and i cant wait to try out a few little tips and tricks that hopefully will have the mpg around the 60-65 for the whole trip, so when you factor in the lower price of diesel (in comparison to the uk) in some places in Europe and ability to travel when the roads are quieter im hoping it will make the whole trip a damn sight cheaper than flying, especially now my lad is coming up to 2 years old and we are going to have to pay full fare for him on the plane.

Im hoping for a total cost of about 300 quid including ferries which is a fair saving against what the plane costs for three of us, and this way i get to have my car with me whilst at the outlaws, hence allowing an easy escape when they are doing my head in

[cardaft]

Oh, im interested in what your little tips and trick might be to improve your consumption by so much?

[DiscoPol]

Tips and tricks are all the usual ones really,
tyre pressures, speed, additives, low traffic, a good service just before journey, fresh gearbox oil with moly, weighted boot loading, no AC and windows up (it will be feb in northern europe so not hard) check all exterior trim is secure and slick, only top brand fuel all pretty much common sense stuff.

None of the above will count for sh1t if i drive like a loon, did the same journey last year in the BMW and it cost me just shy of 700 quid due to a lowered mpg thru germany, cant imagine why , i got it down to 11.3 mpg at one stage when i dropped the family of at some relatives in Hamburg and did a quick jaunt (1074 miles)to see some friends in Munich and back up in the middle of the night it was worth every penny i gave superchips just for the limiter removal alone.

but this year im being Mr sensible and im sure that i can get at least 60mpg out of the 406, even now on a combined cycle and the wife driving occasionally with a 70-30 split between urban and m-way i am getting 49.6mpg out the car. I just dont want to go fast in the pug, thats not its role in life, this car is purely a hypermiler.

i think the biggest influence on any cars consumption is the drivers mindset, if u want to rag around and push that extra 15-20 mph out on the motorway then u cant be that bothered about the MPG,

im doing the same journeys now in the pug i was doing in the BMW and the journey times havent changed that much at all, i would say maybe an extra 4 mins on a 50 mile journey for a drop in speed of about 20 mph, if the roads were empty maybe it would make more difference but with traffic it makes hardly any difference at all.

[mjb]

weighted boot loading

eh?

no AC and windows up

Don't bother turning the AC off - the effect it has is seriously minuscule

only top brand fuel

It pays to compare all the fuels you can reasonably get your hands on (measure across a repeatable journey on your 2nd-3rd tank of a given fuel). I found my tubby ran slightly better on BP Ultimate, but the best £/mile came from BP standard!

I used to hypermile a lot in that car, and found another good trick worth a few mpg was to slipstream trucks. You don't have to get right behind them either - I found about a truck's length behind worked well

Earlier this year I drove 707 miles back from Bremen to Stoke with a stop in the centre of Brugge in my V6 coupe with 2 passengers and luggage filling the boot and back seat... on one tank. That's 46mpg, and I was getting tired when we got to the UK so I drove "as fast as conditions allowed" up the M40+M6... at 3am

Conversely I've had an average of under 10mpg when I've been out in the countryside for a play

Driving style is *everything*

[seismic22]

Well said!, both of you!

[DiscoPol]

weighted boot loading

eh?

for all the manufacturers claims on the drag coefficient of particular models, if you stick all the weight in your boot right by the tailgate, ie past the rear axle, you just wont be running level, and this along with the negligible effects of AC, and the all the other items i mentioned, do add up.

It may seem pointless to turn off AC, but its a microsecond job and over my trip back to the outlaws and home again, even if it makes only a 1% difference, thats like driving from stoke to Manchester for free

I agree that for your everyday about town trips the ac is probably not worth switching off, but when im doing a fair run its just part of the checklist for me.

[mjb]

Ah. I used to do 120 miles a day (about 110 motorway) in my tubby at something like 34.5mpg average every single day (bar unusually heavy traffic or rain). I used to record my per-trip economy, mileage and the fill amounts in an absolutely anal fashion too. My experiments with AC had no effect at all on reported economy, so we're talking under 0.3%. Don't forget that with climate control, the AC is only engaged when it needs it to maintain comfort and clear windows...

Also bear in mind keeping your AC off is likely to damage the system

[steve_earwig]

Worse still: the BSI isn't air tight, so not a place you want condensation forming...

[sockpuppet]

Nah that was done in september when it was slightly warmer than that, though because ive only owned my 406 since april i was delighted when i got in the other day and it started flashing ICE ALERT at me. is this a serious warning, or are Peugeot just making sure i dont drive like a tit in slippery conditions?