What's your gas milage?

[tjts1]

I find it truly amazing that Volvo has managed to build a vehicle that varies so markedly (well, almost absurdly) on fuel economy.

Some of the mileage(s) I see listed leave me gasping in wonder and amazement and, in some cases, complete bewilderment, when taking into account the fuel economy achieved at such relatively high speeds.

Here's me thinking the faster you drove, the more the fuel economy deteriorated when, in fact, after reading this post it appears that the faster some T5's go, the fuel economy increases. Yipee!!

This leaves me squirming in envy at, what I thought was a fairly normal T5, turning out to be, by comparison, a gas-guzzler which only achieves a pathetic average of about 22 mpg - when converted from Australian fuel measurements to the American gallon (those with some basic mathematical appreciation will know what I'm getting at, unfortunately, the rest will just have to guess).

And beside that, I'm also hostile at the makers of my Volvo because I feel I've been well and truly dudded in this pernicious, vastly differing, fuel economy lottery created (knowingly???) by Volvo.

But then a sudden dose of reality hits me while pondering this conumdrum and I end up realising it all really boils down to just a basic expression of our ego or sense of worth which, put in very simple terms, says "I can piss further than you".

Now, having got that off my chest, I've donned my flame suit and am prepared for any vitriol or obscenities that might be aimed in my general direction.

I'm with you, dude. I don't get it either. Some people claim their cars do better than the American EPA window stickers. It's an industry known fact that those stickers are over estimated. 98% of the population will never see that kind of milage, because few people can drive within the perfect parameters that those numbers derived from. Especially in a ten year old car with a couple hundred thousand miles on it.

Got my silver suit on too....

When you ask people, what kind of mileage does your car get, most of the time they'll tell you the the single best highway only, no AC moderate speed tank. Its the number that sticks out in their head. They won't tell you that the other 99% of the time, they're lucky to break 22mpg. I'm not saying its impossible to get extraordinarily good mileage with an 850 or S70/V70. Give the right motivation ($$$) I'll squeeze 35mpg out of any of these cars but it won't be normal driving.

When I got 32.5mpg I was so excited I took a picture of it.

But the other 99% of the time in normal day to day driving, i'm in the low to mid 20s like everybody else. And this is a base NA 5 speed. So if somebody's number sound too good to be true...


This weekend I'll be driving from Bellingham, Washington to San Rafael California. An 898 mile drive. My goal is to complete the trip on less than 2 tanks of gas. 450 miles per tank seems reasonable. I'll report back with another amazing MPG number.

[mdv]

just over 20 mpg with a mix of highway and city daily.

1998 V70 R AWD 97k, always run on Chevron 91 premium.

Wish I could get better - but it sounds like this is normal.

My old 95 850 Turbo got just over 24 mpg for a few years, and then started getting around 21 -22 consistently. I could never work out what changed.

[polskamafia mjl]

Just wondering...if you don't believe what we are saying then why did you create this thread and why are you even here on this forum? When you ask a question we answer to the best of our ability. If you are going to debate our answers then don't bother asking. Are you going to debate whether an aftermarket MAF works on an 850 or not? When you ask a question listen to the responses and consider them, don't turn around and argue why this or that is impossible simply because you can't do it.

[850 Turbo1]

Just wondering...if you don't believe what we are saying then why did you create this thread and why are you even here on this forum? When you ask a question we answer to the best of our ability. If you are going to debate our answers then don't bother asking. Are you going to debate whether an aftermarket MAF works on an 850 or not? When you ask a question listen to the responses and consider them, don't turn around and argue why this or that is impossible simply because you can't do it.

polskamafia mjl...I agree 100%...

If you don't believe or at least have faith then leave this thread, this forum, and this website!

This is an amazing resource and its purpose is to help the Volvo community...your lack of trust is disrespectful and undermines the purpose of this site. Your inability to achieve better MPG is absolutely no excuse for your overarching distrust!!!


Please avoid embedding cynicism(especially about other members) in this forum.

THANK YOU!

[tjts1]

Just wondering...if you don't believe what we are saying then why did you create this thread and why are you even here on this forum? When you ask a question we answer to the best of our ability. If you are going to debate our answers then don't bother asking. Are you going to debate whether an aftermarket MAF works on an 850 or not? When you ask a question listen to the responses and consider them, don't turn around and argue why this or that is impossible simply because you can't do it.

Simmer down. Nobody is calling you a liar. It's an open discussion on the wide range of answers we've had this far. This is probably the 15th 'what is your MPG' thread and there will be many others. Each one takes it's own course so sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.
And yes MVS is a wonderful resource and this discussion takes nothing away from it.

[willowdog]

I find it truly amazing that Volvo has managed to build a vehicle that varies so markedly (well, almost absurdly) on fuel economy.

Some of the mileage(s) I see listed leave me gasping in wonder and amazement and, in some cases, complete bewilderment, when taking into account the fuel economy achieved at such relatively high speeds.

Here's me thinking the faster you drove, the more the fuel economy deteriorated when, in fact, after reading this post it appears that the faster some T5's go, the fuel economy increases. Yipee!!

This leaves me squirming in envy at, what I thought was a fairly normal T5, turning out to be, by comparison, a gas-guzzler which only achieves a pathetic average of about 22 mpg - when converted from Australian fuel measurements to the American gallon (those with some basic mathematical appreciation will know what I'm getting at, unfortunately, the rest will just have to guess).

And beside that, I'm also hostile at the makers of my Volvo because I feel I've been well and truly dudded in this pernicious, vastly differing, fuel economy lottery created (knowingly???) by Volvo.

But then a sudden dose of reality hits me while pondering this conumdrum and I end up realising it all really boils down to just a basic expression of our ego or sense of worth which, put in very simple terms, says "I can piss further than you".

Now, having got that off my chest, I've donned my flame suit and am prepared for any vitriol or obscenities that might be aimed in my general direction.

Volgrrr
A lot of the different figures will be 3 things,
- Speed, terrain and driving habit
- Maintenance
- Fuel

If you run yours on 95 or 98 then you will probably find ecconomy increases. I used to even find my 245 got better ecconomy on Mobil than it did on Caltex when I lived in Melbourne.

Most of my highway driving is on similar roads to those you have around Aararat & Stawell (but not the freeway, we dont have those here!), but does include some on hills a little bigger than the divide is. I dont need or use A/C as it doesnt get hot here (the locals are sweating when it gets above 25!). Also, I have just replaced the leads, coil, distributor, plugs, suspension bushes, filters, oil, tranny fluid etc and dont have roof racks (only rails).

If anyone knows NZ, I got 8.7ltr/100k between Timaru & Dunedin including driving around Dunedin for 2 days. If you dont know the road, Dunedin has the steepest (maybe second?) steepest street in the world and some pretty big hills on the highway down there, I wasnt driving slow, but the limit here is 100kph vs some of the figures the Americans are getting seem to be at 70-80Mph which is somewhere up to 130kph. You would lose your license in Australia for that!

Incidently, I do find it funny that my 14y/o Volvo is capable of getting better ecconomy than Holden's new "Fuel Efficient" Commodore

If you drove it nicely, you should be able to match the good figures shown here on the Western Freeway. Somewhere in the high 7's should be achievable for most of us.

Cheers

[RobTheModd]

I just think it is funny how our 12-14 yr old cars are getting around the same mpg as cars built in 09....

Does this say something about the automakers or what?

Mines a 96, and im getting better than my mothers 05 envoy. sure that's a bad comparison, but when you figure she gets 12 mpg and i easily double that... Also my cousins 05 accent... yeah thats a better comparison.

Off the floor they get 27 combined... mine still beats hers by a few.
and ours have a bigger engine.
Although I have to give them props since she just hit 100k miles.

[Volgrrr]

I find it truly amazing that Volvo has managed to build a vehicle that varies so markedly (well, almost absurdly) on fuel economy.

Some of the mileage(s) I see listed leave me gasping in wonder and amazement and, in some cases, complete bewilderment, when taking into account the fuel economy achieved at such relatively high speeds.

Here's me thinking the faster you drove, the more the fuel economy deteriorated when, in fact, after reading this post it appears that the faster some T5's go, the fuel economy increases. Yipee!!

This leaves me squirming in envy at, what I thought was a fairly normal T5, turning out to be, by comparison, a gas-guzzler which only achieves a pathetic average of about 22 mpg - when converted from Australian fuel measurements to the American gallon (those with some basic mathematical appreciation will know what I'm getting at, unfortunately, the rest will just have to guess).

And beside that, I'm also hostile at the makers of my Volvo because I feel I've been well and truly dudded in this pernicious, vastly differing, fuel economy lottery created (knowingly???) by Volvo.

But then a sudden dose of reality hits me while pondering this conumdrum and I end up realising it all really boils down to just a basic expression of our ego or sense of worth which, put in very simple terms, says "I can piss further than you".

Now, having got that off my chest, I've donned my flame suit and am prepared for any vitriol or obscenities that might be aimed in my general direction.

Volgrrr
A lot of the different figures will be 3 things,
- Speed, terrain and driving habit
- Maintenance
- Fuel

If you run yours on 95 or 98 then you will probably find ecconomy increases. I used to even find my 245 got better ecconomy on Mobil than it did on Caltex when I lived in Melbourne.

Most of my highway driving is on similar roads to those you have around Aararat & Stawell (but not the freeway, we dont have those here!), but does include some on hills a little bigger than the divide is. I dont need or use A/C as it doesnt get hot here (the locals are sweating when it gets above 25!). Also, I have just replaced the leads, coil, distributor, plugs, suspension bushes, filters, oil, tranny fluid etc and dont have roof racks (only rails).

If anyone knows NZ, I got 8.7ltr/100k between Timaru & Dunedin including driving around Dunedin for 2 days. If you dont know the road, Dunedin has the steepest (maybe second?) steepest street in the world and some pretty big hills on the highway down there, I wasnt driving slow, but the limit here is 100kph vs some of the figures the Americans are getting seem to be at 70-80Mph which is somewhere up to 130kph. You would lose your license in Australia for that!

Incidently, I do find it funny that my 14y/o Volvo is capable of getting better ecconomy than Holden's new "Fuel Efficient" Commodore

If you drove it nicely, you should be able to match the good figures shown here on the Western Freeway. Somewhere in the high 7's should be achievable for most of us.

Cheers

As someone who appears to have some knowledge of my local area - I could easily achieve 8 or so litres/100 kilometres (or maybe even better) between Ballarat and Bacchus Marsh travelling towards Melbourne as it is basically down hill all the way - but travelling in the opposite direction is another kettle of fish altogether because the prolonged, steep climb up through the Pentland Hills eats up the fuel and it wouldn't surprise me if it is in the vicinity of 15 or 16 litres/100 kilometres or maybe worse (as I'm not game to look at the computer readout).

Even though I know I'd enjoy driving at the speeds for which the T5 is designed, my T5 rarely sees the other side of 110 kilometres/hour, mainly because of those things that suddenly appear when you least expect them too, and are easily identified by the prominent flashing red and blue lights mounted on their roof. I'm also very reluctant to cough up the horrendous amount of money it costs you for driving, albeit safely, 3 kph above an arbitary freeway speed limit which, in my opinion, is set 20 kph too low for modern vehicles (unfortunately, my pockets just aren't deep enough).

[Sladethesleeper]

I'm with you, dude. I don't get it either. Some people claim their cars do better than the American EPA window stickers. It's an industry known fact that those stickers are over estimated. 98% of the population will never see that kind of milage, because few people can drive within the perfect parameters that those numbers derived from. Especially in a ten year old car with a couple hundred thousand miles on it.

Got my silver suit on too....

First of all, you have to realize that EPA estimates are low side estimates, and that is a fact. They are not performed under "perfect" driving condition. If you can't meet EPA estimates, something is wrong with the car. Dragging brakes, underinflated tires, poor tune, etc. All those play a factor. How you drive is also a factor. If you are always pushing up to 3kRPM from stop light to stop light (like it seems 50% of the people around me do) and driving 80MPH on the highway, you won't see those numbers. I don't drive agressive most of the time. Rarely exceed 2400 RPM, but who needs to with the T5? On the highway, I rarely go over 71 for any length of time. I do enough road trips that I tried several different speeds and found (with the help of a boost gauge) that 71 MPH for my car seems to be the best overall speed. When on the flat, the turbo isn't spoiled up but it'll spoil up quickly if needed. I think if I go 68 I can eek a little more mileage out, but I like 71. It puts me at 2500 RPM or so.

I don't consider my cars gas mileage to be a subject of ego. But I keep detailed fuel logs (well, maintenance logs where I list everything). I have a lot of info on my S70T5 for 160k miles over 8 years. Believe it or not, those are my numbers. I have a relatively long commute and I like to challenge myself to see how much mileage I can squeeze.

I pulled my records to check.

In the summer (assume AC is on) I can get around 28.5MPG on the highway.
In the winter I average around 29MPG.

Since I usually set my CC at 71MPH, That is probably the speed listed for those.

Those numbers are not just instant or short mileage numbers. Those are numbers taken over 8 years and 160k miles. I note the mileage at every fill up. I use it as an indicate of how the engine is holding up as mileage is one of the early indicators of wear.

I"ve seen as high as 31, but I had a 25MPH tail wind for 200 miles of that trip, so I don't really count that since that was the number given by the trip computer, not by actual fill up data.

I've seen as low as 27MPG on the highway, but that was with 3 surfboards and two mountain bikes on the bikes on the roof.

[IVIUSTANG]

Your right, I don't get 1000+ KM on every highway tank nor did I say I did. I said on a very good tank I get over 1000 KM. I average by multiple tanks, if I can't repeat it I throw the data out. I have easily gotten tanks in the 6 l/100 KM range but that is NOT normal. I have however had many 1000+ KM tanks. If it makes anyone happy, right now in minus 40C weather my car is averaging 13.8 L/100 KM in the city. I also never use my A/C and my tires are at 37 pounds, I drive hard but I always coast a long ways to a stop. Take my experience or leave it I have my flame retardant suit on now, not that I'll need it given the -45C wind chill we are having right now...

- Jesse