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Higher tyre pressure for economy?



  Black 197
Im about to head off on a 300 mile round trip. Is pumping my tyres up to higher psi gonna make any difference to my fuel economy. Its all motorway and duel carriageway. And does cruise contol prove to be economical or not....any facts or opinions on a postcard....... thanks
 
  BMW 320d SE
Essentially, yes it will be more economical. However the safety aspect to consider is that you'll have less tyre in contact with the road, and so you'll not be able to stop as easily. Your wet handling will also be impaired. You also risk wearing the central part of your tyre tread prematurely.

In other words don't bother. Just make sure they're at the correct pressure and you'll be fine!
 
  C-VXR, T8 Map 220BHP
I do a similar size trip on a regular basics.

Did a experiment one month. I drove one trip at about 85 ish most of the way and once at 70 ish. Cost about £4 less in petrol at lower speeds

If your in no hurry “slow n steady wins the race”
 
  Black 197
No, im in no rush, and theres no need to buy a diesel, I do this journey every blue moon. Just was keen to see whether it would ever get above 30mpg. What about cruise control? when ive used it before it seems to make more throttle adjustments than i probably would and doubt its economical
 
  C-VXR, T8 Map 220BHP
At 70mph my trip computer gives me 40mpg in the 172

Cruise will only work well if there is little traffic on the road.

Your be better of doing it your self as you can see when traffic build up and can slow / accelerate better than a CC system can.

Just try not to break much and gentile acceleration helps
 

Fletcher

ClioSport Club Member
I got back from the lake district yesterday, which was over 300 miles and still had quite a bit of fuel left, around 98 miles, and i wasn't hanging around.
 
  Black 197
yes it does, 2 psi higher, but i leave it at that anyway because theres a lot of dual carriageways i use daily. Well I 'll see what mpg it does on paper, i dont trust the computer and post it on. Like i said no rush, 60-65 which is real world, 56 in an ideal world but im a believer that causes other road users problems, especially lorries that are supposed to be limited, but somehow arent!!!!
 
Smooth driving using good observation and anticipation is the best remedy, but no offence if you can afford to buy a nice new 197 then why quibble over a few quid. All of us on here with Renaultsport cars knew we wouldn't be seeing 40mpg very often!!
 
  Black-Gold 182
I think my personal best was 54mpg in my 182 on a trip from Staffordshire upto Yorkshire. I was following my parents up and they were towing their caravan. We were doing about 60mph all the way up, and I just sat in their slip stream the whole way! Was the best mpg i've ever had... but MY GOD was it boring! 30-35mpg is what I get on long runs, and 26mpg around town.
 
yes it does, 2 psi higher, but i leave it at that anyway because theres a lot of dual carriageways i use daily. Well I 'll see what mpg it does on paper, i dont trust the computer and post it on. Like i said no rush, 60-65 which is real world, 56 in an ideal world but im a believer that causes other road users problems, especially lorries that are supposed to be limited, but somehow arent!!!!


I find the computer on my 172 Cup is very good, every fill up I get the calculator out to work out the true figure and it is pretty spot on. I think the trick is to only reset the first trip meter every fill up and not all of the computer figures, left to build up lots of data it's amazing how close it gets. Don't know if the same thing would apply to the 197 computer or not, worth a try if you're not doing it already.
 
  Black 197
ok worked it out on paper got 35.5 mpg, computer showed 36.8. im happy with that, stuck between 60 and 75 all the way.
 
  Mondeo TXS Bardge.
how did he manage to get 56mpg out of a 182? the very most ive ever had for an extended period was 49.9, there and 49.8 coming back ithe a passenger and a bag as heavey as her, (glasgow to invernverness and back [bout 360miles]) at a constant 60mph 3000rpm i managed the other week where it never got above -5 to get 48mpg but i usually only get 43!! form my 1., whats going on?
 
  RenaultSport clio 172 mk2
Actually someone claimed they had a device that would reduce fuel consumption. I said I'd buy one if they'd give me money back if it didn't work on the 172. It didn't work. They gave me my money back. But in the process of doing before and after fuel economy testing I came up with some numbers that indicate the effect of speed on fuel consumption.

55 km/h (34 mph) 4.3 l/100km (66 mpg)
70 km/h (44 mph) 4.8 l/100km (59 mpg)
85 km/h (53 mph) 5.2 l/100km (54 mpg)
100 km/h (62 mph) 6.1 l/100km (46 mpg)
115 km/h (71 mph) 6.8 l/100km (42 mpg)

So the answer to the question of how to get the best fuel economy is "how long have you got to get there?"
 
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  Clio & Mitsu ASX
Don't use your cruise control.
A steady foot is what you need, because with CC if you go a little uphill it will speed up to keep the speed, with a steady foot you'll slow down a bit but still have the same revs.
 
  RenaultSport clio 172 mk2
Don't use your cruise control.
A steady foot is what you need, because with CC if you go a little uphill it will speed up to keep the speed, with a steady foot you'll slow down a bit but still have the same revs.

Nonsense.

You don't "slow down a bit but still have the same revs". If you're at the same revs in the same gear you're doing the same the same speed.

Do use the cruise control. If you've got one. I wish I did.

I find it really hard to maintain that steady speed just below the enforcement limit that gets you where you want to go as quickly as you can without being booked. I try to sit on 117 km/h on the open road and when I look down I find sometimes I'm doing 10 km/h less or 10 km/h more - which in this country gets you a seriously expensive speeding ticket.
 
  BMW 320d SE
^Agreed. I love my CC. It's especially great for those awful average speed camera zones on motorway roadworks.
 


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