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A long story, you'll need 10 minutes to read....
Today I did my first long motorway journey in Dafny (my 1.4T LE). The journey was a 250 mile round trip to my head office. I have done this trip twice a week for 12 years and for 10 of those years I've been driving this Mazda 2.5TDi pickup truck:
![Wheel Tire Land vehicle Vehicle Automotive parking light]()
After 260K miles the Mazda (named Thomas by my children) was starting to require very expensive repairs and fuel economy had dropped from a regular 35-40mpg on the commute to a rather dismal 30mpg. We spent £1500 last year to get him through the MOT and he would have needed a similar amount this year. The annual fuel bill was an eye watering £5000. Despite being loan free for the last 7 years he was still costing a fortune and was becoming unreliable. His insurance was £500 a year and VED was £230 a year.
So my wife and I decided to replace him with a more economical new car but only had a budget of £15K and against all logic instead of buying a large second hand saloon car such as BMW 5 series I opted for a brand new Corsa!
![Tire Wheel Cloud Car Automotive side-view mirror]()
The LE is a gorgeous looking car, is quite big for its class and even in petrol form promised great economy. I worked out that at 45mpg we could afford to buy and run the 1.4T LE for the same as it was costing is to run the loan free pickup truck - as long as it got 45mpg+ we'd be fine.........
Since I collected Dafny on Friday she has averaged 50mpg and her performance around town and on rural roads was fantastic so all was looking good with my decision to downsize.
So this morning I set off at 4:30am, with air temps at just 2.5c. I got to the next village and was driving along at my normal speed of 30mph which I've done in my rear wheel drive pickup truck with no traction control a zillion times before in icy conditions with no issue only to find that on going around a bend Dafny slid across the road with absolutely no traction at all. EEK! Thankfully she stopped short of the kerb on the other side. Not the start to my journey I'd hoped for. It seems these low rolling restistance tyres are useless compared to the heavily siped winter tyres I run on my pickup all winter and I'd stupidly forgotten to take this into account.
I finally got onto the M180 motorway and hit a gale force headwind and heavy rain. The mpg gauge was showing just 33mpg as I tried to drive along at a steady 56mph all the while fighting the steering because she simply would not remain in a straight line, in part due to the ruts made by the HGV's and in part due to her very short wheelbase and large tyres making her inherently nervous compared to the rock solid stability afforded by the much longer wheelbase pickup truck which will drive for hundreds of miles with barely a touch needed on the steering. The pickup truck also has wider spaced wheels which means the truck doesn't have any issues with lorry ruts. I endured 40 miles of headwind and the fuel gauge refused to improve on 33mpg. This was no better than my 1.8 ton pickup truck and at this point I thought I'd made a really big mistake with my downsizing.
I finally turned south onto the M18 and got out of the headwind and straight away the fuel computer increased to 47mpg! The M18 has recently been resurfaced and Dafny sat beautifully on the new tarmac although tyre noise (wide 215 tyres remember!) was causing more interior noise at 60mph than my diesel pickup. It was still heavy rain so the wipers and heater were still on along with the lights as it was still pitch black. All these electrical items crucify mpg as I know from many previous trips.
I then got onto the M1 southbound in the 50mph specs controlled roadworks and I decided to try the cruise control. It worked perfectly and was a breeze to adjust the speed up or down slightly at the flick of the toggle button. However I noticed the mpg drop slightly which I thought was odd. Anyway I got down to Nottingham and the sun came out so I no longer needed the wipers or heating on and I switched the lights down to side lights. I also gave up on the cruise control as it was giving very bad mpg so I switched back to manual control and used my eco driving technique. The wind had also died down and for about 20 miles her mpg was now showing a consistent/steady 66mpg
However I still haven't ordered my wind deflectors and I'd lit up a cigarette only to find that the bright hot embers fanned by the gale blowing through the slightly open window were blowing all over me and the inside of the car EEK. For fear of ruining my new upholestory I had to give up on the ide of a *** until I reached work so by then I was not in the best of moods. I fitted wind deflectors to the pickup truck the day we got it home. I will be ordering some for Dafny tomorrow!
I then blasted along the A42/M42 and got to work with the average mpg showing a rather dismal 46mpg and once parked up managed to smoke half a pack of ****. At this point I was seriously considering returning Dafny and asking for my truck back
However when I left work the sun was out (albiet with the odd bit of light rain) and Dafny felt completely different. Without the deep standing water and high winds she was more composed and on the return journey she was consistently showing 50-55mpg, was much quieter and with no strong winds I was even able to smoke a few **** on the way back too. I maintained a steady 56-60mph for most of the return journey and as I drew closer to home after over 200 miles of driving I was starting to find her sweet spot for both economy and torque. Driving up steep inclines on the M1 in 5th while reading 50+mpg brought a smile to my face and I once back on the M180 I treated myself to a quick 20 mile blast at 70mph. This engine comes into life at 2500-3500rpm and is a little rocket ship.
So Dafny is slightly less comfortable than my pickup, requires far more input to keep in a straight line and is noisier than the pickup too HOWEVER she is getting nearly double the fuel economy in like for like conditions while also having stunning performance available for some fun when mpg is not so crtitcal. Torque is simply amazing for such a small petrol engine and to be able to pull up long inclines in 6th and actually accelerate in 6th uphill is very impressive. I still miss my pickup badly but I'm sure that after a few more months I'll have got used to Dafnys little foibles and I'll be better of financially and have peace of mind that I'm not driving a vehicle that could fall apart at any moment like my 260K mile pickup truck.
Oh and just to show off, this is her trip display when I got home, still showing a 1/4 tank left and has averaged 51mpg despite horrific weather conditions, 40 miles of traffic jams and urban driving, a further 40 miles of country roads and a few short local trips to the shops on top of the commute to work. In better weather it looks like she'll get about 500 miles from a tank
![Speedometer Gauge Odometer Car Trip computer]()
Sorry for the stupidly long post.
Ian
Today I did my first long motorway journey in Dafny (my 1.4T LE). The journey was a 250 mile round trip to my head office. I have done this trip twice a week for 12 years and for 10 of those years I've been driving this Mazda 2.5TDi pickup truck:
After 260K miles the Mazda (named Thomas by my children) was starting to require very expensive repairs and fuel economy had dropped from a regular 35-40mpg on the commute to a rather dismal 30mpg. We spent £1500 last year to get him through the MOT and he would have needed a similar amount this year. The annual fuel bill was an eye watering £5000. Despite being loan free for the last 7 years he was still costing a fortune and was becoming unreliable. His insurance was £500 a year and VED was £230 a year.
So my wife and I decided to replace him with a more economical new car but only had a budget of £15K and against all logic instead of buying a large second hand saloon car such as BMW 5 series I opted for a brand new Corsa!
The LE is a gorgeous looking car, is quite big for its class and even in petrol form promised great economy. I worked out that at 45mpg we could afford to buy and run the 1.4T LE for the same as it was costing is to run the loan free pickup truck - as long as it got 45mpg+ we'd be fine.........
Since I collected Dafny on Friday she has averaged 50mpg and her performance around town and on rural roads was fantastic so all was looking good with my decision to downsize.
So this morning I set off at 4:30am, with air temps at just 2.5c. I got to the next village and was driving along at my normal speed of 30mph which I've done in my rear wheel drive pickup truck with no traction control a zillion times before in icy conditions with no issue only to find that on going around a bend Dafny slid across the road with absolutely no traction at all. EEK! Thankfully she stopped short of the kerb on the other side. Not the start to my journey I'd hoped for. It seems these low rolling restistance tyres are useless compared to the heavily siped winter tyres I run on my pickup all winter and I'd stupidly forgotten to take this into account.
I finally got onto the M180 motorway and hit a gale force headwind and heavy rain. The mpg gauge was showing just 33mpg as I tried to drive along at a steady 56mph all the while fighting the steering because she simply would not remain in a straight line, in part due to the ruts made by the HGV's and in part due to her very short wheelbase and large tyres making her inherently nervous compared to the rock solid stability afforded by the much longer wheelbase pickup truck which will drive for hundreds of miles with barely a touch needed on the steering. The pickup truck also has wider spaced wheels which means the truck doesn't have any issues with lorry ruts. I endured 40 miles of headwind and the fuel gauge refused to improve on 33mpg. This was no better than my 1.8 ton pickup truck and at this point I thought I'd made a really big mistake with my downsizing.
I finally turned south onto the M18 and got out of the headwind and straight away the fuel computer increased to 47mpg! The M18 has recently been resurfaced and Dafny sat beautifully on the new tarmac although tyre noise (wide 215 tyres remember!) was causing more interior noise at 60mph than my diesel pickup. It was still heavy rain so the wipers and heater were still on along with the lights as it was still pitch black. All these electrical items crucify mpg as I know from many previous trips.
I then got onto the M1 southbound in the 50mph specs controlled roadworks and I decided to try the cruise control. It worked perfectly and was a breeze to adjust the speed up or down slightly at the flick of the toggle button. However I noticed the mpg drop slightly which I thought was odd. Anyway I got down to Nottingham and the sun came out so I no longer needed the wipers or heating on and I switched the lights down to side lights. I also gave up on the cruise control as it was giving very bad mpg so I switched back to manual control and used my eco driving technique. The wind had also died down and for about 20 miles her mpg was now showing a consistent/steady 66mpg
However I still haven't ordered my wind deflectors and I'd lit up a cigarette only to find that the bright hot embers fanned by the gale blowing through the slightly open window were blowing all over me and the inside of the car EEK. For fear of ruining my new upholestory I had to give up on the ide of a *** until I reached work so by then I was not in the best of moods. I fitted wind deflectors to the pickup truck the day we got it home. I will be ordering some for Dafny tomorrow!
I then blasted along the A42/M42 and got to work with the average mpg showing a rather dismal 46mpg and once parked up managed to smoke half a pack of ****. At this point I was seriously considering returning Dafny and asking for my truck back
However when I left work the sun was out (albiet with the odd bit of light rain) and Dafny felt completely different. Without the deep standing water and high winds she was more composed and on the return journey she was consistently showing 50-55mpg, was much quieter and with no strong winds I was even able to smoke a few **** on the way back too. I maintained a steady 56-60mph for most of the return journey and as I drew closer to home after over 200 miles of driving I was starting to find her sweet spot for both economy and torque. Driving up steep inclines on the M1 in 5th while reading 50+mpg brought a smile to my face and I once back on the M180 I treated myself to a quick 20 mile blast at 70mph. This engine comes into life at 2500-3500rpm and is a little rocket ship.
So Dafny is slightly less comfortable than my pickup, requires far more input to keep in a straight line and is noisier than the pickup too HOWEVER she is getting nearly double the fuel economy in like for like conditions while also having stunning performance available for some fun when mpg is not so crtitcal. Torque is simply amazing for such a small petrol engine and to be able to pull up long inclines in 6th and actually accelerate in 6th uphill is very impressive. I still miss my pickup badly but I'm sure that after a few more months I'll have got used to Dafnys little foibles and I'll be better of financially and have peace of mind that I'm not driving a vehicle that could fall apart at any moment like my 260K mile pickup truck.
Oh and just to show off, this is her trip display when I got home, still showing a 1/4 tank left and has averaged 51mpg despite horrific weather conditions, 40 miles of traffic jams and urban driving, a further 40 miles of country roads and a few short local trips to the shops on top of the commute to work. In better weather it looks like she'll get about 500 miles from a tank
Sorry for the stupidly long post.
Ian
