1.2 TSI Economy?

[naddan28]

I picked up my new 5 door Ibiza 1.2 TSI sport (manual box) the saturday before last brand new from my local dealership. So far the car has been great, seems nice and quick (still running it in so driving like a nun) but I have noticed that I've been getting pretty poor mpg.

Over the last two weeks I have been driving to work and back over about 9 miles each way. The route is a mix of dual carriageway and normal urban roads, and I probably average around 15mph over the whole route as there is two spots of stop/start traffic.

Over the last couple of weeks my average mpg has been around the 36mpg mark which I thought was pretty poor when compared to a stated urban figure of 45 and a combined cycle of 55mpg as per seat's marketing material.

After having a chat with my boss who owns a golf 1.4tsi (similar engine as I understand to the Ibiza) he reckons he gets around 45-47mpg on average, meaning the brochure figures of 55mpg should be realistically achievable and making me think something is perhaps wrong with my new car?

So essentially I am wondering whether something is wrong with the car, the brochure figures are way off (seems unlikely) or the mpg is just poor as the car is being run in and will improve dramatically over the next few hundred miles?

Any advice from 1.2 TSI owners would be great, especially those who picked their cars up from brand new!

 

[DannyDizzle]

I havent got the 1.2 but I have had the 1.6 tdi and now a cupra, I have never ever hit the combined figure driving like a nun or normal! Lol cupra is the closest I got with 42 mpg where combined is 44. Could be the engine running in but I never saw any change from day one with both, had the cupra a month and had the 1.6 tdi a year. Hopefully will improve for you though!

 

[gh2]

I've never managed to get anywhere near the stated figures! I can get about 340 miles from a tank full.

 

[altinnovation]

Are those 340 miles a lot or little?

 

[Byers080]

i've got a n/a 1.4, stated tank range is 450 miles with 47.1 combined mpg. I've only got 400 miles from a tank twice, and that was sat on the motorway for 3 hours straight each way. normally get 350-380 miles from a tank, with an average of 44mpg.

Seeing as its brand new, wait until you've got a good few thousand miles, see whats its like after 5000. Thats what i would do anyway...

 

[VRSLOZ]

i've got a n/a 1.4, stated tank range is 450 miles with 47.1 combined mpg. I've only got 400 miles from a tank twice, and that was sat on the motorway for 3 hours straight each way. normally get 350-380 miles from a tank, with an average of 44mpg.

Seeing as its brand new, wait until you've got a good few thousand miles, see whats its like after 5000. Thats what i would do anyway...

Totally agree with Byers, my 1.4 has never made the book figure. Wait until it's broken in a bit more and should be seeing better results

 

[TTX]

My 1.2TSI manual normally does between 50-55 on the daily commute, 10 miles each way of town and undulating country A-roads. My personal best so far is 56.7!

 

[naddan28]

Did you find it took a while to run in or was it doing that from day one? How many miles are on the clock? I'm going to visit family this weekend so a good 180 mile motorway roundtrip, hopefully I might something a bit nearer 55!

 

[TTX]

It took a couple of weeks but I think that was just me getting used to driving it. Got just over 1800 miles on the clock now.

 

[gh2]

Ok, so this tells me I don't drive carefully enough!

Over the last couple of days I've been driving with the average MPG displayed on the computer and I've managed to get in to the high 40s with a 20 mile and 40 mile round trip on single carriageway roads.

I guess I'll have to learn to be lighter with my right foot!

 

[naddan28]

Managed to get 49 today on a roads and a combined total of 42 on a motorway cruise home, about 450 miles on the clock now. Seems to be picking up but I noticed if you just touch the accelerator it plummets into the 25s range. I guess the turbo is fuel hungary!

 

[NetworkMan]

Hi naddan28,

I think what you are seeing may well be the effect of the stratified injection. By directly injecting fuel into the cylinder it's possible to run with a very weak mixture so long as you are on light throttle, not needing much power. If you step on the gas you are asking for more power and the mixture gets much richer. No doubt the turbo has an effect too.

 

[naddan28]

Fair enough but in town during stop start traffic on doing more than 70mph it's pretty hard to stay off the throttle. My partner just drove into town and came back with 28mpg which is absolutely appalling.

 

[silveralex]

Speaking as a 1.2 tsi sport owner, i can say i'm pretty happy with the fuel economy so far. I've done just over 800 miles now and its getting better every week. When i first got it (early jan) my work commute (12-15 miles each way, mixed roads) was giving me 44mpg, now its at least 55mpg everytime.

I have always been a seriously fuel economic driver, so it comes as no suprise that i'm achieving the stated mpg figures. My last car was a golf gti and the stated mpg was 36- i averaged 41 over the life of the car! I'm hoping to be averaging 60+ soon in the ibiza.

As they say- its not what you got, its how you drive it.

 

[NetworkMan]

silveralex,

"As they say- its not what you got, its how you drive it."

I couldn't agree more. My present car is a Honda Civic 1.4 which claims 44.1 mpg and I have recorded all the petrol I've ever put in and all the miles I've driven. Average mpg is 43.5. It will be interesting to see how close to the 55 claimed mpg I can get.

I hear today that they have the car in but I'll now wait 'till March so as to get it with 11 reg. It's a 5 door SE in Emocion Red with winter pack and Tom-Tom pre-install. Ordered just before Christmas so I get the 17.5% off even though I do have to pay the extra VAT. ...If that makes sense...

 

[rji]

naddan28, We haven't got a TSI but we have got a 1.6 TDi ST with shocking fuel economy.

Previous cars have always delivered close to the official combined cycle mpg but with very careful driving we can't even get close to the urban cycle in the TDi. We calculate the actual mpg. Some trip computers appear to be accurate but ours displays much too high a figure. We have always recorded fuel and mileages.

After about 1,500 miles the mpg had increased by about 4mpg. It now has 3,300 and it has not increased any more. It's got the worst fuel consumption of any diesel car we've ever owned and it should be almost 20mpg better according to the official figures.

I thought that low mpg from "tight" new engines only applied to diesels. Does it apply to petrol engines also? We've had two new common rail diesels before (Volvo and Kia) and they got good mileage from day one and only increased very slightly over time.

We have an ongoing dispute with the dealers and Seat customer care. The official figures for the 1.6 TDi are 52.3, 78.5 and 65.7. So when the Seat Technical Unit said that our best possible mpg of 41 was "not too concerning" it leaves us very little hope. We have also complained to Seat Finance but so far they've only sent an acknowledgement.

 

[Octane2097]

Sorry to jump in... but i want to say I got 320 miles from 48quid @ 1.359a liter gave me 7.7 gallons so lookin at roughtly 41mpg
Thats on the 1.4tsi and is a mix of motorway and city driving and not driving eco ether. its only 3mpg off the stated combined figgure. Admitadly its a diffrent engine but still i cant say the fuel economy is that bad.

Sent via Tapatalk

 

[NetworkMan]

rji,

Your figure of 41 sounds bad. Are you doing a reasonable of motorway miles I wonder? If not it's possible that the DPF isn't having the trapped carbon particles burnt off in the most efficient manner. This can be happening even without the DPF light coming on. Honest-John has a good article on this topic but I'm not allowed to post the link.

About halfway down there's a piece from Volkswagen about what happens.

I don't do enough miles do make a diesel really worthwhile but the above was enough to put me right off!

If you don't think the DPF is the problem then I'd pursue the matter further. If you can show you did much better with other diesels then I'd have thought you had a good case. That's one reason why I always record all fuel bought and miles traveled.

 

[Frudo]

Ive exactly the same problem as rji, poor mpg on my1.6tdi, have only managed 44mpg over the year. Now 6720 miles on the clock. The last 3 tank fulls 35, 38,39 mpg. Only managed ave 51 on a motorway 120 mile round trip 60-70 mph. I have also thought the dpf may be a cause, it was coming on at least once a month but recently havent seen it for almost 1000 miles. Cars been in and checked no problems found.Anyway back to the 1.2tsi thread, the dealer has offered me a few days trail in the 1.2tsi to see how I get on with it, may be an option to get rid of the tdi, but am I jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. I just wish the tdi would do what it says on the tin!

 

[NetworkMan]

Hi Frudo,

If you can find that article I mentioned you may find it some help. Google for "honest john dpf" and you'll find it under the heading "DIESEL PARTICULATE FILTERS." If you do enough motorway miles everything is OK. If not, then when the filter gets to 45% clogged the engine burns extra diesel fuel to raise the exhaust gas temperature enough for the carbon particles in the filter to be converted to ash. The important point is that this can be happening without the DPF light even coming on which only happens if the above strategy fails and the clogging gets worse.

If you can try a 1.2 TSI for a few days there should be enough time to fill up with petrol and drive a few hundred miles before filling up the tank again and calculating the mpg. I wouldn't trust the trip computer to get it right.

My guess is that the 1.2 TSI is very sensitive to driving style which would explain the very different results people in this forum are getting.