We travelled 243 kms in the new car (293km on the odometer) and filled the tank.. She slurped up 38.65Litres or 15.9l/100km.. Then let out an almighty belch... It has mostly been driven to work and back - Brisbane traffic flows well from our place to the city. One highway trip from home to the Anzac ave turnoff when the weather cleared on Sunday - we are too scared to take it any further for fear of rocks and giant bugs boring holes in the very exposed oil cooler and A/C Condenser. (We are booked in for the grill kit this week.)

The car feels very tight during acceleration and grear change to the point that I feel that the old '6 was faster off the mark than this car.. Hopefully it will losen up soon.. The Finance Director is pleased report that my gear changing is getting better by the day...

 

If you want economy, change up early. It takes quite a while to get used to the way the engine sounds. You don't have the same aural cues as with a normal motor. Certainly take it easy during the first few thousand km, particularly the first thousand. Careful running in is worth the patience and the effort.

After you've run it in properly, you will find that with moderate driving on a trip, <10L/100km is achievable, and ~11 - 11.5L/100km is possible around the city. If you want to push it, expect correspondingly poorer economy.

 

welcome to the club of rotory enjoyment
16-17litres per 100km sounds about right

and dont worri about the rocks theres nothing much you can do about it. it's bound to happen one way or another, maybe some extra grill protection if u really want it but not too much damage will be caused by the stones, it's the paint u got to be worri about as bent oil coolers u wont notice, too black... and the gearing will come natually to u as u drive more

enjoy ur new ride and dont forget to warm up the engine all the time!!!

 

Thanks guys..

Petrol was $1.16/litre too...

But we certainly did not buy the car for its fuel economy! Can't wait until it losens up a bit more!

This is a great group.. I have been reading the posts back to 2003 - saw the original Hymee rock through the oil coller posting, the cross dresser posting and lots of technical stuff on oil, flashing :p, gearshift forks and overseas DVD/NAV sysems.

Cheers

 

I typically get 13.5 L/100km driving 50% city, 50% country. When I take it out for a thrashing on the weekend, I get..... 14 L/100km.

I think the '8 loves to rev, and it doesn't seem to effect the fuel economy much at all. The faster you accelerate, the quicker you get to cruise speed and open loop. The faster you drive, the quicker you get there and the less time the engine is running!

There's also a lot of anecdotal evidence to suggest that the ECU is programmed to run rich when the engine is new, and for it to gradually "lean out" as the engine wears in. This seems to be a gradual process over the first 20000km or so.

 

Surprisingly I'll go 400kms and fill up with 55 litres.... Besides a different fuel, I can't think of why I'm getting decent milage 12.5ltrs/100kms

 

Typical weekly economy when I am mostly inner city (no more than 10-15 km from Brisbane City Centre) is 16-17l/100km for most tanks (based on litres pumped/distance travelled).

I think the bigger problem is that I do a lot of short journeys in nose to tail traffic - a typical morning is: -
Son to Daycare (1.5km)
Daughter to School (+2km)
Office (+4km) or SemiPermanent Customer site (+6km)
It's more the short journey's with a lot of 1st or 2nd gear and long duration to travel the short distance.

As Wildcard says the economy is not dramatically affected by the go pedal - it's more to do with the gearing and duration (time) of the journey.

After some initial alarming figures I tried "babying" the '8 around town. It made bugger all difference and took the enjoyment away.
So whilst I don't red-line it from stop, I don't mind hitting 5K or so whilst crawling work (if nothing else it prevents the 4WD's from pulling-in in front of me).

Motorway cruising in 6th will deliver close to 10 or 11l/100km but I don't do enough of it.

Likewise on the Xmas "cruise" was my second best economy ~12.7l/100km. That involved a considerable amount of high rev 2nd & 3rd gear round twisty bits.

Just enjoy your car.

 

I had a stint of changing at 2500revs for a certain period of time. It didnt seem any better then now when ive changed my style of driving changing at 4000, like wildcard said, get to the speed faster so you can cruise longer.
Its much more fun changing at 4000 too. At 2500 theres just no Ooomph.
Might try changing at 9400 and just cruise it in 6th. :D
Wonder how that would do for economy?

 

My first tank was around 17L/100 (and involved a run from Maroochydore to Brisbane) -- it will drop over time. I have to agree a fair bit with kiwimeat. Most of my runs are short runs (<15 min) and I get 14.5-15L/100 around town. Best figures were on a drive from Brisbane to Yeppoon where much of it was on cruise control, 6th gear at around 3200rpm - 10L/100.

Fuel economy on the Christmas cruise would have been even better if we didn't have that bumper to bumper traffic on the way up towards Caboolture.

 

Ahem - It is not the paint he was worried about, not bent oil cooler fins. It is the bloody holes the stones can (and have) make in the cores. But he is all fixed, and now drives with protection. xxup did do much about it

Cheers,
Hymee.