Ask an expert


dfmamea

In January, I bought a second-hand 2016 Triton double cab diesel with just under 50k on the odometer, and brand new tyres all around.

The claimed fuel economy of this vehicle is 7.2l/100kms. I am currently averaging 11.4l/100kms; this is from my own car log rather than the truck's read-out.

Most of my travel is long distance, with a 400km round trip most weeks, outside of rush hour. I'm not a lead-footed kind of driver, and the truck is not laden with equipment.

The truck had a 60k service last month, and the last two fill-ups have registered 9.6l/100kms and 9.4l/100kms — an improvement on previous fill-ups, but a far cry from the claimed economy of 7.2l/100kms.

Any advice on what I can do about this?

Anon

Hi there,
The claimed figure basically can only be used as a comparison between new vehicles as an indication of fuel economy- it is very rarely a figure that is achievable. This is because it is not "real world" tested- but obtained in a controlled laboratory environment. The factors we have here that they don't is vehicle loading- radio lights etc, temperature variance, road surface and driving style. The closer you get, the better but I would not use it as a target that you are able to achieve.