407 sw 136hp fuel consumption

Dear All

Any consensus on what I might expect? I was a bit alarmed by the
average of what I saw the test vehicle was doing - mid 30s mpg.

I was hoping for at least 40mpg average.

Thanks

m

 

You can expect to get whatever your driving style multiplied by your journey
types, results in.

If you drive like an old lady, you'll see 40mpg. If you drive like an old
lady on the motorway, you might see nearer 50mpg. If you drive it like you
stole it, you might see 30mpg. If you drive it like you stole it on the
motorway, you might see 40mpg.

See ? The figures are totally meaningless. Suffice to say that modern
engines of similar power outputs, all offer very similar efficiency - you
would gain nothing in economy by choosing a different car (of the same power
and class, obviously).

 

My wife's Merc C220 CDI averages 41mpg combined mileage - roughly 60%
motorway and 40% Town & Country roads.

I would hope for something equivalent or better - perhaps people taking
the demonstrator for spins around the block do not reflect average
driving conditions.

What I really want a 407 SW or Saloon 136 HDi owner to confirm is that
the fuel consumption in the real world is not massively below what
Peugeot state.

 

If my 307 HDi (and 306 before that) is anything to go by, it will be.
The 307 has an average of less than 40mpg on a mix of urban and
motorway; the 306 HDi had an average of 44mpg on urban/m-way/rural. A
far cry from the combined figure of around 54mpg.

 

The problem is that a demonstration run isn't, as you have suspected,
typical. People will try out the cars acceleration so you'll get lower
figures. I think you'll find that you can achieve Peugeot's figures but
probably only under fairly specialised circumstances. I had a Daewoo Nexia
briefly. I couldn't get anywhere near the official figures initially and I'm
not a boy racer. I had to radically modify my driving style from the BX
diesel style (stick it in top and leave it there) to a much higher reving
style to put the engine into its best consumption/power point.

 

In message <>

OK, I have done around 3000 miles in my 136 Hdi 407 saloon now. Eveny
tank seems to get better than the previous one.

When I first had the car i too was disappointed with the fuel
consumption (but not with anything else about the car). However, a
couple of weeks ago I managed a 52mpg average on a journey from the
oustskirts of Leicester to the outskirts of Peterborough, a distance
of nearly 40 miles along mostly single carriageway A road (it is
mostly downhill though). Having driven around Peterborough a bit, then
made the reuturn journey including driving thought Leicester with its
plague of traffic lights, I still ended up with 44mpg over 100 miles.

On that road there are, I think, five roundabouts, a village with a 40
limit and a couple of 50s, and I was able to drive at a steady 60 most
of the way, but did touch 80 a cuple of times when overtaking.

I had a bad weekend a week ago then..I made a succession of journeys
of less than a mile, in blazing heat with the climate control on full
cooling and around traffic light infested Leicester. I don't think I
even got 30mpg! The 407 is not a town car!

But as always it depends on how you drive it. Keep the revs below
2000 (not difficult - this is 70mph in 6th) and you will get good
economy. Keep flooring the throttle and braking and it will drink
diesel.

I find this car has done wonders for my anticipation though. In 6th
gear you can lift of the throttle long before you need to stop, say
half a mile before a roundabout for example and still arrive there
with most of you speed. And you have used no fuel for half a mile.
It was driving like that that got me 52mpg!

I also found that it is thirsty at high speed on motorways, ie 90 to
100, but it seems to be getting better at that as the engine frees
off.

Martin

 

All fuel consumption figures are massively below what the manufacturers
state ! They test them under optimal conditions, for obvious reasons.
Unless you drive like a nun, and never go up hills, and always sit in the
optimum gears at all times, and never drive into the wind, then you can't
expect to get close to their figures.

Forget about miles per gallon - it's a constant between classes these days.
If you chose a 136bhp Diesel Mondeo instead, you should expect very similar
economy to that which the 407 offers. The actual figure, isn't relevent.

 

Thanks Martin

Living in Devon I expect to encounter a few hills but I am reassured by
what you say.

M

 

In message <>

Economy is one of the main reasons for the popularity of diesels, and
if you buy one of course you are interested! When I first had the 407
it almost became an obsession.

Things that hit fuel consumption are hard acceleration, warming up the
engine from cold, sitting in jams, and perhaps high speed driving (90
mph plus). Probably worse if you combine warming up the engine with
cooling the interior with the aircon.

But all cars are not the same. My experience with the 407 is very
different from that of a friend with a diesel Passat. The Passat seems
to be a lot less sensitive to driving style than the 407 for one
thing.

The 407 is a heavy car, at its best when driving at a constant speed.
It is also very aerodynamic, and in 6th gear there is very little
engine braking. It is not uncommon to be able to drive for half a
mile or so with your feet off the pedals on even a slight downslope,
without losing much if any speed. It takes a bit of getting used to,
but my fuel consumtion now is fairly similar to my old 1.9 TD 306,
despite the 407 being a much bigger car. But it needs a very
different driving style to the 306 to achieve that

Part of my improvment in fuel consumption I am sure is due to my
learning how to drive it. For example, you need to learn to use a six
speed gearbox. But the 407's 6th gear is very usable, above 50mph,
and I even manage to overtake on single carriageway roads without
changing down, I guess the overboost helps. There is plenty of
accceleration there when you need it, but if you use it too often it
will cost.

Going to work and back today, covering 45 miles I averaged 44mpg.
This is a bit better than I usually get, since I used a route on good
single carriageway roads rather than my usual route on the M1. I
usually get low 40s on the M1 journey, probably because I tend to
cruise at 80 - 90 mph on the motorway where I can, rather than 60 as
on the single carriageway.

But overall I am very pleased with the car. I am not comvinced I
would have preferred any of the alternatives I looked at. Even if
Jeremy Clarkson did say of it "it will probably fall to peices in a
coule of years and after all, who wants a car made by people who eat
onions". Perhaps he should drive one!

Martin

 

Thanks for this Martin. I'm getting a 407 SW 136 HDi with a 4 speed
Auto Box and Cruise. This is basically the equivalent of what the
missus has, except her 52reg Merc C220CDI chucks out a few more horse
power. The Benz has a good trip computer and logs an average of 41mpg
over the long term and has varied from 35mpg to 60mpg for individual
trips. When she drives it the consumption is very good as she potters
along - my lifestyle and diary can demand more speed

 

In message <>

Very nice! I thought about the SW. Don't know about the auto box,
but I'm sure it's fine. I think cruise might be a good idea, if I was
choosing my car again I think I would go for it. My main requirement
is to transport 4 big blokes to work, 20 miles away, 30 if i pick them
all up from home) and back as part of a car sharing scheme. I have a
motor caravan that is useful for carting anything big, so I went for
the saloon.

My car is the Hdi 136 SE Luxury Pack. The leather seats are nice, but
I think the reversing sensor is essential, and I would suggest you go
for it if you haven't already. You simply can't see the back (or
front) of the car from the driving seat (but don't know if this is
true of the SW). I can take or leave electrically adjustable seats
(Peugeot's idea of "electric seats" is subtly different from Ford's -
and also come to think of it of the US Prison service). but they came
with the package.

Another thing I might have found useful but haven't got is the
"memory" function that can memorise driving seat, steering wheel and
mirror positions for two different drivers. Since my wife sometimes
drives the car (although she has her own as well) it would save a bit
of fiddling around.

Martin

 

The SW is an SE Lux Pack which I'm buying as a pre-reg with 3700 miles
on the clock. Therefore the bells and whistles are pre-ordained. I
understand that cruise is now standard across the range, but appears to
have been included with all autos. It does have reversing aids (which I
have noticed encourages false confidence and accompanying scrapes in
other cars) but which should help the wife in the local Waitrose car
park.

Interestingly, the dealership in Leicestershire is charging just £50
to deliver to Devon on a low loader - don't think I could have
travelled up and driven it back for less!

 

In message <>

Funnily enough I live in Leicestershire and bought my 407 SE Lux Pack
from Yorkshire through a broker! I tried two local dealers and none
could match the price.

Martin

 

In message <4.ntlword.com>

And to get back to the original topic (and reply to my own post),
today I did a bit of an experiment, clocking the fuel consumtion of my
407 HDI 136 through the roadworks at J21 on the M1, which has a 40mph
speed limit enforced by SPECS (speed averaging) cameras. I chugged
along at about 1200 RPM in 6th gear a steady 40mph,

When I pressed the button to check the fuel consumption over the
distance I nearly fell out of the car. Over 72 MPG! Now that is
impressive! I think it might have impressed my (petrol powered Passat
driving) passenger too!

Martin

 

It turns out I have been missold by Research Garage in Hinckley - the
Car they described as an SE (Luxury) on the Peugeot website and in
their leaflet is in fact a plain SE with one or two extra like reverse
aids - the Sales Director of Research gave a good impression of Bill
Clinton wriggling about sex with Lewinsky as to why he had used the
'Luxury' in the car's spec level description.

Caveat Emptor I guess - I should have driven from Devon to Leics to
check it out before buying. So now I'm taking it to the local Peugeot
dealership to have the fuel consumption checked out as its returning
30mpg on average on trips that I would get 40mpg + in the wife's Merc.

If anyone's interested I may market the car for £15,700 if Peugeot in
Launceston can't produce a substantial improvement.

Funnily enough I met someone with a 307SW HDi who is similarly
disappointed with the fuel consumption he is getting and is disposing
of the car.

 

I find this thread absolutely amazing

Let's say you're paying 90p per litre for your fuel at the moment, so £4.10
a gallon.

10,000 miles @ 40mpg = 250 gallons = £1025

10,000 miles @ 30mpg = 333 gallons = £1366

The difference between 40mpg and 30mpg is absolutely *nothing*, when
compared with your tax/servicing/MOT/insurance/depreciation costs ! Let's
say they work out at somewhere around £3000 a year (£500 tax and insurance,
£2000 depreciation, a few hundred quid servicing), because you're choosing
to run a brand new car. The £341 difference in fuel costs, is such a small
proportion (somewhere around 10% of the total yearly including-fuel costs),
that it may as well not exist.

He's changing his car for the sake of £341 a year !!!! Does he realise how
much depreciation is costing him ? If yearly costs are such an important
issue, then he must be an absolute mentallist to run a new car !!!!

Forget about fuel consumption. If you want to lower your running costs, the
first place to look is at the depreciation. It's by *far* the biggest
expense.

 

In message <>

I should hang on a bit if I were you. When I bought my 407 SE 136 Lux
Pack earlier this year i felt the same way, disappointed with the fuel
consumption. At the time I though I may have made a mistake, but I am
now quite happy with the fuel consumption. Having now done 4000
miles it is much better, I look like achieivng my first 600 miles from
a tank of fuel before my next fill up.

Every tank of fuel does a bit better than the last one. Part of this
is learning how to drive the car, but I also think the engine is
getting more frugal as it runs in.

Last week, I drove for a few miles at a steady 40mph in 6th gear
through the speed limited roadworks on the motorway and achieved over
72 mpg on the trip computer. I regularly achive around 44mpg on
journeys now, (mixed motorway and trunk road) and it is still
improving.

But part of it is driving style. If you lift off the throttle in 6th
gear on even a slight downslope, you don't lose speed. Meanwhile you
are not using any fuel. Also, it you accelerate hard, the car will go
well but will drink fuel, so reserve the use of hard acceleration for
times when you really need it.

Also, try to avoid braking as much as possible. Doing so will not
only save fuel, but improve your anticipation (and hence driving
skills) too. Smooth driving will lead to better fuel consumption. At
all times use the highest gear you can. The engine will pull from
1000rpm if necessary (but usually I won't change into 6th until around
50mph. it pulls better above 1500rpm).

The car seems most efficient at low revs in 6th. I already mentioned
72mpg at a steady 40, at about 55 in sixth I still get over 50mpg.
But this falls rapidly as speed increases, at 70mph probably about
45mpg and less at higher speeds.

I have found that to get the best fuel consumption I have had to adapt
my driving style, I think for the better. The 407 seems more
sensitive to how you drive it than many other cars, perhaps because it
is a heavy car.

It is not a city car though, and it finds stop start driving thirsty
work. But even then, smooth driving will help.

The SE luxury is an SE with reversing sensot and half leather
electically adjustable seats. BTW you can get a new one for around
15,700 UKP if you shop around. Mine was less than 16K new with
metallic paint!

Oh, and BTW somebodty drove a 407 136 HDi across Australia the other
week at an average of 73mpg. But I think they had the aircon turned
off!


Martin

 

Agreed, which is why fuel consumption is the straw that breaks the
camels back. Compare the Peugeot with, say, a Volkswagen Golf Mk5 and
the numbers look bleak.

BTW I could do a lot of things with £341 - don't know about you!!

 

In message <>

The VW pumpe duse engine is known to be a bit more efficient than the
HDi. but the HDi is still pretty good if you drive it sensibly.

Compared to a diesel Passat the 407 HDi is much more sensitive to
driving style. With the VW, (and with my old 306 XUD) it seems to
make little difference. With the 407, it seems to be everything.

Yet if you take the trouble to learn to get the best out of the 407, i
think you will find that it makes you a better driver.

BTW, I was so impressed with the England cricket team's score against
the Aussies ysterday, that their run total is written all over my car!

Martin