2004 grand vitara 1.6 mpg

[cam12]

I have 3 door 1.6 grand vitara 2004.
Usually I do local mileage only and average 20 mpg. This weekend I drove 250 miles on the motorway at about 70 miles per hour and averaged 28mpg. This is very low compared to other vehicles I've owned in the past. How much mpg are other owners getting?

[SZ5]

I have a 2.4 petrol and average 31.5 mpg. Not sure what it does at constant 70 mph.

[cam12]

I think mine should do more mpg

[SZ5]

Agreed, I'd have thought you should be getting nearer 35 mpg average with a 1.6 petrol. Is it an auto? How enthusiastic a driver are you? I'm rather sedate these days.

So when did you last service it. I change oil regularly, check air filter is clean and when I changed my spark plugs at 60k I noticed I got an extra 2mpg. The other thing I'd check would be tyre pressure and whether the brakes are binding on a bit. You don't mention if you are running big chunky mud tyres as they will knock mpg down a bit.

SZ5

[cam12]

I don't drive calmly. The car has full service history and tyres have correct pressure. I've also recently used obd scanner but didn't show any faults. So I'm bemused with low mpg.

[cam12]

Sorry previous message should have said I do drive calmly

[RickUK]

2 Vitara's have been mentioned a 1.6 and a 2.4,in theory and this is just theory the 1.6 being a smaller engine should use less fuel on the motorway,that is usually wrong as a 2.4 would be revving far less and using less fuel that a 1.6 at the same speed,i bought a Ford Cortina back in the 70s and in the handbook it also quoted that a 2.0ltr Cortina was better overall fuel economy wise than the 1.6 version as it took less engine power once moving to do the same speed.

Basically the same with a Vitara,they have a reasonably big body and about aerodynamic as a flying wardrobe so this is why i guess the 1.6 engine is working so much harder to achieve the same speed on the motorway,if its being pushed harder then it will almost certainly use more fuel.

I have a 2.0 V6 LWB manual,one would think that would have a terrible fuel economy on a motorway at 70mph,but that is not really the case as once you have built up to the speed limited then its a case of one can throttle back and watch the rev counter drop down,but in say a 1.6 LWB Vitara one would be really screwing the conkers off the engine at 70mph hence your fuel consumption would be so much higher than a V6.Just my opinion of course,i can and occasionally do a 'traffic light GP start' and it can get away reasonably quick as well but thats when you can see the fuel gauge move lol.

But for everyday use if you take it easy with the right foot a bigger engine capacity can do better than a smaller engine version.

[cam12]

Thank you for your reply. I also own a 1997 sl320. It has a 3.2 straight 6 engine and on the motorway it has better mpg than the vitara. So you could be correct. I'm hoping to get a response from somebody with the same vehicle then I would get a like for like comparison

[SZ5]

Honest John real mpg https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/realmpg/su ... a-swb-2005 doesn't have the earlier Vitara, but for 2005 SWB with 1.6 petrol people say 31.3 average. I'm going to assume these Vitara's would be a similar weight and the engine was most likely the same?