Best MPG runs?

[Secret Green Sauce]

I love taking my LS430 on long trips. Spain and Scotland both ticked off this year.  I was particulalry proud of this recent run up to to the highlands from London, managed to creep over 500 miles on one tank and average 31.2mpg for the whole journey up there.  Used lot's of cruise control, but had a heavy right foot accelerating up to motorway speeds, and plenty of overtaking on the way so wasn't trying to hypermile it.

There were still 5 litres left in the tank when I filled up in Glencoe so she could have gone even further 🙂

What's your best run?

[Stanwithaplan]

I got 30.2 mpg on a trip from Kent to Whitby a few weeks ago in my 400. Just driving normally, I was delighted. 

[John N]

In a Manchester traffic school run I scored 16 mpg today! 

[BigBoomer]

On a long run my best has been a smidge over 30Mpg, but I was cruising at 130Kph/81Mph.
My worst over a full tank was 18Mpg and was due to 3 days of hell commuting on the M25 Carpark via the Dartford Crossing.
Thank FSM that I don't have to do that commute any more!! 

[Scribe]

I once got 40 mpg between Brighton and the Dartford Tunnel, but that was driving gently, just to see if it was possible.  I didn't do more than 60 mph, not that that was always possible on the M25 anyway.  Normally on a long run I get about 34 mpg.

[Malc1]

at my age and time of life I've decided not to worry anymore about mpg .....  I just drive as gently .  or as hard as the traffic, area and mood takes me and fill up with E5 as least often as I can to keep me mobile ............  for me now, life's tooooooo short ahead to worry about those £££££££s and my driving probably the best cars ever for mere mortals with not much £££ to waste on cars and their depreciation ........  but always fully and properly serviced and MOT'd and as safe as the cars can ever be on our dreadful roads 

MPG used to be max 30 when coasting and fully laden and down to late teens mpg when in 'orrible traffic whatever .......... I don't think much has changed tbh 🤞

Malc

[GMB]

To actually drive the car at a moderate speed i.e. between 2000 and 4000 rpm you would be in licence losing territory 2000rpm is about 72+ mph and 4000 is about 140/150 mph in 8th  on the speedo ( If I remember well ). So I think most big engined cars never reach the right speed to clear carbon and get the oil reaching those important bits . What I am clumsily trying to say is that most big engines are run too slow for their own good, but we are restricted from driving them properly - fines, bans and expensive fuel costs.

I try to give the car a bit of a burst now and again, for the car's benefit of course, but very rarely get over 4000 rpm , at full throttle not kickdown,  as the thing is going way to fast for Plod to appreciate.   Just FYI 3800 rpm is when the ISF goes into bonkers mode.

As a postscript; I think Hybrids turning the engine on and off must bad for the mechanicals with all that cold starting and stop/start stuff.   Just Malcs post got me thinking- I thought I could smell something burning?

[BigBoomer]

All you need to do is occasionally BOOT IT and let her redline in 1st and 2nd.
Either that or else override the auto and leave her in 2nd to keep the revs up.
Besides doing the engine a favour,.... it's FUN! 

[Spock66]

15 hours ago, GMB said:

As a postscript; I think Hybrids turning the engine on and off must bad for the mechanicals with all that cold starting and stop/start stuff.

Yes, seems entirely logical and all the additional complexity of having both an ICE and Electric Motors, but the reliability surveys say otherwise with Lexus Hybrids coming out as some of the most reliable vehicles on the market.

[donkmeister]

Recently did a jaunt over to the continent in the LS460 and returned around 28MPG over 4-500 miles of very mixed driving. I was mostly cruising at a GPS 130-135kph on the autoroute but made much better progress for nearly an hour after finding my "speed camera Sherpa", a kind Frenchman in an RX450 whose sense of national pride meant that he would rather up his speed to 100mph than be overtaken by a Brit. 🤣

I find one probably every second trip; you pass them, they overtake you back, then you can gently coax them up to a decent cruising speed.

Just make sure to slow when they do (or if you see a flash)... I learned that one years back, and was very glad never to receive a souvenir photo.

[Malc1]

ok I have now done this fine tuning of my latest mpg in the 101k miles  91 J reg   Ls400  .....  374  miles on 84.69 ltrs =  20.09 mpg   ............  and that's on all sorts of driving speeds on all my local roads, from country lanes to short motorway stretches and over maybe the past month or so 

the petrol tank is said to hold 85.1 ltrs and I did stop off to pop in exactly 10 ltrs as an interim during that time recently as the orange light popped on .....  that's always a little fearsome just in case one runs dry ......  my local'ish Tesco for E5 is now at 135.9p ltr  ........  and when I fill up there it's never out of my way so's not to waste fuel getting there 😇

 

Malc

[donkmeister]

If you live near a Costco with a petrol station, it's definitely worth investigating a membership. I think I pay about £30 a year for a basic membership but petrol is a good 5p/l cheaper (maybe 10p for the E5 the 460 needs) and a set of premium tyres is a good £200 or so cheaper than even the online places (may vary depending on what cars you have, but I don't seem to be capable of buying anything with a common size). So, it more than pays for itself before you even set foot inside the shop to buy a bushel of crisps, a pallet of cheese or a metric tonne of sausages (seriously, some of their package sizes make no sense unless you are a caterer or have a warehouse-sized pantry!)

[Malc1]

I live a loooooong way from my local Costco ……. M2. M25  Dartford Xng ……. then arrive at  Costco so I’m told ……. then back ……. a few ltrs for sure 😰

Malc 

[BigBoomer]

21 hours ago, Malc1 said:

I live a loooooong way from my local Costco ……. M2. M25  Dartford Xng ……. then arrive at  Costco so I’m told ……. then back ……. a few ltrs for sure 😰

Malc 

Ahh yes, the joys of the Dartford Carpark. I just looked and at 10am Monday morning (21 Oct 2024) it is completely finagled up. Only the left tunnel is open due to a hydraulic fluid leakage last night. So your 38 miles drive to Costco would currently take 2+  hours and probably cost you a small fortune in petrol. 

The M25 clockwise is also closed between J5 (Sevenoaks) and J6 (Caterham) because of a truck fire last night (resurfacing). I only mention that as it would have been my morning commute if I wasn't working from home and I would probably still be stuck in the car trying to get to the office,.... or more likely by now I would have given up and gone home, only to get stuck in the queues for the Dartford mess.

Yet, despite this being a common occurrence (the Dartford area becoming a carpark), the incompetents in power (of all political parties over the years) have once again decided to postpone the decision on whether or not to build the Lower Thames Crossing. So, it was first proposed in 1989 and yet here we are in 2024, 35 years later and £800million spent on various consultancies, surveys, and other expenses,.... and we STILL don't know if it will ever get built.

[Malc1]

1 hour ago, BigBoomer said:

Ahh yes, the joys of the Dartford Carpark. I just looked and at 10am Monday morning (21 Oct 2024) it is completely finagled up. Only the left tunnel is open due to a hydraulic fluid leakage last night. So your 38 miles drive to Costco would currently take 2+  hours and probably cost you a small fortune in petrol. 

The M25 clockwise is also closed between J5 (Sevenoaks) and J6 (Caterham) because of a truck fire last night (resurfacing). I only mention that as it would have been my morning commute if I wasn't working from home and I would probably still be stuck in the car trying to get to the office,.... or more likely by now I would have given up and gone home, only to get stuck in the queues for the Dartford mess.

Yet, despite this being a common occurrence (the Dartford area becoming a carpark), the incompetents in power (of all political parties over the years) have once again decided to postpone the decision on whether or not to build the Lower Thames Crossing. So, it was first proposed in 1989 and yet here we are in 2024, 35 years later and £800million spent on various consultancies, surveys, and other expenses,.... and we STILL don't know if it will ever get built.

The new crossing would certainly save me lots of ltrs travelling to and fro the Ambassador Cruise terminal at Tilbury …….. would be a 2nd home for me for a while if the new Xng at Hoo could be built 😄🤞👍

Malc 

[Malc1]

On 10/20/2024 at 9:37 AM, Malc1 said:

ok I have now done this fine tuning of my latest mpg in the 101k miles  91 J reg   Ls400  .....  374  miles on 84.69 ltrs =  20.09 mpg   ............  and that's on all sorts of driving speeds on all my local roads, from country lanes to short motorway stretches and over maybe the past month or so 

the petrol tank is said to hold 85.1 ltrs and I did stop off to pop in exactly 10 ltrs as an interim during that time recently as the orange light popped on .....  that's always a little fearsome just in case one runs dry ......  my local'ish Tesco for E5 is now at 135.9p ltr  ........  and when I fill up there it's never out of my way so's not to waste fuel getting there 😇

 

Malc

Today fill-up at this same local  Tesco E5 @ 135.9 ltr my 95 N reg Ls400 on 251k miles ……. done 317.3 assorted driving miles ( as ever ) and returning 21.99 mpg …….. I’m happy with this 😄

Malc