My 2012 Ford Figo TDCi has done around 29,000km. The car is very well maintained and I follow the recommended service schedule. Right from the beginning, the car’s been giving me a mileage of around 12kpl, whereas my friend’s Figo TDCi, which has done around 73,000km, gives a mileage of around 16kpl in the same driving conditions. I have complained at the authorised service station, but it is of no help. They’d changed the air filter at the 20,000km service. What could be the problem?
Vikas, Surat
AAA You simply cannot compare two different cars driven by two different drivers, even if it is the same make and engine. Mileage is a result of a myriad of factors which include driving style, condition of the engine, the way the engine was run-in when new, brand of fuel/fuel station, tyre pressures, passengers load, AC usage and, of course, the way you measure fuel mileage.
We, at Autocar India, have extremely stringent procedures to test fuel efficiency and hence, know how comparing figures ambiguously in the way you have mentioned can be misleading, even if you assume that conditions (traffic density, weather, maintenance, etc) are similar.
If you really want to be sure of the figures, the only way is to test both cars with the same driver, or test one car with both drivers. Fill up at the same fuel station (to the same level — like the first auto-cut), do a somewhat fixed route around the same time of the day, complete at least 120km and fill up again at the same petrol station to arrive at a more accurate mileage figure.
We are sure that the difference in figures will be considerably smaller once tested in this manner, and it can in turn be attributed to a better driving style and a slightly freer engine (resulting from better running-in during initial periods, in addition to the considerably higher mileage of your friend’s car). Also, ensuring that your fuel injectors/pump is in good shape and not clogged (possible due to usage of bad fuel over a period of time) and using injector cleaning solutions will help.