Miles, schmiles.
Well, Renault have gone down in my estimation as bit. I figured that the (Dacia) Duster should be doing more MPG than it was so I moaned at them a bit. To be fair Renault Maidstone took the car in and checked the "clip" - i.e. they plugged in the ODB tester and found "nothing wrong". A Brownie Point to them for trying.
So, I opened a case with Renault UK to see what they could do. A bloke rang me up to discuss how I should drive a Diesel.
"Don't rev it more than 2,000. Don't put anything in the boot. Don't have any people in it. Throw away the spare tyre...". I lied about the tyre, but you get the idea.
"Listen, my Dad taught me how to drive slow - he was very good at it too. But I'll try what you ask."
I managed to get another 3 mpg out of it. It's a thin line between changing gear and having the engine flame out due to no revs.
He rang me back. Another Brownie point.
"Nope, still a load of old bollocks."
"OK, here's a log book, fill it out for every journey for a week."
We drove around Norfolk for a long weekend and eventually managed to clock 47 mpg on one 30 mile journey by driving around the lanes slowly, even to the point where we were overtaken by a white-haired old lady in a Morris Traveller.
I returned the form. "Thank you for your email". That was a week ago. Since then, nothing, not a sausage.
How hard is it to say "Y'know, the 53 mpg we claim is outrageous. We'll change the advertising."?
Don't hold your breath.
So, I opened a case with Renault UK to see what they could do. A bloke rang me up to discuss how I should drive a Diesel.
"Don't rev it more than 2,000. Don't put anything in the boot. Don't have any people in it. Throw away the spare tyre...". I lied about the tyre, but you get the idea.
"Listen, my Dad taught me how to drive slow - he was very good at it too. But I'll try what you ask."
I managed to get another 3 mpg out of it. It's a thin line between changing gear and having the engine flame out due to no revs.
He rang me back. Another Brownie point.
"Nope, still a load of old bollocks."
"OK, here's a log book, fill it out for every journey for a week."
We drove around Norfolk for a long weekend and eventually managed to clock 47 mpg on one 30 mile journey by driving around the lanes slowly, even to the point where we were overtaken by a white-haired old lady in a Morris Traveller.
I returned the form. "Thank you for your email". That was a week ago. Since then, nothing, not a sausage.
How hard is it to say "Y'know, the 53 mpg we claim is outrageous. We'll change the advertising."?
Don't hold your breath.
Comments