{"id":9381,"date":"2016-10-24T15:42:50","date_gmt":"2016-10-24T15:42:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/?p=9381"},"modified":"2016-10-24T18:25:24","modified_gmt":"2016-10-24T18:25:24","slug":"mpg-marathon-shows-vans-can-deliver-on-manufacturer-mpg-figures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/archives\/9381","title":{"rendered":"MPG Marathon shows vans can deliver on manufacturer mpg figures"},"content":{"rendered":"

As any commercial driver will point out, fuel\u00a0consumption is directly related to\u00a0load weight. There’s also a looser relationship with aerodynamics, road conditions and of course driving technique.<\/p>\n

Bashing manufacturers’\u00a0official mpg figure\u00a0is a popular hobby among motorist, all the more so since we’ve learned that many manufacturers have been rigging their emissions testing.<\/p>\n

But this year’s\u00a0Fleet World MPG Marathon suggests that in the van sector at least, manufacturers’\u00a0official figures\u00a0do provide a realistic idea of what’s possible in\u00a0moderately favourable conditions.<\/p>\n

\"Fiat

The MPG Marathon 2016-winning Fiat Fiorino with drivers Doug Powell and Tony Waddington.<\/p><\/div>\n

Only five light\u00a0commercial vehicles entered this year’s contest. Here’s how they fared:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Model<\/strong><\/td>\nMPG Marathon mpg<\/strong><\/td>\nManufacturers’ combined cycle mpg<\/strong><\/td>\nDifference<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00a0Citroen Dispatch BlueHDI 95 S (SWB)<\/td>\n\u00a054.76mpg<\/td>\n51.40mpg<\/td>\n+6.5%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00a0Isuzu D-Max Blade Auto Pickup<\/td>\n35.24mpg<\/td>\n33.60mpg<\/td>\n+14.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00a0Fiat Fiorino 1.3 MultiJet SX 80hp<\/strong><\/td>\n\u00a072.08mpg<\/strong><\/td>\n64.20mpg<\/strong><\/td>\n +12.3%<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00a0Ford Transit Custom 330 SWB 125ps (RAC patrol, fully loaded)<\/em><\/strong><\/td>\n\u00a039.84mpg<\/strong><\/td>\n40.90mpg\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n -2.6%<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00a0Vauxhall Vivaro (current model, no details provided)<\/td>\n\u00a046.29mpg<\/td>\n46.30mpg<\/td>\n-0.02%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Source: thempgmarathon.co.uk<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

What’s remarkable about the figures above is how\u00a0close they are to the manufacturer’s official combined cycle figures. In all but one case, there’s\u00a0virtually no difference.<\/p>\n

I’ve highlighted two vans on this list for their outstanding performance. The first is the Fiat Fiorino\u00a0driven\u00a0former fleet manager Doug Powell and co-driver Tony Waddington.\u00a0The Fiorino managed more than 72mpg\u00a0— that’s a 12.3% improvement on Fiat’s official combined cycle figures.<\/p>\n

As the smallest van present, you’d expect the Fiorino to deliver the lowest\u00a0fuel consumption. What’s impressive is that while all of the other vans\u00a0broadly matched their manufacturers’ figures,\u00a0the Fiorino\u00a0beat\u00a0its official figure by a big margin.<\/p>\n

Of course, Powell and Waddington’s Fiorino wasn’t loaded. None of the vans were — except one. RAC Patrol of the Year Charlie Harding was driving\u00a0his Ford Transit Custom work\u00a0van, fully loaded with the\u00a0payload of more\u00a0than 500 tools and spare parts carried\u00a0by all RAC Patrols.<\/p>\n

\"RAC

RAC Patrol of the Year Charlie Harding took part in the 2016 MPG Marathon in his fully-loaded patrol van.<\/p><\/div>\n

Despite this significant weight\u00a0handicap, Harding and his co-driver Peter Thompson managed to come within 1mpg of Ford’s official\u00a0combined cycle\u00a0figure of 40.9mpg.<\/p>\n

As was the case last year<\/a>,\u00a0by entering a\u00a0patrol with a fully-loaded van, the RAC has demonstrated that work vans can deliver decent fuel consumption when driven well.<\/p>\n

Impressive stuff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2016 MPG Marathon suggested that modern vans do have the potential to match manufacturers’ official mpg figures — even when loaded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[2040,1878],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9381"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9381"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9388,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9381\/revisions\/9388"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}