As unregulated Diesel prices seem poised to turn the diesel car market on its head, Nissan’s Micra dci reaffirms all that is good about diesel motoring.
1000km from one tank of fuel. No jokes
Having watched the diesel price at the pumps rise ever so boldly over the last few months, I recently found myself preparing a blog to argue the death of the diesel car. Mine and most diesel owners’ frustration with the rising price of diesel is that although it’s regulated at the wholesale level, it is unregulated at the pumps. For a long time, diesel was subject to a lower government fuel tax than petrol, but this is no longer the case and this has lead to diesel touching the R10/litre mark at some pumps and generally costing 60c-70c more than unleaded. Combine that increase with the premium a diesel vehicle fetches off the showroom floor and who can blame diesel owners for being a tad glum?
Then I hop into Nissan’s Micra dci, a 1,5l turbo diesel with 60kW and 185N.m and all my faith in diesel is restored.
In a week with the Micra dci it returned fuel economy figures of 3.7l /100km, and 1000km from its 40l tank. Considering the Micra tips the scales at 1475kg that gives it an economy index figure of 2.5l/100km per ton. That’s good enough to take the overall win in the Total Economy Run last year.
The classA winner in the smallest displacement petrol category from 2007 Total Economy Run was the little Citroen C1 and the classH winner for diesel was the Citroen C2 hdi with a figure of 4.12l/100km. The overall winner, as mentioned earlier is calculated with an index figure that accounts for the cars weight as well and that went to the VW Golf 1.9TDI with 2.73l/100km per ton. A brilliant return considering the VW’s larger displacement and healthy performance, but its still no match for the new king of teetotalers the Nissan Micra dci and its 2.5l/100km per ton.
What makes these figures even more impressive for the Nissan Micra dci is that they are real world economy figures. The test unit was used in stop / start traffic driving, numerous ventures into and through the city and even for a spirited bout of furniture moving. Its payload wasn’t vast, being a Micra, but fully loaded it still endured over 100km of less than ideal economy conditions.
Setting off at the beginning of my run in the Micra dci the onboard computer was less ambitious then myself about how far we might go, telling me a full tank would take me 669km. However, I knew something special was on the cards when it took 250km for the needle just to move off the Full sign. At this point the average consumption was down to 3.5l/100km. By the half tank mark I had traveled 550km and the Micra assured me another 550km was available. Meaning I had a 100km buffer zone between empty and the magical 1000km mark. Slow and steady wins the prize…
The physical law you need to adhere to in aiming for good fuel economy is – inertia. This involves keeping your eye far on the horizon and avoiding cars merging into the slow lane in front of you or being forced to speed up by a tailgating speeder in the fast lane. Picking up speed downhill and using less throttle uphill helps, as does long in gear run-in’s into traffic stops. Probably the best fuel saving technique you can use is to not over rev from a stationary start. Set yourself a ‘rev limit’ by seeing what revs you use in top gear at highway cruising speed. In the Micra dci 100km/h in fifth used 2500rpm – that was my limit in moving through the gears from a stop.
It’s also worth mentioning that at no point on the Nissan Micra dci’s 3.7l/100km run did it break any traffic laws. 60km/h in a 60 zone and 100km/h in a 120 zone is all legal and reasonable driving for anyone out on the road. Showing that for all the fuel saving technologies manufacturers are working on these days they can always be supplemented by thoughtful and sensible driving.
So zero your odometer and let us know how far you can make your next tank last.
