My car has just done about 7000 miles and has just had its first service. It is a 1 litre 125 PSI B-MAX. Over this period it has averaged 40 miles per gallon. Although I like the car very much, I am very disappointed by the miles per gallon figures. I reported this problem to my Ford dealer who has checked the car and said everything is set exactly as it should be.
Nearly 50 years ago I had an Austin A40 and my father had a Morris 1000 we could achieve these figures with both these cars so many years ago. These were just classed as cars and not named eco or some similar name.
My last car was a Volvo S40 1.6litre, granted it was a diesel car but it had almost identical government figures to the B Max. Driven in the same way as the B Max it achieved between 53 and 55 miles per gallon over the same roads. It had a £120 road tax and not £30 like the B Max. I therefore thought that 50 miles per gallon should be relatively easy to achieve. My car before that was a Renault Clio diesel (same road tax) and did nearly 65 mpg. Also a friend of mine has a Honda Jazz 1.4 automatic £125 road tax. We drove together almost in convoy most of the way from Cumbria to Kent I did 46 mpg and he did 56 mpg.
This does lead me to believe that somewhere along the line Ford have found some way of fiddling the mpg figures, maybe not in the same way as VW did as that was largely to do with pollution from the diesel.
I do get told the B Max is a heavy car with its extra strong doors but that should show in the government figures. The Fiesta with the same engine does appear to do better. However to put an Eco badge on this B Max does seem somewhat ridiculous. I would welcome the opinion of others on my post. I will probably send a copy of to Ford but I know that will achieve nothing.
The only problem I have noticed over the year is a judder in reverse when I have to slip the clutch and do a careful manoeuvre slightly uphill and round a sharp corner to get the car in my garage.
Nearly 50 years ago I had an Austin A40 and my father had a Morris 1000 we could achieve these figures with both these cars so many years ago. These were just classed as cars and not named eco or some similar name.
My last car was a Volvo S40 1.6litre, granted it was a diesel car but it had almost identical government figures to the B Max. Driven in the same way as the B Max it achieved between 53 and 55 miles per gallon over the same roads. It had a £120 road tax and not £30 like the B Max. I therefore thought that 50 miles per gallon should be relatively easy to achieve. My car before that was a Renault Clio diesel (same road tax) and did nearly 65 mpg. Also a friend of mine has a Honda Jazz 1.4 automatic £125 road tax. We drove together almost in convoy most of the way from Cumbria to Kent I did 46 mpg and he did 56 mpg.
This does lead me to believe that somewhere along the line Ford have found some way of fiddling the mpg figures, maybe not in the same way as VW did as that was largely to do with pollution from the diesel.
I do get told the B Max is a heavy car with its extra strong doors but that should show in the government figures. The Fiesta with the same engine does appear to do better. However to put an Eco badge on this B Max does seem somewhat ridiculous. I would welcome the opinion of others on my post. I will probably send a copy of to Ford but I know that will achieve nothing.
The only problem I have noticed over the year is a judder in reverse when I have to slip the clutch and do a careful manoeuvre slightly uphill and round a sharp corner to get the car in my garage.
