Why do cars use more fuel than manufacturers say?

Technical data of cars show exact values ​​of fuel consumption: in urban, suburban and average conditions. But getting these results in practice is difficult, and cars consume fuel at different rates.

Does this mean such a large variation in manufacturing tolerances? Or are manufacturers cheating car users? It turns out that the conspiracy theory is inapplicable.

Reference used for comparisons

It is almost impossible to achieve the same fuel consumption as stated in the instruction manual. This is due to the fact that the values ​​given by the manufacturer are determined in a cycle of very precise measurements made not in real motion, but on a chassis dynamometer. These are the so-called measuring cycles, which include starting a cold engine and then "driving" for a certain time in a certain gear at a certain speed.

In such a test, all exhaust gases emitted by the vehicle are collected, finally mixed, and thus an average of both their composition and fuel consumption is obtained.

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Measurement cycles are designed to simulate real driving conditions, but in reality they can only be used to compare the fuel consumption of different vehicles with each other. In practice, even the same driver in the same car, even on the same route, will have different results every day. In other words, factory fuel consumption figures are only indicative and should not be given too much weight. However, the question arises - what in real conditions most affects fuel consumption?

Blame - the driver and service!

Drivers believe that their cars should be more fuel efficient and blame the automakers more often than themselves for too much fuel consumption. And what does fuel consumption actually depend on, if we compare the results of users of two seemingly identical cars? These are the most important factors that make your car overly gluttonous. The whole car is responsible for fuel consumption, not just its engine!

– Driving short distances where a significant portion of the mileage is due to an underheated engine and transmission. Also use of too viscous oils.

- Riding with excessive load - how often, out of laziness, we often carry tens of kilograms of unnecessary scrap in the trunk.

– Very dynamic driving with frequent use of the brakes. The brakes turn the car's energy into heat - to continue the journey, you need to press the gas pedal harder!

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– Driving at high speeds – the aerodynamic drag of a car increases greatly with increasing speed. At "city" speeds, they are unimportant, but above 100 km / h they begin to dominate and the most fuel is consumed to overcome them.

 - An unnecessarily transportable roof rack, but also a nice-looking spoiler - when driving out of town, they can increase fuel consumption by specific liters.