MOTORING: We perform a real-world fuel-economy test.

With motorists now forking out R17 per litre for fuel in parts of the country, it’s time to get serious about fuel saving. Ray Leathern performs a real-world economy test for POPULAR MECHANICS. YOU, JUST LIKE many others, probably wonder sometimes about the wildly optimistic fuel-consumption figures manufacturers claim. They say their new model will average 3.3 l/100 km; you buy it and its consumption is most likely closer to double that. You complain to the manufacturer and they respond by saying: a) Your driving is wrong, and b) The figures are achieved in a controlled environment that’s not meant to reflect what you’ll actually achieve yourself. I’ve long since questioned the point in that. For the past decade, the consumption test on new vehicles in South Africa has been conducted independently by NAAMSA on a rolling road dynamometer. The combined cycle test consists of an urban cycle of 4 km, incorporating vehicle stops, at an average speed of 20 km/h, reaching a maximum speed of 50 km/h. The extra-urban cycle of 7 km brings the maximum speed up to 120 km/h but at an overall average of 63 km/h. That’s an average of 41.5 km/h if you slice straight down the middle between the two. Hardly a test to the bitter end, I’m sure you’ll agree. Nevertheless, we wanted to inject some real-world testing into this equation to see if we could duplicate the laboratory figures if we stuck as close as possible to the same prescribed speed. Would we even be able to go that fast in