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Why does diesel bought in France do more miles per gallon than diesel bought in the UK
houghamite
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"Why does diesel bought in France do more miles per gallon than diesel bought in the UK"
Never found it did, personally.
However, most English drivers find they are doing more longer journeys in France than back home and that may explain your experience.
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UK diesel is produced to a different standard to that of mainland europe whether that makes a difference I would not know,I live in Germany and my usage of both petrol and diesel is better in mainland europe than the UK tested over 20 years of travelling.If I fill up in Hull I cannot get to my house on a tankfull in my BMW if I fill up in Dresden I can get to Leeds and have some in the tank.
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Possible reflection of the much more clear roads in Europe, a great number of miles on the motorway and better quality drivers meaning fewer 'jinks' to avoid idiots who have no alnes discipline.
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All diesel sold in Europe MUST conform to EN590 which specifies maximums and minimums for various aspects - but Cetane is only specified as a minimum.
I have heard that French diesel is slightly higher Cetane so gives marginally better consumption - but as posted above, road conditions are different so impossible to be sure.
Edited by RT on 14/01/2013 at 16:04
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Surely it's because all cars with on-board trip computers automatically switch to kilometers per 4.54 litres when you leave the UK, giving the impression of 60% better economy ;^)
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Thats a non starter my car is in KM and I get 3% more on German fuel than I do on UK fuel no matter which car I drive.Measurements taken over the same roads too and from the uk over 20years.
Edited by Collos25 on 14/01/2013 at 17:08
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I always get better MPG from my Diesels in France and always put it down to much better roads and far less traffic.
Having said that my petrol cars always returned less MPg and always gave the impression of loosing some zest when abroad.
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I,m sorry I did not make it clear. Living in Dover I sometimes go over to Calais and fill up with cheap diesel which is used in the UK under normal driving conditions and I obtain 6% better fuel consumption from the French fuel than that bought from a local BP station. The conversion from gallons to litres I use is 4.5461.
houghamite
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Why does diesel bought in France do more miles per gallon than diesel bought in the UK
houghamite
I'm glad that somebody has brought this subject up again-Yes I have always found that diesel purchased in France (and that is where I now live) will achieve a better mpg than diesel purchased in the UK.
I have posted on this subject before and am glad that there is now at least one other poster that agrees with me.
The usual " French diesel is exactly the same spec as UK diesel fuel - nothing to see here-move along" comment from posters on here who work in the fuel or fuel supply industry does not address what is patently obvious that there is a difference between UK and French fuel that cannot be explained away by smoother roads, different speeds, longer distances travelled etc etc.
I strongly suspect that UK diesel fuel is being diluted with kerosene or lighter fraction fuel oil to lower it's specific gravity, which will result in less distance travelled per unit volume purchased.
Come on - somebody on the inside track must know what is going on here.
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"I strongly suspect that UK diesel fuel is being diluted with kerosene or lighter fraction fuel..."
A conspiracy theory, no less!
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"I strongly suspect that UK diesel fuel is being diluted with kerosene or lighter fraction fuel..."
A conspiracy theory, no less!
The exact chemical structure of both petrol and diesel is heavily dependent on two factors in the refining process - the exact composition of the crude oil going in - and the design of the refinery itself.
Refineries are designed to extract different "fractions" at different temperatures to get petrol, diesel, lubricating oil, etc all out of the same crude input - there are inevitably minor differences between refineries.
An oil chemist might be able to suggest which refineries to buy fuel from, not directly of course, but almost everyone else is restricted to their local supply chain.
Kerosene is one of the things in winter diesel - so I doubt it's a conspiracy !
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OK RT and FP - I've no idea if it's a conspiracy or not, but I have witnessed the difference between the same car's fuel consumption, on the same day, on the same tyres and pressures, the same driver, the same cruising speeds, on UK diesel and French diesel on so many separate occasions so I KNOW that there is a marked difference.
And I have seen two different models of car exhibit the same characteristics.
Briefly-on many trips to France before moving here it was a journey from Norwich to Dover to catch the silly-oclock morning ferry and arriving in France with a nearly empty tank. To the nearest supermarket fuel station, fill with cheaper French fuel. Straight onto the A16 dual carriageway heading south. Immediately, the mpg readout which would not indicate higher than 47-48 mpg in the UK, reads 52-54 mpg. It was so regular and predictable that it became a family joke.
Comments?
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Comments?
French diesel probably comes from a French refinery - British diesel will come from a British refinery - refinery designs aren't identical - the French have less access to North Sea oil so will get their crude elsewhere.
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interestingly "Foccussed"
My EGR valve failed at 17000 miles whilst in France and when returning the dealer says they have more EGr valve failures with the few cars that go to Europe than they do with all the vehicles running around in the UK ! so why ?
I am inclined to belive what they say plus i have noticed that the exhaust has quite a different smell to it when running on french fuel ! its tends to be far less acrid I suppose is the only way i could discribe it.
The spec may be the same according to the boffins but something is very different from the way all my diesels run when in Europe.
Boffins are not always right as i once proved when i had a faulty component that I challenged the aftermarket manufactures on and they ran the unti on a test rig which they reckon cost over £250,000 & accpording to all the graphs & tests the component was over manufactured & well within tolerence but when fitted on a car didnt work but when replaced with a geniune replacement worked 100% so boffins can say what they like but after my experince , experince is best.
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Briefly-on many trips to France before moving here it was a journey from Norwich to Dover to catch the silly-oclock morning ferry and arriving in France with a nearly empty tank. To the nearest supermarket fuel station, fill with cheaper French fuel. Straight onto the A16 dual carriageway heading south. Immediately, the mpg readout which would not indicate higher than 47-48 mpg in the UK, reads 52-54 mpg. It was so regular and predictable that it became a family joke.
Comments?
I've noticed same thing using brim/brim and a calcualtor. But I've put it down to A16/A26 being very different animals to M1>M25>M2/M20 to Dover. Much easier to sit in cruise without constant jiggling of throttle for trucks, commuter on/off junctions etc.
How might yours look on A6/A7 round and beyond Lyon on weekend of 'la depart'?
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"la depart"?
Go to the bottom of the class!
Should be "le départ".
[Sorry - pedant mode took over.]
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I don't know about Le departe (no accent 'cos I can't be a***d to find out where it is) around Lyon, because Lyon is close on 1000 kms away from where I live in NW france.
I appreciate what you are saying about cruise control, which I don't have, but I am talking about comparable roads,speeds and driving styles. The A11, M11, M25 and M2 at 5am in the morning are not that congested so compare favourably with a French dual carriageway A road.
Talking about the exhaust smell is interesting, in addition the smell of the stuff when filling the tank here is totally different to the UK fuel, it smells like diesel used to smell like in the UK 25 years ago.
My reference to UK fuel in my post means UK filling station branded standard diesel - not the supermarket rubbish which I know from experience results in much reduced economy.
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I can't comment on fuel economy in France compared to Blighty due to my differing types of journeys in the two countrys.
However something is different with some of the diesel. Numerous times many moons ago I used to think there was something wrong with my old fashioned Passat 1.6td (nice car but boy did you know it was a diesel) when I filled up with some makes of French diesel. It knocked so much you thought the bigends were going- worse at tickover though. Fill up back in the UK the noise would go away.
With my Skoda Superb 1.9td haven't really noticed much difference though.
Edited by Big John on 15/01/2013 at 21:54
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"Le departe"..!
I despair.
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Did the French used to have a much higher proportion of bio-diesel included in the mix?
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"Le departe"..!
I despair.
What, exactly, are you despairing about? Most of the local inhabitants where I live cannot write "french as she is taught in english schools" they write their own version of it.
Street French is nothing like what you was taught at your posh school- lol!
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"What, exactly, are you despairing about? Most of the local inhabitants where I live cannot write "french as she is taught in english schools" they write their own version of it.
Street French is nothing like what you was taught at your posh school- lol!"
My post was tongue-in-cheek, but if you want to take things seriously - no French person (even semi-literate) would write "le departe", simply because that is not the way anyone pronounces it. (The final -e would mean the t is sounded.)
Anyway, nothing wrong in having a quick bit of despair at illiteracy, whether French or English.
P.S. I went to a state school and it wasn't very posh.
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'Anyway, nothing wrong in having a quick bit of despair at illiteracy, whether French or English.'
You would despair at the way French is spoke around here then - heavily accented with Breton and their local pronunciations and terms.
I have a english friend who lives about 2 miles away - he comes from yorkshire, has been over here for years and speaks french with a really broad yorkshire accent - and the locals understand every word!
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'Anyway, nothing wrong in having a quick bit of despair at illiteracy, whether French or English.'
You would despair at the way French is spoke around here then - heavily accented with Breton and their local pronunciations and terms.
I have a english friend who lives about 2 miles away - he comes from yorkshire, has been over here for years and speaks french with a really broad yorkshire accent - and the locals understand every word!
I'm not sure that anyone speaks Queen's English, not since the BBC dropped it - every region/district etc of the UK uses different pronunciation - and that's just those whose families have used English as their first language for generations.
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You should hear my German spoken with a Yorkshire accent and I learnt my German in the East Germany to make matters worse.
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When I was at the Polytecchnic in the 70's one of our lecturers was a Pole who came to England at the start of WW2. Originally he settled in the North East using his particular skills thus picked up the local acent which was still there almost 40 years later. Even the Geordies on our course struggled.
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