[mad skiier]

After the Bed & breakfasts were allowed the reopen after UK lockdown, I had a lot of work to catch up on three sites in the South East of England. As a bit of background I live North west of Manchester, the sites: one close to Stansted Airport, the other Hatfield area,(North London) and the 3rd close to Luton airport. So the Kuga experienced M6, M1, A14 during July..
So I zeroed the trip computer 2 on 1st July, now 1st August 2183 miles later I would like to share findings and observations, in no particular order..

 

[mad skiier]

Week 1 A full tank of Shell V power diesel (Been tootling around town so needed a blast) towing a 2 wheel trailer about 300 kgs. Cruising at speedo reading 63mph steady away. Stanstead then take tower scaffold to 2nd site (Trailer now 500 kgs) Computer 1 47.4mpg.

Week 2 Tank of Shell V power again, Same trailer but straight to Site2. Less weight in trailer and M6 & M1. Some roadworks at 50 and some at 60 so perfect conditions for fuel economy. Had to stop on M1 close to Amazon building (nr Luton) for a accident, so took a picture of dash.. 51.5mpg. This figure is the highest I have seen all month.

Week 3 trip 3. A tank of Tesco fuel with a good slurp of Redex diesel treatment.
No trailer: Site 1, then site 2, then site 3. A 477 mile day, (with 88 miles left according to computer). Now with no trailer I was expecting a lower mpg due to being able to do (err) 70 ish Cruise set for 74 or 73mph. Mpg 47.7

 

[mad skiier]

Average mpg. Over 2183 miles, motorway work, around town collecting parts & components, and 80 miles towing a heavy trailer (soon drops to 38 ish doing that!) average 45.5mpg.

Also trip computer at 2000 miles zeros the trip as not enough room for 4 digits. The clock recorded over 55 hrs of driving.

 

[mad skiier]

Oil consumption: It was 3mm from top line of dip stick, and I cant see any change, so as far as I can see NIL. (49k miles, with next oil due at 51k)

Brake wear: Quite a bit of dust on alloys as would be expected. Didn’t measure but I would guess about 1mm off pads.
Tyre wear: I measured all tyres before (Sad I know) and the results were... Well nothing I could measure. Smoothed out abit. getting closer to the 5mm marker. Happy with that.

 

[mad skiier]

Other observations: See signature & I quote ‘one who uses the AWD more than most’.
Well week1 started dusty and dry, after heavy overnight rain the clay mud was deep. Time for the Kuga to ‘man up’. To those who wash, polish, care and don’t like dirt on their Kuga.. look away now!


4 season tyres?, well they coped with the 5th season - the muddy season. I had to cross site and retrieve said trailer from the other end of a muddy site. All FWD vans where parked up on hard standing, only mad people (who ski) would venture into mud land!

Fellow Kugians it P***ed it. Go steady, let the iAWD do its job, steer early and don’t panic. The Kuga surprised me how much cross axleing it could cope with. No wheel spin.

The chap I work for and I quote: ‘Get out of that car, you are enjoying it too much!’

 

[mad skiier]

Why have I got 2 pics??

 

[mad skiier]

Start stop – lots of talk on the forum about start stop & battery condition. Well after 2183 miles the battery is fully charged and S/S works fine now from mile 1.

 

[mad skiier]

Got stopped due to an accident on M1.

 

[Happyarry]

What was the scaffold tower for mate?

 

[mad skiier]

1st fix air ducting within a indoor pool hall. Ceiling mounted 300 dia spiral ducting tapering to 200 - 150 with flexi to final ceiling grilles.

Not my forte must admit, I specialised in glue sniffing.. (Err plastic pipe gluing 2 inch pipe, proper glue mate) I could post some pictures but not Kuga related..

 

[Fillco]

The Kuga is just a great drive though isn't it, I did 59000 in my first Kuga 2014-2016 (163ps) in 2 years and I loved every minute behind the wheel. I did 12500 in the first 6 months of owning my present Kuga and with the 180PS it was an even better drive. 50% of those miles was with 200-300kg in the boot. Now doing around 8000 a year so much more relaxed. At whatever miles, its a great drive and by the sounds of things they've got better.

 

[Les]

Just to make your Kuga sound even better mad skier, I’ve just returned from a week in Pembrokeshire and drove 612 miles and returned 29.8 mpg. Should have got a diesel.😭

 

[mad skiier]

Filco: what I like about the Kuga is that:
all seats up and a generous 5 seater car.
Seats down a generous 'van' load space.
the AWD is good in snow and as proved good in mud & sluch
A good motorway cruiser being around 1700kgs & AWD and still return around 50mpg you cant complain.
A good tow car, when them 180 horses wake up and them 'torques' arrive it will pull hard.
Also you can have a play as it handles well in standard form.

Les:
During July I reckon used 217 ltrs of fuel, close on 48 gallon for those who use real units.
If I pro rata your mpg to my mileage 332 ltr or 73 gallon or 52% more.
It would have been more if you had a spell towing as well.

Food for thought chaps & chap - esses.

 

[Les]

mad skier,
For any Kuga doubters out there your posts give really great info and show the qualities of the car. On reflection I wish I had gone for the diesel. I had a quick decision to make, should I keep my 3 year old Disco Sport, needing two front tyres at 350.00 each and the next years maintenance at 740.00, should I get a diesel Kuga or should I get petrol. I live near London and use parts of the road system to be included in the diesel zone, but now retired don’t do many miles. I chose the petrol and it’s perfect for the pottering about I do, but not good on long trips.

 

[mad skiier]

Horses for courses as the saying goes.
Short journeys kill the modern diesel. If I potter about slowly with time it feels choked up so a good run does it a world of good.
A local has a merc GLC 15 reg, DPF light never off, a wife's car only done 5000 miles, a waste of a car. Offered to borrow it for one of my runs, that would sort it!

I understand a small petrol in a car, but the Kuga shell, running gear and big fat wheels & tyres to accelerate just to me is too much for a 1.5 petrol, then add a Auto gearbox. I know why Ford did it, lets see if they last past 100k miles.

A power / torque graph on paper doesn't mean great in real world motoring.

 

[smartguy69]

That's my thoughts about longevity. We are 8 years on from the MK1 with many still on the road with high mileage. However regular servicing and not over working the engine should see many 1.5 petrol kugas into the next 10 years and 100k miles. Only time will tell of the longevity of Ford's smaller high performance engines. At lease it's not as bad as a qashkai with a Clio engine in it.

As for the dpf clogging. The Kuga just works. My car never really goes out of the city. This year it has been to scarbough which is about an hour's drive. Last year it went to the lake District and Nottingham. All other times is to the shops with runs no longer than 20 minutes.

 

[Fillco]

And even though you do short journeys do you ever know when it does a re-gen cos I can't tell.

 

[mad skiier]

How long does a regen take I wonder?

Lets use Smartguy69's example... It starts up & warms up, he trot off to the shops, the computer - ECU decides it needs a regen and then starts to do it.. Then on minute 19 Smartguy parks up on his drive to unload his shopping..

Does to Kuga carry on in the background? or just switch off?

A bit like turning your printer off when half way through printer head clean.

 

[kevjan]

Good reading mad skiier so in conclusion what are your thoughts on Shell super diesel and Tesco with a shot of redex. I would be very interested as i think, but still not 100% sure mine is a little better on fuel and run,s a bit better on normal BP than it doe's on Sainsbury's fuel.

 

[mad skiier]

Financially Shell pay me a dividend 4 times a year so get 1 free tank+, 4 times a year.
Then when (company as exes) pay I use the shell reward card and sometimes get another tank of Vpower for price of normal. I run my 20 year old Kawasaki on the petrol Vpower (as you don't buy mega litres of the stuff) so the rewards from shell keep ticking away.. As a oldish engine doesn't like to new stuff (Carb engine by the way)

Back to your original thread, non Kuga related 1st..
Once cutting some wood with stihl chainsaw one Sunday afternoon, and hadn't quite got enough petrol to finish the job so instead of nipping out to make some 2 stroke I syphoned a litre or two out of Kawasaki mixed and put in chainsaw.
The saw woke up like a mad saw!! after it belched out some ****, ran with more power, and idled smoother and slightly higher in revs.. Took the spark plug out and clean as it was when new. So something in that observation.

Kuga wise.. My observations.

1st: It definitely starts from cold quicker in a morning. Not just saying that in warmer months, I have noticed that during winter & frosty mornings as well so not just a one off.

2nd: Shell talk about lubricant in fuel. If I get out to open a gate for a property / field the engine idles differently. That could be to do with a different cetane value or the lube itself. With supermarket fuel tends to sound like a diesel engine.

3rd: Pick up and acceleration is improved, and so is towing performance with a load on trailer. If I'm pulling similar load up the same hill I have to try harder with Tesco in somehow.

The redex added to Tesco. Day to day around town probably nothing. Constant speed for a good few hours with constant fuel flow through injectors and exhaust gas through the DPF. I hope it cleans something on it way through, 'as it says that on the label so must be true'

Saying that if the engine is warm at motorway speeds for 3+ hrs must clean something out regardless of fuel or additives. After such a blast the engine must run better.

How is that for starters