economy?which speed

got an almost stupid question.

in the owners manual this car/4x4 is at its most economical at 56 and least at 70 mph.
if when you drive at 70 mph the sat nav says your actually doing 56 then are you at its most economical or least???

i have an 800 mile drive coming soon so this could be important

Depends on the frontera really.

Generally between 50 and 65 mph will return the best economy on any sort of road really but big, chunky offroad tires add drag and reduce fuel economy as do roof racks and any adornments (football flags etc).

For a standard vehicle expect around 400ish miles to a tank with a relatively light foot. When the warning light comes on you have about 30 to 60 miles of driving left depending on engine type fitted.

And the GPS speed readout of a satnav will be more acurrate than the speedo in the dash. Also, there's a reason why trucks run at 56mph too :wink:

As Sir Doris says though, the more aggressive the tyres, and the more ironmongery on the truck, the lower your fuel returns will be.

If your dash speedo reckons you're at 70mph though, and the satnav says 56mph, I'd be thinking about that. Obviously you're unlikely to have speeding ticket issues, as you're not going as fast as the car says you are, but that much of a difference would get me thinking. Can you borrow another satnav or something for a comparison?

Are your tyres standard size or bigger? this will affect your speedo readings on the car.

Take out the things in your fronty that you don't need specially the heavy things, as this could help with saving on fuel :dance:

Good luck on your trip

Get a 2.8, I get in the order of 500 miles to a tank, drag a boot full of gear around and have, in the past been accused of trying to drive it like the MX5 sat on the drive at home. Due to the roads round here I do tend to be in the 50 - 60 mph range though.

i may get a 2.8 one day but for now the 2.3 is one of the best to drive and reliable cars i have ever owned(touching wood)not sure tyre size as i have not looked today but they are road tyres on fronty alloys but the question still is there do i drive on the reading from the clock or satvav for economy??
Also going slightly off the subject i know these truck/cars/4x4's have a bad rep but what for and based on what?

2.3's dont have a bad rep mate, they are great old skool simple engineered trucks...

but...
they are getting old now, and many have done a million miles, so some very smokey ones exist...

and they werent the fastest thing out there, in fact compared with a 2.5 or 2.8 they are pretty slow, but they always get where they are going to, albeit the day after everyone else! :wink:

The greenyblue one in my sig below was my 2.3...great truck, loved it, until i took it swimming in 8ft of water...but even then the engine was fine, just everything electrical on the car developed terminal faults!
Still miss racing milkfloats off the lights....those were the days! :lol:

As a general rule the satnav will be more accurate then the car speeedometer. However, The satnav will vary as well from manufacturer to manufacturer depending on the gps chipset used and prevailing weather conditions and strength of the GPS signal.
A stronger signal gives a more accurate reading and in both my cars its never more then about 5 or 6mph difference compared to the car speedometer.

In all honesty though, driving between 50 to 60mph, a few mph out either way isnt going to noticeably affect your overall economy on a long run.

Just got back from a 900 mile round trip holiday.

4 adults,mobility scooter box of food,bedding and two dogs + suitcase of clothes on the roof so was a very full car.

we had a perfect trouble free drive in the car without a single problem(with the car anyway)

We put 70 litres then 14 litres to get there and drive around which i believe is 18.6 gallons and we got 600 miles and still had almost quarter of a tank left.We drove anywhere between 70 and 85 mph on way up so i reckon the car did really well.

have a good read of this thread

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=17282&hilit=+oil+pump

this is the main weak spot of a 2.3 also on high milage 2.3 diesel and 2.4 petrols the timing chains may break.
My 2.4 has just toped 204000 miles and is still going strong.
My 2.3 is semi retired and is used by my kids to learn to drive - [we have a small holding.]

We used to get 30mpg from the 2.3 and 25mpg from the 2.4