Thread: D4 SDV6 HSE - Fuel usage?

Mine is similar to yours and I can only put it down to the 6 speed transmission, extra weight and drag of all of the extra fruit on my D4 and the fact that it is an earlier model. I got a shock with the high fuel usage when I first bought it in 2012 and drove it from Sydney to Perth to get it home. It really needs the long range tank that was on it when I bought it.

My TDV6 RRV consistently gets high 8 l/100 in most conditions and actually gets better fuel consumption than my Discovery Sport most of the time, but it is way lighter than the D4 with no mods to add extra drag, plus the 8 speed transmission which has the engine running at much lower revs on the open road. I could never understand the consumption figures that others were reporting until I bought the 2013 RRV.

My fuel consumption is always based on measured use, not the wildly optimistic trip computer of the D4, although the RRV computer is much closer to the truth than the D4 one.

My son's V8 petrol D3 actually gets around the same fuel consumption as the D4 on the open road but uses more around town. Funnily enough, his computer is also pretty accurate on the open road.

Where i live it's all up hill and down dale so the car D4 SE V6 SC petrol 8 speed is averaging 14.8l/100klm which is way more than the 12.9 LR cites. Worst we've had was 16.8 towing a triple horse float weighing over 3t.

However if we drive North on the highway which is relatively flatish at a constant 110kph we get 13 ish easily.

Soooo real life circumstances significantly affect fuel use.

Mate's Dodge Ram V8 can get 11l/100ks on a long run but averages 20 plus around town and 23 when towing!! Same for his 200 series.

Mine is an earlier 6 speed 2.7.

Around town constantly 12.5 to 14l/100
On a run unloaded,low 9’s.
On a run loaded,between 10.5 to 11.5,usually with RTT on.

That’s calculated.

I have the six speed SDV6 and have a spreadsheet of fuel usage since new. I have now done 216000km. The lifetime average is 11.02/100km with best down to 8.9/100 and worst 14.00/100. I do not tow and drive normally.
For the weight and power I feel it is very reasonable as I bought this car for comfort and long distance touring as I do not do much city driving.

Interesting...I have a 3L SDV6 6 speed festooned with all the usual bits and pieces (Bullbar, lights, roofrack, drawers full of tools etc) and it uses exactly 9.7L around town. Has done since I’ve owned it. Dragging a 3.25 ton van around Northern Australia for 3 months and approx 15,000 Klm’s returned 13.6L.

Originally Posted by Petetheprinta

Interesting...I have a 3L SDV6 6 speed festooned with all the usual bits and pieces (Bullbar, lights, roofrack, drawers full of tools etc) and it uses exactly 9.7L around town. Has done since I’ve owned it. Dragging a 3.25 ton van around Northern Australia for 3 months and approx 15,000 Klm’s returned 13.6L.

Excellent economy - at what average speed towing the block?

Originally Posted by Petetheprinta

Interesting...I have a 3L SDV6 6 speed festooned with all the usual bits and pieces (Bullbar, lights, roofrack, drawers full of tools etc) and it uses exactly 9.7L around town. Has done since I’ve owned it. Dragging a 3.25 ton van around Northern Australia for 3 months and approx 15,000 Klm’s returned 13.6L.

Peter, are these figures from the dash readout or calculated by you using actual consumption & distance?

Regards,
Scott

Here’s my most recent experience with fuel consumption.

We have a MY16 SDV6 HSE 8 speed which we bought in October last year. We have just returned home from almost 7 months away towing our AOR Odyssey camper trailer which weighs a maximum 1.8 tonnes (weight for the trip was around 1.7 tonnes).

Sorry if this strays a bit off topic but wanted to give a clear idea of the kinds of roads and terrain we covered.
We travelled through western NSW Cobar, Bourke...) and Qld including Salvator Rosa on the western side of Carnarvon NP, out to the coast at Mackay then on up to Cairns and Kuranda. Pretty much all sealed roads so far. Then we went over to Chillagoe, (the start of gravel roads) then the northern 560km gravel loop across to Normanton. From there across the Savannah Way through Burketown, Doomadgee, Borroloola and then back on bitumen to Daly Waters and up to Darwin. From Darwin we went in to Kakadu then back to Katherine and up the Central Arnhem Rd to Nhulunbuy. We returned from there back to Katherine to restock then south to the Barkly Hwy and across to Camooweal, down through Qld to Caloundra then down through central NSW back home to Melbourne.

We travelled a total of 22,581 km measured off the odometer, and used 2780 litres of fuel resulting in an average fuel consumption of 12.31L/100km. Average cost of fuel was $1.52/L.

We run standard 19” rims with Maxxis AT980 light truck tyres. We also did most of the distance with the transmission in Sport mode and running at or around the speed limit on sealed roads (much slower on gravel). We did a small amount of low range driving on sandy tracks in Arnhem Land.

I am extremely happy with that result and absolutely love the car.

cheers
David