Gas mileage - Volvo 850

Hi,

What gas mileage do you get out of your Volvo 850's (non-turbo)? I'm
currently getting the following mileage in a combination of highway and
city driving and I'm thinking it's exceptionally high:

14.6L / 100km
16mpg (US gallons)
19.3mpg (Europe)

Regards,

Han.

 

(1) "No one ever bought a Volvo for the fuel economy."

(2) Having made reference to that old slogan, I would add, however, that
your numbers do look exceptionally bad. My '95 850T with automatic
transmission averages around 10L/100km, using 98e and with maybe 1/4 of
the driving in town and 3/4 on the motorway.

cheers,

Henry

 

Henry: I would have agreed with your point (1), but lately I've been
looking at mileage figures in road test summaries and my 850GLT
seems to do better than the vast majority of new cars.

Han: I agree with Henry's point (2). Your mileage looks pretty bad.
My '97 850GLT has averaged about 23.7 mpg (U.S.) during the time
I've owned it. On the highway it gets maybe 29 mpg at 60 mph and
27 mpg at 70 mph (or maybe a little better). My overall average
would be better if I always cruised at a leisurely 55 or 60 mph.
You could have an oxygen sensor going bad or something similar.

 

That's terrible, people I've talked to are getting roughly double that.

 

1996 850 Wagon, Non-trubo, automatic, at about 24mpg. The milage on my
car is 92K.
70% is highway milage.

-cji

 

Not good. My 1995 854 Turbo automatic ranges from 8.0 l/100 km (29
Mi./US gallon) in all highway driving at ~ 60 mph to 13.3 l/100 km (17.6
mi/US gallon) in all city, bad weather commuting stop and go.

Rick

 

I would have to agree with the previous post. The 23-34 US MPG
average I got over the last several years is better than many new
cars.

Henry, do you get any system diagnostic indicators? Perhaps you should
see someone with an OBD II scanner and they can see what's going on.
An oxygen sensor would be a good guess.

Chuck Fiedler
Nothing but Volvo since 1974

 

Oops. Make that 23-24, not 34.

Chuck Fiedler
Again

 

I have a 94 850 non-turbo and have been getting the same mileage as you
BUT I have a bad O2 sensor ...I recently had my inectors cleaned and
the O2 (greek lamda symbol) came on...I am told that replacing the O2
sensor will improve mileage...check for aftermarket prices the OEM
prices are 300+!

Greg

 

I usually get just about 30 mpg (U.S.) with my '96 5spd plain simple
non-turbo Volvo 850 wagon. That is if I drive around 65..if I go 70
then it drop to about 28 mpg.

The city driving I do is really bad..., short trips, lots of lights,
many hills, but I still get around 18-24 mpg

 

We have 2 850s and they get 25 MPG for normal driving in our community
where most everything is 10 to 20 miles away. For continuous highway
driving we get 29 to 31 MPG with the cruise control on.

 

When my wife drives on the local roads she gets around 16-18. I manage a
bit better and on the highway i have had over 25 MPG...

Drive smooth, accelarate slowly, drive ahead, take you foot off the gas well
before traffic or a yellow light...

 

9.5 l/100km 1996 850 2,5l 10valve 144hp
9,0 l/100km 2000 V70 2,4l 20valve 170hp
Regards
Ken
Hello ,

 

'95 850 wagon with 122,000 miles:
27-28 mpg, but I really BABY it, mostly freeway & usually between
50-60 mph - yes, that's me way over in the right hand lane always
doing the speed limit.
J.

 

My manual 850 routinely turned in low 20s in local driving and low 30s
on freeway trips. All US mpg numbers.

16 mpg US sounds very low.

John

 

Agree. Another data point -- with gas prices hitting the roof here, I
decided to drive my 854T more gently to reduce my gas bills. For the
past 2 months I've averaged 21 mpg (US) in the city and 29 mpg on an
all-highway trip.

That's 11.2 l/100 km and 8.1 l/100 km.

Rick

 

Combined mileage in Germany (lots of Autobahn driving) is in the low 20's
mpg (US gallons). It will fall off to high teens with city driving; high
20's on open road. Anything less than this would indicate time for a tuneup
or better fuel!
Rich