Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Technical Stuff (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/)

-   -   New Maruti Ertiga Petrol 6-AT giving only 7 kmpl (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/264958-new-maruti-ertiga-petrol-6-giving-only-7-kmpl.html)

Hi All,

I took delivery of my Ertiga petrol AT on 17 March 2023. It's giving me only 7 kmpl on average. I live in Mumbai. My daily commute to office is 4 km each way in moderate traffic on roads with climbs, slopes, and turns and curves. Mostly in the first two or three gears.

Pickup on climbs is not as good as with my earlier car Toyota Etios Liva manual. That car was a true gem, grossly underrated and under-marketed.

Most other things are fine. Any reason for this? People have told me that mileage will improve over the engine's run-in period of 5000 km, or after a long drive.

Also wanted to know: Is it advisable to keep idle start stop feature enabled if you drive in start-stop traffic? Doesn't the engine take more fuel in starting up than running? It may make more sense to keep the feature off unless you're only going to halt at major signs.

Welcome your advice.

Looks like due to the short commute, your engine not reaching optimum operating temperature. The same used to happen to me with my AStar. I used to get around 10kmpl from the 1 liter engine with a single occupant. Used to get 20+ on the same engine on longer highway trips.

Check mileage on a longer trip.

4km commute with slopes, a TC automatic, Bombay traffic. All of these factors contribute to the low FE. Nothing unusual per se. No need to worry. The start-stop system may come in handy if you wait at traffic lights for more than 30 seconds but then going by the nature of your commute, the AC will still be cooling the car halfway into your drive and that will keep the engine running anyways.

7 kmpl is expected. Post engine run-in period will not see higher or lower fuel economy.

But it is simple enough to find out if something is wrong with the engine. Reset the odo and check the fuel economy on longer drives. Or perhaps do a midnight city drive.

This is the reason. Torque Convertor ATs use fluid coupling to transfer torque from the flywheel to the transmission and thereby to the wheels (instead of a clutch in a MT), multiplying torque in lower speed/ higher RPM scenario - like in 1st and 2nd gear. Say, if the engine is at 2000 RPM, the torque convertor will be at 1500 RPM - resulting in higher torque at the transmission end than at the flywheel end.

The flip side of this fluid coupling torque multiplication is a loss of energy (shedded as heat) in the torque convertor. This loss is not present in a manual/ AMT/ DCT transmission because these have a physical coupling between the flywheel and the transmission.

To counter such losses, all Torque Converter AT have a lock up clutch, which gives a physical coupling between flywheel and transmission - but only after a specific speed is achieved. From what I've seen, this is mostly with the 3rd gear or between 3rd and 4th gears.

So if you have a torque convertor AT and are driving mostly in the first two gears, you will have absymal mileage - that's by design. A better alternative is a vehicle with CVT or, if you can live with it, an AMT.

Note that this explanation is pretty rudimentary, and there are better articles/ videos out there that can explain this better.

Being a Petrol engine paired with a Torque Converter, Fuel efficiency is bound to be average at best. Adding your driving patterns to the equation, FE is further reduced. 4 km drive each way simply isn't enough to bring the engine and other fluids up to operating temperatures.

Comparing apples to oranges here, but in my case my coolant also doesn't reach operating temperatures in a distance of 4 km, so oils that take longer to reach their operating temperatures wouldn't even be in question.

Coming to the start stop feature follow the 10 second thumb rule. If your stop is for more than 10 seconds, then it is more economical to turn off the engine.

I feel you man. I have a Oct 22, New XL6 Alpha Plus AT. I have a one way commute of 3.5 kms. I have seen FE figures as low as 6 kmpl. Super short commute so low FE is understandable but I don't face crazy traffic and I do get to engage 6th gear sometimes as well.
The performance is absolutely pathetic, extremely dull.
Even more pathetic is MS have tuned its mild hybrid to give assist only in D mode and not in M mode but assist is available in Manual transmission cars.
To get around the absolute lack of grunt, I prefer to drive it in M mode always, but then, 2nd to 3rd gear in M mode gets really irritating. I could go on and on ranting.

Start-stop system is a major irritant trust me. Very intrusive. Engine switches off even before car comes to a complete stop.

Another story, short commutes and low FE is understandable but even on long(ish) drive of 70 or 100 kms on our undivided highways, I have not seen more than 14.5 kmpl. Although I have a heavy right foot but some other car with more power also return similar FE on the exact same route.

In the new mild hybrid cars from Suzuki(Maruti) the FE will come after you have completed 5000 kms (my post #714 in 2022 Maruti Brezza Review). Also I presume you had been driving MT and have now shifted to AT. Here it is imperative you gradually floor the pedal to get optimum results. For sudden spurt of acceleration in climbing or overtaking you need to hard press the accelerator and will get the spurt after about 20-30 seconds.
The idle start/stop feature is specifically for traffic when you are going bumper to bumper as the engine/Ac will switch off to the Lithium battery an you will get a green symbol in your display. So unless you have need to keep the ac on let this feature keep running.For any other query regarding FE or features please check the 2022 Maruti Brezza Review as IMO both have the same engine.
Hope this helps.

Oh. I think this is a really bad way to run-in the engine.

I strongly recommend you take a few long-ish trips where the engine is able to stretch its limbs in all gears in different RPMs so that they engine is run-in well.

Hi Ketan,
This is expected behaviour. My close friend has Ertiga AT 2019 and he travels from Goregaon to Andheri everyday to office. His FE is also 6kmpl that time:Frustrati. Only at moving speeds he gets around 8-10 kmpl. But 6kmpl is the average. Only difference here is, his is the 4 Speed AT and the FE drops like a rock at higher speeds. I don't expect your car to have any difference in city commutes.

Cheers.

THat's very interesting. and something new :)

What is the % decrease in mileage due to use of AT?
With AT if the mileage is 7kmpl, what would be the mileage of a manual car?

I've checked online and most website list the ARAI mileage of 20kmpl for both AT & Manual

I drove an automatic 4 speed XL6 for about 15 months. I can confirm the said mileage of 7kmpl is absolutely possible.

Reset the odometer, do not use AC and try your commute with all other factors assuming to be constant. There should be a slightly better fuel economy now.
Also, check the instantaneous fuel economy while starting off and while coasting. Try and drive with rpms as low as possible with a very light foot. Keep foot at constant pressure without varying it. Just to try and see if you are able to better the 7kmpl. My hunch is you may get upto 8 kmpl.

As always, please be careful and keep attention on the road users and conditions at all times.

A diesel car of this size, features and price point will not fare much better. We dont have any EVs with this capability at this price point to compare with. As of now, this is the best vehicle with these capabilities and features for this price.

This mileage is very normal for an automatic car, specially in short trips of less than 10km.
we have a Honda BRV CVT and it also gives us a mileage around 7 kmpl during short trips around home but it gives us about 11 when used on longer trips (20 to 30km). Our Jeep compass petrol also is in the same range.
I have reset the meters and checked the mileage and found that for the first couple of km, the mileage will be less than 5 and then it slowly starts to climb up as the distance increases and we are out of stop and go traffic.

I’m seeing similar numbers on my CVT Seltos Petrol. 6-7 kmpl, 95% city usage.
It’s just the name of the game with these automatics sometimes. Bumper to bumper traffic will bring any vehicle to its knees in terms of efficiency.

On a side note it truly helps to have a beater. I have been using my diesel Dzire whenever I have the energy to deal with the traffic. I usually opt for the Kia when I’m feeling beat and don’t want to add the strain of bumper to bumper 3 pedal driving. It’s not astronomically better tbh at 9-10kmpl but the higher mileage and lower cost of diesel definitely makes it feel a lot more economical even though in pure numbers it’s not that big of a difference.

I also took delivery of my XL6 Zeta AT on 22 march and just completed my first service. Post service, Drive to home of 23.87 KMs delivered me a FE of 16.02 kmpl. These numbers are for a drive in Himachal hills:)

See below stats from suzuki connect.