Despite the car already being launched in 2012, Peugeot had the pie-in-the-sky idea for a 208 economy run where the winner would win the use of a 208 for a few months. Ever since I started motoring journalism I’ve enjoyed economy driving. At the beginning of one’s career you’re keen to drive all the most powerful cars in the fleet, but you don’t have any money to pay for the fuel. So you need to harness each cars economy potential as best as possible in between the fast bits where you have fun on the track or a mountain pass.
I’ve been known to return some pretty phenomenal fuel economy figures in any manner of cars from commercial vehicles to high powered sports cars and I’ve driven a BMW 520d for TopCar Magazine, from Cape Town to Johannesburg on one tank of fuel. But of course if you’re talking fuel economy, one yearns to do the same in a small capacity, light weight, vehicle where you can relish an impressive final fuel economy figure. At the end of the day, good driving is efficient driving and who doesn’t want to be as good a driver as they can be, with the prospect of winning the attentions of a 208?
The forthright authority on economy in South Africa used to be the Total Economy Run, held annually to find the most fuel efficient car and performers in each class of car. The competition won’t run this year due to Total’s lack of sponsorship, but I made sure to still pair up with the Total Economy Run defending champion, Jeanette Kritzinger, who made a big impression on the competition last year in the small Peugeot 107. So, with the dream team sorted, we just needed to let the little three-cylinder Peugeot 208 1.2 VTi do the rest. It is a perfect car for the job.
The little 208 is built with a fanatical attention to weight saving and uses 25% recyclable / green material. The entire rear bumper is recyclable and these small details mean the new 208 with the three cylinder engine and side, driver, passenger airbags, air-conditioning, electric windows, trip computer and ABS weighs only 976 kg. That’s just 1 kg more than the 206 from the 1990’s.
It’s the new, 21 kg lighter engine under the 208’s bonnet that stars in the 208 economy show. The new 1.2 litre VTi, normally aspirated, three-cylinder petrol motor produces 60 kW and 118 Nm of torque, 104 g/km CO2 and will return a claimed 4.5L / 100km on a combined cycle. The 1.2 VTi will only get to 100 km/h in 12.2 seconds but the way it performs speaks louder than the figures suggest.
The day of the Peugeot 208 economy run, we were greeted with typically poor Western Cape weather. Damn. To win this was going to take even more concentration than normal and I didn’t want to let my esteemed driving partner down because if I did, it would be obvious to all-and-sundry who was the weak link in the economy chain.
When going on an economy run such as this, there is one scientific law you need to adhere to: inertia. Keeping the vehicle going with enough uninterrupted momentum is the key to good fuel economy. This involves; much like high performance driving, keeping your eye far on the horizon (not just a few car lengths in front of you) and making good choices accordingly. A car merging into the slow lane 500m in front of you can rob you of valuable momentum.
Picking up speed downhill and using less throttle uphill is key; as does long in gear runs into traffic stops. Slapping the car into neutral and freewheeling down hills isn’t as efficient as staying in gear and performing the same action. Although the Peugeot 208 drive was aimed primarily at economy, one couldn’t insure an open road, so when encountered with stop/start traffic, rain, wind, fog and road works, one always has to try ones best to stay in the highest gear possible without stalling.
Pulling off from a stationary stop at traffic lights is obviously the biggest user of fuel, so a good technique to keep from over revving is to take note of what revs the car is using at a comfortable highway saunter of between 80 km/h – 100 km/h in top gear. In the case of the 208, 90 km/h ticked over at just 2 000 r/min in fifth gear, so 2 500 r/min would be my rev limit in any gear.
Economy driving is a mental challenge too. Sure, you’re not going to win any traffic light drag races, but the DHL guy up your backside isn’t paying for his fuel and he sure as hell doesn’t have the chance to win a 208, so hold him up, who cares, he’ll have to get past in his own time.
Don’t ever waste any natural momentum the car has, even around turns. If you can hold a turn at 90 km/h, 100 km/h or 120 km/h then you should be going that fast. Going down mountain passes on an economy run can be fun as a result. I found the 208 lacked cornering grip in the wet, so the only braking I did was left foot braking to ensure the nose tucked-in on the down run of Franschhoek Pass. Good lines and steering inputs work to maximise economy too.
In the 208, I found the most efficient highway cruising speed to be around 90 km/h, either side brought the tank range down ever so slightly more. But when you’re so close to the edge of a cars best fuel consumption it’s also fascinating to see how exterior influences can play with the figures. Even the road surface plays a major part. Based on the density of the mixture of road surface concrete and gravel, the tyre noise created is a good indication how much extra friction there is. Something you also can’t help but notice in Cape Town is the way wind effects your consumption, especially a strong head wind.
As far as the final result goes, we don’t know who won the Western Cape leg yet. Our economy run had four marshal points where late arrival docked competitors vital points. The route also had tasks, clues and general knowledge questions that made up a portion of the overall winning tally. Jeanette and I arrived at each marshal point exactly on time thanks to some rather fast driving at times.
Although Peugeot claim the 208 1.2 VTi returns 4.5L / 100 km in ideal conditions, our 208’s trip computer said we’d averaged 5.9 L/100 km in the rainy, windy, traffic heavy conditions, over more than 200 km. Often the refuel figure is less than the trip computer reading. Was that enough? We wait with baited breath to hear the final result.
