2 litre NA vs 1.4 Turbo Economy Test

Will the bigger car with a smaller turbo charged engine use less fuel over the same three journeys than the smaller car with the bigger engine but no turbo? Both cars have Petrol engines.

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00:00 The cars
00:28 MX5 Urban
10:10 MX5 70mph
14:53 MX5 Rural roads
17:47 Leon Urban
22:54 Leon 70mph
25:18 Leon Rural roads
29:11 Results

Bigger car but a smaller turbocharged engine smaller car but with a bigger engine that has no turbo but a sophisticated variable valve timing system and a higher compression ratio this one produces more torque but this one produces more power 0 to 62 mph 8.1 seconds 6.5 but which one uses less fuel I’m

Going to test the fuel economy of both both cars on Urban Roads with speed limits up to 40 mph on a dual carriageway with a speed limit up to 70 M hour and on Rural roads with a mix of 30 40 50 and 60 MPH speed limits it’s

Cold this morning and both are going to have a cold start so when I press that button and turn this engine on that’s it I can’t retake this cuz I only get one shot at a cold start and in this car and there’s that shot I must go now I

Must continue I can’t retake this uh 4° outside this car got a wait 10 seconds before I move according to the owner’s manual and I am going to follow that because that is the guidance so I think actually that is fair I know when the 10 seconds are up because the engine

Changes its sound there it is it’s done so I can get going now uh I’ve turned stop start off just out of habit I always do that I don’t use the stop start in this car so I’m going to be testing it without that the reason why I’m not using stop start

Is because it’s quite unrefined in this vehicle and as a result I don’t generally use it so I think it’s only fair that I do the test without using it also in the Layon I won’t be using stop start and that’s because in that car not only is it

Unrefined but it doesn’t work yes it turns the engine off and turns it back on again when I press the clutch down but if I don’t wait one to two seconds after the engine starts before moving away it stalls quite often it doesn’t seem to have any power the moment the

Engine switches on it seems to take a second or two for power to be there so I’ll start to move away I think oh yes I’m going then clun engine power dies and the engine turns off and I know I’m not the only one who experiences that

Problem with that particular car in that car one of the first things I do is turn that stop start button or switch the stop start system off I will be listening to the gearshift indicator on both cars not for acceleration if I’m speeding up I’m going around this round

About like now of course I’m not looking at that but if I’m cruising at a steady speed I will take its advice usually at 30 mph this car wants me in sixth gear at the moment it’s been asking only for fifth gear you ask now there you go

Asking me for fifth instead of sixth probably because it’s a cold start and it wants that lower gear whilst it warms up yes 6 is very high for 30 mph but all cars are different and this car asks for six and it seems to work fine it doesn’t

Struggle and it even goes up moderate Hills just because your revs are low that doesn’t mean you’re using less fuel because there’s two things to consider one is revs engine speed but the other is vehicle load or engine load the best way I can describe load is to imagine

Using a rowing machine on its lowest setting you can go really fast but then someone comes along and puts it on its higher setting suddenly that’s a lot harder you’ve got to go a lot slower and that’s like going upper gear in a car when you go upper gear that reduces your

Revs but it’s much harder for the engine to now turn the wheels which is why going upper gear doesn’t necessarily save your fuel it may but if the gear is too high for the situation you’ll actually use more fuel and that’s why many cars now have gearshift indicators

To tell you what the optimum gear is for your current speed and the hill that you’re on and how hard you’re trying to accelerate the coolant has some heat in it now it’s off the blue marker here so the heat is working and it’s actually blowing some nice warm air into my hands

That does feel good even though it is a cold day and there was some ice outside of my car as you can see before I got in it is a sunny day it’s quite a nice day but it does make filming hard because you get a lot of Shadows and when you’re

Going past trees you get flickering so I try my best to choose the camera that has the best image for that particular moment in time when I’m talking I’ve had this car just over 3 years now and just over 25,000 M yet I still enjoy it whether I’m driving it around town like

I am now driving at normal speeds or taking it on a track day I just like getting in it even just getting in it putting my seat belt on I feel like I’m in something special it’s probably the seating position but I think it’s also

When you drive it how it turns when you turn the wheel it doesn’t have the most amount of steering feel and if you come from something like a voxal vx220 or a Lotus at leise yeah they have a lot more steering feel it’s hard to explain why the car is so

Enjoyable it’s not like you can go oh it does not to 60 and this time or it’s got this top speed or it goes round the NBO ring and this time that’s why it’s good you can’t sum it up like that but it just brings a little bit of

Delight to my day when I drive it and even if I’m driving it slowly like I am now I enjoy it for both cars I’m not going to drive them in a particularly economical way yes I’m going to drive them sensibly which is going to be fairly economical but I’m not going to

Try and do special Eco driving tips and try to avoid the brakes as much as possible I’m just going to drive normally accelerate and slow down with the flow of traffic and change gear the way I’d normally do and take the gear shift indicator device if I am cruising

Like I am now it told me sixth gear is the best gear so I’ve put it into sixth and that’s probably going to be giving me the best economy for the speed which the moment constant economy says 73 MP gallon and the average at the moment is

37.2 which is pretty good I’ve got the climate control set to 21° C with the air conditioning on and I’ll do the same in the L if you’re wondering why I have the air conditioning on even though it’s 3° C outside and as because in these cars I leave the air conditioning on

Permanently that does not mean the air conditioning compressor is running it’s automatic it will only switch itself on and off as it needs to and as it’s so cold outside it’s not going to be switching itself on much but it’s good to leave it on I like to use the auto

System so that it can cycle the compressor every so often just a little bit just to keep it working so that come the summer months it hasn’t seized up also if it does start to rain it can help reduce the Mist that appears on the Windows keeps the

Windows clear gives me good visibility the reason why you should allow this car to run for 10 seconds after a cold start before you actually drive it is because it has a long exhaust manifold and therefore the catalytic converter is further from the engine so the engine

Has to try harder to heat up the catalytic converter and it does that by delaying the spark which puts more heat into the exhaust the trouble is when it’s doing that the gas pedal becomes like an onoff trigger it’s very hard to manage so it’s

Hard to drive you can drive it but it’s not nice if you wait 10 seconds until the tone of the engine changes then it becomes normal to drive again the owner’s manual says I should wait 10 seconds and that is why I waited 10 seconds although it does say that you’re

Not allowed to do that in Germany many cars these days need a petrol particulate filter to pass emission standards and go on sale but this car doesn’t have one and that’s because it’s clean enough without one and that says a lot about this 2 L Sky Active G engine

It runs clean enough that it doesn’t need that extra filter in the exhaust that many cars these days have 8.2 miles in so 8.3 it’s about halfway through this journey now and it’s 4 42.7 MP gallon despite the cold start I’m very impressed with that okay so

Coming up to the end of the urban drive now saying 15 miles and 44.8 M per gallon so I’m going to pull over first and then record and right down the fuel economy after I’ve actually stopped I’ll try and stop in the same place in

The lay on or was close to the same place as possible very close to the Dual carriageway now that’s the advantage of coming here as I can jump straight on the 70 mph Road okay so that’s parked and it says 44.8 MP gallon 15.1 mil well I’ve done

These economy tests before and my Urban route was 16 miles so I must have done a slightly different route this time I couldn’t remember the exact route that I did it’s been a while since I’ve done one so I’ve obviously changed it a bit but I’m going to do the same route for

The lounge so it is going to be a comparison between these two cars over the exact same route so trip computer has been reset again and I’m heading towards the 70 mph Road it’s 30 at the moment when I get to the National Speed liit sign I’ll be able to

Accelerate not up to 70 looking at the traffic whatever speed I do on this run though I’m going to try and keep it the same in the L so if I can’t do 70 much I won’t do 70 much in the L at the moment I’m

Doing 50 m hour matching the speed of the traffic in the major road and merging maybe it’s just a busy pocket because it’s coming out of a 50 Zone there there Road Works behind me and hopefully it will clear up soon but either way I’m going to try and keep the

Speed about the same in both cars move lane two now at 60 yeah I think I should be able to do 70 soon when it clears up a bit I’ve been very lucky so far I’ve done 15.9 mil and most of that has been at 70

Mph at the start of the Dual carriageway I was stuck doing 50 60 for about a minute or two but then it cleared up I had the cruise controll and at 70 mph and I was able to stick to that most of the way not not done yet though but so far

48.3 m per gallon the reason why I’m using the trip computer instead of the fill tank method is because in my experience when you’re only covering around about 20 M the fuel tank method is highly inaccurate and that’s because you’re only using about 2 L of

Fuel so if you’re pump clicks off half a liter earlier or half a liter later than the last time you filled up which they do they’re not always the same that completely ruins the result you’re talking a half a liter discrepancy out of 2 L that’s a big difference the trip

Computer is more reliable in this situation where I’m doing short distances if you’re using 45 L that half a liter difference makes a small difference and you get quite an accurate reading but I’ve owned this car for 3 years and my lay on for 10 years and

I’ve done the FI tank method in both many times in fact in the Layon I’ve done it over 600 times I think 650 times and I have a very good idea of how accurate the trip computer is in this car it tends to tell me I’ve got about 1

Mile gallon better than I actually have and I’ll make a note of that later when I do the results but in the Layon that’s more interesting for the first 100,000 miles it used to tell me I got two or three more mes per gallon than I actually did by 100,000 mil it was

Accurate what it said I got I got and now the car has over 200,000 mil on the clock it’s a bit pessimistic it tells me I’ve got 35 m per gallon but actually when I work out I’ve got closer to 38 it seems to under is that under yeah under by 2

To 3 MP gallon so when I do the results I’ll tell you what the trip computer says but also I’ll tell you what I think it actually did based on my experience I’ve returned to Lane one now cuz I’m about to leave that was a really good

Run on the 70 mph Road I managed to stay at 70 with the cruise control on for a long time 49.4 MP gallon so so far now let’s try not to miss my exit because I haven’t got it on the sa now but I know it’s here somewhere and

It is a small one I can see the white sign now it’s not much of a slow down Lane here so you do have to slow down a bit before you leave the road and then do the rest in the slow down Lane and people often crash into

This wall that’s in front of me there so I have a place where I take the measurement I’ll get there I’ll stop and when I stop that is the reading I’m going to use so I usually pull up just on the right here cuz usually there’s

Another car on the right and a part behind it but it’s not one today and what does it say 23.2 M and 49.9 MP gallon now it’s time for the Country Roads there’s been an accident and the road is blocked so I’m not able to do my normal country route but it

Doesn’t matter I can find an alternative route I found one here I’m going to reset the trip computer now and I’ll do the same route in both cars so it should be fine just a different route to normal and the satav says it’s going to be 13

Mil the route that the satav found around the car accident included a lot of 30 mph road so I’ve modified it slightly I’m going to do the same route in both cars so it doesn’t matter that it is different but it’s going to longer than I said it was just because I want

More 60 roads and the the route that the satin have found included a lot of 30 rows it was closer to an urban Drive than a rural route drive so this one’s going to be more accurate in terms of staying closer to 60 more of the time

Which is what I’m doing now about 58 M hour there’s going to be some 30s in it I’ve just gone through a 50 mph section as well but a lot of this now is 60 MPH all the way back I’m not revving the engine hard I’m changing up at about 2

To 3,000 RPM but I am making the most out of the speed limit when it’s safe to do so I really don’t know which car is going to be more economical they both seem to be about the same to me although I think this one may be 2 or three miles per gallon

Better on all of them actually in urban driving at 70 miles now and on the country roads this always seems to be just that little bit more economical than that 1.4 L turbo it is a different car though so that does make a difference as well this weighs a bit

Less and it’s smaller so it doesn’t take so much energy to push it through the air okay so that’s the end of the country route 15.6 mil currently displaying 46.1 MP gallon I’ll park up and when I’ve parked up that will be the the end result I had to drive a little

Bit slower than I would usually drive on these roads and that’s because the conditions today aren’t great Sun bits were dry and I was able to make full progress and do 60 MPH but the wet bits and the slipperier bits some bits were a bit icy I had to go a little bit

Slower and unfortunately it’s not the same route um as usual so you won’t be able to compare this to other videos I’ve done with different cars because I couldn’t do the same route simply because of that accident so finished 45.9 MP gallon 15.6 mil now I need to do

The same test in the Layon and do it quick before the kids get out of the schools and block the roads up I just watched back the footage of the cold start on the Mazda and it actually took closer to 20 seconds before I could start driving it before the engine

Changes its tone and the gas pedal becomes manageable before that point the gas pedal is it’s like an onoff switch press it a little bit the revs go vom they fly up the owner’s manual says 10 seconds but it is a particularly cold day today so it’s probably why it took

Longer and I was thinking should I do the same thing in the Layon and I was like no I shouldn’t this car doesn’t require that so why should this car have that disadvantage but the trouble is I made a mistake and that mistake was I forgot to

Reset the trip computer on the Mazda before the cold start I reset it at the end of the car park so it had about 30 seconds of running before I actually reset that trip computer so it wasn’t a true cold start I want the test to be as

Fair as possible comparing the same drive so I will do the same thing in this Layon I’ll start it run it for 20 seconds drive to the end of the car park then I will reset the trip computer it’s not as good of a test as I would have

Liked it cuz I would like to see the difference between the cold start on the Mazda compared to this but at least for the majority of the drive it’s going to be more fair so let’s make sure my seat’s in a good position and I’ll get my stopwatch up

I’ll start it where are we now there it is start 20 seconds I’ll start mov moving I’ll get to the end of the car park I’ll reset the trip computer and the test starts there I have taken my learner hat off that’s the the roof box

With the L plates because that does make a difference to fuel economy I’m not sure how much I would guess 5 mil to the gallon at Motorway speeds and not much at Urban speeds maybe that’s an idea for a video also I will be following the gearshift indicator on this car as well

I figured out why the urban route was one mile shorter than it usually is for the other tests I’ve done and it’s because I missed out a little loop around town I didn’t go down uh scent Bott I believe it’s called so that missed off about a mile doesn’t matter

Though I’m going to do the exact same route in this car it just means that you can’t use this video to compare uh this car with other cars in other videos which is a bit annoying I’d rather all the routes be the same across the videos but that’s

Hard to do and with the car collision on the country road that range rver is getting close with the car collision on the country road it meant I wouldn’t have been able to do that route anyway so that one was out of my hands whereas the urban route that was my

Error these two cars are very different the MX5 is designed for fun this car is designed to be comfortable and practical maybe a little bit of fun in there as well when I’m driving the MX5 I don’t feel uncomfortable I’m quite happy but when I step out of that and get into

This like I just have done back to back I realize how much more comfortable this seat is this driving position is how much smoother the suspension is and how much easier it is to change gear smoothly whereas when I get out of the this car and back into the MX5 I’m not

Thinking about Comfort I just realize how much more fun that one is to drive this is where on the other videos where I’ve done the urban route I would turn right at these traffic lights and go around town a bit but as I didn’t when I

Was driving Mazda I’m not going to with this car coming to the end of the urban drive now traffic’s been similar maybe a little bit worse in the Layon so far it’s saying 40.2 m per gallon which I think is worse than the Mazda although I

Can’t quite remember so I have to check when I stop I try and stop in the same place which was near this shop there is a space for me there so I’ll stop just after this white van I reversed in the Mazda as well when I pulled over that

Exactly the same place I think aha well I wanted the reverse but a car is pulled in behind me so I think what I’ll do is I’ll go forwards up behind this car just park in the next space there we go so what we got then 40.1 miles per gallon I don’t

Know what the Mazda was actually I think it was just over 40 let’s have a look wrote down wo 44.8 in the Mazda so I’ll write this one down and I’ll get to the 70 mph roads where this car is better than the MX5 is on the these roads on

Fast roads because it’s so much quieter in here and the sporty character of the MX5 doesn’t shine on a dual carriageway also because this engine has a lot more torque if I’m in Top Gear and floor the throttle say at 50 or 60 MPH it accelerates to 70 right now for

Example there you go to 70 quite quickly much more quickly than the MX5 does so I haven’t timed it but it certainly feels more quick I’ve been quite lucky actually because on the Dual Carriage race today I’ve managed to stay at 70 mph most of the time on both trips I’m not finished

Yet but I haven’t got long to do I’ve been going between Colchester and chelsford and then back to Colchester again I turn around at the roundabout Borum interchange in chelsford but yes I’ve been able to do 70 mph on the cruise control most of the time I haven’t had many elephant races I

Think the one I was just stuck behind just then was the first elephant race have been stuck behind coming to the end of the Dual Carriage race section now I don’t actually go all the way back to Colchester I come off here at Silver end and then do some country road driving so

Still at 70 mph so far 44.5 MP gallon can’t remember remember what the MX5 was I think it was similar so I’m starting to slow down signaling now to leave here short slip Road it’s down to about 50 on the main road here and then finish off the slowing

Down in the slow down Lane okay I’ll get parked up and we’ll see what the result is I think it is similar but bear in mind the economy on this car the trip computer under reads so so although it says 45 that would usually mean it’s got 47 but

I’ll get that I’ll get to that later at the end of the video I’ll do that I’ll compare what the trip computer says compared to what I think it’s actually got so 45 miles to the gallon so this is the same country road as last time in the

Same spot reset the trip computer there we go and let’s get going in the MX5 I left the climate control on auto with the air conditioning on and it’s set to 21° C I’m doing the same thing in this car but I have it set to 20° C and

That’s not because I want it to be cooler that’s because I find 20 in this car is about the equivalent to 21 22 in the Mazda they’re not all the same climate control systems if you ask for 20 it doesn’t mean you actually get 20

You get somewhere near 20 in fact in the Corolla I usually end up having that on 22 and 1/2 or 23 to feel the same way as I do in this car maybe that’s an idea for a video maybe I should compare how uh warm or what temperature

You actually get from climate control systems when you ask for a set temperature I’m sure they’re all different I reckon they’re within 2 to 3° of each other probably not many people will be interested in that that is very geeky but I’ll be honest I’d be interested

This is where I miss the Mazda MX5 when the road gets a bit windy and you have to speed up and slow down often that’s where the suspension and the snickety gearshift of the MX5 starts to really make sense it’s not bad in this

Car in the same way the MX5 is not bad on the motorway and it’s not bad around town but it’s not really great either this car isn’t great on these roads but the MX5 is although I am in a 30 at the moment this is a very short 30

Through great wig bur and where am I at the moment 40.9 mil per gallon we’ll see how that compares when we finished back into the national speed limit Zone I’m driving very calmly and sedately I’m not revving the engine too much the same as what I was doing in the MX5 but even

Though in that car I was driving it in the same way I was driving this one not revving the engine and really exploiting the chassis still more fun in that car even at this speed this is where I got to start to be a little bit careful when the road gets

Shaded can be a little bit damp 2 and 1 12° so there is Poss possible it could be a bit icy so on bits of road like this I am taking it easy it’s much easier to just stay in a high gear in this car though there’s no real need to

Change down from six most of the time CU so much torque that when you put your foot on the gas it just goes up to that speed regardless or whether or not I change down a gear so finishing up the country drive now 40.5 m per gallon don’t remember what that was in

The MX5 but you’ll find out very soon I’ll take the reading when I finish parking just to make it fair me I park over there and MX5 a park here it’s couple of car lengths away not going to make any difference although if I got it in first

Di it would so I did have to make an adjustment with the last one because it’s kind of impossible to park the MX5 but this one I usually getting first time just messed up a little bit yeah where I par the MX5 you got to reverse

Twice to make it around that wall but this one there was no excuse anyway end result 40.3 MP gallon now I’m going to round up the figures I’m very pleased with the runs I managed to keep them similar on the 70 mph roads I was able to maintain 70 most of the

Time through the Urban Roads the on did get a bit more traffic but not much difference and on the country road that I eventually got to do because I had to change my plans due to an accident again there wasn’t much traffic I was able to

Do the speed I wanted to do which was a bit slower than usual because of the conditions you can see ice in some places at the side of the road still CU it has been cold all day I’m filming this on the 16th of January and that if you

Remember was a particularly cold one so figures here we go claimed figures first and then I’ll put the adjusted figures up on screen afterwards MX5 Urban that was 44.8 but the Layon on the urban road was 40.1 70 mph MX5 49.9 the Layon on the 70 M and our roads was

45 on the country roads the MX5 was 45.9 but the L was 40.3 so quite a difference there the MX5 is claiming to be much more economical than this car but the trip computer on the MX5 is actually quite accurate usually very close it does overread a little bit but not by

Much it’s this car that’s the problem this under reads so I’m going to adjust the figures now I’m going to take one mile per gallon off of the MX5 figures and add two 2 m per gallon to the lon which I think I probably could add a bit

More for the lon but I’m going to leave at two sometimes is a bit less than two sometimes it’s a bit more sometimes it’s even three but I think two is probably about right so that’s a a closing I’m closing the Gap by three miles per

Gallon here by taking one off of the MX5 and adding two to the L yet still the MX5 is a bit more economical so urban road MX5 43.8 Layon 42.1 um 70 mph roads MX5 48.9 Layon 47 and on the Country Roads MX5 44.9 Lon 42.3 so the MX5 was more

Economical on all of those roads I haven’t found the economy of this car get any worse in the 10 years years or it be 10 years in a couple of weeks I’ve got this on the 1st of February 2014 it’s now the 16th of January 2024 I haven’t found that real world fuel

Economy has got any worse it seems to be about the same what’s changed is the trip computer and I have tested it as I said earlier many times over 600 times I have a furly account which is like this online website where you put in how many

Liters and how many miles you’re done it works out your actual fuel econom and I’ve done that religiously every time since I’ve owned this car for this car I haven’t done it for the MX5 can’t go that far and do it for multiple vehicles but I’ve done it for

This car I still do it now I don’t remember what I’m up to I think it might be 650 fups but I’m very used to what I actually get from that test filling up the tank checking the miles of field tank method compared to the trip computer I think one of the reasons

Why the the MX5 is more efficient though is because it’s a bit lighter I can’t remember the weight exactly from memory this is 1,211 kilos I’m pretty sure of that actually and the MX5 I think is 1,50 but I’m not 100% sure on that I’ll put it on

Screen the Layon and the MX5 but the other difference as well is that the MX5 is smaller I don’t know the drag coefficient which is the shape of the car how good it is at going through the air based on its shape but but I can see

With my own eyes that the L is a bigger vehicle it takes up more room therefore it has a bigger frontal area that is trying to get through the air and that will make a difference so that’s going to be against the L here and a plus for

The MX5 so which engine is more efficient I don’t think there’s much in it I think they’re basically the same I’d be interested to see both these vehicles on exactly the same sorry both these engines on exactly the same vehicle and a scientific test cuz I think they’re

They’re very similar one gives you a sporting Drive the other gives you low down torque and ease of use well I hope you found this video interesting if you did please give it a thumbs up and if you’re looking for car insurance check out the links to Collingwood and

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