After traveling for 85 days and a total of 14.000 km, we finally finished our road trip and sold our car. But before starting the trip, we were curious about a few things:
- What would the performance of the car be?
- How much would the price of petrol change as we got into remote areas?
- How much would we be spending just on gas?
- Did we do an accurate estimation when planning?
In order to do that, every time we refilled I took note of:
- The number of kilometers we drove since the last refill.
- The price per liter.
- The number of liters we topped up.
To make it accurate, we would always fill up the tank fully and reset the kilometer counter in the odometer.
We drove a total 13,949.9 kilometers. In 33 times, we topped up 1,537 liters and spent a total amount of $2,595.89 (AUD).
Considering our road trip lasted 85 days, we drove an average of 164 kilometers per day. Honestly, driving became exhausting, mainly in the desert (from Darwin to Adelaide), where the distances were vast and the landscape unchanging. Somedays, we had to drive for 8 hours non-stop. But other than this leg of our trip, the rest did not feel like too much driving.
Price of fuel
We mostly used unleaded 91 from BP and Shell petrol stations. However, we tried a few times with unleaded 95 when it was not too expensive (We did notice a slightly better fuel economy). As we drove inland from Townsville towards Darwin, the prices would significantly raise and even most of the times we would only have the option of topping up unleaded 91.
Fuel Economy
In terms of fuel economy, the specs for our car Nissan X-Trail 2007 ST Manual T30 say it uses 9.6L/100km. However, there are many factors that impact on the fuel economy. Wind, type of driving, usage of aircon, having a rooftop tent on top, among others. Having said that, our average fuel economy would swing most of the times between 10L/100km and 11L/100km, having an average of 10.68L/km. However, sometimes we would go off this range as you can see below:
Interestingly, the best fuel economy we got was using unleaded 91. That day we were driving south Stuarts Highway to Adelaide with a powerful wind right behind our backs.
Considering that we had approximately 75 kilos extra on the roof (awning, rooftop and roof racks), we are happy with an average of 10.68L/100km, being that approximately only 10% extra of the factory specifications.
Unleaded + Ethanol 10
We tried this fuel once as it uses renewable ethanol (which is supposed to be more environmentally friendly), but halfway through the tank, the engine light came off due to a misfire. The fuel economy for this type of fuel resulted in 11.29L/100km. Even though most of the car engines are designed to work with this type of fuel, our car would not process it very well.
The dirty data
Below is the raw data that I had been collecting and used for the analysis:
Obviously, we don´t have the formula for the best fuel economy with this little experiment we did. However, driving with the cruise control on, between 100-110km/h, definitely helped. I would say though, that the fuel quality is one of the most relevant factor (if not the most important), which also helps to keep your car´s engine healthy. On top of that, we are more than happy with our car´s performance, which allowed us to enjoy OZ in the best possible way. We are looking forward though, to move on to the next stage, a road trip in New Zealand.
Outdoor Travel Addicts 