Couple sets fuel economy standard in Jeep SUVs
5 Mar, 2008
32 Comments 
As you may recall “fuel economy enthusiasts” John and Helen Taylor are the husband and wife team who successfully drove a Peugeot 308 HDi into the record books.
Well now Jeep has thrown down the gauntlet, lending the duo a Jeep Compass and Jeep Patriot to complete a fuel efficiency challenge and set new standards for fuel economy in an SUV.
Both were standard production vehicles equipped with the 2.0-litre turbo-diesel engines, carrying two people and their luggage.
The Jeep Compass and Jeep Patriot drove from London to Berlin on a single tank of fuel - then kept going.
“We drove on normal roads at realistic speeds with two people and their luggage on board and the traffic and weather conditions weren’t favourable at all – cold with many traffic jams,” he said. “We used simple fuel economy driving techniques that any driver could replicate.”
In total the marathon 21-hour drive covered 1,124kms and six countries on a single tank, returning a fuel consumption figure of 4.25L/100km was the Jeep Compass driven by Helen Taylor and her passenger.
Husband John managed to better this figure, with a final consumption figure of just 4.18L/100km in his Jeep Patriot.
Location: Home / Jeep, Diesel, Fuel News / ...
Rate Post: 
(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
Loading ...
-
Print it:
March 5th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
*****PRIMO!*****
FFS do a story on this couple and find out all the tricks and skills required to improve our MPG while driving.
Cheers
F-0
(Report)
March 5th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
LOL!
Every time i hear Patriot i think of Parrot!
Seems the wife knows all the thricks, maybe she could hang around with my wifey and teach here a few.She has no idea on how to drive smooth and economic-style, she does drive and park ok though!
Cheers
F-0
(Report)
March 5th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
now we just need this sought of economy in larger 4WD’s… landcruiser, patrol, prado…. so I can stay off road longer!!
(Report)
March 5th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
so where are these so called easy tips every driver can use?
(Report)
March 5th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Good on them, i’ve had a good feelling about the Patriot but with all the doom sayers predicting it would be a lemon i had taken it off my short list for my next purchase, but i think that because i’m still a couple of years away from buying again i’ll keep an open mind about it and continue to keep my eyes open for “OWNER real world” reviews to see if the build quality becomes an issue??? Because that little VW diesel doesn’t need too prove it’s self any more than it already has in many other cars!!
(Report)
March 5th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Another nail in the Hybrid coffin thk goodness.
(Report)
March 5th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
I am the owner of a Jeep Patriot and i would have to say that the economy out of its 2.0lt turbo diesel is pretty amazing! (i understand that it is from VW)On highway runs I manage to get 5.9L per 100k, and with pure city I average 7.5L and with combined driving it gets around 6.8L. It is more economical than my VW golf, previous veichle! I must say that the car suits my needs as i carry alot of cargo (light weight) and is easy enough to park and drive in the city. It looks like a Tonka truck and sounds like one too… The major faults with the car is its crap stereo, and cheap looking plastic interior - although is proving to be quite hard wearing - it sort of suits the Tonka truck look. It runs rings around every other SUV in terms of usable space, practicality and ECONOMY. At the end of the day, thats what a car like this should be for. Not the best car ive owned, but certainly not the worst..
(Report)
March 5th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Thanx Jaycar, Your opinions are the most valued because you have lived with the patriot day to day and will know better than a reviewer what the car is like to live with!!
Just out of curiosity is yours the limited cos thats the one i’ve been considering??
(Report)
March 5th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
It’s refreshing to see that the claimed fuel consumption for the Patriot is more than acheivable because Toyota claims that my wifes Yaris yrs auto consumes 6.7ltrs/100k’s and in the real world use it’s more like 10ltrs in the city and 7.2 in the highway so i’m really p*ssed off at Toyota for that fraudulent claim and that’s why i want real life fuel consumption figures before i buy my next car!!!!!
(Report)
March 5th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Yes Realcars another nail in the coffin… we will just ignore the fact diesel isnt a long term solution, that Diesels have even worse emissions then petrol and last but not least, forget the fact that not only are oil reservces decreasing rapidly, but that Diesels require 25% more oil than regular petrol to make the same amount of useable fuel.
(Report)
March 5th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, how slow were they going to get such amazing figures? Bet that wasn’t part of their media release.
(Report)
March 5th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
TP, I’ve been told diesel is basically a detergent and cheaper to make than petrol????
Also heard anyone can make diesel at home from used cooking oil???
and also heard that BENZINE in petrol is one of the nastiest toxins around????
are all these claims wrong????
(Report)
March 5th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Is it me or are those Jeeps just plain ugly.
TP - your talking nonsense. where did you get that info from, i’d be interested to read it myself. Did you ever see the Top Gear programme where they ran a Volvo on used cooking oil. You’re just bitter that Toyota don’t make a decent competative diesel engine.
(Report)
March 5th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Diesel engines are far more versatile in terms of what they can run on. I think u will find modern diesels are cleaner than petrol engines. Amazing what has been achieved so far as diesel engines have been the poor cousin in the past.
(Report)
March 5th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Hey Carl, Mine is the sport. The limited had very limited extras (excuse the pun) for the $5K premium (stacker cd, leather, driving lights thats about it). They look identical on the outside. Plus the leather was so cheap and nasty i think it was pig ear or raccoon scrotum….
Ps No Name, its funny, but the Jeep actually gets quite a few positive looks, blokes especially like the masculine look, and its retro feel. I get asked quite often if its a private import. Some of the new smooth soft designed 4×4 SUV’s look sooo dated once a faclift occurs, whereas Jeeps, as boxy as they may be, seem to stay true to their origins and therefore shape. But as they say, its all in the eye of the beholder…
(Report)
March 5th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Thanks Jaycar…. reccoon scrotum…LOL, I found the clutch very sticky on my test drive and stalled it a couple of times and the sales man tried to make me feel inadequate so i won’t de buying at that dealer!!
No Name, i think you have to like Jeeps to like the patriot, i didn’t pay much attention to Jeeps until i got the oportunity to restore a 1947 Jeep willys stationwagon overlander (that was the full name) and got bitten by the Jeep bug…. but like jaycar said “looks are in the eye of the beholder” if they were’nt no one would be buying the latest Subaru’s and the guy that dicided to build the Ssanyong Stavic would have been hanged from his balls!!!
(Report)
March 5th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
^^^^^^^ Sorry meant Raccoon ^^^^^^^^^
(Report)
March 5th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
I am just amazed that they made it to Berlin without anything falling off.
(Report)
March 5th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Regarding what I said earlier, google…. you will get 1000s of hits. It takes 25% more oil to make Diesel, until lol they start running it on cooking oil, its not a viable solution. Hydrogen is the way, followed by Electric, then Hybrid and 1000km behind… Diesel
(Report)
March 5th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
The first thing you said that i totally agree with… Hydrogen is definately the way…… But until our goverments find a way to tax it and multinationals find a way to monopolise it we won’t get Hydrogen any time soon so in the mean time diesel and even better diesel hybrid will have to do!!!!
(Report)
March 5th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Even Hydrogen has its problems, The production of Hydrogen fuel involves huge amount of energy from traditional fossil sources (or Nuclear which Australia has none), I honestly don’t know the extent but don’t kid yourself that its a totally green way forward its not, just better than diesel, hybrid and the moment.
(Report)
March 5th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
No Name, i think that Hydrogen will be made from sea water using solar, wind and tidal energy or all three combined to produce the electricity needed to make the hydrogen…my 14 year old son made hydrogen at home last week from salt water and a 12 volt battery for a school project!! also theres a guy that claims that he can make hydrogen on demand with radio waves this would mean puting water in the tank and the car producing the hydrogen on the request of your accelerator pedal. (google hydrogen on demand)
It all sounds science fiction but once the oil runs out and the oil barrons lose their power these technologies will have to take off. Or maybe i’m being too naive???
(Report)
March 6th, 2008 at 12:14 am
I recently read an article in a magazine about hydrogen. Hence my limited knowlegde. I’m no boffin but if it was that easy it would have been done ages ago. With respect to the renewables Australia are not exactly going forward with this are they!
(Report)
March 6th, 2008 at 12:25 am
Yes NM i’m ashamed to say that our coal and uranium miners are a too powerfull lobby group and our spineless politicians won’t take them on or rock the boat… too many potential votes to lose!! But i must say that we are embarrassingly slow to produce zero emissions electricity in this great but (not perfect) country.
Also geothermal or (hot rocks) is an option that we are dragging our feet on!!!
(Report)
March 6th, 2008 at 12:27 am
^^^^^^sorry No Name meant Nn ^^^^^^^^^
(Report)
March 6th, 2008 at 1:20 am
Not signing the Kyoto treaty was apoor move, my limited knowledge is that its purely on the ground of economics, its easier and cheaper and better for the economy to bury ones head and dig out the lovely brown coal. Mind you we do still have a few small coal mines and we import millions of tonnes of coal from Europe. mayby blighty isn’t so good after-all.
(Report)
March 6th, 2008 at 1:31 am
Kevin Rudd has already signed Kyoto!! it was one of the first things on his “things to do list”…. Don’t get me wrong i’m not knocking coal miners they do a hard days work and they get payed well too but we now know that burning coal is a poison for our atmosphere so we should have the guts to fase out those jobs or our grand kids will pay the price for our greed!!
(Report)
March 6th, 2008 at 1:48 am
One final comment and i got to go to bed, In 50 years most of us who are alive now will be dead and in 100 years all of us will be dead and that’s around the time that SH*T will start hitting the fan as far as climate change is concerned so why bother?????
Well we should bother because we are decent people and we have to try and leave this fish bowl as clean as possible for our decendants even the ones that will be born after we die deserve our respect!!!
(Report)
March 6th, 2008 at 2:06 am
Oh my god Carl, we got a bit heavy there but I entirely agree with you.
(Report)
March 6th, 2008 at 2:12 am
Nn, From what i’ve seen you write on this wed site in the past i knew you would agree…. OK good night it’s 3am in Sydney and i got to go.. Cheers mate!!!
(Report)
March 6th, 2008 at 8:22 am
I want a cleaner, greener future, but to get hydrogen you need water…. and aren’t we in a drought???
Doesn’t seem like the way forward to me at the moment.
I have met people who have cars running on water, however the amount of energy required to convert water to hydrogen, plus the chemicals(acids) required to be added to the water to conduct a sufficient electrical current to complete the conversion are quite unrealistic at the moment..
(Report)
March 6th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
australia wont have green electricity anytime soon. you cant tell me the government or the multi billion dolar mining companies would continually open up new coal mines as they are to this day if it was about to put the brakes on the operations.
why not try and offset some of your emissions? wouldnt that be a more achievable target than aiming for zero emissions?
its all a big joke any way if you ask me.
im still yet to see some proof that shows the earth is actually warming.
also increased co2 in the atmosphere can be good for the environment from what ive read
so why does the government want to tell us the sky is falling in?
so they can scare the hell out of us into paying silly “enviro taxes” and the rest of the associated control measures they want to implement.
it is exactlly what they did with the drought in implementing more control over us by using scare tatics to get us to follow the tune
(Report)