On looking back through these records it is surprising how much diesel has gone up in price over the past 5 years from 59p per litrs in 2008 to £1.47 in 2012.  Please bear in mind that most of this fuel was purchased in France, some in Germany, Italy and where practical Luxembourg.  The March 2013 trip to Morocco we purchased fuel at a cost of 62p per litre.   The litres and miles however remain constant so the overall average MPG is correct at 21.22 MPG which for a mainly loaded 6000kg camper van at over 8mtrs long and 3.4 mtrs high isn’t bad.

The variations in MPG reflect the changes in weight, traffic and weather conditions.For example we experienced severe head winds in the Camargue region on our way up to Avignon resulting in a drop to around 17mpg.  Conversely on another occasion we had a tail wind for over 300 hundred miles and achieved 25+ mpg.  We have learnt over the years that head winds or tail winds have the most effect on fuel consumption, more so than changes in road speed.  Clearly if we put our foot down on the motorway and cruise at over 70 mph that has a marked effect whereas changes between 50 and say 65 mph don’t register much of and increase.  There are one or two other discrepancies where we weren’t able to completely fill up due to a pump cutting out and not giving more than €99 or something but this is balanced by the following fill up where there is a dip in consumption

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