Citroen C4 - Higher fuel consumption in sports mode
 

Hello everyone! My name is Marko, I am 27 years old, and I live in Sweden. Six months ago, I bought my first new car (before that, I had a second-hand Skoda Fabia.) I've never been a Citroen fan, but as soon as I saw the new C4 and tested it, I fell in love. And I still love that car to this day! :)

I have an automatic transmission (8 gears), and most of the time, I drive in eco mode, because I only rarely go on the highway. Average consumption is 6l/100km. On Saturday, when there was not so much traffic, I went out on the highway to test the sport mode, and the consumption went up to 9l/100km. Is it normal?

I had an old Skoda Fabia before with a manual transmission and no modes, so I'm completely new to this and would like to know why the car consumes more in sport mode. Obviously I won't use the sports mod much, but I'm still curious why the consumption is higher.

Hi Marko. Sports mode holds lower gears to give better acceleration at the expense of fuel economy. You wouldn't have driven your Fabia in 3rd and only occasionally 4th gear. That is what Sports does. Is there a setting between Eco and Sports?
Eco should give the best economy. That's why it is called Eco.

The different modes can also change the accelerator mapping. Sport mode will open up the throttle at a lower depression than Eco, for instance.

My apologies for such a delayed response! :) Well, this is something I am well aware of, however, when I stop at a red light, the car turns itself off (there is some kind of power-saving mode.) When it turns green again, and I take my foot off the brake pedal, the car starts by itself. What I was asking was if sport mode eats more gas and if so why. I like this mode, the car is more lively that way, but it really consumes a lot of gas.

There's no such thing as free lunch as they say. Moving the car quicker will require more energy, and that energy comes from burning fuel. Simple. My friend has this exact same car with the auto box, it seems very efficient, even driving pretty quick it returns 55 MPG.

It is possible to drive aggressively in Eco mode, and burn more fuel. Likewise, it is possible to not drive as such in Sport mode, and save fuel. Flooring the accelerator in either mode uses the same amount of fuel.

The main difference between the two modes is in how quickly pressing the accelerator opens up the throttle before reaching the floor. Sport opens it up faster, which encourages aggressive driving that uses more fuel.

I don't know how to make a fancy graph but here's the basic idea of how the choices work and why sports uses more fuel more quickly.

No expense spared! Eco-mode recycled paper

Waste not, want not. :)