A rigorous round of real-world economy testing dubbed the ‘MPG Marathon’ has once again underlined the impressive fuel-efficiency of the new Honda Civic 1.6 i-DTEC.

In the test of 23 cars driven by independent journalists and company car drivers for Fleet World Magazine, the Civic recorded an excellent overall consumption figure of just 3.3 litres per 100km over the 590km route, the equivalent of almost 85mpg. It exceeded its official combined figure by some 8.12 per cent.

Organised by Fleet World magazine, the MPG Marathon is a tough event, with strong winds, long hill climbs and heavy traffic. Despite the conditions, the driver of the Civic steered to a podium place, thanks to both his own eco-driving skills and the no-compromise combination of performance and efficiency of the 1.6 diesel Civic.

Emmet Kavanagh, Marketing Manager at Universal Honda commented, "The fact that our Civic 1.6 i-DTEC diesel performed so strongly in the MPG Marathon illustrates the key benefit of our new Earth Dreams Technology to Irish drivers - fewer trips to the filling station than many similar sized competitor models. The results of the MPG Marathon come soon after a separate economy challenge by Fleet Car Magazine where Civic performed equally strongly on a mainly Motorway driving route between Dublin, Belfast and Cork."

The MPG Marathon is designed to be a true real world test that demonstrates the benefits to both the environment and the motorist’s pocket of employing simple, smarter driving techniques. Ross Durkin, Managing Editor of Fleet World Group and organiser of the MPG Marathon commented,"We aim to make the MPG Marathon as representative of everyday driving as possible. Some economy driving events have got a bit of a bad name with contestants crawling along and holding up the traffic, but that’s certainly not a criticism that can be leveled at this year’s MPG Marathon. The new ‘navigational scatter’ format meant that hardly any drivers took the same route."