MPG at 80-85

[Gordor]

80 mph Autoroute/Autobahn kills the mpg. I'd reckon you'd be lucky to see 45mpg. On my 1.6tdi bluemotion, the figure dips into the high 40s. On a long A road run, it gets 55 - 60 mpg.

Doesn't the 1.6tdi only have 5 forward gears though? That would make a massive difference on the motorway surely?

[monkeyhanger]

Agree to a point but the main factor at these sort of speeds is drag. I just did two 400 mile days from Barcelona to St Malo (on a scooter) and the motorway riding dropped the mileage per tank (at 80mph) from 160 to 120.

Aye, pushing through the air at 85mph is a lot harder than 60mph, but even so, my dad achieved 45mpg in his new GTD DSG at 85mph on a long journey under the worst of circumstances (aircon working hard, new car not run in, DSG has a greater penalty in fuel as it is geared lower than the manual). I think the OP can easily expect this at a minimum considering my dad's less than efficient cruising speed and the achilles heel of DSG economy (assuming he could be getting a manual).

That 1.6TDI (105PS I assume, not 90PS version which will be working even harder) will be working a lot harder to overcome the drag than the GTD, so a car doing 70% of it's potential output vs a car doing 40% of it's potential output (both probably outputting about 75PS to maintain that speed) will be a lot thirstier even though on paper it is 10% more efficient on the combined cycle.

[mcmaddy]

I've found the sweet spot on all of the diesel vag engines I've had is 82mph

[ajmoir36]

I have actually found peak mpg at 52mph (mk6 GTD)

[monkeyhanger]

I find the 2.0TDI has the least penalty for mpg at the higher cruising speeds. They are most efficient at 55-60mph, but the trade off above that to 80mph is relatively small. Sounds like the OP does a canny bit of high speed cruising, especially in Europe where he can take advantage of significantly cheaper diesel prices.

You'll be looking to 40mpg on a long trip at 80-85mph in a GTI and 60mpg on a GTD when they're run in (assumed manual transmission). It's up to the OP to decide whether they do the miles to consider the GTD a better buy for them for what they'll be looking to do with it.