Wow... got to be happy with this. Sadly had a death in the family recently and the funeral was yesterday down in the east of London (well Chingford in Essex). Filled the GTI to the brim with Tesco's finest momentum, and off we set from deepest darkest Cheshire. M6, A50, M1, M25, A10 all 206 miles each way (so 412 overall).
Now motorways were usually quite heavy with seamingly endless 50mph stretches (although very few hold ups), so the max I ever really got to was around 73mph, with 65-70 the norm, and as said, plenty of 50mph speed controlled areas (which the adaptive cruise control is great for). Only real delays were coming off the M25 and driving into Chingford on the A10 and A110 which was very heavy both ways with crawling traffic.
Driving mode set to individual (DCC - comfort, Engine - Normal, ACC - Sport, Engine noise - sport, Climate Control - Eco). Air-con on for about half the journey and 3 adults up in the car. Now considering my GTD would average about 56mpg over the same sort of journey, I'm staggered that the GTI came so relatively close (especially as it had only 1400 miles on it when I started the journey), and my car is running 19" alloys and the DSG gearbox.
Filled her back up just after the photograph was taken (2nd click of the pump) - £50.27 (£1.299 / litre) = 38.70l (8.513 gall) = a true MPG of 49.1 - so the computer is pretty accurate. Well happy. I didn't replace the GTD with the GTI for ultimate economy, but based upon those figures, I'm not giving up much. As I expected, (like the GTD), the GTI was a supreme long distance cruiser, and at each destination I got out with no leg or back ache at all. It really is a great all rounder and loving it more and more as the miles go on.
(please excuse fingerprints on the screen - it was a long journey with lots of screen touching
)