First long trip GTD/DSG

[monkeyhanger]

My dad has just been on the phone. He was making full use of the ADC/cruise control on his 350mile journey back to Southampton.

He says that the seats are massively more comfy than the MK5 Golf ones and the carcan't be beaten as an effortless cruiser - it was almost driving itself until he left the M1 to go around Northampton>Oxford>Newbury>Winchester>Southampton.

He did note that in "Eco" mode, the car is monumentally slow to accelerate when the ADC has slowed you down for the car in front and it is then having you  catch up. Normal is much better, and Sport is better still. He also noted that the ADC doesn't really work until there is a car squarely in front of you. When a car is coming into your lane ahead of you, the ADC ignores it or  can't detect it until it is fully in your lane ahead of you and then decides whether or not to brake.

The ADC's set distance varies on speed - when you are going faster the gap opens up (doing it's version of the "2 second rule").

My dad had the car set to maintain 85mph on the motorways and had the aircon on to maintain 18C all the way down, spent about 2/3 of the journey in eco mode and the other 1/3 in normal (had a brief play in sport mode). The car did 45mpg average indicated (same as his MK5) vs 62.8mpg book. I do think the ADC/CC probably knocked about 5mpg off (the price of convenience - CC generally costs you 10% fuel economy), and those official figures will have been achieved without it activated. If I was doing the exact same journey maintaining 80mph manually (as I normally would doing the same journey, I would have probably got 55mpg). It's early days - the car is straight out of the box, though I have never seen miraculous improvements in mpg with running it. I reckon there maybe another 5mpg to be had the way my dad is going to drive it (he drives his cars harder than I do).

I do think that I should be able to crack 55-60mpg around the doors in my manual one and 65 on a longer journey. 45mpg in a DSG GTD (the way my dad drove it) is about the same as a few people are achieving in their 1.6TDI DSG Golf 7s (on another forum) by driving like a saint!

[mjh_056]

My A3 improved over first few months and then stabilised

Went on 300 mile round trip last week, a mix of Motorway, A roads and B roads in final stretch so a mix of high speed cruising and pushing through lanes and some town too and 48 MPG was the return - On motorway tomorrow and if take it easy will expect around 50 MPG.

Even if really pushing it around on relatively short journeys tend to get 40+

To be honest the 60+ MPG is not something aiming for, if stayed around same or maybe improve to that 55 MPG as an average you think is more likely then I will be very happy and with improved performance as a bonus.

My 2 x A3 over last 6 years have been the absolute perfect balance of economy and performance (which are both important to me) and expect the GTD to carry the mantle on with ease.

[monkeyhanger]

My dad isn't exactly an economical driver. My expectations of TDIs is to be able to maintain 80mph on a long dual carriageway/motorway journey and achieve the combined figure (in the summer at least).

If I had been driving that GTD the way I drive my car i'm sure i'd have easily beat 55mpg on the same journey and probably 58-60mpg in the manual one. Time will tell I suppose, I have a 2 month wait behind my dad.