I asked my garage about this and the mechanic said that modern vw / audi engines weren't as 'tight' as they used to so there was less friction and therefore more efficient / lower emissions but as a side effect more oil was being consumed. Made sense to me...
Actually, it is the opposite really. Modern VAG engines (and again, most European engines, including Mercs and Beemers) are made to much
tighter tollerances. However, due to these tighter tollerances, the cylinder bores are 'honed' in a special (and different to old skool) way when the engine is made. Under a microscope, these honing processes produce quite large peaks and troughs on the cylinder wall. The oil will obiously sit in the troughs, and until the engine is correctly run in, will actually burn that oil. As the engine correctly beds in, these peaks and troughs are reduced, and the quantity of oil able to be 'stored' in the troughs gets much less, hence less is burnt.
Now, understanding the above, another important comment is regarding the 'stratified' mode and general fueling on European variants of the FSI engines - and remaps. Under certain conditions, ALL FSI engines will over fuel - this can actually 'wash' the oil from the cylinder bores, making the oil burn even more readily. But under lean burn or 'stratified' mode, less oil will be burned. Now most of the US orgininated maps do not have the stratified mode enabled - so by using one of these said maps, not only are you likely to burn more oil (and suffer the subsequent effect of reducing the life of your catalytic convertors and lambda sensors), but you are also highly likely to suffer from accelerated engine wear.
So, if you are considering a remap, try and choose one from a dedicated UK or EU tuner, rather than a North American originated tuner. And if you actually have a remap with user selectable options, try and limit your high fuel settings, and instead use the boost and timing to experiment with.
