MK7 GTD - Real Life MPG

[Sootchucker]

Now that's more like it, my journey home from work last night (and don't forget, this is a DSG car) 

Doing 75 on the motorway (in the general flow of traffic), then 50 on a 5 mile stretch, with the rest at typical urban 30mph (traffic lights, roundabouts etc).


Last Import-0 by Sootchucker, on Flickr

What's the secret to that....

Following someone else that was only doing 65-70mph on the Motorway and no hold ups.

To be fair, now the temperatures dropped, I'm not seeing that any more. If I drive quite conservatively on the way home (but not like a granny), I can easily get 55+ mpg, but a little spirited, and it drops quickly to about 47-49mpg. However, for a 184ps motor, that's still not bad.

Guess If I wanted the best possible economy, I'd have either purchased a 1.6tdi Bluemotion or a 3 Series BMW 320d efficient dynamics (but that wouldn't have been any fun would it).

As a laugh, my Wife's Polo Blue GT had to go in the dealers on Friday as the side skirt bonding had started to come away. Sorted in a day, but as I know the dealers well, rather than a usual up!, I loaned the wife my GTD for the day and the dealer gave me a MK7 GTI (non pp) - which was the salesman's car. I have to say, whilst quieter and smoother, it didn't feel massively different than the GTD (and it had about 6,500 miles so should have been run in). Anyway, for my journey to work (just driving normally), I got.......29.5mpg (gulp), and having a bit of a play with the extra power on the way home 26.7mpg (according to the MFD) !!. Definitely likes to rev and is a much more playful car that the GTD, but I'm happy with my choice (and do prefer the non red accents of the interior and exterior - although that's a personal thing I know).

[monkeyhanger]

I got an indicated 49.5mpg on my drive to work today (12 miles mixed driving), what that translates to in actual I don't know yet - i'm guessing around 47.0mpg with a 5% discrepancy.

I have noticed with mine that putting my foot down early into the trip and getting the engine warmed quicker does seem to help my mpg across the whole journey. Not saying thrash a cold engine, but driving like a nun while it is cold definitely hampers the warm-up process on the shorter trips and kills your mpg.

Tonight is the night I top the tank back up to full and see what effects the TDI-tuning.co.uk box has had on my mpg. It's looking good. My tank looks as full with 210 miles done vs 183 miles done without the box when I last topped the tank up on the day the box arrived. The tank dial looks one notch over 1/2 full right now.

[mike_f]

What were people getting out the MK6 GTD?

I deliberately passed up on buying a Mk6 in March this year and held off for the MK7 since the MPG stated was so much better.

Combined figure for the MK6 was 53.3 and on the Mk7 it is supposed to be 67.3!! So considering I work out I am getting about 43 I am not overly impressed.

Fair enough I am not expecting to get close to 67mpg but 43mpg isn't too hot.

At how many miles can you say a car has been "run in" I am about 1100 at the moment.

[monkeyhanger]

What were people getting out the MK6 GTD?

I deliberately passed up on buying a Mk6 in March this year and held off for the MK7 since the MPG stated was so much better.

Combined figure for the MK6 was 53.3 and on the Mk7 it is supposed to be 67.3!! So considering I work out I am getting about 43 I am not overly impressed.

Fair enough I am not expecting to get close to 67mpg but 43mpg isn't too hot.

At how many miles can you say a car has been "run in" I am about 1100 at the moment.

Can’t speak for the MK6, but for my Scirocco 170TDI which is pretty much the same car under the skin (possibly a smidge more aerodynamic than a MK6 GTD), I would get an indicated 48 (44 actual via brim method) mpg on my mixed 12 mile commute in the winter, about 52 (47) in the summer and on a decent motorway spell 55mpg (50) was possible at a constant 80mph on at least a 30 mile single journey and getting better to journeys I did up to 350 miles long with 59mpg (54) with the aircon on all the way on a hot day. That was with a pretty heavy right foot whilst accelerating but quite an economic style once at speed. The Scirocco 170TDI has absolutely no eco tech on it (unless you consider the MFD gear change prompts to be eco tech)

One thing I did notice with the Scirocco (assuming MK6 GTD was the same) and every previous TDI I’ve had is that MPG didn’t appreciably improve with running in. Some talk on other forums for 2.0TDI (150) GT Golf 7 suggests that mpg does appreciably improve from 0-5k miles for some, but not all.

At 1100 miles your car should be considerably looser than when you got it – you have surpassed the traditional 1000mile/1500Km running in period. My first journey home from the dealership in June in my Scirocco resulted in a 53mpg (indicated) trip and it pretty much carried on like that, albeit with an appreciable development of extra power (but no extra mpg). I do remember my 170TDI being extremely tight for the first 320 miles/500Km, feeling very underpowered. Almost like the flick of a switch at that mileage threshold (some running in program?), I had a lot more power on tap. A few others in 170TDIs had a similar running in experience but was not something noticed by the 140TDI Scirocco drivers on the forum.

Are you using Shell V-power or normal Diesel? Is your commute long enough to get the car up to temp and start seeing decent mpg? I have found that the water temp gets up to normal quicker on the MK7, but oil temp takes just as long as the Scirocco – even though one of the reasons the MK7 is supposed to be more economical is that it heats up quicker due to the redesigned integral exhaust manifold etc.

[RobS23GTI]

What were people getting out the MK6 GTD?

I deliberately passed up on buying a Mk6 in March this year and held off for the MK7 since the MPG stated was so much better.

Combined figure for the MK6 was 53.3 and on the Mk7 it is supposed to be 67.3!! So considering I work out I am getting about 43 I am not overly impressed.

Fair enough I am not expecting to get close to 67mpg but 43mpg isn't too hot.

At how many miles can you say a car has been "run in" I am about 1100 at the moment.

My mk6 GTD has averaged between 47-50mpg in the 14000 or so miles I've had it. So say less than 6mpg from VW's claimed combined figure.

MPG went down a bit after the REVO remap which I was surprised about, as I was expecting at least a 5% gain (and I wasn't hoofing it everywhere).

Pretty shocked at the appalling mk7 figures to date, if I wasn't getting closer to high 50's/60mpg I would not be happy as that was one of the big selling points!

[mike_f]

Are you using Shell V-power or normal Diesel? Is your commute long enough to get the car up to temp and start seeing decent mpg? I have found that the water temp gets up to normal quicker on the MK7, but oil temp takes just as long as the Scirocco – even though one of the reasons the MK7 is supposed to be more economical is that it heats up quicker due to the redesigned integral exhaust manifold etc.

Just normal diesel and the driving I do is very mixed.

Yesterday I had a 130 mile journey to do so I filled it up before I left and filled it up when I arrived and did the sums on MPG to confirm the accuracy of the onboard meter.

I deliberately drove conservatively to try and see what the best I could squeeze out it was. Mostly on motorway doing 70-75 with a few sections through cities and down to 50 etc. To be honest the car seems so much more economical when cruising at about 50 through towns and cities than it does around 70.

I don't expect the running gains over the next month or so so to magically give me an extra 10mpg I am looking for an if anything I'd like to be driving it a bit more sporty so if anything the figures I had would drop to below 40 in reality if I was to do so.

VW must have managed to get the test results somehow under test conditions so an improvement over 43 must be possible. Especially when I am driving it like a nun.

[corgi]

It might be worth having a read of this http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/fuels-and-environment/official-fuel-consumption-figures.html

What the article is saying is that they manufacturers have, over the years, become wise to the ways of showing very good results on the tests used in the EU; the example used is stop/start - the lab tests have at least 10% of the test as idling - if you don't use this technology either because you don't stop for long enough (I read elsewhere that you need to be stopped for a minimum of 5 seconds to see a benefit) or you've turned it off then you will see substantially worse results in real life than the test.

The amount of resistance used on the rolling road in the test will make a massive difference as will running with the aircon off etc.

The upshot is the gap between official figures and what you should expect is becoming wider. A new test is in the offing according to the article... but is unlikely to be used before 2017...

[monkeyhanger]

My results on the MK7 GTD have been with the aircon off 90% of the time. I generally only put my aircon on when the speed is enough to have a lot of air running over the A/C radiator for very efficient heat exchange. Anything less than 40mph and I’ll open a window to cool down rather than make the A/C pump work a lot harder..

I have noticed though that the economy seems to really take a dive when you cruise at more than 70mph compared to previous TDIs. My aforementioned Scirocco figures are based on 80mph cruising speeds when I am on a 70mph rated dual carriageway or the motorway. On the warm-up cycle especially my GTD appears to be 20% thirstier than my Scirocco was at various reference points towards the first half of my commute. By the time I leave the coast road I am at around 42mpg compared to 50mpg at the same point in my Scirocco.

I’m not sure whether driving so softly will have a detrimental effect on economy due to the car struggling to get up to optimum temp for passive regeneration of the DPF before your short(ish) journeys are over.

The goalposts have definitely been moving on these tests, but if everyone is at it, can you really do better elsewhere? At least we get a £20 tax disk off these fantasy test mpg results.

If you are in uncongested traffic and so rarely need to use the stop start then your mpg should be better, not worse. I use a judgement call on my stop start. If I’m going to get away from a stop within 10 seconds, I leave the clutch dipped to keep the engine running. My commute is generally free-flowing, stopping only at a few roundabouts and traffic lights.

I do wonder what the long term impact of stop-start tech is on engine longevity due to increased wear (and to a lesser degree because of lower cost – battery longevity), especially for the petrol engines where the fuel itself has no lubricative properties.

[corgi]

The goalposts have definitely been moving on these tests, but if everyone is at it, can you really do better elsewhere? At least we get a £20 tax disk off these fantasy test mpg results.

I doubt it

If you are in uncongested traffic and so rarely need to use the stop start then your mpg should be better, not worse. I use a judgement call on my stop start. If I’m going to get away from a stop within 10 seconds, I leave the clutch dipped to keep the engine running. My commute is generally free-flowing, stopping only at a few roundabouts and traffic lights.

You're right. My comment was that if you run in congestion and do not use the stop/start tech or you do and the stops are very short then you will see a detrimental effect on your economy versus the test...

Knock about 25% of the official figures and you won't be far off... if you use that as an expectation and you do better you will be happy.

[Misterp]

I have noticed though that the economy seems to really take a dive when you cruise at more than 70mph compared to previous TDIs. My aforementioned Scirocco figures are based on 80mph cruising speeds when I am on a 70mph rated dual carriageway or the motorway. On the warm-up cycle especially my GTD appears to be 20% thirstier than my Scirocco was at various reference points towards the first half of my commute. By the time I leave the coast road I am at around 42mpg compared to 50mpg at the same point in my Scirocco.

I agree with this and I noticed this first hand. I went to Cheshire from birmingham, a 150 mile round two, the weekend before last car according to the on board computer was hitting 50mpg plus whilst cruising at 70-75. Last Saturday drove to Gatwick which was a 300 mile round trip all motorway. I was cruising at a slightly faster speed of 80-85 and the car only managed a reading of 46mpg.

Still pottering around town and I get a rather reduced 37 mpg. I still think that the from start reading is rather inaccurate. Had the dealership look at it and I was told no issue with the dpf filter also they don't see how the from start reading should get anything above what in getting. Which, coincidentally I think is a load of horse sh!t.