MK7 GTD - Real Life MPG

[corgi]

For those achieving high 50s, are you driving really conservatively or just driving "normal" without gunning it?

For me to achieve high 50s - It's normally motorway acc set at 75mph.

High 40s low 50s are achieved hacking around rural Warwickshire and elsewhere. Most who know me would say that I don't hang around - not much passes me - but I don't drive a like a lunatic on public roads...

[mcmaddy]

58mpg from Arran to tobermory. Not gunning it but not driving miss daisy either. Also managed to gently scuff under the front bumper diving off a ferry from Lochranza 

[mjh_056]

For those achieving high 50s, are you driving really conservatively or just driving "normal" without gunning it?

So far I've had to nurse it to get anywhere near 50mpg. This is my first full tank data...

The average MPH indicates a lot of town driving or commuting which will keep the MPG lower and around late 30s to early 40s.

The 55MPG + figures being demonstrated on here will all have involved some stretches of cruising on Motorways or A roads with most photos displaying MPH in late 30s to 40s and beyond. (Sootchucker 62mpg was at an average 39 mph)

Things to remember is that out of the box MPG is average but most on here who have had performance diesels all say same that MPG increases markedly as miles are placed on car and engine settles in.

I would say yours is not too far off being right for that MPH and that if went on an extended 100 mile trip on some decent A roads or motorway it would readily jump into mid 50s and beyond.

[Skinnee D]

A friend with a 63reg Audi A6 2.0TDI (177PS engine) was commenting the other day on noticeably improved response and mpg since passing 6000ish miles.  Will be interested to see whether mine does something similar when I eventually get past that point, as it doesn't seem to be a common finding with other GTD drivers so far.

[monkeyhanger]

I'm on 8200 miles on mine and my dad is on around 18k miles with his - the cars aren't noticeably looser than they were after 1000 miles. Power and economy gains we've seen recently are down to the warmer weather, we had that one cold week after we'd got used to the warmer temps and the mpg dipped right back down. Some people will hail their recently improved mpg as running in gains rather than seasonal gains, but will see that dip again in the winter. 52mpg on my 13 mile commute to work and I was really putting my foot down once the car had warmed up. Oil temp seems to get to 60C very quickly right now, but 60-90 takes a very long time, like that heat is being passed on to the DPF as soon as it is generated.

If I were to religiously stick to 70 on a 100+ mile motorway run i'd be confident of cracking 60mpg quite easily. The best I did in my 170TDI Scirocco was getting a recorded 59mpg for a maintained 80mph 350 mile journey with the aircon on all the way.

I've never seen the noticeable long term running-in gains that some report to have seen, with 6 new TDIs before this one. I have always seen a noticeable seasonal change though (summer mpg/output 10-15% higher than winter). I haven't seen any noticeable real-world improvements with the GTD on the economy front, it's all in how the stop-start affects the test outcomes.

With the DTUK box i've definitely cared less about chasing an extra 15 miles to the tank and loving the extra power. My next car may well be an S3, and to hell with the mpg - i'll be averaging 28 in one of those if i'm lucky.

[andrewparker]

For those achieving high 50s, are you driving really conservatively or just driving "normal" without gunning it?

So far I've had to nurse it to get anywhere near 50mpg. This is my first full tank data...

The average MPH indicates a lot of town driving or commuting which will keep the MPG lower and around late 30s to early 40s.

The 55MPG + figures being demonstrated on here will all have involved some stretches of cruising on Motorways or A roads with most photos displaying MPH in late 30s to 40s and beyond. (Sootchucker 62mpg was at an average 39 mph)

Things to remember is that out of the box MPG is average but most on here who have had performance diesels all say same that MPG increases markedly as miles are placed on car and engine settles in.

I would say yours is not too far off being right for that MPH and that if went on an extended 100 mile trip on some decent A roads or motorway it would readily jump into mid 50s and beyond.

Yeah absolutely, it's exactly what I expected and I'm not unhappy with it. I got up to around 50mpg on a 120 mile motorway trip, but at that point the car had less than 200 miles on it and it was pretty cold.

[JamesMac]

A trip I make across Edinburgh at least twice a week is 7.8 miles in length and I have to pass through 13 sets of lights, mid-morning so the rush hour is over. I regularly achieve sub 50s MPG and on a few occasions when I got the breaks with traffic lights, I got 53/54 MPG. Only one small section of road is a 40 limit and I'm in ECO mode except for Climate, with Stop/Start active. Long Term is currently 52.5 MPG, so City driving is not having such a big hit on economy as I at first thought it would.

My first ever TDI was a '98 Passat 110 and this performance and economy from the GTD is something astonishing in comparison. Also the lower insurance over my previous Scirocco 140 TDI.

[monkeyhanger]

Well at 8400 miles on the clock, my "1000 miles to service" message has just appeared in the dash. Won't be long before I find out for myself whether the first oil change brings any noticeable improvements in mpg or whether there are a few warranty ECU tweaks to be performed while it's in.

[JamesMac]

Well at 8400 miles on the clock, my "1000 miles to service" message has just appeared in the dash. Won't be long before I find out for myself whether the first oil change brings any noticeable improvements in mpg or whether there are a few warranty ECU tweaks to be performed while it's in.

Were the servicing intervals shortened due to the 184 engine needing more regular inspection or is it to generate more revenue for dealers? Call me cynical!

[monkeyhanger]

Asking for a service at 9400 miles is about the norm for a 10k interval service these days as it is 15,000km and the car is running in km (in the background) and converting everything to miles for our convenience in the UK. They’re usually happy for you to hang on until up to 11k miles without affecting your warranty, but with 3 services paid up in the pack and no way I will be keeping this to the point of the car asking for a 4th service, I don’t see the harm in doing it as soon as it wants it rather than holding out for 10/10.5k miles.