Who ticked all the boxes?

[Mark V GTD]

Thats what I am thinking Fred - the way an individual drives a car is the biggest variable - all other things should be largely the same....

[corgi]

Colder temperatures really affect the mk7 diesel. It knocks up to 10mpgs off.

Really? I know it is sad but I track my fuel consumption using using Road Trip and, for me at least, there is no correlation between low temperature and increased fuel consumption.

And it is not down to the extra use of equipment... According to the car even with lights, heated rear window, heated mirrors etc. etc. the  additional burden is less than 0.05 g/h...

[monkeyhanger]

Best I can achieve on a long journey right now (>50 miles) during daylight and minimal heating (16C, no aircon) is around 52mpg. In the height of Summer, with the aircon belting out, 58mpg has been achieved, generally maintaining 80mph (indicated) on the motorway.

I've always seen a 5mpg/10% drop in the winter for 6 previous VW TDIs, attributing it to the denser/drier air, taking longer for the oil and water to warm and possibly winter diesel being a smidge less calorific than summer diesel. This GTD seems to be more affected by the cold (in terms of mpg) than any other TDI i've had.

[Cossieian]

Got my GTD about 2 weeks ago, got 380 miles to my first tank before the orange fuel light came on, that is driving mostly round town aside from a couple long runs of about 60 miles each

Must admit I was expecting a bit more, but you have to remember it only has a 50L fuel tank which is less than any other car I've owned.

This week it's been quite cold and I've never been able to get over 38MPG , it's around 35 at best on run to work, about 4 miles.

My car has went into Regen 3 times I think in 2 weeks, roughly every 200 miles or so

Loving driving the car, it's superb

[Nuggsy71]

By the sounds of other peoples comments on here, maybe 36mpg is the norm
Mine is DSG which does give slightly less mpg than a manual
but from the official quoted book figures (taken with a pinch of salt) of around 55 mpg for urban driving - I'm getting approx. 35% less - which I'm not that happy about.
Friend of mine has a manual though, and does similar commute to work, and averages 47mpg - which is what I would have expected.
Will see what VW have to say next week, and will pass on any updates

Thanks all for your comments
 

[fredgroves]

Have you learnt to back off the throttle? (serious question!)

When I first got my GTD, I couldn't crack more than 40mpg, until I learnt that I don't need to push the throttle nearly as hard as I had done previously and still it flies along...

Stick the display onto immediate fuel consumption and try modifying how much you are pushing the pedal.

Obviously if you are driving the nuts off of it you won't do this, but... even really bouncing off of the rev limiter, in sport mode, nailing every corner, I don't get anything like that poor a mpg...

[Mark V GTD]

I have started to monitor what I am getting on journeys where the car fully warms up. I have done the same 28 mile trip four times in the last two days. My figures were 50, 51, 54 and 52mpg respectively (mfd indicated average).

The journeys were 80% motorway with ACC set to 70mph, outside temps down to 2.5 on the last trip.

[Jackie Treehorn]

Thinking out loud

One of the problems with the GTD for mpg/cold weather may be the oversized front grille opening.  It was probably designed for the GTi and fitted to the GTD weather it need the large opening or not. Blocking some of that off may allow the car to get to operating temps sooner over the winter months.  May guess is the GTD never gets to optimum temp during the winter and this hurts the mpg.

You could do with a variable opening based on temps, not sure if the blue motion stuff does this as not up on VW eco things...

[monkeyhanger]

Thinking out loud

One of the problems with the GTD for mpg/cold weather may be the oversized front grille opening.  It was probably designed for the GTi and fitted to the GTD weather it need the large opening or not. Blocking some of that off may allow the car to get to operating temps sooner over the winter months.  May guess is the GTD never gets to optimum temp during the winter and this hurts the mpg.

You could do with a variable opening based on temps, not sure if the blue motion stuff does this as not up on VW eco things...

Getting to operating temps during the winter months depends on how far you drive it and how hard. In m experience, you need at least 10 miles not driving it hard nor like a nun before the oil is up above 90C.

The cooling circuit won't start circulating coolant until the water is up to temp, that still means it is cooling a little until the oil is up to temp, around 4 miles later, but it has to circulate to even out the heat being generated. The MK7 doesn't have the grille flaps like the BMWs were touting a good few years ago (and may still have them).