I blame you lot...

[monkeyhanger]

If you do less than 10k miles on urban driving you might only see 40mpg in the GTD, compared to 30mpg in the R (manual - DSG is about 10% thirstier)

Obviously it's dependent on what level of town/city congestion and style of driving, but even so, I think 30mpg on urban (town) driving in an R is an extremely optimistic figure that many do not achieve.

The DSG factor? I usually get 33mpg going to work and back on my 20 mile commute. The other night, thanks to Beyonce's gig in Sunderland and the big sink hole on the A1 near the Angel of the North, it took me an hour and a half to do my 35 minute commute as the A19 was completely clogged, and the R still did 29mpg. In the GTD that would've been 55mpg on a good day and about 36mpg with Beyonce traffic. I'm not a gentle driver - I get up to speed with hard acceleration, but like to maintain momentum intelligently whenever possible, so i'm semi-economical.

The missus had the R for a few days earlier in the week and got 30mpg for her 9 mile commute.

[Booth11]

If you do less than 10k miles on urban driving you might only see 40mpg in the GTD, compared to 30mpg in the R (manual - DSG is about 10% thirstier)

Obviously it's dependent on what level of town/city congestion and style of driving, but even so, I think 30mpg on urban (town) driving in an R is an extremely optimistic figure that many do not achieve.

The DSG factor? I usually get 33mpg going to work and back on my 20 mile commute. The other night, thanks to Beyonce's gig in Sunderland and the big sink hole on the A1 near the Angel of the North, it took me an hour and a half to do my 35 minute commute as the A19 was completely clogged, and the R still did 29mpg. In the GTD that would've been 55mpg on a good day and about 36mpg with Beyonce traffic. I'm not a gentle driver - I get up to speed with hard acceleration, but like to maintain momentum intelligently whenever possible, so i'm semi-economical.

The missus had the R for a few days earlier in the week and got 30mpg for her 9 mile commute.

No not DSG factor.  More the perception of what urban driving is. I'm talking about around town driving rather than a commute of around 20 miles.  In my definition of congested town driving, getting anywhere from 18 up to 25mpg seems more realistic.

[Exonian]

My manual R is showing long term average of around 27-28mpg.
It doesn't get much town use and isn't driven particularly hard. It spends a lot of its life in 40mph limits cruising along or NSL dual carriageways that again tend to be driven on in a gingerly manner due to very early morning use with lots of wildlife on the roads and drowsy truck drivers weaving about. Oh, and being wary of sneaky, bored custodians of law and order. 

My mk7 GTI did around 5mpg more in the same usage and the 150 GT TDI I had for a day the other week did high 40's in the same driving.
The R does my shortish work commute (in light traffic) at 22-25mpg and the GTI did it 5mpg better. The 150 TDI got stuck in a traffic jam and still showed a journey MPG of 36mpg.
I think there was something wrong with that TDI though as it drove like a turd.

[monkeyhanger]

If you do less than 10k miles on urban driving you might only see 40mpg in the GTD, compared to 30mpg in the R (manual - DSG is about 10% thirstier)

Obviously it's dependent on what level of town/city congestion and style of driving, but even so, I think 30mpg on urban (town) driving in an R is an extremely optimistic figure that many do not achieve.

The DSG factor? I usually get 33mpg going to work and back on my 20 mile commute. The other night, thanks to Beyonce's gig in Sunderland and the big sink hole on the A1 near the Angel of the North, it took me an hour and a half to do my 35 minute commute as the A19 was completely clogged, and the R still did 29mpg. In the GTD that would've been 55mpg on a good day and about 36mpg with Beyonce traffic. I'm not a gentle driver - I get up to speed with hard acceleration, but like to maintain momentum intelligently whenever possible, so i'm semi-economical.

The missus had the R for a few days earlier in the week and got 30mpg for her 9 mile commute.

No not DSG factor.  More the perception of what urban driving is. I'm talking about around town driving rather than a commute of around 20 miles.  In my definition of congested town driving, getting anywhere from 18 up to 25mpg seems more realistic.

I'd class the wife's driving as urban (which is why I mentioned it) - 9 miles takes her at least 30 mins going home, crawling around a ring of industrial parks on the edge of Newcastle, usually 40 mins and she still did 29mpg going home in the 2 days she had it, which probably translates to around 26mpg with a DSG driven the same way (10% penalty in real driving). I find that theres a much higher % penalty for heavy traffic driving with the GTD than the R. Whether crawling or working at speed, a petrol engine is pretty consistent in it's mpg, the diesels aren't that economical unless sat in a high gear.

[Booth11]

I'd class the wife's driving as urban (which is why I mentioned it) - 9 miles takes her at least 30 mins going home, crawling around a ring of industrial parks on the edge of Newcastle, usually 40 mins and she still did 29mpg going home in the 2 days she had it, which probably translates to around 26mpg with a DSG driven the same way (10% penalty in real driving). I find that theres a much higher % penalty for heavy traffic driving with the GTD than the R. Whether crawling or working at speed, a petrol engine is pretty consistent in it's mpg, the diesels aren't that economical unless sat in a high gear.

Of course it's difficult to compare different commutes as there are many variables, but I have a daily commute of just under 8 miles which takes in crawling city traffic to begin with then out onto rural roads, and back into and across the city in crawling traffic to reach final work destination.  Journey takes approx between 50 mins to 1 hour, depending on the level of traffic.  Car generally returns mpg between 18 and 22 for this daily journey, but it has been as low as 14mpg on some ocassions.

[monkeyhanger]

Wow - an hour to do 8 miles, well that is pretty extreme - you'd probably be lucky to scrape 25mpg in a GTD in those conditions. My mate has an 8 mile commute and is too lazy to bike it when the weather is nice, so he took up  a lazy solution to cycling and got one of those V-tech electric bikes.

[Jackie Treehorn]

If you do less than 10k miles on urban driving you might only see 40mpg in the GTD, compared to 30mpg in the R (manual - DSG is about 10% thirstier)

Obviously it's dependent on what level of town/city congestion and style of driving, but even so, I think 30mpg on urban (town) driving in an R is an extremely optimistic figure that many do not achieve.

Totally agree booth, the numbers don't stack up, not many get 30 mpg.  ppl should just get the car they desire, and don't base it on other people's man maths

[Booth11]

Wow - an hour to do 8 miles, well that is pretty extreme - you'd probably be lucky to scrape 25mpg in a GTD in those conditions. My mate has an 8 mile commute and is too lazy to bike it when the weather is nice, so he took up  a lazy solution to cycling and got one of those V-tech electric bikes.

I could bike it (normal bike) if it was a straightforward commute but it involves first driving daughter to school in a rural village, then driving back into the city to work (the hour commute time quoted is just the driving time).  Plus I need to have car most days for work site visits, so cycling is a no go.

But I'm not complaining, wouldn't swap the R for all the mpg in the world.

[Booth11]

If you do less than 10k miles on urban driving you might only see 40mpg in the GTD, compared to 30mpg in the R (manual - DSG is about 10% thirstier)

Obviously it's dependent on what level of town/city congestion and style of driving, but even so, I think 30mpg on urban (town) driving in an R is an extremely optimistic figure that many do not achieve.

Totally agree booth, the numbers don't stack up, not many get 30 mpg.  ppl should just get the car they desire, and don't base it on other people's man maths

Absolutely.

[monkeyhanger]

If you do less than 10k miles on urban driving you might only see 40mpg in the GTD, compared to 30mpg in the R (manual - DSG is about 10% thirstier)

Obviously it's dependent on what level of town/city congestion and style of driving, but even so, I think 30mpg on urban (town) driving in an R is an extremely optimistic figure that many do not achieve.

Totally agree booth, the numbers don't stack up, not many get 30 mpg.  ppl should just get the car they desire, and don't base it on other people's man maths

Just demonstrating that diesels take a bigger hammering vs their potential than petrols when in slow moving traffic frequently (and that's without any DPF worries for a TDI that never gets to stretch it's legs). 50 mins for an 8 mile commute with a DSG box and Booth's mpg is no surprise. I'd be looking at 30mpg on my old 10mile commute as the car will be running 1/2 the journey on the warm-up. It's quite easy to predict mpg if you know their length of commute (distance and time), level of congestion, whether it's a DSG or manual and you assume they don't drive like someone about to lose their license.

There are lots of factors - congestion, driving style, length of journey, manual or DSG that will affect the mpg - Booth's circumstances seem to be the perfect combination low mpg extreme, the high mpg extreme would be someone on a 30 mile commute who does a constant 60mph all the way there on clear roads. On my way to work, my 33mpg commute for 20 miles takes 25-30 mins and falls towards the best you'll see as the roads are pretty quiet. On the way home it gets a lot busier and it's a 45-50 min commute, but the mpg doesn't drop hugely - 31mpg.

The average mpg for Manual drivers does seem to be consistently higher than those with DSG, this is something i've also seen when comparing my MK5 Golf/Scirocco 170TDIs to my Dad's 170TDI Golf, and same story with my MK7 GTD vs my Dad's DSG version when i've been driving either.