Golf fuel consumption though the years...

[Sootchucker]

Just for a bit of fun (and as I was clearing out my computer of junk), I came across PDF brochures of the MK5, MK6 and the current MK7 Golf's. I started doing a comparison of official fuel consumption data over the 3 different models, as per below:

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Obviously we all know that very few (if any) of them actually return anything like the book figures.  The one thing that struck me, was that with MK7 GTI owners saying they could get between 33-42mpg depending on the type of run (obviously much lower if tanking it), looking back at a couple of forums at the MK5 GT Sport 170 DPF, most owners there at the time were getting similar figures.

Can it really be that a turbo petrol GTI from 2016 can actually match (or very nearly), the real world consumption figures from a Diesel Golf from 2007 ? Looking at the official figures (these are all DSG BYW as that's what I have), between the 2016 GTI DSG and the MK5 2007 GT Sport 170 DPF, they do look almost identical ?

Wow, progress eh ?

[fredgroves]

There have been some big leaps in that period... cars generally are more fuel economical from both aero and weight plus a little in engine design.

The main thing that accelerates this data though is the big leap between a Euro4 diesel and a Euro6. Euro 4 was dreadful but the EGR design from Euro5 made a big difference to both consumption and CO2.

[Gingernick]

I have actually beaten the book mpg for the golf gti
on a trip from Newcastle to wokingham thanks to the many miles of average speed cameras now I had my average consumption for the overall trip showing 48.3 mpg by the time I reached Northampton... few clear miles on the A43 soon brought it back down to earth

[Talk-torque]

That's good mpg, but extra urban surely, where VW claim 53.3?

[dubber36]

I have actually beaten the book mpg for the golf gti
on a trip from Newcastle to wokingham thanks to the many miles of average speed cameras now I had my average consumption for the overall trip showing 48.3 mpg by the time I reached Northampton... few clear miles on the A43 soon brought it back down to earth

With deliberate economy it's possible a beat the manufactures claimed figures. I once averaged 41mpg on a 60 mile round trip in a mates Mk4 R32. It was hard to achieve as the car felt like it was straining at the leash. Nor so would it be possible to replicate that sort of average day in day out. The stars were aligned that day, the traffic was light, the traffic lights were with me.

[Gtiless]

I still haven't seen 30 mpg for my Dsg Gti,it says 29.4 on the display,I used to get 30ish on my Mk6 (albeit manual) I have not driven it particularly quickly either. 

[J400uk]

My Mk5 and Mk6 both used to easily get the book figures for MPG, but the Mk7 doesn't come close. Last month I've only been averaging a pathetic 48mpg from about 2000 mostly motorway miles.

[monkeyhanger]

It used to be easy to beat official combined figures before stop-start tech completely skewed it.

My Dad had a MK2 Golf Driver 1.6 petrol (high compression version) and I used to hammer that and still get 46mpg, it had Bosch Super sparkplugs (triple prong) and changing them for NGKs saw the mpg and power fall through the floor - we soon got a new set of Bosch Supers.

Overall mpg hasn't really improved much over the years as the cars have gotten heavier, negating any gains with more economical engines - i'm sure if you could stick a MK7 GTI engine in a MK2 Golf you'd see a real world 55mpg.

Old figures for my string of TDIs look a bit like this on my commute/motorway driving:-

99 Polo 1.4TDI PD (75ps) = 50mpg/52mpg
02 Polo 1.9TDI PD (105ps) = 52mpg/58mpg
05 Golf 2.0TDI PD (140ps) = 53mpg/56mpg
07 Golf 2.0TDI PD (170ps) = 49mpg/57mpg
09 Scirocco 2.0TDI CR (140ps) = 48mpg/56mpg
11 Scirocco 2.0TDI CR (170ps) = 48mpg/59mpg
13 Golf GTD = 46mpg/58mpg

As you can see, the old tech did much better on a short journey than the newer tech (longer to warm up on the recent incarnations), and the more powerful versions didn't really have a mpg penalty, you did'nt have to push them as hard. I see this on the wife's 1.6TDI Audi A1. Around the doors the mpg is much better than a 2.0TDI, but on the longer journeys at motorway speeds, I get the impression that a 150/184ps 2.0TDI lump that isn't trying as hard would be more economical. The mpg really drops up above 70mph on the 1.6 unit, even though it's 5th gear is at around 2200rpm at 80mph, same as a GTD's 6th gear.

[Mk7-GTD]

I have actually beaten the book mpg for the golf gti
on a trip from Newcastle to wokingham thanks to the many miles of average speed cameras now I had my average consumption for the overall trip showing 48.3 mpg by the time I reached Northampton... few clear miles on the A43 soon brought it back down to earth

With deliberate economy it's possible a beat the manufactures claimed figures. I once averaged 41mpg on a 60 mile round trip in a mates Mk4 R32. It was hard to achieve as the car felt like it was straining at the leash. Nor so would it be possible to replicate that sort of average day in day out. The stars were aligned that day, the traffic was light, the traffic lights were with me.

I had two Mk4 R32's and got between 20-25mpg from them. I did want to see what I could get once and got over 50mpg but that was in the middle of the night on a motorway driving right behind an artic at under 60mph. Never again.

[maczi]

...and in reality I average about 29mpg, which is rubbish. I was doing better than that 15yrs ago in my TT and then in my Cupra R which were both very similar in performance to the GTI. Not impressed.