Gti to gtd

[monkeyhanger]

Does the gtd not hold its value well?

Better than the GTI. You can always put a box on a GTD (you can on a GTI too, but i'd worry about clutch slip on a GTI or R, the GTD's seems far more resilient).

[Dully]

As mentioned a few times here its the driving style that's the key. I think there is approx. 10mpg between the 2 cars if you compare like for like styles and also the same daily run.

I have just swapped a GTI PP Manual owned by my wife for a GTD DSG, for no more reason that she fancied a change and I needed a new car for the change in commute to work.

Its got 2000 miles on it now and the 64 round trip to work I am getting 49-52 mpg. Steady cruising on the A15 where 55mph is the fastest you get to, then the rest on a flowing M180 set at 75mph. Same trip in the GTI PP was about 38mpg.

I am sure you can get the mpg well down in the low 40's on the GTD ragging it about!

[Talk-torque]

I've just done some quick sums based on your GTI doing 34mpg and a GTD doing an optimistic 50mpg over your weekly 300 miles. The fuel costs are worked out using regular fuel at current prices local to me. The GTI will cost £45.27/week, whereas the GTD will be £31.33/week. The GTD will save you £13.94/week, or £724.88/year.

My GTD averaged around 45mpg (calculated) and, on the same basis, my GTI is averaging around 35mpg, so that £725 saving is probably going to be more like £650. Of course there will be another few quid off the RFL and your insurance may be a bit less, but it adds up to not much, when you look at what you will loose, if you change. I only do around 7.5K miles a year, but I swapped my GTD for a GTI, at 2 years, because I just could not love the GTD. It's an awesome piece of kit, but a bit soulless. I reckon that, if you have £30Kish sitting on the drive, there should be some love! You might find yourself missing your GTI more than you think!

[p3asa]

....it usually tells me 350 mile range on a full tank.

I've seen me barely get 400 miles out of my GTD at times so the grass may not always be greener although in saying that if I drive like a nun for the full tank which is extremely boring and frustrating, I can get nearly the 500 miles out of it

Have you only had your GTI a couple of months?
It will depend how much you lose in the changeover. It could be as much as £3-4k. Would you see that in fuel savings over the term of car ownership?

[Sootchucker]

Wow, the poor GTD is getting a bit of a battering here, so I'll have to even things up :-)

I've had two MK7 GTD's now, and both have (are) been great cars. 95% of the looks of a GTI, 90% of the handling, 100% of the braking (PP aside), and around 80-85% of the performance. I can easily average high 50's in my DSG equipped GTD, so would expect a manual to easily break 60 mpg on a good run. On my usual work commute, over the 5500 in the new GTD I've averaged 47.1, with a worst low (40 mins stuck on the M62), of 39.1 mpg. I also personally think the GTD is the better looking car (no red accents in the lights and seats), and in standard guise has better looking alloys (Negaros vs Austins), but I get that this is totally subjective (and can partially be fixed by upgrading to the 19" Santiago alloys).

So, i would wholeheartedly prefer the GTD over the GTI ?....well no. In an ideal world, as good as the GTD is (and it's very good), there really is no substitute for a petrol engine, so the GTI would still be my first choice if mileage wasn't' an issue. But I really think that people who have never owned a GTD or had use of one or a good time, should stop all this silly "diesel is the devils choice" etc. as the differences in real world performance, isn't as great as you may think, and short of a good BMW 6 cylinder diesel lump, the EA288 2 liter diesel engine, is one of the more flexible, refined and usable units on the market.

[mcmaddy]

Excellent Andrew, sensible as always 

[Jackie Treehorn]

If you're getting 34mpg in a GTI, you should be able to do 50mpg easily enough in a GTD. I'm getting 33mpg ave driving my R on my 20 mile each way commute. If i'd had the GTD still when I started this job i'd have been doing 55mpg in the Summer on the commute. Just drove the wife's A1 1.6 TDI to work today and driving it hard i averaged 63mpg.

Motorway speeds kill mpg in the GTI and R. At 80mph in 6th they"re doing 3100rpm while the GTD is doing just 2200rpm. If you're always driving 60-80mph I think you've done ok to average 34mpg.

You need to weigh up £1000pa fuel savings vs the cost of chopping in so early. I'd wait until the GTI is at least 18 months old before the initial sting of depreciation fades.

60-80 avg in a GTi will get you more than 34mpg it's all about driving style, and it doesn't require driving like a granny either..  if someone is getting 34mpg from a GTi and your getting 33mpg on a similar route, then its possibly the driving style.  The Gti and R are not that close on mpg in like for like situations

[Talk-torque]

Did a 200 mile cross country trip on Monday, 50/50 motorway/A roads, at silly speeds and got just over 33mpg. As said, the car is averaging 35, so mileage not destroyed, by any means.

[monkeyhanger]

If you're getting 34mpg in a GTI, you should be able to do 50mpg easily enough in a GTD. I'm getting 33mpg ave driving my R on my 20 mile each way commute. If i'd had the GTD still when I started this job i'd have been doing 55mpg in the Summer on the commute. Just drove the wife's A1 1.6 TDI to work today and driving it hard i averaged 63mpg.

Motorway speeds kill mpg in the GTI and R. At 80mph in 6th they"re doing 3100rpm while the GTD is doing just 2200rpm. If you're always driving 60-80mph I think you've done ok to average 34mpg.

You need to weigh up £1000pa fuel savings vs the cost of chopping in so early. I'd wait until the GTI is at least 18 months old before the initial sting of depreciation fades.

60-80 avg in a GTi will get you more than 34mpg it's all about driving style, and it doesn't require driving like a granny either..  if someone is getting 34mpg from a GTi and your getting 33mpg on a similar route, then its possibly the driving style.  The Gti and R are not that close on mpg in like for like situations

I quoted motorway cruising speeds, where driving style has a very low impact if you're maintaining a speed uninterrupted, whether that be 60/70/80mph. Petrols really see their economy tail off at these speeds, far more than diesels do . The OP would have to be driving like a maniac on clear roads or be stuck in traffic to do less than 53mpg in a manual or 48mpg in a DSG GTD given the length of his commute IMO. If you're doing a steady 40mph in moderate traffic then a GTI or R aren't massively thirstier than a GTD. Traffic kills diesel economy, motorway speeds really hammer petrol economy due to the lower gearing.

There's not a huge difference in mpg like for like between the GTI and R (manual for manual, DSG for DSG, same driving style) - it's about 4mpg in reality, and it's only 7mpg on paper. Comparing a manual 3 door GTI to a DSG 5 door R is apples and oranges. On my old commute, traffic a little busier, only 10 miles instead of 20, I got 30mpg. Even though the petrols are a lot quicker to warm up, you do see the difference in mpg between shorter and longer journeys, it's just not so pronounced.

Changing your driving style is probably the hardest thing you can do, and it's the reason why so many people quote so many different mpgs.

I'd probably do a bit better than the OP is quoting, in his car, given his commute and my driving style, if his GTI is a manual, if it's DSG then i'd say that i'd probably be around that same ballpark.

No point buying a hot hatch and drive it like a nun to chase 40mpg. If you're getting 70-80% of quoted combined figures without having to do a constant 55-60mph everywhere then you're doing alright - easier to achieve with a manual because despite the official figures are almost identical, real life driving sees the DSG almost 10% thirstier.

There's a huge difference in mpg between driving 60mph on the motorway and 80mph. The best I ever did in my GTD was a 200 mile round trip from Newcastle to Leeds- maintaining 80mph on the motorway, aircon on all the way in the height of Summer and got 58mpg for the trip. If i'd done 70mph it would've been around 65mpg, and doing 60 on the same stretch would've been pushing 70mpg. I think Sootchucker has proven that on some of his mpg challenges.

The GTD is thirsty on short journeys, once it is warmed up it does much better, and on the OP's long commute, most of the journey will be with a hot engine - 50mpg without driving like a nun in those circumstances should not be a bother.

[Jackie Treehorn]

I still think some of your figures aren't 100% correct, the GTi is at 2800 rpm at 80 for a start, also your never likely to maintain an AVG on a UK motorway unless it's 2am. And the OP has a mixture of roads on a commute? So the comparison drawn may not relate to the actual use.

 I guess we will agree to differ, however not sure the cure to this is a change in car based on present info... (Not saying you were suggesting changing the car)