New VW Golf fuel economy

mrecuk

I have recently taken delivery of my new VW Golf GT (1.6TDI 110ps DSG automatic) and have noticed that the average mpg isn't what I thought it would be and that im having to fill up more often than I thought. I've only driven around 500 miles so far but I'm only managing to average approximately 35-40mpg and at a push 45mpg (from a mixture of town driving and A roads). I was just wondering if anyone has this engine and can comment on their average mpg? I've tried driving in all three driving modes and even Eco mode makes next to no difference.

I previously had a mk3 Ford Focus with a similar 1.6TDCI engine (manual) and was averaging between 45-55mpg town driving and 55-65mpg on A roads and motorways. I have also seen people commenting on other forums with pretty decent average mpg. Even someone with a Golf GTD said they were averaging around 50mpg even though the engine I have I supposed to be more economical (which is why I chose it). I'm a bit disappointed really.

P.s - I have heard various comments about slightly older cars having to run the engine in over a few thousand miles which will slightly increase the mpg but I thought that new cars didn't really need to do this nowadays.

WobblyDog

Regarding your last question about fuel consumption improving after the first few thousand miles, I didn't observe this happening when I bought a new petrol-engined Fiesta a few years ago, and I monitor fuel consumption fairly obsessively. I wasn't able to find any hard numerical evidence on the Internet that "running-in" affects fuel consumption either.

forgotmyname

Was the GTD a manual? If you expected manufacturers quoted figures then you were unrealistic.

45mpg maybe correct for your journey type. My diesel Mondeo was low 20's until it had a run out. 3 journeys of only a mile or so each way and in traffic = low mpg. 12 mile journey of mostly clear 50mph dual carriageways brought the average over 40mpg. Journey back was through busier towns and single A roads which were quite busy by now. Brought it upto 47 or so.

2 more short journeys and its below 45 now.

MPG may improve after a few miles, or it maybe the fact they adjust to the different spread of the new car?

Peak economy will be around peak torque unless less torque is required for the road conditions.
The issue with an auto is that you dont really get to decide on when to change gear. Does yours have a manual mode? If so you may be able to improve when it changes gear.

RichardD1970

Have a look here fro real life MPG figures.

500 miles isn't really enough for getting reliable MPG figures and if you are not used to the car and type of gear box then it will take a little bit of time to adjust your driving style to suit.

AdrianC

It would be illegal for the dealer to give any figure except the official fuel consumption figure, which comes from a defined pattern of lab-condition testing.
http://www.dft.gov.uk/vca/fcb/the-fuel-consumption-testing-scheme.asp

If your driving pattern differs, the economy you get will differ. Individual drivers will make a BIG difference to the actual real-world figures from a particular car, especially when mile-per-gallon is high. Think about that for a minute. a book figure of 76.3mpg extra-urban is 16.8 miles per litre. One mile requires 59ml of fuel. That's over five and a half miles from a typical soft drink can. 150 metres from a teaspoon.

When you get to those kind of figures, a VERY small change in the actual fuel used makes a BIG difference in the numbers.

mrecuk

The GTD was an automatic just like mine. The only difference is that the GTD has a more powerful 2.0 engine and according to the website, is supposed to be less economical than mine.

I'm not expecting manufacturer quoted mpg figures as I'm well aware that these are pretty much almost unachievable in real word driving but as I said, the quoted mpg is similar to that of my previous car (in fact on average it's supposed to be a tiny bit more economical) so I was kind of expecting to see similar real world driving results. My old car was a manual and this is an automatic but according to a lot of the Volkswagen forums the DSG gearbox is supposed to be super efficient and offer better fuel economy than the manual (again probably another figure that's not really achieveable but still).

It does have a semi-auto mode but doesn't really make enough (if any) of a difference to bother using it.

daveyjp

500+ miles a week is what these engines like to be doing and you will get excellent mpg if you do the miles.

Use them for a few miles here and there and mpg will suffer, no different to any car.

My car is showing an average of 34mpg over the last 4000 miles, but it has taken me 5 months to do those miles. However on a recent 200+ mile trip average mpg readout was 45.

thescouselander

That MPG seems low to me. Just a few thoughts though.

1) Don't rely on the cars computer to give an accurate readout of the MPG achieved. Far better to brim the tank every time you refil and then calculate the MPG from the amount you've put in and the miles driven. It could also be that your old car was giving you an overoptimistic MPG figure so it might be difficult to compare accurately unless you've already calculated the MPG manually.

2) Just as a purely anecdotal example my new diesel car improved by about 5 MPG aver the first few thousand miles.

WellKnownSid

Modern diesels don't seem to match older ones. I do get 60+ from my 1.6 208 manual during normal driving but then again my much heavier 2.2 slush box equipped Merc could do 53+ back in 2000.

Cold weather and short journeys will kill the mpg. I'd certainly get at least 1,000 miles under your belt first.

bod1467

My Golf GT 2.0 TDi Bluemotion 140PS (manual) averages about 52 mpg. I've had (new) it since June 2012 and my usual journey is a mix of town and A roads, although I do also have some longer motorway journeys in the mix.

Marktheshark

Is this another "I believed the dealers figures would be true" post.
They are not, plenty of data on the internet with real MPG figures and I think you will find, they will be accurate to what you are getting.

When they test, the car is stripped if everything it does not need to run for the duration of the test including the alternator, it has mirrors removed, every seam is taped over, its a downhill track of 1.5% and they wait until the wind is behind the car, they tow it up to test speed for extra urban and it maintains 56 mph for the distance.

In real life, you are lucky to get half.