How economical is your Passat?

[claranet]

My Wife & I, have just returned from a long trip to the Scottish Highlands from North Oxfordshire for Christmas with our 2007 170 Sport 2.0L TDi Manual estate with two large dogs & loads of luggage.

This is our first long trip since we bought the car in October.

We averaged 43.4 mpg. The Traffic was slow but moving, albeit at 20 -30 mph from Birmingham(except the M6 Toll) right through to Cumbria.

The return journey was not as good, thanks to a heavy traffic jam near Glasgow on the M74.

There was a lot of Salt on the Roads, so we did get through three bottles of VW Screen wash mixture(do not use anythings else as it clogs the jets up !)

A lot of driving through Perth etc was in the Dark. However once the roads in Scotland cleared then I could use the cruise control and I noticed the mpg improved by quite a bit.

The cruise control works really well when the roads are empty, but you do have to be VERY careful when busy !

We have done this run many times before in our B5 S TDi(100PS) Estate with a similar payload. The B5 was better at 47 mpg, but then it is normally in summer and of course the B6 is a heavier and a much more powerful car.

With Fuel prices going up at alarming rates, it is wise to take note of these things.

I hope this helps !
Regards
claranet

[Stuart W]

A few observations:

- I suspect that figures worked out every time you fuel up will be slightly spurious because of the difficulty of filling the tank to the exact same point every time. What I do is fill the tank every 2,000 miles or so but inbetween total fills I just put in £30/£40 or whatever because it's less cumbersome filling it, paying it is less hassle (I always pay cash) and the consumption figure calculated will be more accurate and thus comparisons more relevant.

- Comparing journies is also a bit suspect because I've found that things like even a moderate wind can influence the figures significantly. For example, the same trip with a moderate tailwind as compared to a moderate headwind could perhaps make as much difference as 47-53 mpg, say.

- Over nearly 50k I've found that the trip computer is normally optimistic by 1-2 mpg, which is a lot less than the 8% cited by one contributor earlier.

[Stuart W]

As regards the figures, and in view of my own experience with the 140 TDI and what I've read of others, I would say that most drivers with a mix of roads will get 40 mpg, a bias towards non-urban driving should return nearer 45 mpg, while pure dual/motorway should return at least 50 mpg, with perhaps 55 mpg if you're not too heavy-footed!

[orangezorki]

A very interesting and helpful topic, for sure, but answer me this:

When the turbo kicks in, do you really care?

David :-)

[angus]

How economical?

Not very at the moment. Using the computer 32.8mpg over the last 1800 odd miles, a steady (75-80mph, no hard acceleration) round trip of 140 miles (mostly motorway) on Tuesday produced the wonderful figure of 35.8mpg.

I know these might not be that bad for a petrol, but for a 140 diesel???

With a full boot (awning ,tables, chairs, Satellite kit,barbeque etc) and towing 1350kgs I was getting 25-27mpg (about 5 mpg worse than my 130TDI Sport), but running solo I ain`t impressed.

So we`re off to the dealers in an hour or so, see what we find...

[angus]

Well, apparently there is nothing untoward and the car is `fine`.

I`ve been asked to keep an eye on it and take it back if I think it gets worse.
If it gets worse I won`t be able to afford to drive that far ( not strictly true as I don`t pay the fuel bill).

Anyone else getting anything like as little mpg?

[gazza007]

Not very at the moment. Using the computer 32.8mpg over the last 1800 odd miles, a steady (75-80mph, no hard acceleration) round trip of 140 miles (mostly motorway) on Tuesday produced the wonderful figure of 35.8mpg.

Is this from the computer figures?
Seems a little low, most of my driving these days is Urbanish & I manage to get around 40mpg so 9 miles per litre, on a motorway slog nudging 50.

I'm curious to know when you fill up if it uses your ave figs for range or does it have a VW permissible range?

[angus]

The figures are from using the trip computer (journey and cumulative). I think I need to do an actual brim-to-brim to find out just how good or bad it is.

I used to get somewhere between 550- 620 miles between fills ( its surprising how far you can travel on 0 miles left) but now seem to be well short of 500.

I`ll give it a bash next week and see how it fares.

[james_tiger_woo]

The way I do it is to brim the tank as far as possible - admittedly this is an un-exact science, but it's the closest I can get to consistency as I can.

I get about 650 to a tank which isn't bad at all really - 500 to a tank would make me cry - that can't be right....

I tend to do about 75 on the motorway and 65 on the main roads which, using Cruise Control, makes for a nice economical drive... (I know, I'm driving like an old woman, but I got a speeding ticket recently....)

[macker6464]

After 3.5 k miles here are my scores:
generally 37-44 mpg

Date Litres Gallons Mileage Miles from last fill / MPG
13-Nov-07 61.53 13.53 13411 535.3 / 39.6
29-Nov-07 60.25 13.25 13880 468.2 / 35.3
13-Dec-07 58.12 12.78 14353 473.3 / 37.0
20-Dec-07 15.00 3.30 14476 122.9 / 37.3
26-Dec-07 53.29 11.72 14993 516.4 / 44.1
27-Dec-07 35.28 7.76 15323 329.5 / 42.4
31-Dec-07 50.46 11.09 15785 462.2 / 41.6


The 44 was 2 people, 850 mile roundtrip to Scotland, loaded with beer and things like that for Christmas with the in-laws - cruise control 75mph a lot of the way. General use is 7 miles to work (30/40/50/30 mph) and home again.
it didn't help after just Christmas heading north from brothers to leave it in 4th for 50/60 miles at 75mph after the luton M1 road works - on cruise control! Argh thought I was in 6th - too quiet.
Cheers
macker6464