3.0 TDI fuel economy - will it improve?

[Paulo1967]

Firstly, apologies for the previous unfinished post, pressed the wrong button by accident and no idea how to delete it!

I've recently taken delivery of an A4 S-Line Black Edition 3.0 TDI Quattro. Drove a nearly new one and was very impressed so went for it and ordered a new one. Fabulous car in most respects, I'm just hoping the fuel economy will get better?

OK, let me get a couple of things straight from the start. 1) I don't do big mileage, mostly urban driving, so I know I'm not going to get maximum diesel benefit. 2) 245PS, 500 Nm torque and 0-62 in 5.9 seconds; what's not to like about this but certainly haven't been using anywhere near all of it while the motor is new, I'm too mechanically sympathetic for that. 3) it has been very cold this week so consumption bound to be higher.

But, surely it will get better than 21mpg even for urban driving?? At the moment, it's doing half of the 41.5 mpg claimed in the brochure. OK, so I never expected to get to that figure, but half of it?! I've turned off the AC and supplementary heater and it seems slightly better. Am I kidding myself that the engine is just a bit tight, will run in and return better fuel economy or am I just kidding myself? At the end of the day, because I don't do too many miles, it's not hugely important but would be nice if it got better and much better would be a bonus!

Anyone out there experienced similar?

Thanks

[Guest 2]

Even after bedding in which can take up to 10k miles on a diesel, you won't see much of an inrpovement I'm afraid!

Btw you'll be getting a lot of DPF warnings if you can't take the car out at least once a week on a motorway/dual carriageway journey.

[seventh-heaven]

Depends how severe your Urban driving is. Lots of stop starts and standing in queues? I regularly get an indicated 40-42 on premium diesel and 36-38 on normal diesel with A6 3.0Tdi Quattro - it drops to low 30s if I do a lot of Urban driving. I think indications are about 8% optimistic on mine.

[adamss24]

You bought the wrong car for town traffic mate, as said above, you will have loads of issues from the Dpf because it won't get hot enough to do a regeneration cycle... You will be on first name terms with local dealer... Diesel will return good fuel economy when driven steadily on motorway.

[MLI33D]

Are you basing the 21Mpg figures on the trip computer? If so then when I got mine (it had done around 12k and sat around a forecourt for a couple of months) it was registering for my first few drives 14.5mpg!

As for the DPF, I do a lot of short journeys since my little one arrived and since purchase in April thankfully have yet to have the DPF come on. More recently in this cold spell within five minutes of city driving the engine does get up to operating temperature - but all of this could be due to my car being beyond the 10k bedding in. As I understand it the DPF, after the first warning you need to rev the engine high until the warning light goes out.

But I'm a newbie myself and this is just my experience - there will be others on this forum who will have greater knowledge and experience to share.

PS This car is bought from the heart and not the wallet - I only do 5k a year with a diesel!!

[Rhino at Work]

There will be a small improvement in MPG as the engine beds in if my experience is anything to go by. You'll find that a big influence on MPG is the weather. In summer my 16 mile trip to work from Leeds to Harrogate comes out at about 40 MPG (per the MMI) but in winter this drops to about 36 MPG.

I'm always amazed by how long it takes the engine to warm up on very cold days. I don't know if this is specific to the 3.0TDI or applied to all A4 engines.

Finally, lets be honest here - we don't drive a 3 litre V6 for MPG, we do it because we can! Enjoy your car.

[s7gpt]

we don't drive a 3 litre V6 for MPG, we do it because we can! Enjoy your car.

Agree

and dont start thinking you should have bought the 2.0 tdi for better mpg, you would have then always wished you bought the bigger better one

oh and mines got 30k on the clock and start stop commuting to and from work gives me 30+ even on these very cold days we have been having.

[Guest 2]

As I understand it the DPF, after the first warning you need to rev the engine high until the warning light goes out.

Revving the guts out of it makes the problem worse.

You need constant drive in 4th gear (or S mode for auto owners) @ 60mph for at least 20-30 minutes to generate heat and burn off the soot.

[markp306]

Agree

and dont start thinking you should have bought the 2.0 tdi for better mpg, you would have then always wished you bought the bigger better one

oh and mines got 30k on the clock and start stop commuting to and from work gives me 30+ even on these very cold days we have been having.

The 2 litre isn't any better at this. My 143 is biased towards town driving too, but does enough motorway to keep the DPF light at bay. The combined is suppose to be 52mpg and my DIS 2 average over 4 years is 37 mpg although I never reset it, although I did doa mile/litres comparison a while back and got 39mpg.

That's still way ahead of a petrol in the same conditions though and relative to my last 1.8T (20mpg) the TDI is also far more responsive, so I'll live with it.

It's well documented that diesel doesn't recoup the cost over petrol but with this type of car, its not purely about running costs. OP - Enjoy the 3 litre!

[Paulo1967]

Thanks for all the interesting and useful replies folks, really helpful.

I'm sure I'll be doing at least some motorway of dual carriageway driving at least a couple of time a month so hopefully enough to keep the DPF happy and quiet. OK, motorway driving not the most interesting but who doesn't like the kind of driving that gets an engine nice and warm, if you get my drift?! Which brings me back to fuel economy.....

Yes, I bought a 3.0 TDI Quattro primarily for the oomph and I'm certain it'll deliver that. Fuel economy would be a bonus but to be honest, if I get enough extra to compensate for the additional fuel cost and break even with the approx 27mpg I was averaging from my previous car, an A5 2.0 TFSI (211) FWD Multitronic, then I'll be happy. In fact, the average is already coming up (according to the DIS readout). I did my usual Sunday morning run today and returned an indicated 38mpg. None of of it motorway or dual carriageway and a lot of it down hill but what the heck!!

thanks again and happy Xmas to one and all!

Paulo