Shocking fuel consumption?

[Breaker]

Hi all, great forum - hope you can help me

Just bought a '98 A3 1.8 Sport Automatic... really like it, runs smooth, drives nice, no apparent problems..

BUT

the petrol consumption is ridiculous.. £20 of regular unleaded (tank almost half full) got me about 50-60 miles driving sensibly around town?

Can that be right? I'm not entirely sure of the accuracy of my sums, but I worked this out to be about 17 mpg!! ??? gotta be a leak or something right?

Obviously i need to get this looked at but anyone got any tips/speculation what this could be? or is this normal??

[haz]

I'm currently averaging 35.2mpg in a 1.8 Turbo, so that does seem very low

[Breaker]

Thanks for the reply Haz.. yeah seems very strange indeed.

Really need to know why its doing this? guess i'll just have to wait untill i cant get it looked at by a pro

[faisalgti]

Im averagin 31mpg in a 1.8t

Had a 2.0Gti before this, that was a big guzzler and for a tenner i used to get 50-60 miles at least. could stretch it to 70 if driven sensibly.

Havent worked out exactly how much i get for 10 or 20 quid on the 1.8t usully top it up when its just over half.

But yeah you definitley need to get that checked out

[Hairy_Lee]

I have a 1.8 manual and I was appalled by the fuel economy around town and on short runs. When I first got the car I managed 17 MPG average over a tank, I've since adapted my driving style to suit the car more and consistently get 24 MPG out of it now.

I thought there was something wrong with the car to begin with but I took the car and a trip to hampshire this weekend and have managed to get 400 miles out of a tank.

I think these engines are definately not suited to around town driving and short runs which is why the fuel economy suffers, espcially when cold.

[jrm91]

I drive a 1.6 97 a3 and dont tend to get much more than 23 24 mpg around town, yet i get 40-45 mpg on a long run, not sure if that helps at all

[Sly]

My 1.8T Auto was using loads of fuel until I changed the thermostat!? It was overcooling and never quite getting up to normal running temperature. I guess the computer saw that as an excuse to chuck more fuel in. I guess!?