The 7.3 was the best motor ever to be put in a pick up. To bad Ford got greedy cause the 6.0 & 6.4 are dogs. I looked at the 12/13 trucks with the 6.7. Spent sometime cruising the powerstroke nation website. Most of the guys are putting up 20 mpg if they're lucky. Goodbye Ford, hello VW. I owned a bug & scirocco (sp) back in the 70's
My wife owned a priuis (sp) for 3 years so I got to play w/ that. I had one day that I hit 64 but the average was 56 in the summer, 48 in the winter.
When the economy tanked I got my CDL & drove OTR for a year. One of the things the trucking companies are teaching drivers is a technique called progressive shifting. It's basiclly upshifting @ lower rpms, & using the service brake in lieu of running the gears when slowing down or coming to a stop. Driving a truck this way had most putting up 7.5 mpg compared to 5. If you're a trucking company w/ 5000 trucks on the road,
this mileage difference is huge when you're buying 10,000 gallons of fuel daily.
So in addition to the priuis & what I learned about driving a TT I think most w/ the newer VW's can put numbers up in the low to mid 50's if their owners change their driving habits.
Stay off the pedal, upshift early keeping the rpms low, don't downshift when coming to a stop, use the brake & keep those rpm's under 1800 when highway driving.
Yesterday I noticed at 60mph on the highway with cruise control on, the motor just hummed along at 1500 rpms & I averaged 53 mpg door to door. Driving at 70 doesn't get you there much quicker....
I'll keep track of the mileage & after a few fill ups post some results.
Till then, take care!