MPG discussion - Sportwagen

I don’t think it’s the weight that makes the difference unless you are stopping and starting. I think the wider tires have more rolling resistance. More air drag too but not much of the wheel hangs below the car so maybe that difference is small.

marcusku said:

I don’t think it’s the weight that makes the difference unless you are stopping and starting. I think the wider tires have more rolling resistance. More air drag too but not much of the wheel hangs below the car so maybe that difference is small.

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I think it's small... My 80mile commutes I regularly get "real calculated" 55mpg on my summer setup with 17x8 Konig Oversteer and Continental SureContact 235/45ZR17's. Wheel is 19lb and tire is 21lb and I'd say I have maybe seen slightly better on my 15in factory setup.

The key to getting everything you can out of these cars is speed. Don't hammer it from a stop and of course, try to keep a steady and safe pace and you'll see huge gains. I can still get up to 40mpg in town but I also think driving TDI's for decade has taught me some tricks so I know the very seasoned TDIers could do even better.

Seems to me the consensus on Mk4 cars at least was that going from stock 15" to 17-18" wheels was good for a 3-4 mpg hit. Never tested the theory myself though.

Unsprung weight (like wheels and tires) hits mileage a lot harder than it seems.

I haven't checked the weight differences between the 15 an 17-18" wheel/tire setups on our dubs, but even a mere 5lbs would be about a 10% increase in weight on all four corners and nearly a full size adult in terms of how much unsprung weight "weighs" in use.

For those with a DSG, has manually shifting at lower RPMs resulted in better fuel mileage?

jmasciulli said:

For those with a DSG, has manually shifting at lower RPMs resulted in better fuel mileage?

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I drive in S mode all the time (new S shifting program is more like D in the MK5/6) and downshift regularly (as in almost every slow down that simply letting off accelerating can't take care of) but don't typically use just Manual mode. The regular D shifts pretty early as it is, not sure using manual to shift even lower will net much efficiency.

Interested to hear whatever else has to say though.

Mrrogers1 said:

I drive in S mode all the time (new S shifting program is more like D in the MK5/6) and downshift regularly (as in almost every slow down that simply letting off accelerating can't take care of) but don't typically use just Manual mode. The regular D shifts pretty early as it is, not sure using manual to shift even lower will net much efficiency.
Interested to hear whatever else has to say though.

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I find mine shifts from 1st to 2nd at around 3,000 RPMs. In my Mk IV manual, I'd shift at 2,000 for every gear. I was thinking that manually shifting at 2,000 might help fuel economy.

jmasciulli said:

I find mine shifts from 1st to 2nd at around 3,000 RPMs. In my Mk IV manual, I'd shift at 2,000 for every gear. I was thinking that manually shifting at 2,000 might help fuel economy.

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In D mine generally would shift at 1800 and in S it shifts at 2200. I'm still on phase 1 so hopefully they don't screw up the DSG shift pattern too much with phase 2. I put on about 35k in a year so need another couple months before I go in for phase 2.


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Mrrogers1 said:

In D mine generally would shift at 1800 and in S it shifts at 2200. I'm still on phase 1 so hopefully they don't screw up the DSG shift pattern too much with phase 2. I put on about 35k in a year so need another couple months before I go in for phase 2.


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I think I might have misjudged my shift points. In D, the shift points depend on how much throttle. I noticed that the shift points are like you describe if I'm easy on the throttle.

My personal best fuel economy is 60.8 mpg--hand calculated. The MFD read as high as 68.8 mpg. I wanted to achieve 700 miles on a tank and did 714.1. Took about 11.774 gallons to fill the tank, so technically I had about 1.7 gallons of fuel left in the tank. My next goal is an 800 mile tank--not sure if the wife is on board with that. We were carrying quite a load and still got over 60 mpgs. I am amazed at how far this car can go on a gallon of fuel.

eutecticpt said:

My personal best fuel economy is 60.8 mpg--hand calculated. The MFD read as high as 68.8 mpg. I wanted to achieve 700 miles on a tank and did 714.1. Took about 11.774 gallons to fill the tank, so technically I had about 1.7 gallons of fuel left in the tank. My next goal is an 800 mile tank--not sure if the wife is on board with that. We were carrying quite a load and still got over 60 mpgs. I am amazed at how far this car can go on a gallon of fuel.

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Nice work! If you top to the brim, you can get 12.8+ gallons in. When I got my 800 mile tank, I ended up going 17 miles past the car telling me zero miles to empty. That tank was 62.6 mpg.