TDi Golf (2012) - City Driving

New 2012 TDi Golf, 6sp manual, about 1000 miles on the clock (so still lots of break in to take place).

Averaging 20-21 mpg on mostly city drive to and from work.

I understand that it is winter time here (cold), break-in will improve things, etc., but I find that mileage is rather dismal for a 2.0 liter engine driven sensibly; certainly more than I would have expected.

Is this typical mileage for these conditions? Is the TDi only fuel efficient under light load (i.e., constant speed on the highway) and a pig in the city or will break-in and warmer temperatures simply improve things A LOT?

Thanks for the feedback!

Your circumstances are a collection of the worst-case-examples. Cold weather together with city driving, and together with a car which hasn't been broken in.

How long is your journey from home to work?


How frequently do you do long&fast trips (e.g., interstate)? I'm concerned that your DPF will get clogged up very quickly if all you do is city driving.

MikeMars said:

Your circumstances are a collection of the worst-case-examples. Cold weather together with city driving, and together with a car which hasn't been broken in.

How long is your journey from home to work?


How frequently do you do long&fast trips (e.g., interstate)? I'm concerned that your DPF will get clogged up very quickly if all you do is city driving.

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I go to and from work, about 8 km each way, five days a week, with other short city trips during the week. I would go on highway trips (40 km each way) about once every two weeks, sometimes a few of these trips in a single weekend. I will be going on a longer trip (about 500 km total) about once a month in addition to the foregoing.

To make matters worse, I had to go on one such trip (500 km) on the first weekend I got the car, despite the recommendation to avoid steady-speed driving....

I hate to break this to you but I think you bought the wrong car...or at least wrong engine. That thing isnt even warmed up in 8 km.

Makes me cringe.

Your best bet would be public transportation for the 8 km commutes, if it's available, and the Golf for the longer ones. There's really no way to get the maximum efficiency out of a TDI in an 8 km, stop-go commute in freezing temps. The low 20s you're getting sound about right.

HRC-E.B. said:

... I would go on highway trips (40 km each way) about once every two weeks,
...

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That might be enough to keep the DPF happy. If the warning light comes on during the week, then when you are doing your highway trip on the weekend you should wait until it fully warms up, then drop down a gear to raise your RPM for 15 or 20 minutes or so. This will help it to regenerate (= burn off the soot clogging the DPF).

...
To make matters worse, I had to go on one such trip (500 km) on the first weekend I got the car, despite the recommendation to avoid steady-speed driving....

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Hmm, well, as far as running-in is concerned, 500km is not nearly as bad as 8km trips... at least the engine has had time to warm up.

In hot weather, my car has only just warmed up when it reaches 8km. In UK cold weather (0c-8c) it needs 14 or 15km before it is up to temperature. In Canadian winter weather, it would take ages.

Whenever the occasion arises and once up to normal temperature, I do my best to give the car some throttle and let the turbo spool up good, and let the engine run with enough load on it or with throttle completely shut, to assist with break-in. I also let it spin up a bit on short highway bursts (may run 3rd or 4th gear as opposed to lugging it in 5th or 6th as the shift lights would suggest) to help burn off the crap that may be building up in the DPF.

My car is a little more broken in with 4.5k on the odometer, and on a cold day(50 F) running short trips around town today, I was averaging 30mpg. The worst I get on a cold start short trip is 25mpg.

To the OP, maybe try improving your driving style and make sure you've got good fuel in the car. And to agree with some of the other posters; this is the wrong motor for short trips. It really shines on the highway. I average 30-34mpg city and around 46-52 highway(depending on speed and driving style.)

Living in Montreal as well, I figured I would chime in here.
At the -10C to -20C temperatures we have been experiencing these past few weeks, your tdi is burning 2-3 times more fuel (at idle) on startup.

Especially important in city driving (more important in cold city driving): Are you rolling to stops in neutral? Or are you downshifting your way to a stop?

When your car is IN GEAR and you are rolling WITHOUT your foot on the THROTTLE, you are burning 0L/100km. When you are rolling in Neutral (with a warm engine), you are burning anywhere from 0.5L/hour 0.7L/hour. On a (very) cold start you could be burning more than 1.7L/hour (at idle, or while rolling to a stop in neutral). That number will decrease to 0.7 as your engine warms up.

Try using a higher gear coming into stops (and downshifting as you hit 1000rpm). The more time you spend decelerating in gear the less fuel you will burn.

On my 1.9 TDI, during my 1km drive to the 720 highway (mostly downhill) (at -10C to -20C), my MFD will read as poorly as 15 MPG by the time I get to the onramp. By the time I get off the highway in The Old Port 6 km later, I will usually be around 30 mpgs.

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=335035

Hope that helped

I'd agree that your scenario is indeed a worst-case for MPG.

Have you thought about pre-warming & conserving heat in the engine via (plug-in) frostheater and using a winter front?

My first tank was 21.1 pmg, Second tank was 24.6 - This was almost all in-town driving.
When it went over 1k miles, FE went up quickly- but not what it gets now with 5k.
I wouldn't be concerned- cold weather factors will play a huge factor

HRC-E.B. said:

New 2012 TDi Golf, 6sp manual, about 1000 miles on the clock (so still lots of break in to take place).

Averaging 20-21 mpg on mostly city drive to and from work.

I understand that it is winter time here (cold), break-in will improve things, etc., but I find that mileage is rather dismal for a 2.0 liter engine driven sensibly; certainly more than I would have expected.

Is this typical mileage for these conditions? Is the TDi only fuel efficient under light load (i.e., constant speed on the highway) and a pig in the city or will break-in and warmer temperatures simply improve things A LOT?

Thanks for the feedback!

Click to expand...

We have a 2012 Golf TDI DSG with 800 miles. On a daily drive 10 miles round trip in urban driving we average 32mpg.

Have your reset the MDI Consumption reading for both 1 and 2 since taking delivery?

darrelld said:

We have a 2012 Golf TDI DSG with 800 miles. On a daily drive 10 miles round trip in urban driving we average 32mpg.

Have your reset the MDI Consumption reading for both 1 and 2 since taking delivery?

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1 and 2? How do I do that? Can you explain?

HRC-E.B. said:

1 and 2? How do I do that? Can you explain?

Click to expand...

Consumption #1 will reset every time car is off for 2 hours or manually
Consumption #2 will keep calculating until you reset it manually

With Consumption #1 displayed press the OK button and Consumption #2 will display.

Navigate to #2 Consumption on your MDI. Hold the Ok button until the display resets.

Consumption 2 looks like this:

Thanks. I'll be resetting and monitoring that closely.

My Golf TDI 6 speed averages 52 mpg in the summer and 47 in the winter.
My commute is 50% city.
However the same car can be in the 40 range if the wife drives it.

I made a small trip this weekend to my dad's cottage, to go work on my bike. Refuelled the car and then got on the road. Over 85 km (53 miles) of mostly highway driving at 120 km/h (75 mph), and including two 5-km stop-and-go stints in the city (one after a restart), I averaged 5.0 l/100 km, which is about 47 mpg.

Car is still quite new (1000 miles). Temperatures were around 35 F. This is on 225-wide 17-inch winter tires. That's not too shabby! I wonder how much better things will get as the car gets broken in more and the temperatures warm up a bit? How much of an improvement can I expect?

In the city only, it is still not very impressive, though, getting close to 28-29 mpg when fully warm, and more like 25-26 mpg when starting cold. For a 2-liter engine with modest power, not driven aggressively, I would say that's a lot of fuel.

In the city, a small gas-powered car (Honda Civic, Hyundai Elantra, Accet, Veloster, or the small 1.4 turbo gassers from GM) would be more economical. Not sure about highway mileage, however.

I still prefer to drive my TDi, though! Better car overall, but makes me wonder whether I would have preferred a GTI?

HRC-E.B. said:

I made a small trip this weekend to my dad's cottage, to go work on my bike. Refuelled the car and then got on the road. Over 85 km (53 miles) of mostly highway driving at 120 km/h (75 mph), and including two 5-km stop-and-go stints in the city (one after a restart), I averaged 5.0 l/100 km, which is about 47 mpg.

Car is still quite new (1000 miles). Temperatures were around 35 F. This is on 225-wide 17-inch winter tires. That's not too shabby! I wonder how much better things will get as the car gets broken in more and the temperatures warm up a bit? How much of an improvement can I expect?

In the city only, it is still not very impressive, though, getting close to 28-29 mpg when fully warm, and more like 25-26 mpg when starting cold. For a 2-liter engine with modest power, not driven aggressively, I would say that's a lot of fuel.

In the city, a small gas-powered car (Honda Civic, Hyundai Elantra, Accet, Veloster, or the small 1.4 turbo gassers from GM) would be more economical. Not sure about highway mileage, however.

I still prefer to drive my TDi, though! Better car overall, but makes me wonder whether I would have preferred a GTI?

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I would guess you'll do a bit better in the summer for city driving, but there are so many variables. And it will be better after 10-15km.

Finally, don't rely on the on-board computer for true mileage. You should fill to the top, drive until next refueling, and compute the mileage by hand (or with fuelly.com or some such thing). I use the computer figures all the time, but only for comparison. They are never quite accurate.

MikeMars said:

How frequently do you do long&fast trips (e.g., interstate)? I'm concerned that your DPF will get clogged up very quickly if all you do is city driving.

Click to expand...

Hey Mike,

I don't drive my tdi very much at all, as I am a stay at home dad right now. am i at risk? Sometimes my car doesn't even get a chance to warm up completely. Is this something that should be addressed before my wife begins to drive the car for her commute soon?

Thanks

I wouldn't have thought that your car has a DPF - it's a 2001, the DPFs were introduced later for most of the VW models. So don't worry.