31 MPG!!

[Z85rado]

We recently took a trip for work(for me) and the family came. With the box on the roof, snow tires on steelies, winter diesel, and my wife doing some driving around town we got 31 on a tank. That is right along with the lowest we've seen and i've towed a haul a few times and gotten low 30's. Goes to show everyone what aero, rolling resistance, and unsprung weight will do.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

EPA figures are 30/42 for your car I believe, so that's right in line with what you should expect under the circumstances. One thing I've noticed is that the modern CR cars with more complex emissions systems that need fuel to keep them warm take a bigger FE hit in winter than the older cars did.

 

[JELLOWSUBMARINE]

Back in the day when normally aspirated, cubic inch ruled, you'd get the same crappy mpg pulling a house or going downhill, unloaded with the wind at your back. A 460 F250 we had did well under 10 mpg no matter what. It seems the more tech we build into a car the less forgiving they are. But still, like indigo said, the JSW was rated @ 41 hbyway.And that's a 6m and new. If you look up the TDI JSW on fuelly.com I believe the hundreds of real mpg average from dozens of cars sits overall in the mid to high 30's. Still exceptional especially with a tune. Is yours DSG and/or dieselgate tune?

 

[ticaf]

I'd say pretty good for "driving around town".

 

[hskrdu]

I just took one of our MK7's (GSW 6M) from Maryland up to New England. Cold and windy. Pen and paper shows 422.8 miles before fueling up with 8.703 gallons, or 48.581 MPG.

I'm hoping when these 17" OE Geneva wheels come off (this week) it will help a little overall...

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

I just took one of our MK7's (GSW 6M) from Maryland up to New England. Cold and windy. Pen and paper shows 422.8 miles before fueling up with 8.703 gallons, or 48.581 MPG.

How fast were you driving?

 

[hskrdu]

About half the trip at 73+/- and half at 70+/-. No extra weight in back (for a change!), and fresh tasty air in the tires. The speeds (and FE) were helped by the snows, which slowed traffic both in the Southern Tier and in the Berkshires. You guys south of Boston seem to be escaping much of it this year.

I haven't figured out the pen and paper FE average for this car yet (I haven't even started a TCO thread for it yet!), but it's pretty darn good for how much heavier it is than my MkIV. So far my biggest complaint is the size of the fuel tank- I'm like you, I'd rather go a long distance between fills.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

Thought you were going "slow" by current standards. I've done a lot of driving in the Boston/NY/Washington corridor in the last year and find that a good 85th percentile speed (what most traffic is doing) is about 80 MPH. I drove to DC and back in August (in the same day, a first for me) and ran pretty much the length of the NJ turnpike with the cruise set at 85.

Is the MPG number you posted from the cluster or pen and paper?

 

[hskrdu]

Yes, the highway speeds are silly in some places- especially where lighter traffic due to COVID has encouraged the racer crowd. I avoid the NJTP route, mostly because of how high the tolls have gotten, not to mention NJ drivers (sorry NJ). Even the Mass Pike has crazy speeds once you get past 90/95. 73mph is slower than some people, but it's often the same speed I'm going in the MkIV, so it's also a decent comparison.

My numbers are always pen and paper.

The MFD in my Mk7 is usually about 4-5mpg off, the one in (her) Mk7 is about 5-6mpg off. Her car gets better FE (pen and paper), but I'm not sure exactly why. The 16" wheels and lower weight of the GSW S may help, but I also think it's because we did the initial engine break-in for her car (but not mine). The CRUA will never best the ALH, but I'm continually surprised. It wasn't until her car hit 20,000 miles and consistently returned 44-48mpg per fillup that I started seriously considering getting one. It suffers more in city driving than the MkIV, but I know highway will generally see 44-47.

 

[bigb]

My numbers are always pen and paper.

Mine used to be too and what a hassle till Fuelly came along, now it's actually fun and right on the money.

 

[Lightflyer1]

Yes I text mine into Fuelly all the time. Really easy to do.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

My son lives in Western MA and we're both back and forth to the Boston area a lot. We joke that traveling eastbound once you get past the Route 84 interchange it's race track. Always has been to some extent, but now it's even more extreme. I've made trips recently where I'm going 90 in the middle lane and people are passing me.

You're right that MK7s won't get the FE that ALHs do, nor, more important to me, the range. My MK7 at 14K miles is far from broken in, and I don't seem to use it a lot so the mileage isn't going up. I feel like the ALHs get to fully broken in at around 60K miles, and FE jumps then. I hope it doesn't take that long on the CRUA.

 

[hskrdu]

My son lives in Western MA and we're both back and forth to the Boston area a lot. We joke that traveling eastbound once you get past the Route 84 interchange it's race track. Always has been to some extent, but now it's even more extreme. I've made trips recently where I'm going 90 in the middle lane and people are passing me.

You're right that MK7s won't get the FE that ALHs do, nor, more important to me, the range. My MK7 at 14K miles is far from broken in, and I don't seem to use it a lot so the mileage isn't going up. I feel like the ALHs get to fully broken in at around 60K miles, and FE jumps then. I hope it doesn't take that long on the CRUA.

I was always watching for his Golf when we were in Lenox, but never spotted it.

The loss of range is really my biggest complaint. As you know with IBW, 700 and 800 mile tanks are wonderful on long trips. For the Mk7, 600 is probably more reasonable, although I think BlueHen already has some 700 milers in Delaware. But lets face it, no one really wants to drive in Delaware!

If we could eventually turn the DEF tank into an auxiliary fuel tank, then we'd be on to something...

 

[hskrdu]

Mine used to be too and what a hassle till Fuelly came along, now it's actually fun and right on the money.

But then I'd have to transfer the information in Fuelly over to my log book, which tracks FE and everything else!

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

I was always watching for his Golf when we were in Lenox, but never spotted it.

He was in Wisconsin in Grad school for the past couple years but now is back in Western MA, in Dalton. Not far from Lenox. Still driving the lifted Golf, which just rolled over 400K miles. Nice to have him closer, although Dalton is significantly farther west than Northampton.ha

I love IBW's range. Fill at home, head west, and I can easily get to the Ohio Turnpike west of Cleveland before I need to fill it. I drove to Madison WI and back more than once on 2 and a half tanks of fuel. It's hard to give that up.

 

[Z85rado]

We are a manual with diesel gate tune (for now). I wasn't complaining, merely stating this is what the combo gave us. I regularly get 46-47 via pen and paper when just commuting which is 29 miles of stop lights.. i get better mileage than running the garden state parkway. That all being said, I've been running my cherokee XJ the last 2 weeks and believe I have just put my third tank of gas in it, getting roughly 14 in it..

 

[hskrdu]

We are a manual with diesel gate tune (for now). I wasn't complaining, merely stating this is what the combo gave us. I regularly get 46-47 via pen and paper when just commuting which is 29 miles of stop lights.. i get better mileage than running the garden state parkway. That all being said, I've been running my cherokee XJ the last 2 weeks and believe I have just put my third tank of gas in it, getting roughly 14 in it..

I don't think anyone took it as complaining. When a thread includes comments about mileage / FE conditions, it often turns into a MPG thread of sorts, even if just for comparisons.