My journey from my tour in Germany
In March, I was apart of a bit of a highway train from Atlanta, GA to Deer Lodge, TN (look 'that' one up on google maps!). It was my wife in her Golf 2.5L i-5 5-spd manual, a friend of ours that drove us down to ATL in his dodge minivan, and myself in my jetta TDI 6-spd manual. I was in the lead, since I knew the way. We all had full tanks of fuel before taking off from the vehicle port in ATL (my wife and I just came back from overseas and were picking up our cars).
So off we went, first stop Deer Lodge, TN. On the way, we picked up some handhelds to keep in communication. All the way, I was hitting near 58.2 MPG, with my wife's golf coming in at a nice 41.? MPG. Our top speed was only 65MPH (the old minivan couldn't do much more than that!), avg speed around 45, because of the mountainous terrain in TN.
As we stopped in Deer Lodge, my friend couldn't stop talking about trading his minivan in for a VW TDI, all the while asking numerous questions about top speed, HP, torque, and comfort. I finally couldn't take the questions anymore and tossed him the key. After an hour long runabout in my car, he came back with a grin on his face that would put the Cheshire cat to shame!
After a few days of going here and there, visiting with family a bit longer, and getting the last few things settled, my wife and I packed up the two cars with our belongings and beloved canine companions (I took one and she took the other, splitting the baggage load to compensate), we took off with tear-filled eyes to Huntsville, AL, where we had a house waiting for us to finally settle down in! As we took off, my wife came across the radio telling me that her fuel light just came on, then asking how I was doing. I told her I was fine at about a half tank left from ATL fillup, but there was a station about 15 miles that she could get some fuel. So as we stopped at the station, she fueled up her little golf and we let the pups out for a jaunt. I couldn't fuel up anyway, since the rinky dink place didn't have a small spout diesel nozzle (only the huge truck version.... hi-flow i think it's called). As we hit the road, I was just curious on exactly how far I could actually get on a tank, so I decided not to fill up until absolutely necessary.
Turns out, we made it all the way from ATL, to Deer Lodge, to Huntsville, all on one tank of diesel fuel. 692 miles total (oh I wished I would have taken a pic of that!), with the running around we did through the Tennessee mountains. a little over 12 gallons to fill it up in Huntsville. I can't remember the AVG speed on the way down to Huntsville, but I know it was higher than going from ATL to Deer Lodge, since we didn't have to worry about a slow minivan breaking down!
All in all, I'm stuck on VW and their TDIs. I'll never again buy a gasoline motored car. Plenty of power, and gradually extending fuel mileage as the engine wears in. You can't beat it! Now, if VW would just bring back the Passat Sportwagen, I'd trade in my Jetta sedan!
Cheers!