Just finished a 5 day, 1620 mile trip today. Mostly highway, MPG calculated to 45.35 and spent a total of $133.11. Drove from Prince George, VA to Watertown, NY area looking for places to live, so I did a lot of around town driving there. Even made a trip to Kingston, ON yesterday. Pretty happy with the fuel mileage, but I wish the tank was larger. We (wife and I) usually do our long drives on our Passat TDI, so it felt a little disappointing to stop more often to fuel up.
On another note, I was comparing my overall MPG (42.4 over 3644mi) to other MK7 Golf TDIs and I found mine to me just a bit above average (looked like most are getting 40-42 mpg). I'm wondering is what the heck drivers are doing to get to the 45+ MPGs on a consistent basis.
After 5 tanks my FE is 48.6 mpg (calculated). It looks like my FE is in the top 3 or 4 on Fuelly - which like Lone Wolf I'm also surprised about. I don't drive strictly for maximum FE, as I "get on it" some when I'm driving around town. It's not unusual for me to shift at 3500-4000 rpm's out of 1st and 2nd.
My driving is about 85% highway/15% city. My "highway" miles are my 60+ mile commute, which is 20-25 miles on a very hilly 2-lane state route with average speeds of 45-60 mph, and 40 miles on the interstate where I average 65-75 mph.
My TDI is a 6-speed manual, with the stock OEM tires...and although I know I'm going to disappoint the FE gurus with this, I have no idea what my tire pressure is...I haven't checked it yet.
About the only active FE method I employ is to coast down hills on the 2-lane state route when I commute; although I'm not sure how much fuel this saves, as IIRC our Golfs drop their fuel consumption to almost nil when the accelerator isn't depressed.
A/C has been on maybe 1/3 of the time since I bought my car. And on 3 of 5 tankfuls, the calculated range has been in excess of 600 miles.