FR TDI economy - Is mine broken?

[Graham123]

Hi All,

Was speaking to a local dealer yesterday - actually went to look at an Alhambra, but that's a different tale.

He was telling me that he'd been running an FR TDI and getting about 42 MPG over short stop-start journeys day in day out.

The vast majorty of my travelling is stop start stuff and my first 3k has produced average mpg of 33.5mpg - so I'm miles out against his.

Similar driving styles from discussing it.

Love the car, and I've not really been that bothered up until then - but I'm now wondering whether something's wrong - what do you all reckon - any suggestions?

Dealer suggested something not quite right as not seen one averaging as lower mpg figure?

 

[S8N]

How many miles on the clock on the two cars?

I have an FR TDI with 11k on it. Only just started getting closer to 40 on a run let alone around town.

 

[Graham123]

About same - mine has about 2900 on it. Dealers was about 2500 when sold.

 

[NickP]

On long runs I easily get 42-43mpg, but on my commute into work 14 miles about 7 on normal roads and 7 on dual carriage way I struggle to get more than 35-36mpg.

My car currently has 4.8k miles on it....

I'm hoping for an improvement as the mileage builds.

On my previous mapped 150PD Leon I'd get 40+ easily on my work commute.

 

[johnbev]

Mine is much the same, 2000 miles approx, if I am carefull on the way to work I get 42mpg ( 22miles or B and A roads) Xmas day at 90mph on a 150mile journey mostly motorway got 34 mpg.... generally getting 39/40`s which is not that good in my opinion.
I have a ibiza 130tdi and get up to 60mpg out of that driven carefull, "Fast" not much less than 48mpg on the journey to work.
The leon 170 is not much quicker than the ibiza, maybe over 100mph, but I rarely do that anymore... So in comparison I think its poor so far. Must be because its so heavy

 

[TriggFr]

I've got just over 8K on the clocks & get about 36-37 MPG average on trip to work which is about 2.5miles. Motorway trips get about 42 MPG.

I know it sounds daft but do you leave the electric mirror control in the middle as this heats the mirrors, when I switched this over to 1 side I got an extra 2 MPG per trip.

 

[Jace]

depends on your speed though, doing 60'ish on my daily commute over 35miles I can get mid to high 40's,

but ragging it along at between 95 to 99.99mph as I did today (on a private road) I got 37mpg.




How far does the tank get you is the main question ?




I get +/- 460 between filling up & the light pinging on telling to refill..

 

[NickP]

I've had 550 on a long run, mixed though I suppose around 450-470ish?

 

[FReddytdi]

18k on clock, get around 45mpg, I always use BP ultimate diesel, not sure if that makes any difference. My mk1 FR TDi did 56mpg easily.

 

[S8N]

Just got 44MPG on a round trip to Cambridge. That was on cruise at 70 all the way!

 

[Hugo Nebula]

It depends on the exact nature of the stop-start journeys.

I have two roughly equal length & equal time routes I can use into work in the morning. The first is a long, continuous crawl along a dual carriageway. The second involves some waiting in queues at give ways and lights, with short bursts inbetween. With the first, if I leave enough space between me and the car in front, I hardly have to accelerate or brake. With the second route, I have to accelerate between lights, otherwise everyone else dives in in front of me.

When I had diesels, I would get about 35mpg from the second route, but I could get 50+mpg on the first.

Take it for a long run, drive like a grandad, and see what you get.

Also, don't always trust the computer. They lie. Work out your mpg by filling up, then making a note of the number of miles driven and the number of gallons (litres/4.55) to fill it up again. Do this over three fills to get an average.

 

[sm_allen]

To work I get 43-44 mpg

On a run to Kent, at 70mph with cruise control, I got 48.5 mpg... I am quite happy, only expected 44mpg...

 

[AndyVTR]

I know it sounds daft but do you leave the electric mirror control in the middle as this heats the mirrors, when I switched this over to 1 side I got an extra 2 MPG per trip.

Linked to heated rear window mate.

 

[AndyVTR]

Also, don't always trust the computer. They lie. Work out your mpg by filling up, then making a note of the number of miles driven and the number of gallons (litres/4.55) to fill it up again. Do this over three fills to get an average.

Most accurate trip computer I've had ever on this car. Usually within 1mpg from actual.

 

[AndyVTR]

The leon 170 is not much quicker than the ibiza, maybe over 100mph, but I rarely do that anymore... So in comparison I think its poor so far. Must be because its so heavy

I can confirm this. I only just gained on my neighbours with his half a tank and mine full.

 

[Rampage]

Linked to heated rear window mate.

I get shouted at if I leave this on in my girlfriends car

 

[spyke85]

Our FR TDi with 28k on the clock has done 40mpg according to the trip computer over 28k miles!

 

[Nathanio]

Its to do with mileage. Higher the mileage the greater the economy. My Tolly when I first got it struggled 50mpg on long runs as 58-60mpg is easily doable now.

Give the engine time to loosen and do some long runs and it should increase

 

[SpursMadDave]

Think mine is about average by what you guys have said.... i do a 7-8 mile run to work and back either a stop start or i can bomb along the motorway depending how i feel.... on the '1' setting the comp says on average 37-39 on the stop start and 42-45 on the motorway.... if i do a trip to my sons in London its a 360 round trip and on the 3 trips i have done so far ive averaged 42, 47 and 45 so not too bad seeing as the car has not even done 1,900 miles yet....

 

[mrsixstring]

I do a good mix of short stop start runs, medium motorway miles to work (30 miles) and long trips (400+ miles). For motorway ~60-70mph in traffic I see about 43mpg avg. Clear runs @ ~80-90mph its more like 38mpg. Short journeys is a bad but much better than petrol 35mpg avg. Doing 56mph gets me an instant read out of 56mpg....but doesn't seem to help the overall readout without doing this for a long time due to the cold start etc, and the occasions where you can't help but cain it (which is most of the time!) lol

Car is now on about 8k miles.

MPG wasn't as good as I expected when I first got the car, but for the power vs performance it's a more than an adequate compromise!

Overall MPG since car was new is 39mpg.