So... when does the fuel economy get better again?

[LazyLightning]

Hi Folks - just wondering when people started seeing noticeable improvements in fuel economy after break-in (or maybe it's more of a continuous thing)? I'm at ~1500 miles now - is she already as good as she gets or does the mileage keep improving? I'm a bit surprised by my numbers - I'm doing a decent job of keeping my foot out of it on my commute and my consumption is still waaaaay worse than my MKV GTI or A3.

[jsausley]

What sort of numbers? Expect 22-25 MPG in the city depending on how aggressive you drive and 28-33 on the highway depending on external temps, AC and how fast you cruise.

Mine have been pretty regular from 0-3500 miles. Haven't really noticed a "break-in" change.

[speeedfrk]

gets better after ~3000 miles. also will improve with most tunes. mine immediately went from 21-22 to 24-25 avg after my tune and improved even more when i went 2+. i avg around 28 daily and 26ish if im having fun.

[Jimb213]

I'm at about 3500 miles and I've noticed an increase in my mileage in the last tank or two. Granted, it's largely due to a highway cruise to San Antonio and back (from Austin), but I've finally gotten well over 300 miles out of a tank of gas. I'm at about 320 miles and my gas light still hasn't come on. At the beginning I was lucky to get 280 before the light came on... I'm also hitting closer to 30mpg average on trips according to the MFD.

But if jsauley is right and external temps play a role too, then the fact that we're no longer in daily triple-digit temps probably helps as well...

[SOFLA]

gets better after ~3000 miles. also will improve with most tunes. mine immediately went from 21-22 to 24-25 avg after my tune and improved even more when i went 2+. i avg around 28 daily and 26ish if im having fun.

I haven't seen any improvements since going stage 2+ but I'm sure that's because I step on it all the time. I love the power and the sound.

Driving from Fl to upstate ny I got 30 mpg and I was stage 1+. Doing 70-75 mph.

[batman25]

Mine is starting to improve(2600 miles) from 21-22 to 24-25. All city driving though.

[dmb6202]

I'm also hitting closer to 30mpg average on trips according to the MFD.

For the love of Pete, people should not ever quote the MFD in conversations about fuel economy except to note how wildly inaccurate it can be.

I've had three MK6 vehicles ('10 Golf 2.5, '11 GTI, '12 Golf R) and I can tell you that none of them accurately represented the true fuel economy of the vehicle. The Golf 2.5 read about 3mpg higher than actual. The GTI was almost as off (more like 2.5mpg). The R is a bit more accurate, but not by much.

That said, I've never noticed an increase in fuel economy over the life of the engine in any of my VWs. Of course, that could be because I lose interest in tracking it over time, so it may have happened and I didn't notice it.

[DaLeadBull]

Mine is starting to improve(2600 miles) from 21-22 to 24-25. All city driving though.

Yep, same here. I at a little less than 3000. Should we expect it to get any better or what? I'm still all stock btw.

[GTIVRon]

When you drive slower it improves.




Mine was around 23.5 avg per tank, and last tank was 25ish mpg at 37xx miles. 6th gear sucks on this car so if you want decent mileage highway you should be around 65 mph. Anything above 70 mph on flat level road with cruise control on my instantaneous consumption shows around 23-24 mpg. I usually get to around 285-300 miles before my fuel light turns on.

[GTIVRon]

For the love of Pete, people should not ever quote the MFD in conversations about fuel economy except to note how wildly inaccurate it can be.

I've had three MK6 vehicles ('10 Golf 2.5, '11 GTI, '12 Golf R) and I can tell you that none of them accurately represented the true fuel economy of the vehicle. The Golf 2.5 read about 3mpg higher than actual. The GTI was almost as off (more like 2.5mpg). The R is a bit more accurate, but not by much.

That said, I've never noticed an increase in fuel economy over the life of the engine in any of my VWs. Of course, that could be because I lose interest in tracking it over time, so it may have happened and I didn't notice it.

My overall consumption shows 24.2 MPG. And most tanks have been around 24.5 or less. I'd say that's pretty close.

[dmb6202]

My overall consumption shows 24.2 MPG. And most tanks have been around 24.5 or less. I'd say that's pretty close.

Yes, yours happens to be close. One example of an accurate MFD is not proof that all MFDs are accurate. In general, I don't place much stock in a conversation that primarily consists of people quoting their MFDs.

You could argue that the inaccuracy of the MFD will average out over a large enough sample size, but I think the requirements of German law on speedometers (they are allowed to read higher than actual speed, but never lower than actual speed) would probably mean that the average MFD reads higher than actual.

[racman]

I'm at almost 8,000 miles now, and for the last three months I've been getting 25-26, sometimes 27 MPG.

My average speed on my daily 60 mile RT commute (according to MFD) is about 40 MPH, so I'd call that city/hwy conditions.

[John@Roc-Euro]

I never got over 23mpg stock. I get like 28 in those conditions now with stage II+.

Tiny tank has me filling up frequently enough that I forget to log anything.

[dajiggalo]

don't trust the MFD... those numbers were all over the place!
My hand calculated mileage didn't vary too much after break-in. Currently (at 3500 miles) I managed around 27 mpg at 3200 rpm on 6th gear (cruise on of course). In city driving I managed around 22-25. I was fairly easy on the throttle

[SOFLA]

I just filled up and MFD 1 said 16.x mpg and MFD 2 said 20.x. Did the math and I got 20 mpg. That's with getting on the gas a bunch too. This tank had a 60 mile round trip of highway driving. Today I was fully enjoying the stage 2+. Scared a couple people while making turns. The awd is awesome!

[ftillier]

I'm getting about ~19 in the city (my commute is hilly), and my highway tank was ~26 I think. Only 4 fillups so far, so a small sample size.

[Tackles]

With just a Stage I flash, I was doing around 19-20 MPG, with spirited driving. I calculated my MPG with every fill-up by dividing the mileage driven by the amount of gas pumped. After adding a VWR intake, HPFP and a 2+ flash, I am running between 21-22 MPG, driving exactly the same way. I honestly have no explanation why it went up, but my MPG has reliably gone up by 2-3 since the last round of upgrades.

[LazyLightning]

I'm getting about ~19 in the city (my commute is hilly), and my highway tank was ~26 I think. Only 4 fillups so far, so a small sample size.

This is pretty much exactly what I'm seeing - maybe more like 18 in the city. I live in San Fran - so I guess I should expect to be 1 standard deviation away from everyone else with fuel economy! But: my stage 1 '09 A3 would get me ~22 mpg driving the same route the same way. Guess AWD + FSI knocks ~20% off the efficiency!

Thanks to everyone for their responses!

[JLCVDUB]

Even when I baby it, I'm lucky to get 300 miles to a tank. The average is about 275ishh.

[BluDemon]

Even when I baby it, I'm lucky to get 300 miles to a tank. The average is about 275ishh.

WOW really? One week with easy driving I got 390 on a tank.

[JLCVDUB]

I wasn't even getting that on my trip from TX to CA or on the way back. Not even close.

[Wlfsbrg2.0T]

First tank: 26.7 mpg (376 miles)
Second tank: 27.8 mpg (747 miles)
Third tank: 28.8 mpg (1,144 miles)
Fourth tank: 29.5 mpg (1,556 miles)

With what I would consider fairly consistent driving, my efficiency improved for each of my first four tanks, up to 1,556 miles. After that my average leveled off more or less between 28.5-29.5.

This is all hand calculated, not MFD data.

FYI I went to APR stage 1 software at about 2,600 miles with no noticeable change in consumption.

[VWFORLIFE2012]

Getting 28 to 31 on my 20 mile commute to work. Average 26.. Stock 10,000 miles..

[goforit2007]

My driving is pretty much just surface streets (rarely highway) and here have been my results per fill up:

Fillup # Mileage Mpg calculation (actual and not VW Data)

1 326.9 25.52
2 586 24.47
3 867.7 23.75
4 991.3 22.995
5 1262.7 23.45
6 1597.3 34.9 (this involved an all highway trip)
7 1817.1 24.4
8 2010.8 21.97
9 2201.7 21.69
10 2406.2 13.63 (lots of a/c, idling and spirited foot to floor driving)
11 2599.9 25.37
12 2763.7 22.12
13 2845.3 22
14 2984.5 21.855
15 3145.8 24.39
16 3324.3 23.06

[cashew]

I am at 10,000 miles and just started to see major jumps in MPG. I drive 32 miles round trip to work each day and its about 60% highway, 40% city.

for the first 5,000 miles I was averaging about 22 MPG.

At just about 10,000 miles, I am averaging about 26 MPG.

[speeedfrk]

fwiw, our haldex system is not a full time AWD. so with normal daily driving, it wont affect your mpgs at all. the car drives just like a FWD car unless you are driving aggressively, upon which you wouldnt be getting very good mileage anyways.

[JLCVDUB]

Not according to Volkswagen.

[Jimb213]

For the love of Pete, people should not ever quote the MFD in conversations about fuel economy except to note how wildly inaccurate it can be.

I've had three MK6 vehicles ('10 Golf 2.5, '11 GTI, '12 Golf R) and I can tell you that none of them accurately represented the true fuel economy of the vehicle. The Golf 2.5 read about 3mpg higher than actual. The GTI was almost as off (more like 2.5mpg). The R is a bit more accurate, but not by much.

That said, I've never noticed an increase in fuel economy over the life of the engine in any of my VWs. Of course, that could be because I lose interest in tracking it over time, so it may have happened and I didn't notice it.

Lighten up a bit man. I meant it as an observation that it's trending upwards ("I'm also hitting closer to 30mpg average on trips according to the MFD."), not that it necessarily represents absolute, accurate readings. As long as it's consistently inaccurate, changes in the data can still tell you something valuable.

Anyways, I gassed up this morning, with 342.7 miles on the odometer. I put in 12.754 gallons, so that works out to 26.87 mpg from fill up to fill up. There was a roughly 120-150 mile round trip between Austin and San Antonio (where I filled up at my normal gas station as I left town), and then my normal daily driving. That's about 50 miles per tank better than I normally get, so I'm going to guess I usually ballpark an average of 23 to 24 mpg per tank with combined driving.

I'm going to be curious what kind of mileage I get on my road trip next week...

[DaLeadBull]

fwiw, our haldex system is not a full time AWD. so with normal daily driving, it wont affect your mpgs at all. the car drives just like a FWD car unless you are driving aggressively, upon which you wouldnt be getting very good mileage anyways.

This is true for highway cruising or steady state in general but when you're putting on city miles, starting and stopping I'm sure the Haldex comes into play there.

[goforit2007]

so much depends on driving style too though.


My best so far was 34.9mpg (all highway) vs my worst of 13.63mpg with the extreme conditions of 90s, full blast A/c and very 'enthusiastic' non-fuel saving heavy footed driving (IE staying in 3rd or 4th gear when I should have been in 6th and fast starts from stops, etc.)

[ignitionlive]

my overall (city/hwy) average has always stayed within 24-25mpg
I was surprised to avg about 14mpg at willow springs, not bad for all out acceleration on a HOT day.
I think I have hit 33mpg once while hyper-miling

[goforit2007]

no elevation changes, sea level and do exactly 55mph and I suspect you can easily see 36+mpg if you want to 'go crazy' with being a miser on fuel and 'hyper-mile' to the 'nth' degree but is that really what we bought these cars for?

[goforit2007]

BTW: I was shocked to see 25mpg with my former TDI Golf at Autobahn country club roadcourse on a 98 degree day (made me chuckle)

[ignitionlive]

BTW: I was shocked to see 25mpg with my former TDI Golf at Autobahn country club roadcourse on a 98 degree day (made me chuckle)

lol yeah racer economy style!

I agree too that the point is really not the mileage, its just a funny side note to me-

[PDXA4]

18.7 mpg for my car so far over 2000 miles, but that's all city driving with stop and go traffic. Also that is with crappy Cali Summer Blend 91...

I did not buy this car for fuel economy, but even so it's a hell lot better than my previous daily driver 12.07 mpg average...