I commute every day from work and have a 70 mile round trip made up of 80% motorway driving. I can usually get 400 miles to a tank before the petrol light comes on. The car is standard bar a k&n panel filter. I have been considering adding both cruise control and a stage 1 remap. I would like to know from people of have already done this what sort of improvement, if any have they got from the map in terms of mpg.

none really as you just drive faster..

cruise control will help though, it means you can maintain a constant and get the best mpg possible.

400 miles to a tank...you must drive pretty conservatively anyway, you are not likely to get more than that from a petrol 1.8t to be honest.

none really as you just drive faster..

cruise control will help though, it means you can maintain a constant and get the best mpg possible.

400 miles to a tank...you must drive pretty conservatively anyway, you are not likely to get more than that from a petrol 1.8t to be honest.

I just drive to the speed limits and look well ahead so no undue breaking etc...

I had just been looking on the website and seen a few people mention better mpg, now i will never justify it to the misses!

Just bear in mind that if you're already good at driving at a constant speed, cruise control will actually increase fuel consumption, because it's not as sensitive as a human being at controlling the throttle in small increments. That was on Top Gear once, so it has to be true!

Having said that I'm looking at having it installed on mine - I often look down and find I'm driving faster than I thought I was.

I can't see any reason why cruise should be any worse at small increments than a human with a drive by wire throttle. Ok, it'll never match a human with an analogue cable throttle, but DBW is digital.

The real question is whether or not you can maintain a steady speed for significant distances in traffic. I usually have problems here, due to idiots who brake from way below a safe speed for a corner to even further below a safe speed.

40mpg is good going for a vRS anyway; kudos on your economy techniques.

I can't see any reason why cruise should be any worse at small increments than a human with a drive by wire throttle. Ok, it'll never match a human with an analogue cable throttle, but DBW is digital.

The real question is whether or not you can maintain a steady speed for significant distances in traffic. I usually have problems here, due to idiots who brake from way below a safe speed for a corner to even further below a safe speed.

40mpg is good going for a vRS anyway; kudos on your economy techniques.

It is not really about steady speed, but about the incline of roads, when travelling at a steady speed of say 70 your foot can gently ease off the pedal for downhill or gentle press for uphill however, cruise control is like having a lead foot when it comes to adjusting and it waits until it realises it has slowed and then increase with a heavy right boot until it gets back up to speed. I regularily see on long journeys that my fuel consumption is higher using cruise than my own foot. The real benefit with cruise is that it means you can sit more comfotably on long journey without the worry of your feet going to sleep. IMHO.

buy a diesel

im on 265bhp with 300ftlb and get 400+ miles to a tank....mixed driving.

none really as you just drive faster..

cruise control will help though, it means you can maintain a constant and get the best mpg possible.

400 miles to a tank...you must drive pretty conservatively anyway, you are not likely to get more than that from a petrol 1.8t to be honest.

i got 350 miles on £45 of normal unleaded and ive got a stage 1 re-map

This is making me want an RS lol! In my 1.6 I m getting naff all to the gallon, mainly due to many huge hills on the way to work! The trip is currently showing between 27 to 34 mpg depending on the journey I have! A lot of the hills are 2nd gear, foot down so I guess its going to kick the fuel consumption a bit. However on the flat, it still only gets about 400 out of a tank if I m lucky!!

buy a diesel

Diesel just do not cut it for me, I had a Golf Anniversary with 190 bhp and was bored within two weeks, sorry to the diesel lovers but I cant do it! (although if petrol keeps going up needs must :S)

For a performance car the vRS is very very good just wanted to know if anyone had any proof of better mpg as lots of maps claim to improve it.

Edited 15 September, 201015 yr by OllieH

my vrs went from around 30mpg to round 33mpg after a remap. thats on a 4 mile run to work each day. but only if i drive it the same as i did before it was remapped.

on the few decent runs i have done in it so far i can get 40mpg if i behave myself but usually around 36-38.its amazing how just a short burst knocks the mpg down and how long it takes to get it back to where it was..

I have cruise on mine and use it everywhere as its great for speed limits etc.

go on yu know you want it......

If you're doing 70 miles every day for work I'd save the remap money for all the things that are going to fall off of the car after a year or two!

If you're doing 70 miles every day for work I'd save the remap money for all the things that are going to fall off of the car after a year or two!

I do 40 miles a day and so far (plus I do a 700 mile round trip every month to see my kids), touch wood, after two and a half years I've only had to replace the nearside headlight levelling motor, the rear wiper motor and the driver's floor mat!

Other wearing items like brake pads, tyres etc that don't count,......

If you're doing 70 miles every day for work I'd save the remap money for all the things that are going to fall off of the car after a year or two!

Done 7000 miles since i bought it and just on to 51k. Only had a front bearing go which is not to bad. Also done the cambelt for piece of mind. It still feels totally solid so fingers crossed....

You won't get better MPG with a remap lol, it just makes it faster! As for Cruise control, yeah its nice for motorway driving. Your feet can rest, helps when you do the long missions and you get knackered.

IF you maintain your driving style a "good" remap WILL give better economy as the map makes better use of the engine instead of using a mixture of conservative values to meet worldwide emission standards. My 4x4 used to max out at mid to high 30's on a run, since the map I can now see over 40 on the same run. the best thing about cruise is maintaining constant speed (under the limit)

Done 7000 miles since i bought it and just on to 51k. Only had a front bearing go which is not to bad. Also done the cambelt for piece of mind. It still feels totally solid so fingers crossed....

Should be alright then with a low miler. Mine had over 80k when I got it three years ago and is starting to cost me megabucks now, I only do 38 miles a day for work but it soon mounts up :(

The best economy device is your brain

An aware driver should be able to achieve equal or better mpg than cruise control. Cruise control does one thing, maintain constant speed, whereas a driver can, and will, be making constant micro adjustments depending on actual conditions. Principally this is most significant on inclines where the economical thing to do is hold the throttle at the expense of a little speed, or even back off a little, in this situation though cruise control will effectively be accelerating in an attempt to maintain it's setting - and wasting fuel in the process.

If the OP's 80% motorway commute is at a steady speed, (highly improbable !) then there might be little in it. If, as is more likely, it's a constant mix of speed up, slow down, even stop/start then cruise control will be a complete waste of money. As for a remap, whilst it might not give better economy it's unlikely to give worse, unless you start indulging in the extra performance of course

I have cruise control on my 1.9tdi (110) and even though I live in France where the motorways can be almost deserted and where you can tank on at 130kph (80mph) for hours on end, even on a 600m+ run up to Calais using it makes precious little difference to consumption and to be honest the main reason I have it is because I have a bit of a gamy right knee which gives me gyp if immobile for long periods.

If you want better mpg then diesel is the way to go. In day to day mixed driving I average 5.3l/100km which equates, within a whisker, to 50mpg.

BTW, in a total of approaching 100,000 miles, 60k of which have been in the past 3 years since I bought it and which averages roughly the same as the OP's commute, not a single thing has fallen off my car and the only things I have replaced worthy of mention are the front brake discs, and that was just last week because the warning light came on :yes:

if your a real high miler then LPG is always worth a look as availability is much better nowdays. Plus you can have a nicer car for the same money due to diseasels :p being more expensive to buy. Fuel is only part of the equation though when choosing a car. it is better to look at the total running costs. So things like tyre size have an impact on replacement costs (as all octavia owners should be aware) general reliability and service costs etc all play a big part in the total cost. A big one is the badge on the car ! VW vs Skoda, same car but up to £2000 difference