I have a 99 Octavia 1.9 TDi. Generally speaking, very happy with it. The thing is, I get ridiculously GOOD mileage from it - just wondering if anyone else had found the same?

For example : daily commute, 15 miles, mix of heavy urban traffic and fairly fast B-roads : 55 mpg (winter), 65 mpg (summer).

Motorway / fast A road cruising : 68 - 72 mpg.

I mean, c'mon...72 mpg from a 1.9 litre car with 4 people in it? Titchy things like a Hyundai Getz diesel can barely get that.

BTW, these are average figures calculated from fuel measured from the pumps, not the trip computer (which is even a little more optimistic).

OK, I drive like a pensioner. But I still think this is indicative of something not being quite right. This was re-inforced by a recent service where the garage reckoned that the car felt underpowered and recommended a new mass air flow (MAF) meter, claiming that they had swapped mine out for a new one as an experiment and found much better performance. Now, fearing that my wonderfful economy would be harmed I said "no, thanks!". I mean, I can drive at 80 mph, overtake, the performance is fine for me.

Any idea whether a dodgy MAF could be responsible for these stupidly good figures, or is it just my prematurely doddery driving? If it's the MAF, I'm taking the thing with me when I change the car....no way do I want to give up getting 600+ miles from a single tank!

free bump, interested to find an answer

Probably off topic, but our first car 35 years ago was a second-hand Renault 4. Seemed a bit slow (as you'd expect), but after a few months I spotted a set-screw on the accelerator linkage which limited the throttle to half-travel only. Appeared this was something designed to limit performance while the engine was running-in for the first thousand miles and should have been removed at the first oil change service (remember them?). So removed it at 35,000 miles and it went like a hare! (Except up hills)

Maybe you're still running in?

Without more precise comments on your driving style, it's hard to say if your car is unusually economical - but you get better economy than I can normally achieve on my TDI 110.

My average economy for my trip to work (20 miles each way, 3 miles from my house to get out of Bedford, 10 miles A-road, then 7-miles through Milton Keynes, with its short dual carriageways punctuated by r'bouts) is 51mpg, as measured on a fill-up. This equates to about 55-56mpg on the trip computer.

The best I have ever acheived on the trip computer for my commute is a one-way indictated average of 64mpg (probably about 58 to 59mpg true). This was yesterday, with me in full grandad mode. I didn't exceed 2500rpm ever, lifted off very early for every roundabout, did all I could to time my arrrival to enable me to carry on without stopping etc.

The only time I ever see the economy in the 70's is on the instantaneous readout. On a flat road, I get around the following (taken with a warm engine over the last few days). All readings are indictated, and thus will not be "true": my speedo seems to be somewhat optimistic as well as the fuel computer

50mph: 70-75mpg

60mph: 60-65mpg

70mph: 52-57mpg

80mph: 48-52mpg

Hope some of this helps. My car seems to go OK, with performance more than adequate enough to make the wife go "EEeeekkkk!!".

Ian

My car seems to go OK, with performance more than adequate enough to make the wife go "EEeeekkkk!!".Ian

I wish my 110TDi would do that... had the turbo, MAF and N75 valve replaced, and still feels slow. Must borrow a laptop from work again and check it what vag-com says :-(

Economy is not as good as yours and I drive it nicely!

M :-(

Tried changing the wife?

(Mine had become used to my old 1.3 Felicia, and she drives a 1.0 Micra. Getting an Eeekk!! out of her is not that hard...)

Ian