Thought for once I would have a play with the cars settings yesterday and see how the fuel consumption is.

 

Drove from Birmingham to Glasgow then Edinburgh in Individual mode, everything to sport and from gear box which was in auto. Sat at 80mph with air con most of the way and display showed 46.2 mpg.

On the way back put it in Eco mode and it achieved 45.1 mpg according to display.

 

When I got home I filled the car again and took 62 litres and done 640 miles which works out 46.8 mpg (I think, my maths aren't the best). Bit of a way off claimed figures though hardly surprising. Car has done 18K and is six months old. Considering it is TDi DSG and 4x4 cant really complain. Also know the screen readout is fairly accurate which was more of a surprise. Wont be using eco mode as effects the suspension. I have the optional suspension which even in sport and 19 wheels, I find too soft and floaty.

 

If honest would still prefer to hammer it down and sod the fuel consumption!!!

The direction of the wind will have a big impact on mpg.

I have used Eco twice in 9 months. It made the car almost undrivable and the fuel economy worse. Now runs in Individual most of the time, Sport occasionally.

I still haven't tried the modes in detail, sticked to normal since I got the car.

Any "cool" individual configs you can recommend? (No Dcc)

I have everything in sport and have the gearbox set to auto. Won't ever have it in eco mode again. Makes the car so slow and unresponsive.

I find Eco great for normal A to B driving on pretty much all roads.

The only thing I would use individual for is to set the air-con to none eco mode, whilst leaving everything else in eco.

 

Sport is but a flick of the DSG selector away, if it is required, for anything such as a nippy overtake or quick get away from the lights.

 

 

That is for my own persoanl driving style though in which I see having to use the brake as a failure of driving awareness.

 

 

N.B. this is for petrol DSG though, I have not experienced Diesel DSG Eco. Anecdotally it sounds more laggy. No active dampers either.

I have everything in sport and have the gearbox set to auto. Won't ever have it in eco mode again. Makes the car so slow and unresponsive.

I thought this initially although now I'm beginning to see the benefits ..... As Rainmaker has said in another thread using Eco properly is a learning curve and requires forward planning.

My early tests showed that using Eco my fuel consumption was actually worse than using normal mode. Have a search for the thread.

I'm now using it more and my average fuel consumption is much improved. I've been knocking on the door of 46mpg.

Yes the drawbacks are indeed everything you have said however having flirted with all the cars performance over the past year it is making a refreshing change to drive the car like this.

Another positive is that sport is only a tug on the lever away !

I have been using eco mode most of the time recently. Once you have mastered the art of foot off and a quick blip if it re-engages it makes the drive even smoother than normal. Clearly your driving style has to match the 'eco' theme to gain best results and that means the drive being somewhat detached. Imagine a manual that you have put into neutral to roll out of gear and you get an idea. Of course it is not exactly like that as the vehicle is under much more control but it does explain why some feel the car is not safe/undriveable in eco mode.

 

I learnt early on that there is little advantage in using the mode unless you just want to cruise along. I learnt how to maximise it by watching the mpg page on the maxidot. It tells you when you are 'coasting'. The green leaf page is a waste of time for me. I cant see any repeatability with it and haven't found how it is supposed to help learn a more eco driving style

 

The only concern with eco mode is that at slower speeds the box does not fully re-engage smoothly when re-engaging 2nd or 3 rd gear. I will have that checked at next service but I think it is a known design issue and not a fault.

 

My last 2 tanks of Shell v power dieso have given me between 55-60 mpg by maxidot. I reckon my maxidot is +/- about 4% based on tank to tank measurement tests I did before. (too lazy to do calcs each time now!)

 

Long term average,maxidot, is currently 57.2 for last 1700 miles.

 

My drives are rural, in the hilly South West, and mostly non motorway.

 

hth

Once you have mastered the art of foot off and a quick blip if it re-engages it makes the drive even smoother than normal.

 

If you have the flappy paddles on the steering wheel you can also pull either paddle and the gearbox will re-engage whatever gear it was in before switching to coasting.

 

I do ~80 miles each way on my commute which is all M1, M25 and hit an average of about 50mpg in Eco; I'll see what Normal manages next week as I don't think Eco makes a massive difference when you can't utilise the coasting much (in my case I'm either in nose to tail traffic or sitting with cruise on at the speed limit).