Fuel Economy

[vade]

Now that my 1.4TSI SEL Estate has completed 1000 miles I thought that I would try a test for fuel economy in eco and normal modes. I used the same 12 mile route two thirds dual carriageway where I kept the speed to 60mph and used cruise control in exactly the same places.  Engine fully warmed up for both runs. MFD showed 44.2 mpg for eco and 46.4 mpg for normal at the end of each run. Apart from the waste of fuel!! I was really surprised at the result. Anyone else tried this?

[Redboy]

That's ok for a 1.4 with ACT, my son's Leon FR regularly did 50+. I would expect better though. According to my onboard during the summer my VRS TSI did 45.5 Mpg at 59 Mph avg over 325 miles Glasgow to Lincoln and 43.5 Mpg at 70 Mph avg over 122 miles.  

[vade]

Overall I wouldexpect fuel economy to improve as mileage increases. My point is why is eco mode apparently worse than normal mode?

[threadbear]

That is surprising. I have found that the various modes dont seem to make much difference to fuel consumption. Sport mode makes the car feel a bit tighter and sprightlier but nothing significant.

 

Of course the colder weather does affect consumption too. Your consumption will get better. 

 

 

[Auric Goldfinger]

Driven nicely I can get my 230 Vrs into the low 40's,   42/43 mpg

[Stuart-h]

I’ve noticed that since I’ve got he new car the range showing on the display shows 385 miles till empty but the mk2 I had would show 440 when I filed the car up!

any one got any thoughts on it ? Smaller tank may be?

[Ootohere]

More accurate to fill a fuel can with 4.456 litres or 5 litres and brim the car and then drive say 45 miles in one mode and see if you get all the fuel in or need more. 

and repeat using the other mode, actual miles pre liter rather then the Maxidot reading.

[prichards1234]

I have noticed a slight reduction in mpg over the last few weeks. But the biggest surprise to me was on motorways , at speed the drop is really noticeable.

[Redboy]

2 hours ago, vade said:

Overall I wouldexpect fuel economy to improve as mileage increases. My point is why is eco mode apparently worse than normal mode?

 

ECO mode is rubbish, keep it in normal or sport and besides driving with less stress, i.e. Not wondering when then engine will pick up, you will get similar mpg, it really depends on your driving style and commute / route. 

[vade]

So my wife is right again!!

[POWYSWALES]

2 hours ago, Stuart-h said:

I’ve noticed that since I’ve got he new car the range showing on the display shows 385 miles till empty but the mk2 I had would show 440 when I filed the car up!

any one got any thoughts on it ? Smaller tank may be?

Mine shows between 535 and 585 till empty depending on type of driving on previous tank, best I have had is 615 miles till empty.

[POWYSWALES]

I think there is only a real difference in eco and normal mode if you can take advantage of coasting, on my regular 14 mile run I can coast a good 3 miles of that run and probably about 1 mile on the return journey, the main thing is to keep your distance from the car in front and that way you don't have to keep pressing the brakes keeping the car in eco for a good few hundred yards at a time, the other good time to take advantage of eco is aproaching junctions, and when your about to come into a lower speed part of the road. backing of the accelerator well before and coasting at an ok pace to the junction or next reduced speed, but again it's all about looking at the road ahead, planning and only braking when total necessary, regularly I use a stretch if road (A458) on the road to shrewsbury, it is a good 7 miles long, the cars I am behind must press there brakes more than 50 times why normally I have not used mine more than twice on the same stretch. I'm still keeping pace behind them but just a better distance. By driving in this manner I regularly achieve upto 70mpg.

 

Edited 12 November, 2017 by POWYSWALES
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[Gerrycan]

@vade,

Difficult to find many positives in your story I am afraid. On the face of it I would have thought you would get something like 55mpg for that sort of journey, even in winter.

Couple of questions though: Is that a manual or auto transmission? Do you have ordinary cruise control or ACC (radar)? What tyres make/type/size are fitted? Have tyre pressure been checked with the advent of cooler weather, and what have you chosen to run them at?

Your description of the route is better than most but it would be good to know what your average speed was as well.

 

It is not uncommon for people to report better economy in Normal or Sport modes compared to Eco. As Powyswales says it does depend on your driving style, and environment (terrain, traffic density) as to whether Eco mode works for you or not. 

Note that Powyswales can get up to  70mpg but he using a 1.6D engine Octavia so not really comparing like engines and it not really achievable in a 1.4tsi without extreme hyper-mile techniques.

 

It does confuse me that one of the few published requirements on the manufacturers is consumption and there are no real independently conducted laboratory based validation tests available to a consumer for his vehicle.

Accepting that these tests are conducted in a laboratory in near ideal conditions (not 'real world'), you should still be able to take a suspiciously underperforming vehicle to a dealer for a rolling road validation that it is burning fuel efficiently, or within an acceptable margin.

There are heaps of dyno tests for power outputs published in this forum but none for say thermal efficiency or brake specific fuel consumption.

 

 

 

 

[Breezy_Pete]

17 hours ago, vade said:

Now that my 1.4TSI SEL Estate has completed 1000 miles I thought that I would try a test for fuel economy in eco and normal modes. I used the same 12 mile route two thirds dual carriageway where I kept the speed to 60mph and used cruise control in exactly the same places.  Engine fully warmed up for both runs. MFD showed 44.2 mpg for eco and 46.4 mpg for normal at the end of each run. Apart from the waste of fuel!! I was really surprised at the result. Anyone else tried this?

Was the wind the same for both runs, strength and direction?

[Gabbo]

17 hours ago, vade said:

Now that my 1.4TSI SEL Estate has completed 1000 miles I thought that I would try a test for fuel economy in eco and normal modes. I used the same 12 mile route two thirds dual carriageway where I kept the speed to 60mph and used cruise control in exactly the same places.  Engine fully warmed up for both runs. MFD showed 44.2 mpg for eco and 46.4 mpg for normal at the end of each run. Apart from the waste of fuel!! I was really surprised at the result. Anyone else tried this?

 

All ECO mode does is change the pedal mapping meaning that to get a certain acceleration you have to press the pedal further.

It is not a magic 10mpg fuel saving button unless you also adapt your driving style to suite this mode.

If you drive the same way without relaxing your driving style the fuel economy should theoretically be exactly the same (you will just have to work the Accelerator pedal more in ECO mode).

 

It does also reduce the air condition load slightly & change the gear shifting points in an auto but unless its really warm or you drive very hard these will also have a negligable affect on economy.

As others have said, for this reason ECO mode is just a marketting gimic & its better to drive more economically in normal than use ECO mode.

[Gti Jazz Blue]

43 minutes ago, Gabbo said:

 

All ECO mode does is change the pedal mapping meaning that to get a certain acceleration you have to press the pedal further.

It is not a magic 10mpg fuel saving button unless you also adapt your driving style to suite this mode.

If you drive the same way without relaxing your driving style the fuel economy should theoretically be exactly the same (you will just have to work the Accelerator pedal more in ECO mode).

 

It does also reduce the air condition load slightly & change the gear shifting points in an auto but unless its really warm or you drive very hard these will also have a negligable affect on economy.

As others have said, for this reason ECO mode is just a marketting gimic & its better to drive more economically in normal than use ECO mode.

My 230 vRS with DSG will coast in ECO mode - suprised me a bit when it first happened I was on the Motorway heading downhill on cruise and suddenly saw the Rev counter drop to tick-over revs - a brief WTF moment and then realised what it meant. Will start tracking the car with Fuelly when I fill up the first time - still on the tank that the dealer put in when I collected it.

[POWYSWALES]

It is a shame you also don't get the option to coast in normal mode and then I would never bother with eco, as GABBO says it just blunts the acceleration so you just end up pushing the accelerator pedal further anyway to make up for the loss in performance. If I wanted to accelerate more gently for fuel saving reasons you could do that anyway in normal mode. I actually think or find normal mode provides more acceleration than sport in the diesel, in sports it just hangs on to the gears for to long and when it gets over 4000rpm there feels like nothing left to give. I would be happy if the car was like the seat alhambra, no mode options and coasts as soon as you ease of the accelerator.

Edited 13 November, 2017 by POWYSWALES
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[POWYSWALES]

5 minutes ago, Gti Jazz Blue said:

My 230 vRS with DSG will coast in ECO mode - suprised me a bit when it first happened I was on the Motorway heading downhill on cruise and suddenly saw the Rev counter drop to tick-over revs - a brief WTF moment and then realised what it meant. Will start tracking the car with Fuelly when I fill up the first time - still on the tank that the dealer put in when I collected it.

Mine will not coast when using cruise control in eco, I wonder why it does in the vrs? Surely coasting when using cruise control would not allow the car to keep at the set speed.

[Gti Jazz Blue]

Maybe I didn't have cruise on at the time - I'll have a play next time I'm on the M'Way - not that I have it in ECO mode very often 

[gregoir]

My 1.4Tsi economy does not get better than the low 40s mpg over that kind of distance. Mpg steadily improves after 30 miles roughly. Steady cruising at 70mph true enables me to get 50mpg plus over several hundred motorway miles. Manual gearbox and no cruise control. Brief experimental drives shows slightly better mpg in eco. And the acceleration in eco seems vigorous to me and always has the "kickdown" click if needed.

[Andyjm2uk]

I've only done 300 miles in my knew 230 TSI vRS and the mpg is in the mid 20's. Please tell me this is going to improve....

[prichards1234]

I can 50+on A roads , ie around 50/60 mph , but put on motorway  at 80 + mph it drops like a stone.

I use eco with dsg  24/7 witch gives free wheel, free mpg, I am thinking of c/control but at £300 ish of my hard earned I don't think so.

I do not drive slow ...... but I'm no boy racer. just think how I'm driving.

[vade]

Gerrycan

DSG and radar CC but not much traffic. Tyres Dunlop standard size. Don't know what av speed was but very similar on both trips. No wind. About 8 miles @60mph; 2miles @40mph and 2 miles less than 30mph. Have a lot of motorway driving coming up so mpg will be interesting. I will probably be in normal mode. Is eco likely to be better for city driving?

[stepdavi]

First 200 in my 245 dsg I averaged 39. Last 50 or so I've averaged 29. I'm guessing I'll be low 20s when I use the fun pedal more. But that's the point of the vrs I guess

[ChoonDoode]

There seems to be too many factors to think about when it comes down to fuel economy unfortunately. I've tried to ignore looking at the gauge, but the scrooge in me always has an eye on it.

 

From Liverpool to Brands Hatch and back, both times at silly o'clock in the morning to miss the traffic, I averaged 65mpg and that was towing my motorbike and trailer.

Stuck to 60mph on CC and only slowed down to go through some of the various roadwork 50 zones.

 

Had a similar drive, this time trailerless, down to Okehampton and back, doing 70mph max and that time I averaged just over 50mpg?!?!

 

The car was 4 up and with a bit of weekend luggage, but I wouldn't have thought that would have been worse than one up, towing 250kg of trailer and all the accessories needed for a trackday.

 

Both, however, are a bit better than when I treated myself to a spin of on the Isle of Mann.................how that was even in double figures, I don't know.