Hypermiling

[willwn]

The cost of everything is going absolutely bonkers including the price of fuel! 

Subsequently I've tried hypermiling my 1.5tsi octavia to some shocking results. Running on Tesco 99 e5 momentum I got claimed 65.4MPG on a 94 Mile motorway run with 10 of that getting out of London. This was achieved by sitting at 65mph on active cruise in eco mode, had the A/C running but not hard as it was a 18* day, also had the radio running. Including my self and luggage the car had an extra 200kg weighing it down. I Thought this was too good to be true but I did fill up when I left and filled up when I arrived to get a brim to brim of 63.5MPG. This run was mainly on M4 heading west so it was not too flat either! I recon if I had no cargo, and was being even more careful I could get 68-70MPG at a push 

 

Has anyone else managed to get diesel MPG out of a petrol, and if so how did you manage it? 

pic attached for any non believers 

[SC03OTT]

Yeah I got 54mpg - indicated - in my TSI vRS once. That was about 50 miles I think. Dull. And largely meaningless over the long term. 

[willwn]

4 minutes ago, SC03OTT said:

Yeah I got 54mpg - indicated - in my TSI vRS once. That was about 50 miles I think. Dull. And largely meaningless over the long term. 

Can be dull if there isn't anything good on the radio! I loose about 5 minutes over every hour at that speed so its not so bad and I also feel a lot less guilty when I rag it off the motorway near home!

[Ecomatt]

I do this most days. I enjoy a more relaxed drive now and find it far more enjoyable than being the d***head driving in lane 2 or 3 at xxmph. 

Plus there are now a lot of unmarked Police vehicles on the road. We have an unmarked Mini John Cooper Works All 4 at work and that catches a lot of people unaware. Not worth driving fast unless you are on a track in my opinion.

[Phil-E]

It's amazing the difference it makes.

 

I very rarely do much more than 130km/h these days.

 

Still amazes me how many people race around even with these fuel prices. What gets me are those that fly past and accelerate towards red traffic lights. With a little forward planning you can squeeze a hell of a lot more miles per tank out.

[Swirly182]

4 hours ago, Ecomatt said:

I do this most days. I enjoy a more relaxed drive now and find it far more enjoyable than being the d***head driving in lane 2 or 3 at xxmph. 

Plus there are now a lot of unmarked Police vehicles on the road. We have an unmarked Mini John Cooper Works All 4 at work and that catches a lot of people unaware. Not worth driving fast unless you are on a track in my opinion.

Seen the Mini on the M61! It was refreshing to see it over the typical 3 or 5 series. 

 

I'm in eco mode at the moment (car and my brain) and most journeys average just over 40mpg indicated. Caravan trip this weekend however, so it will be down to around 20mpg.

[Gerrycan]

I don't think you were really 'hypermiling' @willwn , from what I read all you did was what I regard as sensible driving.

I think the term hypermiling originates from the US where protagonists will do absolutely anything to get ultimate consumption, and consequently drive inconsiderately and unsafely resulting in a terrible reputation with other road users.

 

There are a few factors that would have contributed to your excellent consumption:

• It was a longer journey and most it was conducted on a free-flowing road which is always a good contributor.
• You 'sacrificed' 5 mph off your permissible speed which probably meant the automatic systems you employed were able to work more smoothly without excessive surging or braking, while integrating with the traffic.
• It is five years since I drove on UK motorways but the usually high level of traffic means a lot of unintentional drafting which helps a lot
• Your driving decisions meant your 1.5tsi engine would have been able to make high use of its highly efficient two cylinder mode and that requires at least 1500 rpm and low torque demand.
• A comfortable ambient 18 deg C temperature meant the aircon would have done little or no work and the radio has no perceptible effect on consumption, unless you play heavy metal  

Considering your average consumption included the 10 miles out of London then you must have been getting over 70mpg on the motorway.

 

It is fairly easy to get good consumption in those conditions, there is little difference in consumption ( 8 year old 1.4tsi) whether my wife or I drive on the open road, however I can get 30% better consumption than she does in urban driving.

I can get 60mpg or better driving off-peak on our urban roads with 50% 'luck' at traffic lights and with due regard to other road users. In heavy peak periods I hope to better 40mpg, but in our hot summer weather with aircon at full blast then it will drop down to 35 mpg.

 

There are a lot of positives to sensible driving, reduced costs, improved safety, nice green feeling, a small poke in Putin's eye and all for probably less than an extra 5 minutes on your journey.

Edited 11 May, 2022 by Gerrycan

[TDIum]

Yes I regularly get good ecomony out of my 2.0 TSI on a motorway run. I am happy to proceed at about 65 most of the time 👍

[Bugginbob]

I've been playing this game a bit more recently as a new job whith a twice a week 135 mile round trip means i'm using more fuel (I already do approx 800 personal miles a month).  Trip is 4 miles single track lanes, 60 miles on the M5 and 1 mile 50mph road, then reverse for the way home. For the first few months I was making it in exactly an hour each way (when no traffic), hooning about everywhere to make progress and lucky if I could scrape 33MPG round trip. Fine when I was doing 800 miles a month and wfh, not so much fun now i'm averaging 1800 miles a month.

 

Then did a month at exactly 70mph on the motorway in eco mode and on cruise control  which brought it up to about 40mpg return. Now I've ditched cruise control and sitting somewhere between 68-75MPH on the motorway, planning ahead for maximum economy, coasting, minimising acceleration uphill etc and best i've managed is 45MPG return. Suspect if I drop down to 60-65mph average it'll go up but I am am rapidly finding my brain saying sod it and lets spend the extra couple of quid and overtake everyone.

 

Swapping cars with my wife shortly though so will be doing the same trip in her 1.4tsi Leon. Will see if I can get it anywhere near 55MPG which would be easier on my wallet.

[HotVRs]

I drove Reading to North Manchester last month in a 1.5 Tsi eco. One person in the car and set cruise to 65 and over the 210 miles the trip computer showed 66.4 MPG because it spent so much of it in 2 cyl mode. With the inevitable jams around Birmingham and Manchester my average journey speed was barely affected. Was one of the faster journey times of late ironically. 

What is interesting though is that increasing the speed by just an indicated 5MPH the consumption will drop to high 50's, and at indicated 75 it goes to low mid-50's at best. Journey times barely affected by lowering the speed, it's just the psychological boredom and staying out of the way of faster vehicles that tire.

Edited 13 May, 2022 by HotVRs

[Breezy_Pete]

Anyone thinking about 'especially good' journeys with respect to fuel economy should try to consider wind direction and strength during that trip.

 

As aero drag dominates fuel use at higher speeds, a favourable wind can be like walking on a travelator at an airport in terms of impact.

[TDIum]

Even using the air-con hard can make a difference.

It's up to you really, no need to bore yourself ****less in the left hand lane while trying to stay awake by doing mental arithmetic converting l/100km into mpg 😁

Personally I don't see any benefit in racing down the motorways, I don't have anything to prove and I'm not in a hurry usually. So happy to bimble along on the left trying to stay out of the way of lorries. Your mileage may differ. 

[HotVRs]

Another thing is that I've never found any advantage to MPG by using 99 RON. I lob in the E10 from my local Tesco and it performs exactly the same as far as I have been able to tell.

[Phil-E]

21 hours ago, HotVRs said:

Another thing is that I've never found any advantage to MPG by using 99 RON. I lob in the E10 from my local Tesco and it performs exactly the same as far as I have been able to tell.

I've tested both E5 95 and E10 95 since they're both still available here in Germany. There was basically no difference. The E10 actually seemed to give a few more Kms on shorter runs but the E5 performed better at high speed Autobahn runs.

 

I've read before that turbo petrol engines actually like E10 due to ethanol being more knock-resistant and it tends to be older naturally aspirated engines that don't like the stuff.

[TDIum]

I'm not sure if this is still the case, but there was a shortage of bio-ethanol in the UK that meant that the E5 petrol in the pumps was usually a lot less than 5% crop-juice, and often none at all. 

The labelling means that it may be up to that percentage plant-based. 

[RaymondReddington]

I can’t even get that out of our TDI!

[Gerrycan]

19 hours ago, RaymondReddington said:

I can’t even get that out of our TDI!

Even when driving on the open highway? Remember most of the impressive claims are in ideal conditions. Not stuck in a traffic jam on the M25.

 

Reported diesel consumption can vary a lot between individual vehicles under similar conditions. Seen mid 40's to high 60's claims for circa 70mph motorway cruising speeds and I have no idea why it would vary so much between 2.0tdi.

Edited 19 May, 2022 by Gerrycan

[RaymondReddington]

Yeah, at a 70mph cruise it seems to return about 45mpg

[Gerrycan]

5 hours ago, RaymondReddington said:

Yeah, at a 70mph cruise it seems to return about 45mpg

I agree that would be very disappointing, should be about 10mpg or more better depending on various factors.

 

Assuming you don't have a stuff permanently on the roof rack, have checked tyre pressures, that brakes are not binding and the car is serviced regularly then I run out of useful suggestions that don't involve expensive expertise.

 

Edited 20 May, 2022 by Gerrycan

[Gaz]

Just back from a few days away and on the 154 mile journey to the Cotswolds, the GTI got 48.5mpg.  A fair chunk of it was M23, M25, M3 & M4 so I sat at 65mph on cruise, with the occasional blip to get past the people who overtook me, then slowed down.  That's with two of us, luggage and a bike (folder in the boot).  Not a bit like hypermiling, but I was quite pleased given I wasn't particularly trying.

 

Gaz

Edited 20 May, 2022 by Gaz

[fabdavrav]

Start looking at retro-fitting all the underbody aero that is made for the MQB platform cars, but only fitted to select "eco" versions....

 

All info in basically the first page in each of my guides here:-

 

How to retro-fit skid trays, aerodynamic under trays, & stone guards to a MK7 Golf | GOLFMK7 - VW GTI MKVII Forum / VW Golf R Forum / VW Golf MKVII Forum

 

How to retro-fit the Mk8 rear suspension aero covers or stone guards to a Mk7 Golf. | GOLFMK7 - VW GTI MKVII Forum / VW Golf R Forum / VW Golf MKVII Forum

 

How to retro-fit the front subframe cover from the VW Tiguan (2016->) | GOLFMK7 - VW GTI MKVII Forum / VW Golf R Forum / VW Golf MKVII Forum