mpg in town too low?

[moegharably]

Hey All,

Just bought a second hand Karoq 1.5 TSI sportsline that has only done 1k miles when I bought it. 
 

Fairly happy with it, but concerned on how low the mpg is when driving in town. I can’t seem to get over 26.4. Most of the time it’s in the low 20s, some times late teens. It does well on the motorway though (40-50). 
 

I’ve been reading posts by drivers who claim they are getting well over 35 in town. 
 

should I be concerned with my new purchase, and get in touch with the dealer? The only other thing I noticed is that when the weather is cold it “kangaroos” slightly. 
 

 

 

 

[Routemaster1461]

Depends what you mean by in town. I suggest you set the car to show 'since start' consumption. Even where I live at the edge of a rural town, it takes quite a few miles from start to achieve 30mpg, and an awful lot more to reach 40mpg. If your journeys are short, less than about 5 miles I wouldn't expect to exceed 30mpg by much. On my regular journeys to and from London avoiding motorways, a distance of ~100 miles, mine gives 48-52mpg (computer figure), but if the trip is only 40 miles I'm lucky to reach 45mpg.

 

Also, mine kangaroos a little on the first 100 metres or so, only after a cold start. Not bad enough to worry about though.

Edited 10 March by Routemaster1461

[moegharably]

Hey,

 

So around town is basically trips to the shops, school pickups/drop offs. Doing 20-40 miles, traffic lights, etc. Trips are usually between 1-4 miles a day, averaging at 18.0-21.0 mpg per trip.  Last Sunday I drove 14 miles and only got 27.6 mpg. 

 

The average for all the cars trips (1,374 miles) is currently 30 mpg.

 

I don't rev the car, or slow down suddenly, etc. Historically with other cars I was always happy with my mpg. So don't think it's my driving style either.

[mumpsim]

I too have a 2023 Karoq 1.5 TSI Sportline.  I live on the edge of a city. Yesterday evening I drove the 6 miles into the city centre and the 6 back again.  This was from a cold start in cold weather, with light traffic, a few stops, and some parking manoeuvres.  Consumption on the round trip was 42 mpg.

 

If I was getting late teens and low 20s I'd be as puzzled as you are.

Edited 10 March by mumpsim

[Warrior193]

39 minutes ago, moegharably said:

Hey,

 

So around town is basically trips to the shops, school pickups/drop offs. Doing 20-40 miles, traffic lights, etc. Trips are usually between 1-4 miles a day, averaging at 18.0-21.0 mpg per trip.  Last Sunday I drove 14 miles and only got 27.6 mpg. 

 

The average for all the cars trips (1,374 miles) is currently 30 mpg.

 

I don't rev the car, or slow down suddenly, etc. Historically with other cars I was always happy with my mpg. So don't think it's my driving style either.

Welcome to the forum.

I think your current high fuel consumption will be due to your very short trips - 1-4 miles per day will mean that most of your mileage is with a cold engine, the fuel injection set 'rich' and cabin heating struggling to get to requested temperature.  

[sussamb]

1 hour ago, mumpsim said:

I too have a 2023 Karoq 1.5 TSI Sportline.  I live on the edge of a city. Yesterday evening I drove the 6 miles into the city centre and the 6 back again.  This was from a cold start in cold weather, with light traffic, a few stops, and some parking manoeuvres.  Consumption on the round trip was 42 mpg.

 

If I was getting late teens and low 20s I'd be as puzzled as you are.

OPs mileage is not even half of yours so his engine is barely warming up, I'd expect it to be low from what he says.

Edited 10 March by sussamb

[moegharably]

Thanks all for the input. I can rest easy 👍

[kodiaqsportline]

It's impossible to gauge 'town' as everyone will encounter different conditions.

 

Our Karoq was almost exlusively used for driving around town, a one-way trip of 4 miles. It was hardly ever done in heavy traffic, but the average speed would have been around 15mph. ( it wouldn't have taken me much longer on the bicycle ! ). I wasn't the main driver of that car but what I found was outside temp. had a big influence on the 1.5 ( ours was a DSG ).

 

At this time of year, the mpg would be low 30's. During the height of summer it'd be around 40mpg.

 

But as I say, that's just those short trips.  On the odd occasion I drove the car which was always longer runs, I'd see low 40's in winter and over 50mpg in the height of summer. 

 

We changed the car last year as the main driver wanted something smaller. We bought a small Toyota hybrid.  Economy has improved by around 10mpg over winter months but the overall running costs ( not including the cost to change ) is actually higher so in the long run, buying something that was more economical doesn't necessarily mean it's a cheaper car to run.  

Edited 10 March by kodiaqsportline

[Warrior193]

46 minutes ago, moegharably said:

Thanks all for the input. I can rest easy 👍

Take a careful note when you next fill up with fuel - full tank to tank reading is the only accurate gauge for fuel economy.    

[MickA]

7 hours ago, moegharably said:

Thanks all for the input. I can rest easy 👍

Probably if only 1k+ miles the engine needs to loosen up, it'll get better over time.

[pinkpanther]

On 10/03/2024 at 21:08, MickA said:

Probably if only 1k+ miles the engine needs to loosen up, it'll get better over time.

The 'loosening up over time' is a phenomenon I've never actually seen in practice. 

 

This represents the first 17k miles of 1.5 TSi manual Karoq ownership:

 

On 10/03/2024 at 11:20, moegharably said:

Hey All,

Just bought a second hand Karoq 1.5 TSI sportsline that has only done 1k miles when I bought it. 
 

Fairly happy with it, but concerned on how low the mpg is when driving in town. I can’t seem to get over 26.4. Most of the time it’s in the low 20s, some times late teens. It does well on the motorway though (40-50). 
 

I’ve been reading posts by drivers who claim they are getting well over 35 in town. 
 

should I be concerned with my new purchase, and get in touch with the dealer? The only other thing I noticed is that when the weather is cold it “kangaroos” slightly. 
 

 

 

 

On very short journeys I typically see similar (mid 20's) MPG👍

[pinkpanther]

Similarly - no sign of MPG improving with age in an owned-from-new Yeti 2.0 TDi (80k miles in total).

[J.R.]

Agreed, it is nonsense. Oil consumption can decrease if it was ever measurable in the first place.

 

To me as someone who drove for a couple of decades with manual choke cars that needed you to be very in tune (pun unintended) with the engine, its temperature and the outside temperature to avoid it choking up or leaning out and spluttering on acceleration it is shocking to realise there are drivers of petrol engined vehicles out there that have only ever known automatic chokes (or probably been completely unaware of them) and that have zero perception of cold start enrichment and the effect of short cold start journeys on fuel consumption.

[J.R.]

My late cousin rest her soul came back to the UK from South Africa in last century and they brought with them her VW Polo (manual choke) back then it was a smart economic decision.

 

One cold day she could not start the car and a passer by helped out and told her to use the choke, she did not even know where it was having never needed it in SA, a couple of miles down the road it spluttered to a halt choked up, someone else helped out and rolled his eyes when he had to explain to her that you need to push it back in, of course her asking him to explain better what he meant by gradually did not go down well (its a hard concept to explain but easy to demonstrate when driving), he assumed she had only just bought the car and had never driven a manual choke vehicle before and was aghast when she said she had been driving it for 5 years 😁

[pinkpanther]

5 hours ago, J.R. said:

My late cousin rest her soul came back to the UK from South Africa in last century and they brought with them her VW Polo (manual choke) back then it was a smart economic decision.

 

One cold day she could not start the car and a passer by helped out and told her to use the choke, she did not even know where it was having never needed it in SA, a couple of miles down the road it spluttered to a halt choked up, someone else helped out and rolled his eyes when he had to explain to her that you need to push it back in, of course her asking him to explain better what he meant by gradually did not go down well (its a hard concept to explain but easy to demonstrate when driving), he assumed she had only just bought the car and had never driven a manual choke vehicle before and was aghast when she said she had been driving it for 5 years 😁

Happy memories  - I had a fair few manual choke equipped 'Breadvan Polo's which were a joy to operate,  especially when compared with later Autochoke (? Pierburg) carb versions👍