Had an interesting buzz round the M25/M23 today and had my mpg read out on the screen. I thought the car was going particularly well, leaving an awful lot a much street creddier motors ( !! ) behind (and I'm only a non turbo 2.0) and showing 37.4 mpg.

Then, like a twit, somewhere around Heathrow I found that for the last 30 minutes or so I'd left it in 5th gear. [Felt wonderful!!!]

Thing is, I stuck it back in top for (most of) the rest of the journey - much less buzzy of course - and when I got home the mpg had only gone up to 37.7. Which begs the question, what is 6th for?? I'm almost [almost !!] inclined to forget 6th, even for motorways and drive everywhere in 5th, which means it is then at a little below 4000 rpm and feels like a rocket.

If you ask me, a sixth cog is only any good for a turbo diesel or turbo petrol due to where in the rev range the peak torque lurks.

I am driving a 1.8 NA petrol right now and it's gutless enough with 5 cogs!

6th gear on your 2.0FSI is purely for a more relaxing motorway cruise due to the lower revs.

An engine running at circa 4000 rpm on a motorway causes fatigue after a while.

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6th gear on your 2.0FSI is purely for a more relaxing motorway cruise due to the lower revs.

An engine running at circa 4000 rpm on a motorway causes fatigue after a while.

I'm sure you are right, but for the length of time involved today, maybe 45 minutes or so, I must say it was good fun and felt like a totally different car. However if there had been no traffic to pass, I'd just have stuck it on cruise in 6th and let it poodle along at about 2700 rpm. Much less wear on the engine of course.

But I must say it didn't feel either noisy or tiring in 5th today, and I think better fuel economy must take a lot of mileage to show up to a meaningful extent [oh and talking about fuel, I coughed up over

I'd agree with that

I getter better fuel economy in 5th mostly, in my (tuned) Fabia vRS unless I drive below the 70 mph , off boost

It's another reason why I love a good derv. Slap it in 6th and let it grumble along at 2000 rpm. Excellent!

I do a huge amount of motorway driving so a 6th gear is a must.

since my last fill up ive bben more heavy with the right foot and according to the onscreen mpg im only 2mpg worse off so far (quarter of tank and 110 miles)

Just done a round trip of nearly 400 miles. Stick in CC at 110, no problem...

Even managed a 30 MPG average. Not bad for a vRS petrol......

Just done a round trip of nearly 400 miles. Stick in CC at 110, no problem...

You must know some routes unkown to anyone else if you have enough uncluttered road to make CC at 110 worthwhile engaging, they must be devoid of police as well. Please enlighten us as to where this motoring Nirvana was encountered.

I'm assuming the response will have the word "Autobahn" in it

Either that or 110km/h

If not then tut tut :P

You must know some routes unkown to anyone else if you have enough uncluttered road to make CC at 110 worthwhile engaging, they must be devoid of police as well. Please enlighten us as to where this motoring Nirvana was encountered.

You should have a drive over here. I think I read somewhere that there is 9 miles of road for every driver here, and we have very, very, very few of the fixed variety of speed cameras. You've still got to watch out for plod of course, but that's true of anywhere. Other than that, there's miles and miles of uncluttered roads. Nice twisty coast roads, lots of backwater B roads (watch the suspension and sump though, they are bumpy), loads of fast A roads, and beautiful scenery to keep you company too......in short, we've got the lot.

Not that I am condoning driving in excess of the mandated speed limits of course. Clearly, that would be irresponsible and wrong of me.

6th gear on the Octy (or at least on my vRS TDI) is a DIRECT top gear and not an OVERDRIVE. Hence its not set up for economy per say.

I say this as having checked the spacing between gears, when changing up, I found it to be;

2nd to 3rd - 1000rpm

3rd to 4th - 800rpm

4th to 5th - 600rpm

5th to 6th - 400rpm

This is the BEST set of gear ratios I have ever had as they are quite close-ratio and a progressive step to the next gear; no gaps. I expect all the 6 speed Octys are the same.

As to your fuel comsumption average going from 37.4 to only 37.7 - remeber that to change the average for the last part of your trip you will have been doing, say, 38.5 to get the average up.

Mine is an unaltered 2.0FSI. I noticed that in 5th I was doing about 3900 rpm, the same speed in 6th was around 2700 - quite a difference.

Going back to the noise and fatigue bit, I realise that the main reason it seemed to make little difference being in 5th for half an hour or so was that such noise as I was aware of was coming from the road/tyres, not the car machinery. The changes in noise type and level related purely to the surface of the section of motorway I was on at the time. Those new tarmac surfaces with bits of old tyre in them are amazingly quiet.