UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

seeing as our fuel prices might well get silly again, who feels they have the self control to find out exactly how many miles they can get out of their tank on very best behaviour?

this is what im doing with the 1600cc lard-lump at the mo, resisting every last temptation to see if it can at least do 500 miles to the tank (10 miles per litre, or 45mpg). looking good so far but only because of keeping it extreme... got 175 miles on what is reported as a quarter tank. extrapolating from the constant-56 and constant-75 figures in the handbook, it should do 60mpg at a steady 53...

keeping the revs low as is practical (over 1250 as a minimum for really gentle traffic cruising, 1500 as a practical mixed-duty limit, because labouring isnt efficient), no hard acceleration, only speeding in order to get into top gear more easily, and a 50-55mph cap on A-roads/dual carriageways/motorways wherever traffic conditions make it practical (55-60 otherwise, so that e.g. trucks don't have to s-l-o-w-l-y overtake on 2-lane mways). Trying to avoid overtaking etc wherever possible*. Downhill 0rpm coasting, too, if you're sure of your non-servo brakes/steering and steering lock.

be educational to see which variants actually go the furthest when it comes down to the crunch, even if only as a guide for what to drive if supplies go dry again. too bad i never had the patience to try it in the 1L for more than about 150 miles, really - the results from that are not too reliable due to the small distances and even smaller amounts of fuel used, but suggest up to 70 could be attainable without commiting to serious slowdown even on the 4 speed (ie 55 as a hard cap, and 45-50 or less as a rule).

its been educational so far, in that VERY LOUD drum and bass, and 80s air-guitar rock are definately the best and most surprisingly enjoyable ways of passing the extra time you're spending stuck in the car - if far from the safest, when you feel the urge to bust a few in-seat body popping moves and overdo it. (its true - going slower is not necessarily safer, as your concentration slips something rotten)

* ok, i wasnt able to avoid every temptation or overtaking opportunity, but 99% of the time it's been hardline. in fact the only overtake was because of a numpty woman doing 34 up a country NSL in her alfa 2.0T twinspark with a line of increasingly-late commuters stuck behind, forcing me out of 5th - an immediate 15% drop in economy - and almost into 3rd, another 25%... decision to pass her being one that damn near killed me. doh.

1043cc mk2 squareback:

Motorways (75-80mph for 350 odd miles): 49.5mpg
Normal situations trying hard: 44.4mpg
Normal driving: 38mpg (ish)
Bit of a heavy right foot: 36mpg (ish)

Well in the GTI:

Motorways (70 or just under) 48mpg (Yes really!)
Normal driving with a light foot: 42mpg
Normal driving with a regular foot: 36mpg
Normal driving with a very heavy foot / Mental driving, a bit too fast..: 24mpg.

So far my best is 520 miles to a tank. My best indicated was 610 miles to a tank but I never followed through, although the car had spare wheel out, rear seats removed, no crap in the car whatsoever and running around 49mpg. For a 230bhp motor it's very good on the fuel.

The problem being it will only work on 98ron. Anything less and it complains like hell, Used BP ultimate once and it was missfiring like a trooper.

oh and Santapod drag racing: 8mpg

Tried really hard last week (no p***ing around) with my tdi100 and got 64.9mpg (according to the trip computer). Had to pay 99.9p per litre so trying to hang on to it!!!

Good responses though MFAs is the kind of thing i'm after --- when it comes down to your final pre-rationing tank of juice, how far would you be able to string it out kinda thing..

might take a couple weeks for me to find the answer given the miles im doing now, though!

I have a 1.4 16v

can get about 350miles on a full tank, combination of around city (mostly) and some motorway!

ok this worries me then- as even when i behave im lucky to see 260 miles to a full tank out of my 6n2 GTI.

having said that even when i floor it it doesnt make toooo much of a difference- drops to 220 miles.

so on good behaviour- 27mpg
with foot to floor- 23mpg

something not right there....

I own a wee 1.0l and it runs forever! Well almost! Costs me about £30-£35 to fill it up at the mo and that'll last me anywhere between 3-4 weeks!

But I don't drive to work so I save myself a good bit!

My 6n2 GTi gets on average about 280 or 290 miles from a tank and I fill when the light comes on. Got 260 though on my last tank, due to the A/C running most of the time and the large amount of town driving I've been doing

Only once have I seen over 300 from a tank of fuel...

aircon is banned for this challenge, you're disqualified

All i can say is, i havent refilled since the start of it. Up to 397 miles now. Guage says there's 10 litres left (or thereabouts) but not sure how trustworthy it is.
However that's more than 2 gallons left, i've only a 20 mile round trip to/from work tomorrow and 100 miles to/from college (possibly an extra 25 going to Looms) to get thru......

if it was just the college jaunt i'm almost certain i could string it out.. the full 120 - 145 is just wishful thinking i reckon. still, if i have to put a gallon in the tank in notts that won't be so bad - 20 plus 25 plus 50 = 95 = can do?!

however its a 50 litre tank. it sure as hell better go up to 500 miles without refilling (45.4mpg) or i might have to reconsider which car i keep - or if to swap both for a diesel. because i haven't had a total of more than 3 or 4 foot-down miles out of the whole tank, the rest has been really, really nursing it.
and i could get realistically 60mpg out of the polo that way. 70 in extreme cases.

Distance covered:- 310 miles

Litres of fuel used :- 36.48litres @ cost per litre 92.9 (pence)
Your fuel consumption
38.48 MPG 13.97 Km per litre
Averaging 10.93 pence per mile

Thats for my 6N Polo 1.4 16v 1997

I've just been up to manchester and back from my mums in colchester.

Filled up 38.2l (plus what was still in the tank).
£37.01 @96.9 for Diesel
53.1 MPG
Total miles 446.8
Just cruised at 65-70 on motorway

Not bad really - gotta love diesel.

I reckon i can get better though - couple of areas where i put my foot down for abit.

James

All right, that's it, either getting the thing Crypton tuned or shifting it on in favour of a diesel - just seeing James' report there.

I have cossetted and babied this mother for the entirety of a 50 litre tank and all but the last two-pint dreg of a 6.4 litre ("5 litre", ha!) jerrycan (55.10 litres total), and been rewarded with exactly 560.0 miles.

I have done the length of the M42/A42/M1/A453 between Death Island (A446/Belfry) and nottingham and back twice at speeds between 45 and 60mph, slipstreaming trucks wherever possible.
Had the engine off in queues of traffic. Got probably 20 miles of pure coasting in, and no more than half of that distance again in anything that could be considered full throttle or hard running. Tried to vary my speed such that needing to stop or even change down below third could be avoided.

Admittedly there was, ooh, fifty miles of city driving in that? Including one hellish day where Queensway tunnel (birmingham's main pressure valve) was shut because of an all-too-predictable smash, but i found a little-trafficked route around it.

Result?

46.1 MPG

Jesus.

That's pretty good for a 1.6, i suppose, and a good third better than my 35mpg average.... but, honestly, the amount of work, concentration, and pure self sacrifice, timewasting and traffic annoyance involved makes it feel like a total failure. Though it isn't too far removed from it, I was aiming for 50, and I'm not sure I could drive it conservatively enough in comparison to reach that goal (maybe sticking to 50 or less on the m'way with haz-flashers the whole way, and being extra careful to avoid unneccessary crosstown trips? planning is half the battle).
If I hadn't employed any of the "extra" tricks besides keeping the speed and rpms down, that'd probably be more like 43-44mpg overall.

By comparison I've hit 50 several times in the polo, managed 65 a couple times simply driving the same way, but without so much coasting etc - and it was a much lower geared, lower tech affair. What's going on here?
Admittedly most of the time I got mid 30s out of it as well, but I'm sure with my recent relatively calmer outlook on driving it'd be 40s instead - those older figures included a lot of thrashing it about.

Diesel is the way forward. Wonder how much expenses per mile work would pay for a small one?

incidentally, though the thread is not about cost, it seems convention now to include it: 55.10 litres at 90.9p per litre (it's quietly going up again) = £50.08... damn it! It now costs over fifty nicker to fill my tank and the spare canister!

also, vis a vis this testing behaviour and forgetfulness, i think if i WAS to have a diesel I would quickly become very acquainted with the fuel line air purge valve / priming handpump thing... hmm.

not sure how much "real" money it would save after all the business of finding / buying / registering one etc, but it would feel better.. and lets just compare... 2.5 typical weeks @ £50 might become a bit over 3 weeks - or, that same 2.5 at £40. Which is a £210 saving by the end of the year...

ok time for my input being a diesel owner!!

2 weeks ago i filled her up

£37.03 @ 96.9 pence/litre = 38.21 litres (plus a small reserve left)

total miles = 378 (mostly town miles with about 100 on m/ways)

so in all this works out at:

45MPG

a little disappointing? maybe. but with most of my miles done in the town, the car doesn't really get a chance to average much and its gets clogged up and doesn't run as smoothly as it could. and with all the stop/starting its just really not possible most days.
the motorway miles that i did averaged out at 58.8mpg so that was good and this was @ 70-90 mph all the way.
i was more pleased by my pence per mile figure which came out at 9.8 ppm!!

i could also assume that if i did more motorway miles my tank would last me longer. a guy on SeatCupra.net claims to have done 671 miles on a tank and he has the same car as me!!!!

ah well unless i did motorway driving every day i guess i will never find out!!
aircon was on all the time during my test but it doesn't really seem to affect it much

*buys a diesel* 45mpg in town with aircon on? sorted

that means you're getting about as good as i got when i did mostly low-speed motorway miles! (some stuff in town, granted, but only about 100 miles out of 560)

then again diesels are in their element in stop-start city stuff (or as part of an ICE-electric hybrid system where they're either under a decent load, idling, or turned off) ... very efficient at tickover or when pulling quite hard, not as good when cruising.

still pull down j-u-s-t enough of a mileage advantage on the motorway to cancel out the extra cost per litre though

(then again i say that, you're claiming 59mpg at the legal limit and higher ... and 9.8p/mile at 45mpg (to my 8.9p/mile at 46, but perhaps your area is pricier?) ... so my reasoning could be based on flawed data from less efficient models! That's quite stonking all round)