[nsm3]

Quick question to all 2.0L diesel S-tronic drivers, what fuel consumption do you get?

I have only done 150 miles, but only getting an average 31mpg

I just did the last 25 miles on the motorway, never went above 73mph, drove pretty steady and still only managed 36.6mpg for that trip.

I think I read somewhere that Hooplescat said he was getting 36mpg with a Chips Express unit fitted, so I am now assuming that he is talking "average" overall, not just on individual trips?

I have to say I am a bit shocked after coming from an A3 which did 48.6mpg over 50k miles. I know this is a different beast, but going by the claimed figures of 42mpg overall, I thought I would see at least 37-38mpg even whilst the engine is tight?

Just filled up at ?79 (64L) and the computer is estimating 480 miles range or about 33.4mpg

 

[Hooplescat]

Hi

I think it is just where the engine is so new, plus the neg effect of the s-tronic

Mine is going up by about 0.3-0.5 MPG every 3 days or so and should climb steadily. Your car doesn't level out until 20,000 miles apparently when it hits peak MPG (so I am told)

Was your A3 s-tronic or manual? Was it Quattro? No matter what the official figures, every sequential manual or sequential auto I have driven (about 6 of them across BMW/Merc/Audi) have always given significantly less MPG than the manual counterpart. My car is a manual for that reason. The Quattro obviously will make a difference too.

My Sister bought a 2009 Freelander, and that increased by about 8MPG over the first 6-8 months of it's life - if that held true to yours as well, you would see 39 or so later in the year, and I would imagine unless you do mostly cruising miles I can't see you are too likely to get much more than that?

Still pretty good when you compare it to the BMW's, freelanders, lexus' etc...nothing else 4x4 wise touches it for economy I don't think...

 

[crvfr]

I must admit I'm a bit surprised so far. On a decent run I'm getting around 37mpg, and my wife manages around 28 during the week on short journeys. The car only has about 1200 miles on so far, so I'm hoping for 40+ after baout 5K miles. All the other Audi 2.0L diesels I've had have managed mid-forties.

 

[nsm3]

Cheers guys - so I look forward to seeing it improve some !

Hooplescat, good point about the A3, it was a much smaller car, 2 wheel drive and manual, with 225 tyres.

I suppose everything on my Q5 is conspiring against a really good fuel economy - but if I can get it up around the 38 mark, I would take that.

 

[Warburton62]

31.6 after first 1500m, has been as high as 35 on the long term average but we have had nothing but short city runs on last two tank fulls. Quite happy with that considering size of car and nature of use.

 

[nsm3]

I have just been for a short trip in/out of town (just to check out the lighting really - how sad

) and managed a 37.1mpg.

The remedy seems to be in making smooth starts and tickling the throttle, rather than going for it off the mark - so I am adjusting the thought patterns to be grateful for mid 30's consumption.

 

[Warburton62]

Just filled up at ?79 (64L) and the computer is estimating 480 miles range or about 33.4mpg

A small point which came about after a discussion with a Taxi driver the other day, brim filling the tank in itself will have a small but significant effect on average fuel consumption. Assuming you only half filled, leaving say 30 litres free, that's about 25kg (about 4 stone) less to lug about. Balance that with the inconvenience of more fuel stops - but made me think twice!

 

[Prince]

I'm getting around 35-36mpg mixed driving and have realised that it's all about the gentle launches when in comes to conserving fuel.

 

[louis]

Hi
I have the 2.0 tdi s tronic with 3000 miles and on the school run which is 4 miles we are averaging about 34-38 mpg.
On a run we are getting 42-45 mpg.I am very pleased with these figures bearing in mind the 4wheel drive and the size of the car.
We had a Tiguan before with the same engine with less bhp and on average on the school run the mpg was between 29-34 and that was with
12000 miles.
We also had an A3 2.0 tdi DSG we had good mpg but you cannot really compare to the Q5.
Louis

 

[smo]

42-45 would please me, and should be achievable as mine is a manual, however i do over 30K a year just to work and back so i really need every mpg i can get!!!

 

[Hooplescat]

I have been thinking about MPG over recent days and looking at it a bit more closely - I have a couple more observations...

Remember that mine is chipped and so characteristics might be different, but I have noticed the following...

The car does NOT seem to vary too much on MPG with different driving styles and roads. I did a run from my home in Gloucestershire yesterday to Alton Towers, about 250 - 280 miles round trip, mostly motorway. The car had 5 adults and some luggage in, plus my heavy camera kit which comes everywhere with me. I averaged about 40mpg (and only just). I thought it might be higher on a mway run like that.

But I have also noticed that the car doesn't respond so well to excessively hunting for MPG - in other words for a while I was trying to get into 6th gear as soon as possble and keep revs low, in line with the gear indicator on the dashboard, but this did not yield best results. I have found that when I use the gearbox much more freely, the MPG return is slightly better, and the driving is obviously more rewarding. If I start to get a bit rev happy and nudging the edge of the redline it starts to go down again (although not by as much as I would have expected), but a natural and fairly positive driving style seems to suit the car and the MPG figures just fine.

I'll update with progress over the next few weeks!

 

[CrustyNoodle]

If you were to go by a chart of brake specific fuel consumption (bsfc) you'd achieve best fuel ecconomy by accelerating up to your cruising speed using close to full throttle (maybe 80% throttle - go beyond this and the engine management starts to run excessively rich mixtures) and shifting up gears at the lowest revs possible. Then you need to try not to hover you foot on the throttle when you are cruising down hill or toward a stop - instead lift your foot right off the throttle. So long as the engine is doing over say 1,200 rpm when you take your foot of the throttle, the management cuts fuel delivery altogther thus significantly saving fuel.

 

[weatherald]

I have been thinking about MPG over recent days and looking at it a bit more closely - I have a couple more observations...

Remember that mine is chipped and so characteristics might be different, but I have noticed the following...

The car does NOT seem to vary too much on MPG with different driving styles and roads. I did a run from my home in Gloucestershire yesterday to Alton Towers, about 250 - 280 miles round trip, mostly motorway. The car had 5 adults and some luggage in, plus my heavy camera kit which comes everywhere with me. I averaged about 40mpg (and only just). I thought it might be higher on a mway run like that.

But I have also noticed that the car doesn't respond so well to excessively hunting for MPG - in other words for a while I was trying to get into 6th gear as soon as possble and keep revs low, in line with the gear indicator on the dashboard, but this did not yield best results. I have found that when I use the gearbox much more freely, the MPG return is slightly better, and the driving is obviously more rewarding. If I start to get a bit rev happy and nudging the edge of the redline it starts to go down again (although not by as much as I would have expected), but a natural and fairly positive driving style seems to suit the car and the MPG figures just fine.

I'll update with progress over the next few weeks!

Regarding the chip. Can you let me know what chip you fitted and would you recomend it. Also what is your average mpg on overall driving.
Regards

 

[Hooplescat]

Hi

Have a look at the chip thread already on here, lot's of opinions.

I fitted the chipexpress chip - google them. I had it in my 330D convertible and it never caused any problems. There are faster 'maxxed out' chips out there, but the chipexpress returns 3 or so more mpg over standard, and sharpens throttle response and pick up evenly and noticeably, and doesn't seem to strain the car. (no soot/uneven revs etc) I am currently getting just over 38mpg average, 1000 miles on the car, and other than one long motorway run most of my driving is a 16 mile each way commute on twisty a roads and in the city for last few miles.