A3 real fuel consumption

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Hi all
I ve been reading in several threads questions about actual mpg the new A3 delivers but did not find an actual thread about it. If I ve missed it please excuse me and if possible provide the link.

If not and ok with you I would suggest you write your model ( 3d or SB), stronic or manual, engine type and actual mpg you achieve, so that we can all compare and help the indecisive choose a model.

Thanks
 
A3 1.6 TDI S-Line 3dr 54-55mpg


Glad someone started a dedicated thread on this. I took delivery of a 1.6TDI S-Line (3dr) early in December Fuel economy has been a real gripe for me having traded in a 2006 2.0TDI (140bhp) 8P and not seeing any mpg improvement yet loosing almost 1/3 of the power. I've been up to to 62mpg on a few journeys now, but across the last 4 tanks I've averaged 54-55mpg.

I had a meeting with the sales & service manager in my local Audi Centre a week after collecting the car where I explained my frustration. Got the usual spiel about how the publised figures are achieved on a rolling road, the car needs up to 10,000 miles to run in etc. In short- there is no fault with the car and the mpg figures publised are only to compare one car against another. They were actually impressed that I was achieveing 50mpg during the first 1,000 miles and implied that I shouldn't expect to achieve 70mpg. Grrrrrrr.

Gave the car another month- still no significant improvememt- so contacted Audi directly through the website. Got this two page reply explaining all the factors that can affect fuel economy (weather, driving style, road surface, extra weight, tyre pressure, vehicle extras....) and the same spiel about how the published mpg for all cars is calculated in the same way for every car sold in the UK (EU Directive 93/116/EC)

I've a theory that the tyres on the S-Line may be a factor. The standard Conti's only get an E-grade for fuel efficiency, compared to a Pireli which is A/B grade. I'm led to believe this could affect fuel economy by up to 10mpg. If I put up with the car unti the Conti's are worn out- I would definately try the Pirelli Cinturato P7 Blue just to see the difference.

Also my 8P came standard with 205/55 R16 tyres. I decided after a year to fit replica 18" wheels with the 225/40 tyres- it really did hit the fuel economy. After a few buckled alloys I changed back to the original 16's and really noticed the difference. It would be interesting to hear from someone with a new 1.6 TDI SE with the standard 16" wheels.
 
Well today I decided to do a test. 18 mile motorway stretch which I did at a constant 70mph in sixth gear with drive select in economy mode.

46mpg. Yes, that's all, 46mpg.

Is it just me or is that utterly pathetic?! I shall do some more tests to be sure but frankly, if that's the best it does then it's going into the dealer to be fixed as that's a joke compared to the official figures. At a constant 70mph cruise it should be easily topping 50mpg in my opinion.
 
Ok, tried another run this morning at a steady 60mph and got 61mpg. That's far more like it but I can't understand the difference to 70mph last night. Will try another run at 70mph on my way back to see what I get.
 
number3 said:
A3 S-Line 2.0 TDi manual ( S-Line suspension ) 58-61mpg.
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That's brilliant. How are you driving? Is it over long distances, motorways, just on Eco etc etc. Sorry to be a pest but I've ordered the same model as you and comments on here would suggest others are getting nothing like that.
 
Debs said:
That's brilliant. How are you driving? Is it over long distances, motorways, just on Eco etc etc. Sorry to be a pest but I've ordered the same model as you and comments on here would suggest others are getting nothing like that.
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mostly motorways , around 50miles each way, car on auto!

now for me it's the time I leave in the morning , no other buggers about , am not racing but not poodling either, I don't have to slow down or break a lot as no other cars around so it's constant speeds. I've always been told there is not much difference between cursing at 60 70 or 80, it's how you get to that speed and if you can keep it there! Hard exceleration is a killer of mpg!!!

.
 
Ok well did another 70mph run at got 54mpg, which is much more like it!
 
As posted earlier wind drag road gradient try your car in 5th gear you may see some positive MPG 6th gear is better on flat roads no wind and no acceleration constant moving between gears may see the best results, this is the same factor when cars were 4 speed then had 5 gears the MPG dropped more load on the engine at lower RPM which relates to higher fuel burn
 
Audi A3 1.6 TDI S-line (2000 miles so far)
First few tanks have averaged 51-52mpg with occasional journeys getting highs of 58mpg but this isn't sustained despite my driving effots. I'm very unimpressed as I traded up from the same engined A3 (8P) on 61 plate which without effort achieved 60-65mpg as standard. I'm going to stay in 5th gear more often as per Doug's post above and see what happens.
 
Can believe that 5th would be better than 6th in some circumstances. The latter will be geared long to conserve fuel at a constant speed but the low revs will mean labouring the engine when you accelerate, which can use a lot of fuel.
 
What kind of journeys do you travel Suzanne? Mine is nearly all A- Roads, and find the car only runs well in 6th gear when travelling at 60mph and above. I find when the engine gets below 1600rpm in 6th gear- its time to change down.
 
audi upgrades
James P said:
What kind of journeys do you travel Suzanne? Mine is nearly all A- Roads, and find the car only runs well in 6th gear when travelling at 60mph and above. I find when the engine gets below 1600rpm in 6th gear- its time to change down.
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Mostly motorways with occasional short journeys, interesting I get better mpg on those shorter journeys which means I'll pay more attention to the onboard computer the gears. Agreed with changing down below 1600rpm. I get frustrated because my driving style hasn't changed since getting 65mpg easily on my 61 plate. I drive pretty sensibly these days and I know how to adapt to what I hoped would continue to be higher mpg obtaining driving. Grrr.
 
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As a new member and potnetial new owner I'm watching this thread with interest!!! I've just finished a week-long test drive and, up to this weekend, was definately going to be placing an order. Throughout the week I've either been crawling in rush-hour traffic and blasting around getting a good feel for the car.

As such, I wasn't too surprised that I was getting poor MPG. However, this weekend I went for a long run (a return trip of nearly 200 miles, all motorway and no real traffic issues to sitting at 70 - 75 mph) and I got 46mpg. Not terribly impressed :-(

It's a shame, as I really love the car but I know that my previous BMW 120d on the same journey would easily average mid-fifties and could sniff around the 60mpg mark if I didn't 'enjoy myself'.

Decisions, decisions.....
 
I had a 2.0 tdi SE for a 48hrs test drive and averaged 56mpg This was on A,B and Motorway for around 300 miles. I was surprised by this as I wasn't driving in an econmomical manor! It also wasn't run in and only had 60 miles on the clock when it was dropped off

This is a vast improvment over my current Focus 1.8tdi where on the same journey it would only average 45mpg

At the end of the day i've always taken manufacture figures whith a pinch of salt. Every car i've had has never been near the published figures. Those figures are gathered in perfect conditons! There is so many things that can make a difference to fuel consumption.

Traffic, Air preasure, Tyre presure, Driving Manor, pasangers, fuel etc

Anyway I've had to go for the 1.6 Sport as my company car scheme would let me have a 2.0 Sport :(
 
I really think it's all about how you drive. I have an A3 Sportback on order, but currently have an A6 2.7 TDI Quattro Le Mans, and after 20,000 miles of recording my actual litres put in to the car at every fill up, and my miles travelled (I keep a book in the car - I blame my Dad for that one!) I have achieved a true overall of 32mpg against an official published average for this car of 33mpg.

Of course the car will take time to run in and loosen up, and there are loads of factors such as wind direction, the load your carrying etc, but the biggest single factor, and the one you can change and influence yourself is your driving style.
 
Also to everyone - check your tyre pressures, you'd be amazed how much difference it can make.

If the tyres are under pressure then the rolling resistance goes up quite a bit which will harm MPG. You can actually over-inflate them a bit to reduce the rolling resistance even more than normal which will give better MPG but will obviously harm traction. The official pressures are supposed to be the sweet spot.

I've not actually checked my pressures since I got the car but will do. I don't know what they're supposed to be but, in my last car, the fronts were 42psi which is very high. It wouldn't surprise me if quite a few cars were supplied with lower than standard pressures. Worth a check.

EDIT: Also Dave, regards keeping a book to track mileage, I've started doing this myself albeit with the Road Trip app on my iPhone :)
 
Anyone thought of a remap yet?

That's first port of call for me, I refused to pay Audi £1249 for their ABT one . On other cars iv had , a remap not only increased performance but did slightly improve mpg in most conditions.

Sean
 
My experience with my 2005 2.0tdi is that speed kills the mpg. I seem to get the best mpg (60) when stuck behind slow moving traffic on winding welsh a roads doing about 40 mph.
Reducing speed on the motorway to 60mph also makes a big difference.
Whatcar.com publish achievable mpg for new cars they test. They are much better to compare your own car. Official figures are not done at normal motorway speeds.
 
Just incase nobody believed me !! See below, was a fairly slow run in due to the weather , speed was probably around the 65 mark, less and more in places!
 

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I've seen some improvement. Tanked up on 10 Jan to the tune of 53mpg and then again today (16 Jan) and it works out as 55mpg. Better than the 50mpg achieved by the last few tanks so I will keep an eye on progress. Yesterday I did a journey where the car quickly got to an average of 55mpg and got as high as 62mpg! I swear the whole journey was simply down hill! :-S
 
You'll all start to notice better figures in the summer when your engine is run in and the weather is better.
 
I notice on my 8P that snow tyres have quite a negative impact on fuel consumption too. Must be because of the lower pressure. I would love to put some extra air in them but that would decrease grip in the snow and thus defeat the whole purpose of having snow tyres in the first place. Can't wait till spring and put the summer wheels back on...
 
Not just the lower pressures but winter tyres are designed to stay much softer at lower temperatures, allowing the tread blocks to still move around when a summer tyre would become very hard and rigid. Because there's more movement in the surface of the tyre, the rolling resistance will go way up.

This is why you shouldn't drive at speed in dry conditions on winter tyres (it's actually illegal in some parts of Germany I believe), as the increased movement in the tread causes them to overheat massively.
 
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winter tyres will have different rolling resistance against summer tyres, hence the efficiency lettering attached to them, however the speed raiting will be as manufactures policy as you cannot fit lower than approved manufacture for the car. I do understand speeds being lower for noise and studs in certain countries but thats about all. The winter compound has special builds to keep the rubber at its best being softer and higher contant of Silica for the wet side of things, unless your using something like Grabbers full open tread patterns the MPG really will not suffer, but if your looking for the exact like for like it will never happen.
Better having a lower MPG and better driving control in the cooler road conditions against higher MPG and sliding off the road (worst case) but as we have mentioned better driving, gear control and traffic management will give the best MPG
 
1.8 TFSI (180)

I am seeing high 30's at the minute on a 15-20 mile run. Around 50 miles and it returns about 43MPG. I'm not the slowest driver ever and I always have the stop start off. Currently covered 3500 miles and the more miles I do the better the fuel consumption gets :)
 
The thing about the official figures is that they're done on a rolling road, usually in laboratory conditions. They don't replicate real world conditions so its unlikely you'll get that close to them. They are useful when comparing cars on paper - you can see that one car will be more economical than the other even though neither will get close to their claimed mpg.
 
I've also noticed a marked improvement in fuel economy- achieving over 60mpg on most journeys now- even got over 65mpg on my commute to work last week. Pic below...

Mpg 130213
 

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Just to give you all a benchmark to work against; I get an overall average mpg of 42.3 with an average mpg of around 49.7 in my car below. 1.8 TSFI engine on mostly motorway getting around 450/460 miles per tank.
 
I'm still struggling with economy in my 2.0TDI, now with over 3,500 miles on the clock. After a 40 mile run today at 70mph in economy mode, I just about reached 50mpg, I've done the same in Comfort/Dynamic and managed less than 40mpg! Massively disappointing coming from a 140CR which easily achieved 60mpg on the same run!
 
Well... my last fill up averaged 57mpg - that's a brand new 1.6TDi with 300 miles on it... I've seen 60mpg on runs from Nottingham down to Luton and it's currently sitting at about 58mpg over the past 250 miles...
 
so what are most people using as their vehicle settings (i.e. which engine mode)?; I've a 2L diesel coming in just under a month...
 
I've had my 2.0 TDI S-Line since November and have aprox. 2,700 miles on the clock. As I work from home, most of my everyday drives are 12 miles up a dual carriageway to the gym. I'm a quick driver, but don't over speed but on this journey in Dynamic mode I get about 42mg using cruise control if the conditions allow. I've tried Economy but this gives me around 37mpg and Auto 38-9. It could be that in Economy mode I press the accelerator too hard as I'm not getting the anticipated power.
 
'Dynamic' - I've tried the others but 'Economy' blunts the accelerator pedal too much...
 
johnhugh said:
I've had my 2.0 TDI S-Line since November and have aprox. 2,700 miles on the clock. As I work from home, most of my everyday drives are 12 miles up a dual carriageway to the gym. I'm a quick driver, but don't over speed but on this journey in Dynamic mode I get about 42mg using cruise control if the conditions allow. I've tried Economy but this gives me around 37mpg and Auto 38-9. It could be that in Economy mode I press the accelerator too hard as I'm not getting the anticipated power.
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Glad it's not just me! Terrible economy for a diesel. A friend of mine has a 2.4 petrol Accord and averages 38MPG!
 
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