Fuel Economy - 184 TDI (FWD)

[smk82]

Not disappointed at all with the car. Its a great mix of power and economy. If I'm irritated at anyone its the EU drive cycle tests and the manufacturers for practically cheating with their cars rather than generating real life data (i.e. removing excess weight, taping up cracks etc, slow accelerations), it doesn't give representative real life information on the actual mpg. I'm sure the car can produce the figures they quote, but only in very controlled lab conditions.

Whilst the power is very good, will still probably get the car remapped at some point as would like a little extra under the foot...

 

[Migwire]

I considered that, but due to the lack of quattro I'm led to believe getting all of that power and torque down could be an issue. In the wet it's very easy to get the TC to cut in all the way up to 3rd gear.

 

[Vertigo1]

I'm probably in to 1.4COD territory now but will stick with the TDI for now.

My driving is 90% short urban stop/start trips now so switching from the 150PS TDI to the 1.4COD and will be very interested to see what the relative economy is like.

 

[Migwire]

In truth I'm thinking that my next car might well be an S3 though, as although economy is nice it's not my main concern.

 

[h5djr]

Not disappointed at all with the car. Its a great mix of power and economy. If I'm irritated at anyone its the EU drive cycle tests and the manufacturers for practically cheating with their cars rather than generating real life data (i.e. removing excess weight, taping up cracks etc, slow accelerations), it doesn't give representative real life information on the actual mpg. I'm sure the car can produce the figures they quote, but only in very controlled lab conditions.

Whilst the power is very good, will still probably get the car remapped at some point as would like a little extra under the foot...

The EU drive cycle tests are just that. A series of standard tests done under lab conditions. No one will ever get close to them in normal everyday driving but they are 'standard' tests which all manufacturers have to do in the same way which means they are a good guide when comparing one car to another but not for much else. My dealer always says to take the Combined figure and take off 20% and you will be getting somewhere near a figure for normal driving.

I'm also more than happy with the power and economy of my 184 quattro s-tronic. Certainly the best A3 I've owned so far.

 

[cuke2u]

My driving is 90% short urban stop/start trips now so switching from the 150PS TDI to the 1.4COD and will be very interested to see what the relative economy is like.

Perhaps we should start a thread for 1.4 COD economy only?

 

[a3_phil]

I get the impression you're disappointed at getting over 50mpg in a car with 184PS and 380 lovely NM of torque? When I first got mine I had a 17 mile commute up the A1 and from around a thousand miles or so was averaging 56mpg. I was delighted by that. Especially considering my old 2009 115bhp TDCi Focus used to average 44mpg on the same run.

I am a little disappointed as my '06 Mondeo averaged 52mpg and had about 180bhp too (modified). The A3 is a much nicer car all round but I'd quite like to see a bit better fuel economy out of it.

Over the weekend I did my mammoth road trip up to Aviemore and back.

On the way up to Leeds I set the ACC to 60mph and from door to door (picking up a mate in Leeds) I averaged 63mpg.

On the way back with the ACC set to 70mph I got about 54mpg.

During the weekend we took some deliberate detours onto some simply awesome highland roads and driving from corner to corner either on full throttle or hard braking it managed 42mpg which I thought was surprisingly good.

 

[veeeight]

^ Your '06 Mondeo probably had a lot more Carbon Dioxides

There's always a trade off somewhere

 

[a3_phil]

^ Your '06 Mondeo probably had a lot more Carbon Dioxides

There's always a trade off somewhere

Oh I know it's not apples to apples, the Mondeo didn't have a DPF either and I'd had it de-catted so the losses were presumably a lot lower than in the clean A3.

Doesn't stop me hoping for more though!

 

[a3_phil]

Just as an extra bit of info, I've got a courtesy car at the minute ; an A1 1.4TFSI which I believe is just the 125bhp version (non CoD).

Its book figure is 55.4mpg and on this morning's commute I averaged 40mpg (72%).

Doing the exact same section of my commute in the A3 I can get 58mpg (86%) so the A3 is a lot closer to its book figure than the A1.

 

[h5djr]

My wife has an A1 1.6TDI and does mostly short journeys and my A3 184 quattro uses quite a bit less diesel than the A1. It is coming up to the time to change her A1 as it's on a PCP and I think this time we will be looking at an A1 petrol ( don't know which model yet) or a Polo 1.2 SE petrol.

 

[smk82]

I am a little disappointed as my '06 Mondeo averaged 52mpg and had about 180bhp too (modified). The A3 is a much nicer car all round but I'd quite like to see a bit better fuel economy out of it.

Over the weekend I did my mammoth road trip up to Aviemore and back.

On the way up to Leeds I set the ACC to 60mph and from door to door (picking up a mate in Leeds) I averaged 63mpg.

On the way back with the ACC set to 70mph I got about 54mpg.

During the weekend we took some deliberate detours onto some simply awesome highland roads and driving from corner to corner either on full throttle or hard braking it managed 42mpg which I thought was surprisingly good.

Were these brim - brim figures, or what the DIS was quoting?

 

[a3_phil]

DIS

I'm aware that it's not necessarily bang on accurate but I trust it enough to make comparisons with.

 

[Vertigo1]

My wife has an A1 1.6TDI and does mostly short journeys and my A3 184 quattro uses quite a bit less diesel than the A1. It is coming up to the time to change her A1 as it's on a PCP and I think this time we will be looking at an A1 petrol ( don't know which model yet) or a Polo 1.2 SE petrol.

I've never understood small cars with diesel engines. They're only more efficient than a small petrol engine on longer journeys and, if you're doing those often enough for it to make a difference, you'll likely want a bigger car anyway. Bizarre.

Larger engines can often provide better economy as they're not working anywhere near as hard for as much of the time. Remember when Top Gear did the M3 vs Prius thing? For those who don't know, they drove a Prius flat out round the track for ten laps whilst keeping pace with it in an M3 and the M3 used less fuel. Yes it's an extreme and somewhat pointless comparison but the principle is valid - it's not what you drive as much as how you drive it.

 

[h5djr]

I suppose it depends on your criteria for buying a particular car. In the case of my wife's A1 mpg was not an important factor in choosing it as she now only does around 5,000 miles a year. She choose it because she liked the car and it's also a excellent car for the occasional long journeys that she does. She wanted an SE spec which at the time only offered two engines. the 1.6TDI - 105ps/250Nm or the 1.2 TFSI - 86ps/160Nm. She drove both and decided she preferred the extra power and torque of the 1.6 TDI.

When it comes to change we may well consider the new Polo or another A1 depending on what engines they offer in the SE spec in the new face-lifted version that has just been released. Again the mpg will not be that important in the choice.

 

[smk82]

As i was stuck at a maximum of 50mph due to haveing a wheel in for refurb and watching lorries go past me on the motorway, i amused myself by keeping an eye on the DIS

, whixh after a 35mile trip isnt bad. My car is reading about 4-5% out according to prev calcs so this equates to ~59mpg...

 

[h5djr]

I must say that I get a much better mpg on my holidays to Germany and Holland with my A3 than I do in my normal driving in the UK. In Germany I do some 120-130mph drives on the autobahn but a lot of the time is spend just driving around the countryside at around 50-60 mph. During the 2 weeks I spend on holiday in Germany in October 2014 my overall mpg for the complete holiday, including the faster drives there and back was 53 mpg which I quite happy with. My normal at home is around 45-46 mpg. Diesel is of course a lot cheaper than unleaded in Germany as well.

Mind you, if fuel economy was an important factor in deciding which car to buy, I would not have bought a 184 TDI quattro.