S3 - Efficiency mode DOES work!

[HawkeyeS3]

My drive each day is 74 miles each way in heavy rush hour traffic from J29 on the M25 to J11 via the Dartford Crossing. About 10 miles to get to the M25 from home cross country, and about 6 miles from J11 into Woking.

Normally being rush hour I use Drive select in Auto mode - which on the trip usually gives me an average mpg of about 33.4 mpg with odd drops into Sport mode for pulling onto roundabouts etc either end of the motorway.

Today just for the hell of it I thought I'd try Efficiency mode. Drove at normal speeds, the only difference was that I gently accelerated the car to keep with traffic. And what a difference! 37.8mpg going to work, 40.1mpg on the return. And as I say, the only difference was in accelerating gently.

So used properly Efficiency mode does work after all.....couldn't drive like this all the time but nice to know it can be done.

 

[JordanQuattro]

Drive select FTW. It's a very impressive system! Mad to say that a 2.0TFSI quattro car with 300bhp can achieve up to 40mpg!

Clever buggers them Germans!

 

[Flibble]

How much of that was eco mode though and how much was modifying your driving style? I suspect if you did the same thing in dynamic you'd see similar fuel usage (I have topped 40 mpg in dynamic).

 

[HawkeyeS3]

That's a good question. Some for sure would be down to driving style as I accelerated gently. But the were frequent periods of coasting, sometimes for a reasonable distance which made a difference - looking at the dash, often I gained a couple of "points" ( is that the word?) on the efficiency read out.

I'll have to try the drive in dynamic. TBH in rush hour I tend not to use the car in dynamic as seems little point - in heavy traffic you can't use that sort of performance, and on occasions I've use "S" mode briefly never seem to get out of 5th due to the weight of traffic.

Test for today!!!!

 

[lucas-suisse]

In "Efficiency Mode", S-tronic automaticaly switch to "Neutral" when your right foot leaves the throotle plus the gearbox switch up very early while driving.

 

[jasonc]

My drive each day is 74 miles each way in heavy rush hour traffic from J29 on the M25 to J11 via the Dartford Crossing. About 10 miles to get to the M25 from home cross country, and about 6 miles from J11 into Woking.
.

Are you seriously doing 150 miles a day in an S3? I do 40 miles a day and there are plenty of people who tell me that I should have bought a diesel!

If you really are doing that commute 5 days a week, all year round then I salute you - twice in fact, once for the crazy commute and secondly for your choice of vehicle to do it in

 

[HawkeyeS3]

I couldn't do it all year round jasonc, but given the option most days yes, purely because its easier than using the train (which inevitably with 3 different services has a breakdown or delay somewhere) plus I often get caught for working late into the evening (oh the joys of IT!) - Hpwever, this job deployment is only to Xmas and then I finish for a role closer to home (been on it 2 years - its enough!).. So I've been doing a mixture of driving, train and staying over depending on work schedule, but now the Dartford Crossing toll booths have gone, it's knocked a lot of time off my journey, so the S3 is getting used a fair bit.

If you think it crazy, before the S3, I had a 2011 Mitsubishi Evo X FQ330 I used to do it in - same sort of power but the mpg was awful - at best 23mpg if I drove it really carefully (and that's hard with an Evo - so I needed something a bit more fuel efficient and the S3 fitted perfectly (and whilst not quite as much fun as the Evo down the lanes it still puts a big grin on my face every day, hence why I tend to drive it whenever I can).

Meant to add - tried Dynamic mode this morning but with a tempered driving style of gently accelerating (god that's hard to do in Dynamic!!!) - 32.6. Not bad for Dynamic!!!! I'll see what I get this evening as evening traffic is not so "stop start"

 

[veeeight]

How would you compare the difference in turbo lag between the 2 cars?

I think the've done quite a good job in the S3 minimising it, but would be interested to hear your comparisons.

 

[Martin L]

Eco mode is very good, but I've stopped using it in denser traffic such as the M25 as the coasting tend to make me brake more as when cars slow in front there's no engine braking to slow the car down gently.

The efficiency details on the DIS should have more KPIs I think. I like mercs one where it has the KPIs which targets and tracks how well your doing against them. It takes away the boredom of the motorway commute.

 

[HawkeyeS3]

How would you compare the difference in turbo lag between the 2 cars?

I think the've done quite a good job in the S3 minimising it, but would be interested to hear your comparisons.

The S3 is much better than the Evo on turbo lag - whilst it's noticeable on the S3, it's REALLY noticeable on the Evo. Having said that, it depended on the Evo what mode you had the gearbox set to - normal, sport or supersport. In Normal mode, if you put your foot down from standstill you felt like you were waiting ages for the turbo to cut in - and when it did it did so with a bang which jolted you, you had to anticipate, and just get the EVO moving forward slightly before flooring it. In all honesty it was hard to tell which was worse on the Evo the turbo lag or the SST gearbox. In normal mode, if you accelerated too hard, the revs went up a coupel of thou and nothing happened (and it wasn't a fault on mine all Evo X's do this). In sport / supersport mode, the response was more instant and the revs didn't raise so high before the box changed down. Between the 2 the Audi is far superior both at reduced turbo lag and a much much more refined SST gearbox. Electronics for swapping power between wheels with limited slip diff etc - Evo was much more advanced. Loved my Evo, great fun, but as an every day practical car - nope! S3 does it all, and does it with style, don't regret swapping the Evo for the S3 one bit. Just awaiting the RS3 next year....now....that will be fun with 367bhp, 7-speed S-Tronic box and ceramic brakes

Eco mode is very good, but I've stopped using it in denser traffic such as the M25 as the coasting tend to make me brake more as when cars slow in front there's no engine braking to slow the car down gently.

The efficiency details on the DIS should have more KPIs I think. I like mercs one where it has the KPIs which targets and tracks how well your doing against them. It takes away the boredom of the motorway commute.

You are absolutely correct Martin L, when the traffic is dense, using Efficiency mode is a waste - when its really heavy in the mornings (like when there has been an accident or such like causing long delays), then efficiency mode is actually PITA with its coasting, as you have to brake a lot more as you say to slow down, and the efficiencies are just not there between modes, whatever one is driving in.

 

[steeve]

I've not found one iota of difference.
For a whole tankful I drove in dynamic as if on an economy run, then for the next tank I had it in economy and once again drove as if on an economy rum.
Result? Almost identical mpg, as near as to be no different. I did the same on my 8V 184 tdi and had the same result.

I personally think it's more about driving style than drive select although I absolutely agree that economy mode makes it easier.

 

[veeeight]

VW & Borg Warner did a fantastic job with the DSG gearbox, how many drivers can change gears in 0.4 to 0.8 seconds!

By no means is it perfect, but for 98% of the time, it does what you want it to do.

I will say though, there is a degree of "learning how to drive the gearbox" to get the best out of it in a S3.

Learning to let off the throttle a fraction before using the paddles, will mean the difference between a near instantaneous change, or a smoother change (which will take longer).

Glad you're having fun

 

[J4MMYz]

Good to know it works.


Ah yes, the dreaded M25. Worlds longest carpark!

 

[discodeek]

i'm lucky to get 30 mpg - 300 miles to a tank -mix of driving..... think i need to look at my style !!!

 

[rcnacura]

I have the 2.0 A3, can I enable eco mode thorough VCDS? I drive roughly 80-100 mile a day and on average see barely 27-29MPG doing 70-75mph.

 

[Pulp84]

Eco for me has actually been a bit hit and miss.

I find its great on open roads with not too much congestion. Any road where it's busy and traffic is moving at say an average of 50 mph I find it not so good. The best in this mode is 43mpg but that really was driving like a saint along mainly duel carriage ways at 60 mph.

Otherwise regardless of the mode it seems to settle around 32mpg for me. I'm getting 330 - 350 miles a tank.

 

[cilurnum]

Drive select FTW. It's a very impressive system! Mad to say that a 2.0TFSI quattro car with 300bhp can achieve up to 40mpg!

At one time with a car this powerful it didn't matter how you modified your driving style you weren't getting within a country mile of that kind of economy. It's quite an impressive step forward, and to me, more impressive than those low capacity engines and their incredible (and generally wrong) economy figures that get most of the attention.

 

[mfl]

for a slightly different perspective in heavy peak hour traffic, I get 20 - 22mpg, but compared to my old V8, which did 11 -13 mpg in the same traffic, I am not complaining too much.

 

[Ashmcblue]

Are you seriously doing 150 miles a day in an S3? I do 40 miles a day and there are plenty of people who tell me that I should have bought a diesel!

If you really are doing that commute 5 days a week, all year round then I salute you - twice in fact, once for the crazy commute and secondly for your choice of vehicle to do it in

I do about 600 miles a week in mine.

I did start watching the economy and using efficiency on the motorway but then I got bored and it's mainly dynamic, manual mode and lever pulled back into S for the noise.

It's the only way!*

*its not actually the only way I've seen near 40 in efficiency and sub 30 in dynamic

 

[steeve]

I still find that if I drive carefully in any mode I get the same mpg.
But I find if I drive hard then I can get better economy in efficiency. But why buy an S3 if you're after big mpg numbers, other than to try it with one tank full just to see what you can get.

 

[S32B]

But why buy an S3 if you're after big mpg numbers

Exactly, I'll be going from 47mpg to less than 30! As I don't do big miles I'm not bothered...plus fuel ATM is dropping each day so it will balance out

 

[David83S1]

Eco for me has actually been a bit hit and miss.

I find its great on open roads with not too much congestion. Any road where it's busy and traffic is moving at say an average of 50 mph I find it not so good. The best in this mode is 43mpg but that really was driving like a saint along mainly duel carriage ways at 60 mph.

Otherwise regardless of the mode it seems to settle around 32mpg for me. I'm getting 330 - 350 miles a tank.

Hi Pulp84

What driving style would you say you mostly do? Slow....normal......fast? ...and is it long journeys or lots of short journeys? Whats your annual average mileage?

Sorry for all the questions .....just keen to understand what parameters are at play to achieve your 32mpg average.

Thanks in advance for the info.

 

[Splathead]

I managed 39.9mpg (indicated) coming back from Salford to Suffolk (240miles) (M60 / M62 / A1 / A14) at 80mph with the air-con on in 28 degrees temperature in the Summer - Mighty impressive!

 

[Itguy]

I have found that the current winter temps are hitting the MPG a little - no doubt due to the slower engine warm up to operating temp.

I now tend to average around 31mpg in mixed driving in my SB Stronic S3, which does get up to 35-36 on a motorway run.