New A4 2.0TDI Quattro S Line SE - Excessive Fuel Consumption!!

[lawco]

I had my new A4 2.0TDI (170) Quattro S Line Special Edition Saloon delivered a week ago and after 1 week of use I am generally pleased with the car but quite shocked at the MPG figures acheived so far. With 550 miles on the clock (300 motorway) I have barely acheived 35 MPG . My TT Quattro (225) is marginly better than this over the same kind of driving! Is this normal, I was expecting 41-46 MPG? Will this impove as the car covers more miles? Is there something wrong with mine? Have Audi massaged the economy figures for this car?

Also I find the initial pull away in 1st and 2nd very sluggish and the car feels underpowered unless you floor the throttle. It is also extremely easy to stall unless you feather the clutch with the revs at about 1500-2000 on pull away. I have had a few diesel cars and never had this kind of trouble, they are usually near impossible to stall!

Has any one else had similar experiences. I fear that I may be returning the car to Audi unless things improve.

 

[Issac Hunt]

How are you calculating your MPG? The DIS is not 100% accurate! I'd give it a few thousand miles fisrt to fully 'run-in', I dont think Audi would do much for you at this stage.

With regards to feeling like its going to stall, I know what you mean. I did stall mine a few times in the first week of ownership but I guess its just a characteristic of the car - I dont stall it anymore!

Mine also feels sluggish in first but then all diesels do to some degree, all noise and no go in first gear. Especially compared to the TT225 you changed from!

Oh and welcome to the forum BTW!

 

[lawco]

I am comparing DIS for DIS (TT to A4) - I guess there could be some discrepency but I would only expect this to be 1 or 2 mpg. I drove the car on a 300 mile round trip to Felixstowe using a very very light right foot and only managed 39.7 on the whole trip! It may be a 'running in' problem as I recall the TT had quite horrific MPG when I first got it but this improved with age (or did I just get used to it?).

As for the sluggishness, our A2 takes off like a rocket and can pull away in 3rd! This is a 3 pot 1.4 but I suppose the A2 weighs about a 3rd of the A4 weight!

I suppose these are quirks of a new car and in time you adapt to them, at the moment everyone passes me at the lights in the A4 unless I floor it!?

 

[EssVier]

Floor it then, haha! Leave them standing!

 

[lawco]

To hell with it - I'll turn the DIS off, drive at full throttle everywhere and take out a second mortgage for the diesel.

Where do Audi dream up these MPG figures. None of my 3 Audi's get anywhere near the quoted figures! Even if I drive them carefully. This is especially true of the A2 which is in the low emissions bracket for road tax but I rarely see more than 46 MPG on the DIS - my VW Bora TDi was better.

 

[Keef]

Hope the MPG gets alot better with more mile on the clock!
Should get my one of these in a couple of weeks just had a call
to say it'll be on the boat soon!

 

[arthurfuxake]

It'll get better with more miles. Also, the A4 is a permanent 4 wheel drive as opposed to the "on-demand" 4 wheel drive of the TT, also it's a Torsen differential as opposed to the Haldex of the TT. It weighs a lot more than the TT. I'm sure with time you'll start edging towards the figures you were hoping for. Enjoy the car mate, it's a beauty.

 

[mickhep]

Hi m8
There the two things I dont like,fuel consumption wont improve Ive done 7500miles same cars as yours and dis is showing 35mpg.
And no guts from less than 1800 rpm in any gear,my astra van is quicker initially,you have to alter your driving style and keep the revs up.in hindsight I would have gone for the 3.0tdi
Mick

 

[lawco]

Hi m8
There the two things I dont like,fuel consumption wont improve Ive done 7500miles same cars as yours and dis is showing 35mpg.
And no guts from less than 1800 rpm in any gear,my astra van is quicker initially,you have to alter your driving style and keep the revs up.in hindsight I would have gone for the 3.0tdi
Mick

Thanks Mick,

I was secretly hoping mileage would be the cure but from what you say there is no hope! I drove a couple of these as courtesy cars when my TT was for servicing - I don't remember them being this bad? Otherwise I would have gone 3.0TDi A6 or 2.0TFSi S Line SE. How do Audi get away with making up the MPG figures - it is scandalous!!

I have noticed some days mine feels quite responsive and others it is simply gutless, ohh and first thing on a cold morning the engine just dies if you try and pull away with anything less than 2000 rpm.

I reckon Audi have sacrificed all the low down diesel torque to get the 170 BHP figure leaving the engine feeling lifeless for normal driving. This means to get the best out of this car you have to drive like a boy racer and waste even more fuel - not the reason why we buy diesels!!

Lee

 

[Nelson_R32]

Blimey, at least give it a chance to run in and give a decent average. I very much doubt you'll start seeing 40mpg+ until about 2000 miles and manufacturers quoted figures until around 12000 miles.

 

[mjsewell]

I don't remember them being this bad? Otherwise I would have gone 3.0TDi A6 or 2.0TFSi S Line SE. How do Audi get away with making up the MPG figures - it is scandalous!!

Don't worry about missing out on the 2.0TFSi S Line SE, I average 26mpg in mine. Too think I chose this instead of the S4 because I feared the fuel bills.

 

[Macduff]

I've had a 170Q Avant and Saloon as courtesy cars and was shocked by the MPG. Over two days I saw 32.2 average on the DIS of the Avant. Given that the DIS in our 1.9 130 reads anywhere from 2-4 MPG over this could equate to less than 30!

To be fair the journey from the dealer to home has a lot of stop/start traffic and once that ends the roads are very twisty. The cars were also almost brand new so the engines would have been quite tight. Never had a problem with pulling away though.

BTW, Audi don't make up the MPG figures. They are calculated from a standard government/European test. It doesn't come anywhere near real world driving. On our 1.9 130 FWD A4 Saloon we typically get 40MPG when the official figure is almost 48. The car has now done almost 33K so I doubt it'll improve.

 

[motorbikez]

I was also disappointed with fuel consumption initially ,was getting 34- 37mpg but fuel consumption got better and better as miles went on.Markedly so after 5000 miles car averages 43mpg now which is OK.

 

[Craig Bale]

I had my new A4 2.0TDI (170) Quattro S Line Special Edition Saloon delivered a week ago and after 1 week of use I am generally pleased with the car but quite shocked at the MPG figures acheived so far. With 550 miles on the clock (300 motorway) I have barely acheived 35 MPG . My TT Quattro (225) is marginly better than this over the same kind of driving! Is this normal, I was expecting 41-46 MPG? Will this impove as the car covers more miles? Is there something wrong with mine? Have Audi massaged the economy figures for this car?

Also I find the initial pull away in 1st and 2nd very sluggish and the car feels underpowered unless you floor the throttle. It is also extremely easy to stall unless you feather the clutch with the revs at about 1500-2000 on pull away. I have had a few diesel cars and never had this kind of trouble, they are usually near impossible to stall!

Has any one else had similar experiences. I fear that I may be returning the car to Audi unless things improve.

I have an almost identical problem with mine (A4 quattro Avant 2.0 TDI Sline SE) I get 35 per gallon if I dont boot it and thats mostly motorway miles. It WONT get better, mine's done 58,000 miles. Ive rasied it with Audi and had it checked out, they tell me there is nothing wrong with the car.

I have talked with them about Audis official figure of 49.6 mpg combined cycle and they literly laughed at me! I was gutted, Ive had 5 110 bhp a4 Quattros and I always got around 52 mpg. I have an A6 too, which I get 45 out of. I find myself driving that because its so much cheaper to run!!

The car is lumpy at low revs, but comes into its own if I put my foot down and drive it hard, it goes like stink and stick to the road like s..t to a blanket! However if I do this I get 19.8 mpg, virtualy unusable, not to mention the fact that Im not a boy racer and if I was I wouldnt have bought a Diesel!

On the whole its a lovely car, I have nearly all the options. However, I am bitterly disapointed with the MPG and feel like I have been seriously misled by Audi. I feel so strongly in fact that I will be writing to watchdog... Judging by comments on here, Im not alone?

 

[Dazmo]

On long motorway trips i can get up to 64 mpg out of my 3.0 TDI Quattro

Even when i boot it im getting 35-40mpg, average 350miles a tank!

Still pretty good i think for a 3.0 V6 TDi which has been remapped

 

[Fahim]

I've got really mad mpg too.

Last night i had a car following me down the M1 with a space saver on so we stuck for 60 all the way. Never went over 65mph or under 55. Four people up, running 47PSI, Remapped, with no luggage i managed 47 mpg in a 2.0 TDI 140. The DIS at the time was saying 68.7 MPG.

Thats disgraceful. So on the way back i went back at 110-120 all the back from birmingham to the M25 junction seeing as slowly im getting **** poor miles per gallon anyway and i thought i'd give it a italian tune up.

(Please note i was driving from 12-4AM ish so cars far between. I did slow down to 90-100mph past cars)

I run the car on V-Power diesel religiously. Change at 2,000 rpm. Maf changed, Cleaned out the EGR/Inlet Manifold and Intercooler recently. Cars done 148,000.

Disgraceful mpg. Around town i would get 400-450 which includes A road driving, so averging 30mpg without spanking it. If i spank it, 20mpg doesent seem to bad.

 

[Steve Day]

I have an almost identical problem with mine (A4 quattro Avant 2.0 TDI Sline SE) I get 35 per gallon if I dont boot it and thats mostly motorway miles. It WONT get better, mine's done 58,000 miles. Ive rasied it with Audi and had it checked out, they tell me there is nothing wrong with the car.

I have talked with them about Audis official figure of 49.6 mpg combined cycle and they literly laughed at me! I was gutted, Ive had 5 110 bhp a4 Quattros and I always got around 52 mpg. I have an A6 too, which I get 45 out of. I find myself driving that because its so much cheaper to run!!

The car is lumpy at low revs, but comes into its own if I put my foot down and drive it hard, it goes like stink and stick to the road like s..t to a blanket! However if I do this I get 19.8 mpg, virtualy unusable, not to mention the fact that Im not a boy racer and if I was I wouldnt have bought a Diesel!

On the whole its a lovely car, I have nearly all the options. However, I am bitterly disapointed with the MPG and feel like I have been seriously misled by Audi. I feel so strongly in fact that I will be writing to watchdog... Judging by comments on here, Im not alone?

You are not alone,I own a new A4 2.0tdi quattro avant black edition s tronic,chose to compromise with 4 cylinder engine hoping to get close to the 51.4 mpg average stated figure, NOT SO! 37mpg driven very carefully,last test was 34.9 again driven very carefully,my old 2.5 v6 multitronic achieved 42-45 on a motorway run at approx 80mph. I expected the quattro drag to pull the figures down a little but I now wish I had bough a 3.0tdi which I believe would achieve close to what i'm getting from this 4 cyl. Absolutley delighted with the rest of the car,but am contemplating action against audi,the higher figure of 57.6 I do not believe achievable at constant speed of 55mph one driver,low fuel load etc etc

 

[Steve Day]

You are not alone,I own a new A4 2.0tdi quattro avant black edition s tronic,chose to compromise with 4 cylinder engine hoping to get close to the 51.4 mpg average stated figure, NOT SO! 37mpg driven very carefully,last test was 34.9 again driven very carefully,my old 2.5 v6 multitronic achieved 42-45 on a motorway run at approx 80mph. I expected the quattro drag to pull the figures down a little but I now wish I had bough a 3.0tdi which I believe would achieve close to what i'm getting from this 4 cyl. Absolutley delighted with the rest of the car,but am contemplating action against audi,the higher figure of 57.6 I do not believe achievable at constant speed of 55mph one driver,low fuel load etc etc

 

[desertstorm]

The cars are very carefully set up for these tests. They aren't brand new they have to be run in for at least 3k kilometeres and probably do a lot more than that. They are fully serviced, they will be using the most fuel efficient tyres available and with the smallest size wheels. You won't find wide tyres and 19 ich rims on any of these cars.
It takes place in a laboratory with an ambient of 20-30 degrees so the car will quickly get upto temperature.

The fuel consumption testing scheme

Official fuel consumption figures | AA

The actual test regime when you look at it the extra urban has an average speed of 39mph . It has nothing to do with driving at a constant 56 mph. The extra urban test is conducted directly after the urban test so the car is fully warmed up already.
If you take a detailed look at the extra urban cycle

New European Driving Cycle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"At 201 s, the car cruises at 70 km/h for 50 s (manual: in the 5th gear), then slowly accelerates to 100 km/h in 35 s and cruises for 30 s (manual: in the 5th or 6th gear).

Finally, at 316 s the car slowly accelerates to 120 km/h in 20 s, cruises for 10 s, then slowly brakes to a full stop in 34 s (manual: in the 5th or 6th gear, lat 10 s with clutch disengaged), and idles for another 20 s (manual: in neutral)."

So the car accelerates from 70k to 100K thats 44mph to 62mph in 35 seconds thats pretty slow acceleration, then accelerates from 62mph to 75mph in 20 seconds again fairly leisurely, stops at the dizzy heights of 75mph for 10 seconds then takes 34 seconds to slow to a stop the last 10 of which you are allowed to coast. The test is only 400 seconds long and nearly 10% of it is slowing down .
And to top it all of lesser powered cars and I haven't been able to find out what that is don't need to goto 120K they just need to accelerate to 90K, 56mph.
You can see why it's almost impossible to get anywhere near these figures in the real world.

Karl.

 

[lynallbel]

Yes I see the point of your post regarding the tests, but 35 ish from a 2.0tdi is pretty crap by anyones standards.

 

[Mini-mad-matt]

I have the same engine. Always been disappointed by the MPG after my old 1.9 TDI 130[6] which was really good on juice.
We just took a trip to Ireland for Christmas. We had an initial drive of 220 miles up to Stranraer on the M6 and A75. The car averaged about 35mpg, but that was with a massive headwind and a big roofbox on.
I filled up in Ireland, reset the trip comp, did about 100 miles without the roof box on a motorway, then did a bit of around town driving, then put the roofbox back on as well as a bike on the roof, and drove 280 miles home. I averaged 41mpg on that journey.
I have had much better than this in the past, the best being about 46 on a run, but I don't seem to be able to get close to that anymore.
Once I get to around town driving, it drops to about 31/32. It is frankly pathetic for a 2.0 diesel. A mate has a 3 series 2.0 diesel, and he can't get worse than 48 no matter what he does!

Oh well, I'll just use our 1.4 3 cylinder tdi Polo for running about in! That knows how to behave at least!