S3 Realistic MPG
- Thread starter alpesh26
- Start date
- Joined
- Sep 21, 2016
- Messages
- 2,787
- Reaction score
- 4,636
- Points
- 113
Total respect, I had my Sepang S3 sB at 225km/h (140mph) a couple of years back on a empty French motorway out of Rouen and it was still pulling like crazy, and also agree with your comments about its ability to pick up very quickly by dropping it from 6 to 5 (in a manual) when cruising at 100mph.For the record...
I am working in Hamburg 3 days a week at the moment and thinking of driving over in the current saloon at least once to take a detour or two on to suitable Autobahns
BBC Radio 1, sure you weren't on a UK motorway?
Haha my mate (who took the pics) said someone would say that
As you can see there's no reception - the radio was simply left on Radio 1 rather than re-tuned to a German station.Incidentally, I was actually listening to BBC radio whilst I was out there via CarPlay. The BBC iPlayer Radio app supports CarPlay and also works abroad so, now we have free roaming and can use our data on the continent, it's easy to do and works very well.
Yeah max speed is reached in 6th, 7th is an overdrive.
Do it! As I said it's not just about top speed runs, but about being able to properly exploit and explore the car's high-speed performance without worrying about speed limits.
And to the OP, in the 1356 days I owned my S3 it averaged 29.85mpg, measured on a "brim-to-brim" basis.
Nerd or what!
Nerd or what!
Having now done 2000 miles in this car, I have to say that the fuel efficiency is absolutely appalling. The best you can hope for in traffic is about 15mpg, and if you even entertain the idea of driving progressively, that'll be shaved down to 12mpg. If it's a lot of standstill traffic, you'll see 6mpg.
I get 35-40MPG on motorways, which is, again, not particularly amazing, but acceptable.
As much as I love this car, I'm finding that watching an entire chunk of petrol gauge disappear because I dared to do a 2 mile school run an extremely irritating factor in my ownership of the vehicle.
Strangely, keeping the car in manual in dynamic mode gives you an extra 1-3mpg on any comparitive journey made with either comfort or auto.
I'm very conscious of burning money for nothing, and being in London, in a lot of traffic, I can't see myself having much enjoyment out of this car. Next one is a Tesla, I'm done with combustion.
I get 35-40MPG on motorways, which is, again, not particularly amazing, but acceptable.
As much as I love this car, I'm finding that watching an entire chunk of petrol gauge disappear because I dared to do a 2 mile school run an extremely irritating factor in my ownership of the vehicle.
Strangely, keeping the car in manual in dynamic mode gives you an extra 1-3mpg on any comparitive journey made with either comfort or auto.
I'm very conscious of burning money for nothing, and being in London, in a lot of traffic, I can't see myself having much enjoyment out of this car. Next one is a Tesla, I'm done with combustion.
35 - 40 is pretty impressive for a 300+ bhp car with Haldex. It isn’t great in traffic but it’s a hefty piece of metal to get moving.
London problems....
Don't think I've had a commute to work (8 miles) which has been under 20mpg. Usually 25~. But if you are doing 2 mile trips in traffic, I'm not really surprised. 2 miles down the road the engine isn't warm and my mpg will be maybe 15 so yeah. What's the starting price of a Tesla? Sounds like you could buy a whole lot of fuel for the cost of one of them!
If I got 40 mpg though on a motorway I would be very chuffed, my A3 2.0 diesel was only 10-20% better.
Don't think I've had a commute to work (8 miles) which has been under 20mpg. Usually 25~. But if you are doing 2 mile trips in traffic, I'm not really surprised. 2 miles down the road the engine isn't warm and my mpg will be maybe 15 so yeah. What's the starting price of a Tesla? Sounds like you could buy a whole lot of fuel for the cost of one of them!
If I got 40 mpg though on a motorway I would be very chuffed, my A3 2.0 diesel was only 10-20% better.
One of the things people always do when they perceive you knocking an S3 is to say, "Oh, well that's happening because XXX, when I do *completely different thing*, it's great!".
Yeah, when I do an 8 mile journey, I get better economy, too. I'm not oblivious to the reasons why the economy is so poor, I'm just a bit disappointed how poor. I thought I would be able to keep it at around 17mpg in traffic, which is nigh on impossible. It's more like 13. That's 25% less than I expected. It's a pretty big hit to bare coming the car I previously drove, which was bigger, roughly as fast, much heavier, also AWD, but managed 26mpg in traffic.
Also, I don't think it's a "london" problem, I think it's a "anywhere there's heavy traffic" problem.
That’s 26mpg in a diesel though. The Mpg will improve as you put the miles on and also now that it’s getting warmer. You only really get the higher figures when it’s tickling along in 7th.
Well most places have "heavy traffic", London is something else. I found it ammusing when I was working in Sydney last year and all the taxi/uber drivers were complaining about the traffic, was nothing compared to London!
But yes I get your point and it is pretty shocking.
But yes I get your point and it is pretty shocking.
The fuel consumption on the S3 is quite high but then did anyone really expect anything else? Please don't tell me anyone actually believes the fiction of the official figures?
I've done 5k miles in mine so far and my average consumption is 26.5mpg thus far. That's with about 90% urban driving plus a 1k mile round trip to Germany the other week.
That might seem poor but my last car was the (supposedly really efficient) 1.4COD and that averaged 34mpg over three years of the same type of driving, so about 28% higher consumption, which isn't bad for twice the power.
I've done 5k miles in mine so far and my average consumption is 26.5mpg thus far. That's with about 90% urban driving plus a 1k mile round trip to Germany the other week.
That might seem poor but my last car was the (supposedly really efficient) 1.4COD and that averaged 34mpg over three years of the same type of driving, so about 28% higher consumption, which isn't bad for twice the power.
I probably watch my mpg on here more than many others, but heck even I don't know what the official numbers are, what a load of crap....
I thought the FL car was more economical no its not its probably worse than the older S3, stop start traffic is ****** awful,gas guzzler then l swear in a 2 miles journey l am doing in the morning no traffic and not going over 30 mph= 16 mpg cars at 3900 miles some will say what do you expect from a 300 bhp but l ain't ****** using 300 bhp at 30 mph lol, it's a inherently thirsty engine and hopefully the all new S3 will have a all new more economical engine it can't be that difficult eh ??
Yep, I'm not spooling up the turbo when I'm skipping along the road at 20mpg, but the fuel gauge is dropping like I've got a hole in the tank.
I owned a 350z, which was also 300bhp, except it was a V6, with no efficiency tech of any kind, and was an absolute beast of an engine, and I managed 20mpg in exactly the same environment the S3 gets 15 in.
Most S3 owners forget that this is a ****** family hatchback. It's not a raced-out saloon or 911 (which, incidentally, gets better MPG)
Yeah I'm only 2.5 miles from work and the thing's barely warmed up by the time I get there - averaging about 18mpg depending how bad the traffic is.
Doubt there's any research into making petrol engines more efficient these days, all the money will be going into hybrid/EV development.
I'm interested to know what you drove before? Out of all the cars I've owned, I find the S3 to be by far the best mix of fuel economy and speed. For example, my old A4 3.2 wasn't nearly as fast and was much worse in fuel economy!
Hi mate. I drove a 435D Xdrive before. I know you're going to point out it's a diesel, and that's fair, except I think any extra fuel efficiency from it being a diesel is offset by the fact that it's much larger, heavier, and has two extra cylinders and twice as many turbos. Yet, it's still 40% more efficient on relative journeys.
I feel like Jassy is a real voice of reason on this forum. He loves his car but doesn't deny any of its faults. I love this car, too, but holy hell is it inefficient.
I feel like Jassy is a real voice of reason on this forum. He loves his car but doesn't deny any of its faults. I love this car, too, but holy hell is it inefficient.
Good to know about the 435 but I would never go back to diesel. I know the car has faults too. My interior creaks like a b**** for example and don't get me started on the suspension....
I get 30mpg average with my PFL S3 Saloon.
I can get 35 mpg if I take it very easy and got 40mpg on one journey driving like a granny.
The mpg obviously crumbles when the car gets spanked
I can get 35 mpg if I take it very easy and got 40mpg on one journey driving like a granny.
The mpg obviously crumbles when the car gets spanked
The car itself was totally stable even at 160mph. Just felt planted.
We did two top speed runs, both topped out at 267km/h indicated (had the VC in km/h mode) and 160mph actual GPS speed on a phone app so about a 4% overread by the speedo. Limiter is obviously a little lax and nice it hit 160 rather than high 150s
We have pics for proof
Good read, I believe however the limiter isn't lax, it is active in 7th, if you drop it to 6th you can cheat it, obviously until you have to change up to 7th and it slows back down
That's nothing to do with the limiter - max speed is reached in 6th, as 7th is an overdrive gear intended for efficient cruising. That's why it slows if you force it into 7th. If you keep your foot planted, it never changes up to 7th.
Completely appreciate that and agree mate.
I was told the limiter is programmed for 7th gear by a guy at APR, Audi Tech and have read it multiple times on this forum.
So you are right, but the fact is 'allegedly' the limiter is not active in 6th so you can go above the quoted 155mph
I was told the limiter is programmed for 7th gear by a guy at APR, Audi Tech and have read it multiple times on this forum.
So you are right, but the fact is 'allegedly' the limiter is not active in 6th so you can go above the quoted 155mph
Last edited:
I’ve now done 4K miles in mine now and averaged bang on 30mpg. At best cruising on the motorway I have hit 42mpg (over 120m round trip). My Mrs uses the car for work a couple of days a week which is a 9mile round trip so the car barley warms up and struggles to achieve 20mpg. My work is a 50mile round trip and I always get 35-38mpg and that’s just mixed driving with he odd heavy right foot now and again. I find until the car warms up properly the MPG is really poor (obvious thing to say and likely very true for most cars). However that said I’m pretty happy with 30mpg over the 4K miles and I’ve had some proper blasts about!! Over the same driving profile, my mk7 Golf GTI averaged about 35mpg from memory. Don’t shoot me down but the S3 is fairly expense perfomance car, so if it costs a few more quid a month to fuel the thing then so be it....
- Joined
- May 5, 2016
- Messages
- 141
- Reaction score
- 233
- Points
- 43
My car isn't an S3, its the 2.0 TFSI 190 but just for a comparison -
I don't normally use the efficiency mode but used it today for the motorway trip from Birmingham to Manchester driving at 70mph and 50mph through the roadworks using cruise control. It was a 74 mile trip, fuel consumption was 59.7mpg according to the trip computer. The return trip was much slower with very heavy stop start traffic but still returned just over 54mpg.
For a reasonably swift car (albeit not in the same league as the S3) I think that's pretty good.
Was a very boring drive though and the "free wheeling" is a bit disconcerting.
I don't normally use the efficiency mode but used it today for the motorway trip from Birmingham to Manchester driving at 70mph and 50mph through the roadworks using cruise control. It was a 74 mile trip, fuel consumption was 59.7mpg according to the trip computer. The return trip was much slower with very heavy stop start traffic but still returned just over 54mpg.
For a reasonably swift car (albeit not in the same league as the S3) I think that's pretty good.
Was a very boring drive though and the "free wheeling" is a bit disconcerting.
Wow that’s pretty impressive! I would be very happy with that. My Mrs has a newish Mini Cooper S which is a 2l turbo, similar power but lighter than your Golf and that averages 38mpg with the best I’ve had being 44mpg on a run. Over 55mpg for your A3 sounds amazing!
The ****. 59.7, your computer broken ?
The best trip I ever got in my A3 150ps diesel was 60 mpg. And that was a one off lol.
?The best trip I ever got in my A3 150ps diesel was 60 mpg. And that was a one off lol.
- Joined
- May 5, 2016
- Messages
- 141
- Reaction score
- 233
- Points
- 43
I’ve checked it manually filling the tank brim to brim and the trip computer is fairly accurate so these numbers are correct.The ****. 59.7, your computer broken
The best trip I ever got in my A3 150ps diesel was 60 mpg. And that was a one off lol.
In auto drive select it does around 52mpg at motorway legal limit so the efficiency mode does make quite a difference.
It accelerates like a bus though in efficiency mode.
In efficiency though when maintaining motorway speeds it shouldn't make any difference right? unless you are constantly taking foot off pedal to coast, though then you would have to speed up to accelerate so probably makes mpg worse.
If you're maintaining highest gear and not coasting then not sure what difference the drive select modes would do.
Impressive figures anyway!
(I drive efficiency 75%+ of time)
