MY13 changes

[Beltway]

Yes, hope so.. after a couple of hundred more k's, it's sitting steadyish at 7.6.

I have been using the Sports mode and want to try the launch mode soon, has the engine run in yet already ?

..manual says run in period is 1,500kms.

8.2 seems a bit high at Australian speeds, but apparently not that unusual for the TDI on the first few thousand km. Hopefully you'll see a continuous decline there!

[wind]

Re economy of TDI.

My first trip was Sydney to Melbourne (with approx 200 km on odo, literally brand new, was only a couple of days after I got it) - got about 7.0 l/100km with the 'green'/new engine.

Return to Sydney got 6.5 l/100km.

Going at the the legal limit (110 km/hr, full load of 5 people + luggage and other junk), with air-con running non-stop and doing the right foot varying of engine speed (to run it in) and a fairly regular (every 30 min or so) semi-hard (2/3 throttle) acceleration from 70-80 km/hr upwards . . .

Then did Sydney to Brisbane - got economy of 6.0 l/100km.

On way back from Brisbane, got 5.8 l/100km.


Next did a run to Adelaide and economy was floating around the 6.0 l/km mark . . . did try to stick to the limit/s

The bad side, on way back from Adelaide (just after leaving Wagga) collected a small 'roo with the left headlight (messy, confined to the light and bumper area; engine, suspension and rest of car was OK). Car is back with me (2 months later - bonnet availability and faulty bi-xenon issues from VW which took a while to sort out, my insurance was great!, rental car I had was cr-p in comparison to the Passat!, ended up with the repair place having car longer than I did since new - I admit that they did a great job fixing it back to like new).

Most recent drive (today, approx 340 km) - MFD showed economy of 5.8 l/100km - mainly freeway driving (110 km/hr zone, cruise control, moderate load, air-con, with full throttle accels every now and again), Newcastle and back. Along with about 220 km of city driving (which showed 7.6 l/100km average on the MFD) in the last 2 days (from full tank), the MFD now shows that I have about 530 km cruising range left from my tank.


Car has just over 9,000 km on it at present (3.5 months since I got it, just over 5 weeks of driving it and 8 weeks at the repairers!).


My observation: I get about 7-8 l/100 km driving in the city (stop-start traffic) and out of the city it ranges from <5.5 through 6.5+ l/100 km (easy 100-110 km/hr cruise control flat run through some 'fun' drives with extensive use of full throttle accelerations - pulls pretty well!).

If I cruise at 100km/hr or lower on the flat, I can easily get below 5.0 l/100km. If I cruise at a steady 60 km/hr on the flat, the instant consumption is hovering around 3.0-3.5 l/100km (think I would go insane if I was to drive at that speed interstate with everyone doing twice that).


Bottom line: You will see an improvement in economy over time.

If you are doing only city driving then you should not be worried about what you are seeing now (8+ l/100km). If you want to see good economy take it for a run on the freeway and see what it gives you economy wise.

[Marakai]

Great write-up, Wind.

Matches the threads on the German Motor Talk site. That said, an ongoing topic there is: the MFD lies!

Some of the more anal retentive have measured consumption based on keeping manual records in km driven vs fuel put into tank and have arrived at the MFD understating by about 0.5-1.0 l/100km.

Would be interesting to do the same thing here.

[booba]

No i wish that the v6 could get close to that.. my wallet is not looking forward to next month.

[Riker]

As good as the 125TDi is with economy the V6 is the beast to have. V6 owners are not really that concerned with economy as such. Sure, we do obviously want as good economy as possible from the V6 but we clearly did not buy these cars with any allusions that we would get great economy figures. I am averaging between 12-14ltr per 100k's which isn't great but it is what it is & it doesn't bother me much at all.

booba, you will love the V6 power & the soundtrack mate, guaranteed....

No i wish that the v6 could get close to that.. my wallet is not looking forward to next month.

[booba]

That is what i told myself

As good as the 125TDi is with economy the V6 is the beast to have. V6 owners are not really that concerned with economy as such. Sure, we do obviously want as good economy as possible from the V6 but we clearly did not buy these cars with any allusions that we would get great economy figures. I am averaging between 12-14ltr per 100k's which isn't great but it is what it is & it doesn't bother me much at all.

booba, you will love the V6 power & the soundtrack mate, guaranteed....

[wind]

Its a work car . . . could get options on it but had to be 'sensible' in engine/model choice (though it is good enough for the odd burst every now and again - but I do miss 4WD traction and control as well as the kick from pushing it hard . . .).

If it were my own car - would have gone the V6 route with no hesitation! Totally agree with the sentiments re V6 performance.


Re MFD lies. The economy figures I used were based on tank fill volumes and km traveled . . . which in my case were fairly close (or close enough for me not to stress too much about) to what was on the MFD.