Real-world fuel consumption

[Shnak]

2008 VW Rabbit 5-Door 6AT

Rush hour: 9.8L/100km (35km - 95% highway)

City: ~14L/100km
Highway: 9L/100km (110-140)


*still in the break-in period*

What's supposed to get:
10.6l/100km  City     
7.0l/100km  Highway


Now that I'm used to my Rab's terrific fuel consumption, when I hear ppl talking about 5l, 6l/100km highway, I'm like WOW, how's that possible 

Hey vdk, how's the fuel consumption of your Rabbit now that you've had it for over a year?

[airbalancer]

My wife back after 6 weeks done east 5400 km, from OBC 5L/100 km, she was under 5 until the trip back and ran into strong headwinds driving though NB
Also got struck in traffic in Montreal over an hour and half to get though Montreal, ran the battery down in the traffic

[aquadorhj]

My Honda Fit used to be 7.?L/100 in the city mixed with about 30KM highway.   on Longer trips (to banff and etc) it would get high 5.?L or low 6.?L/100km.

Now, my new old 03 Jetta...   my my....   having to put in premium and getting high 9.?L/100km hurts a bit.

....  to be frank, i don't really care about it too much.   i get almost twice the power starting from 2000 RPM, and for that about 30% increase in fuel consumption?  fair trade.   I get to row my own gears, to boot!

and realistically, it doen't "FEEL" that it uses way more gas than Fit, because Fit had such horrendously small gas tank.  i would fill up every other week anyway.

I wish it was more powerful, though....       maybe a 335 in few years...   

[Honda Owner]

Honda Fit, 100% city, more responsible use of VTEC feature, 7.7 l / 100 km in 89 octane.

[huota]

I get two weeks per tank.



More seriously, after 20,000 km the fuel consumption of the Cooper has dropped by about 0.4 l/100km. That's roughly a 5% per cent drop, which saves me just ovr50 litres a year.

[vdk]

Hey vdk, how's the fuel consumption of your Rabbit now that you've had it for over a year?

About 500km a tank, so ~10-11L/100km depending on how much I drive in the city and how fast on the highway. Cruising speed around here is about 130.

[dr_spock]

8.5 L/100km now that the weather is colder.   I'm going to drive slower (under 120km/h) for a week and see if that changes things. 

[Shnak]

Anyone else with a Sonata 4-cylinder? I'd like to compare fuel econonmy with someone else. My last tank, I got 12.2L/100km, and that's 100% city commuting. To get an idea of a typical commute, I counted the number of full stops I did yesterday; 34 stops over 13km that took me 33 minutes. That's an average speed of 23.6km/h, and pretty much stopping three times every km. No matter how easy I take it on take-offs, I'm rarely below 12L/100km for my trip. I haven't seen any improvement since buying the car and now have over 8000km on it. I really would like my average to drop below 11L/100km...

On highway, it's a different story, I consistently got low 7's while cruising at mostly 120km/h this summer, and that was with my wife and trunk full of cargo.

Interestingly, I was also able to maintain a mid-7's fuel consumption average while driving around town where my parents live (near Bathurst). Of course, it helps that there's only one set of lights in the 15-20km I'd usually travel, allowing me to pretty much drive between 60km/h and 80km/h without ever stopping.

I've done the calculations for the Sportage recently, and on a tank of almost all city driving, I got 13.9L/100km. That's for a small V6 with AWD that weighs quite a bit more, with a 4-speed automatic transmission. That's why the 12.2L/100km I recently got with the Sonata doesn't look quite right. I know it should get MUCH better than that, but it's just not happening no matter how easy I go with the trottle. I would've thought the brake-in period would be mostly over by now...

[Leviathan]

My last tank, I got 12.2L/100km, and that's 100% city commuting. To get an idea of a typical commute, I counted the number of full stops I did yesterday; 34 stops over 13km that took me 33 minutes.

I got 11-12L/100km 100% city to/from the old office with a drive about the same as you're doing. I don't think you should be getting *much* better.

[wing]

You are a perfect candidate for a Hybrid Shnak, you would return probably 6 or less on that commute in a Hybrid!  Actually scratch that, if you got the Prius plug-in you could go to work and back home without using any fuel. 

[tortoise]

Hybrid?  A 13 km commute is perfect for a bike.

That said, given the driving conditions that's more or less what I'd expect from a large car with a 2.4L 4cyl.  There's a fair bit of weight to get moving after each red light.

[Shnak]

You are a perfect candidate for a Hybrid Shnak, you would return probably 6 or less on that commute in a Hybrid!  Actually scratch that, if you got the Prius plug-in you could go to work and back home without using any fuel. 

Tell me about it. I've been saying for years that I would love to buy an affordable plug-in hybrid as a 2nd vehicle (to commute). Maybe the Leaf will be that, not sure.

Also, I forgot to mention earlier, I'd routinely see tank averages of over 10L/100km with my 2001 Accent for the same commute... I kind of attributed that to an old vehicle that probably wasn't taken care of that well... maybe that's just the nature of the type of commute that I do... I suppose even something as efficient as a Civic would get in the 9's for my commute. Oh well.

[carcrazy]

Few days shy of the final day of testing, I averaged 11.5L/100km for 2 full years of testing on my Outlander (V6 4WD). The previous 1 1/2 year was around 11.2 L/100 km IIRC.

This is almost identical to the (new) combined EPA rating for this vehicle.

[Shnak]

Few days shy of the final day of testing, I averaged 11.5L/100km for 2 full years of testing on my Outlander (V6 4WD). The previous 1 1/2 year was around 11.2 L/100 km IIRC.

This is almost identical to the (new) combined EPA rating for this vehicle.

What kind of driving do you typically do with the Outlander?

[wing]

Leaf is an electric vehicle, I'm thinking prius plug in type as it is flexible

[swishguy]

Just traded 06 hyundai sonata 4 cyl on a 4 cyl kia magentis. They are identical in fuel mileage even tho the magentis has 1 more gear in the tranny.
26 mpg in town & 34ish mpg hiway at 110 kmh.

[Shnak]

Just traded 06 hyundai sonata 4 cyl on a 4 cyl kia magentis. They are identical in fuel mileage even tho the magentis has 1 more gear in the tranny.
26 mpg in town & 34ish mpg hiway at 110 kmh.

That's 10.9L/100km for your city driving. What kind of driving is that exactly? Lots of stop/go or is it mostly coasting at ~50kph with the occasional stop sign or red light?

[swishguy]

A lot of stop & go. I live in a town of 50k people.

[carcrazy]

Few days shy of the final day of testing, I averaged 11.5L/100km for 2 full years of testing on my Outlander (V6 4WD). The previous 1 1/2 year was around 11.2 L/100 km IIRC.

This is almost identical to the (new) combined EPA rating for this vehicle.

What kind of driving do you typically do with the Outlander?

I'd say driving in rather non-fuel efficient way and conditions.

In first of the two years, during the winter time warmed up 5+ minutes (I don't do that anymore). Wife was driving the car in the winter for less than 1km often. Most of the time was 7 km in the morning rush to/from the Go station.
I was driving 23km one-way to the office, with about 19 km on 400/401 at rush hours. I run errands within 10 km on the weekends and occasional weekend highway trips (vast majority under 200km). I don't use cruise on the highway and drive with the fastest traffic at variable speed.
Over the past year or so, my commute changed to about 96 km round-trip, 50% highway, 50% city (uptown), but I don't drive much the Outlander anymore (1-2 days a week). The wife drives it on my old route now, plus another 10 km sub-urban, but busy road in the morning. She gets better fuel economy than me on the Outlander by more than 1 L/100km, driving on the same roads at similar times of the day.
When I drive the Outlander now, the 407 portion of it is at 130-140 km/hr with the traffic flow. The city portion is a mixed bag and usually a fight to go around slow drivers driving on the left lane. Not good for fuel economy, but I don't have time to wait behind people who should not be driving in the first place.

However, not too long ago, I did try to drive conservative for few days in a row (to check for consistency) and I used the cruise on the highway (set to 120km/hr) and went with the flow in the city (around 60-70km/h) and I averaged around 8.5L/100km to the office (about 43 km one way). The 407 portion was 7.9-8.0L/100km.
Usually I see mid-high 10s L/100 km for the same drive in warm temperature (20 Celsius +/-5). In the winter time it goes up by 1-2 L/100km depending on the temp, wind, driving conditions.

Sorry for the long post.

[Shnak]

Thanks for the explanation. Sounds like you do quite a bit more highway driving in your commute than I do in mine... but nevertheless, an average of 11.5L/100km is pretty good for a V6 AWD CUV. On split highway/city tanks, I probably get around 12L/100km with the Sportage.