Ridiculous to Sublime?

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Mactech

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My ‘company car’ is in the workshop for some major updates so I’m in a hire car for a week or so. After months of being pointed at, chased and photographed a little anonymity beckoned.;) So I asked for a Golf.
Sixt have given me a Bluemotion model which did my West London to Norfolk run at a staggering 72.4 mpg. That’s 3 times as good as what I’m now used to!
Granted, it does take about 3 times as long to get to 60mph, but the journey was covered in exactly the same time and in a reasonable degree of comfort.
My ‘old’ CLS was twice as economical as ‘the beast’ but 3 times….makes you think doesn’t it!:eek:
 
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That is impressive Mactech. Out of curiosity, did you achieve this by using a "normal" driving style or were you using more hypermiling techniques?
 
That is impressive Mactech. Out of curiosity, did you achieve this by using a "normal" driving style or were you using more hypermiling techniques?

Not really! But I do understand the theory of consevation of momentum and drive with that in mind.... and observe the speed limits.
I've just read the official figures for the car and I normally beat that in most cars by some margin. The Bluemotion is supposed to average 74mpg....but then the extra urban part only has an average speed of 39mph. My average speed was 57mph.
 
Agree - out of many cars I've driven in recent years the new Golf Diesel just astounded me - no change in driving style and was achieving 70+ mpg - the thing that did if for me was when you fill up the tank and see the fuel range, 730 odd miles to the tank if I remember - oh if only the 55 managed double digit sometimes I'd be happy :O)
 
That's really good. I only wished such cars were a bit cheaper on the second-hand market.
 
Correct me if I'm wrong here but most fascinating thing about the Golf Bluemotion and similar vehicles is that it achieves these figures using conventional technology. No talk of hybrid drives or fuel cells, alternative fuels or clever transmissions or TECHNOLOGY BREAKTHROUGHS. Just a series of clever "tweaks" to available technology. Each on their own perhaps doesn't amount to much but combine better direct injectors, variable vane turbos, better aerodynamics/underbody cladding , low rolling resistance tyres, stop start and regenerative alternator charging etc etc and it all begins to mount up. Apart from a possible question mark against the long term reliability of these developments It poses the question why they didn't do this years ago??;)
 
grober said:
Correct me if I'm wrong here but most fascinating thing about the Golf Bluemotion and similar vehicles is that it achieves these figures using conventional technology. No talk of hybrid drives or fuel cells, alternative fuels or clever transmissions or TECHNOLOGY BREAKTHROUGHS. Just a series of clever "tweaks" to available technology. Each on their own perhaps doesn't amount to much but combine better direct injectors, variable vane turbos, better aerodynamics/underbody cladding , low rolling resistance tyres, stop start and regenerative alternator charging etc etc and it all begins to mount up. Apart from a possible question mark against the long term reliability of these developments It poses the question why they didn't do this years ago??;)

Agreed. Guess it was not done before as there wasn't this focus on CO2 and MPG before.
 
I have the 2 litre Golf bluemotion and the long term average is 57mpg (about 8K on the clock from new). Thats around town, commute, everywhere. On a run if not in a hurry (i.e cruise on following the lorries in the inside motorway lane) i average 76mpg. It very impressive.
 
Agreed. Guess it was not done before as there wasn't this focus on CO2 and MPG before.


Say thanks to the EU legislators then. C'mon, can't hear you.....
 
Correct me if I'm wrong here but most fascinating thing about the Golf Bluemotion and similar vehicles is that it achieves these figures using conventional technology. No talk of hybrid drives or fuel cells, alternative fuels or clever transmissions or TECHNOLOGY BREAKTHROUGHS. Just a series of clever "tweaks" to available technology. Each on their own perhaps doesn't amount to much but combine better direct injectors, variable vane turbos, better aerodynamics/underbody cladding , low rolling resistance tyres, stop start and regenerative alternator charging etc etc and it all begins to mount up. Apart from a possible question mark against the long term reliability of these developments It poses the question why they didn't do this years ago??;)

Yes it is 'just' conventional technology optimised....but very well!:)
I doubt there will be major durability issues knowing how thorough VW testing is.
I'll have to try and break the 80mpg barrier when I have time for a more leisurley journey!
 
It poses the question why they didn't do this years ago??;)

Of sorts, VAG did do it before with their 3 cylinder 1.4TDI engine they put in some of their cars. Some even achieved near to 3 litres per 100km, or ~95mpg in our money. But that engine only gave 90PS in it's highest state of tune, which up until recently was seen as not enough power for today's small family car. But I think as the price of fuel has risen people's expectations have been rebalanced and now 90PS is just about enough. But now the new generation 1.6TDI seems to offer all the economy of the previous 1.4TDI with a bit more power. Win-win situation some might say.
 
Say thanks to the EU legislators then. C'mon, can't hear you.....

To be honest with you, I'd rather fuel and roads were not taxed in such a contemptuous manner and cars were a little less economically and a little less clean.
 
To be honest with you, I'd rather fuel and roads were not taxed in such a contemptuous manner and cars were a little less economically and a little less clean.

Others see it differently...
thrumbleux

priceofpetrol.jpg
priceofpetrol.jpg
 
Left early this morning and the roads were clearer than I anticipated allowing me to drive without traffic. The result is shown below.
I did follow a some trucks on the A14 and the instanious mpg was well into triple figures!
It leads me to believe that the car is well mechanically optimised but there is much more to come in steady state running if we could half the aero drag :thumb:
 
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That's pretty impressive for a 1.6l medium sized car.
 
I never achieved over 80mpg even in my A2. Seems I have more to learn.
 

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