Even with my 18" rims and heavy a$$ system (plus I weigh 205) I still consistently average anywhere from 34-36 mpg with mixed city/hwy...I have an automatic BTW...I can easily squeeze 360-370+ miles out of a tank if I drive with a light foot...

24.38 mpg with this last fill up.

I'm sitting right at 46 MPG for this tank. I'm just over 200 miles into the tank at this point. I'm hoping to get through the tank without having to tow my trailer. If I can, this will probably be my best tank yet. I'm guessing 46 on the display will be a little over 42 Or 43 MPG in real life. I'll post results in a couple of days.

I have to deliver a keg fridge to a customer some time in the next week. It's going to wreck my mileage since I have to tow the trailer about 70 miles.

I manage about 25.5 in mixed driving. My old first gen box did better and I drove it harder.

Even on the highway I have never done better than 30 ish. Although my mpg readout begs to differ. I would think that with an entirely stock drive train, wheels and tires that the computer would not be 4 or more mpg off the calculated mpg via the odometer and gallons.

Tex, you do a lot of city driving, or a lot of traffic? I'd have to look back at my records, but my lowest was still 30.something, and that was towing a 1,600 pound trailer! I do keep the top speed down these days... I don't drive like I did 15 years ago. To get over 40, I have to keep it to 55 MPH or lower, upshift early, accelerate slowly, and avoid driving in town.

My display was at 46.0 when I left the house this morning, and it is at 45.1 now. Most of that is due to the rain. I don't know why, but I always get lower FE when it is raining.

BTW, my display has always been 1.5 to 3.5 MPG high... 2 MPG high most of the time. No rhyme or reason to it, either... Not like it is off by a certain percentage. This is the first car I have owned with a built-in MPG display... But I know a lot of people who have them, and almost every one of them reads a few MPGs high.

Oh, and I'm a big Douglas Adams fan, too!

Yeah, lots of city, lots of traffic. I live in the DFW metroplex. I can be driving anywhere from 5 to 60 mph on the same street, city or highway, within just a few blocks. My xD seems to run about 500 to 6oo rpm lower than my xB did at the same road speed. I drive the same routes at the same times as I did before and used to routinely get 28.5-29.5 in the B. Manual trans in both cars.

Such is life.

BTW: Is the throttle response of your car a little "soft"? Like there is a subtle lag between the pedal and the engine? I have driven several cars with electronic throttle bodies and don't remember noticing it before. They were either automatics or high horsepower rides though, so that might have masked it. I have not driven any other xD's to have as a reference to use for my car.


Keep your towel close by at all times. :)

I ended up with 42.2 MPG on this last tank... The display said 44.8.

Imam probably not right person to ask about throttle response. This is the first car I have owned with a throttle, electronic or mechanical. All of my other cars up to this point have been diesels, and they have had either mechanical or electronic "throttle", but of course diesels don't really have a throttle.

I can't imagine ever managing 40+ mpg in my car.

And diesels do have throttles. They just regulate the fuel flow instead of the air flow. Even a stationary engine that operates at a fixed speed has a throttle, that is how it is set to the desired rpm.

I mean "throttle" as in the dictionary definition -- to restrict airflow; choke. Most diesels do not have anything that restricts airflow. No throttle body. Air passes freely into the combustion chamber (most often under pressure, since most modern diesels are turbocharged), and (as you said) fuel is adjusted to meet demand. Diesels do not have a tight stoichiometric ratio like gasoline engines.

It is common to refer to the pedal and fueling system of a diesel as the "throttle". Similarly, many people refer to the variable geometry system of a VNT-style turbocharger as the "waste gate". In fact, those turbos don't have waste gates.

Over on the diesel forums, you would get heckled for saying a diesel has a throttle... Just like mentioning your "gas mileage" or your "gas pedal".

---------- Post added at 12:33 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:31 AM ----------

Oh, and I won't be getting stellar mileage on this new tank. I just hitched up my trailer. I have to tow it to work so that I can deliver a keg fridge to a customer tomorrow.

Actually I do mean the dictionary definition as well.

A throttle is the mechanism by which the flow of a fluid is managed by constriction or obstruction. An engine's power can be increased or decreased by the restriction of inlet gases (i.e., by the use of a throttle), but usually decreased. The term throttle has come to refer, informally and incorrectly, to any mechanism by which the power or speed of an engine is regulated.

Since both air and fuel are fluids and you regulate the fluid (diesel fuel) intake of a diesel compression ignition engine to regulate its speed, you are indeed "throttling" it.

Just pickin' nits. :)

I certainly agree with that part.
Yeah, I agree with that, too! :signs8:

---------- Post added at 08:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:33 PM ----------

By the way, I towed my trailer about 75 miles, so my displayed MPG is down to 40.3 MPG right now. I have to tow some stuff to the dump tomorrow, that's only 10 miles round trip. I'm trying to keep it over 40 if possible.

I just got 39.7 (on the display) on the way back to school across ohio. 60-65mph average.

It's weird that we can get between 22 to 42 mpg depending on how you drive... most of my family's cars would have a tighter range, the buick got 27-32. the van got 20 no matter how hard or gently you drove. But a ~20mpg difference between gunning and babying is a little absurd to me.

willy, it is my experience that the more efficient a car is, the wider the possible range will be.

You should see the numbers over at TDI Club -- there are people getting 25 MPG and 60 MPG with the same year and model TDI.

I used to drive a 1983 Mercedes 300D (turbodiesel). It got 26 MPG no matter how it was driven. If the fuel economy was 25 or lower, I knew it was time to replace the air filter.

I guess I need to buy some lighter shoes or I'm destined for sub 30mpg. :)

Jesse, those 300d's were the Timex of cars, "Took a licking and kept on ticking". They were just about impossible to kill unless you hit them with a semi. And even then they would probably drive off anyway.

If you remembered to change the oil regularly, changed the fuel and air filters every so often and threw a can of Lubri-Moly in the tank occasionally they would easily hit 500k.

I've been pussy footin the car lately. 30mpg city

You're not kidding. My '83 had 410,000 miles on it when I sold it... and it is still a daily driver. I see the car around... and it has over 600,000 miles on it now. My brother bought a 1981 240D when he was 17 and sold it when he was 28. Not only did it have over 600,000 miles on it... it was still on the original clutch! I don't know if that one is still on the road, but it was still going strong when he sold it.

i got up to 33.9(display) and we had a really humid day. had to use AC and dropped that sucker to 33.0(display). Now it's 40-60 degrees here. stuck at 33.3

So that's what it is..... I have to run my A/C in the damn 105+ degree, 90+% humidity Texas summer. When Fall falls I'm destined to get epic MPG.... :)



Not.

what that means is i used the AC on said humid day....

city driving i got 30 to 31 mpg...