Hi there.
I'm from Pretoria, South Africa and I drive a hand-me-down '87 Jetta 1.6 Carburettor and no AC. It's just only gone over 120 000km on the clock [we think the clock stopped working for a while when Gran had it for ± 15 000km]. Apart from all the VW rattles, it still drives well and I love the space.
The car is listed as having a 55l tank, but I've topped her up to the gills a couple of times and the pump then stops between 58 and 59.5l. Mostly I just fill up with R200 at a time, which amounts to about 24.8 litres at present. I hardly fill the car up to the full and only do so when I visit my parents 600km away 2-3x/year.
When I got the car.
How the car looks now.
I do mixed driving mostly, but I'd say a little more highway in engine running time than town-driving.
I used to drive like the wind and the worst mileage I remember getting was 460km on a tank, but I had a bicycle on the back too.
My previous record was 701km on a tank with about 3/4 of that on the highway. After that though and with the fatter 15" Michelin 195 / 50's I actually managed
860km. Worked out at 60l (Worst case scenario) that puts me at
6.98l / 100km or
14.33 km/l *. One thing to note though is that this is on the up-run back to where I stay with 95 Octane LRP fuel. On the down-run I have to use 93, because that's the only LRP option for me here on the reef ± 1400m above sea level.
*33.71 mpg US / 40.48 mpg UK
It's hard to get the car to use less than 10l / 100km in city traffic especially when the weather heats up as the torque seems to fall through the floor and the car needs a lot more right-foot coaxing to get going.
Recently I have started noting down how many kilometres I've travelled between R200 fill-ups and the litres I get for it. I hope to get a better idea of real fuel consumption this way.
I plan to do an aero mod or two when the time permits. I don't think I'll try to go Fuel Injection soon, but in time hopefully I can do an MP9 conversion. When fuel prices where high the conversion could've paid for itself in 18 months, but fuel prices have dropped and I also now live much closer to work, which have put this mod on an indefinite hold.
I also had small leaks in the exhaust fixed lately and the car pulls a lot better than previously.
Furthermore, I studied Product Design [aka Industrial- or 3D Design] and I am currently working for a company that produces training simulators for the mining industry.
Schalk van der Merwe