Replacement for
Hermann has arrived.
Henning.
It is a Passat, 1.6 TDI Bluemotion - the FE biased version. We still need something bigg-ish and dog friendly (low loading sill) so this seems to fit quite well.
Official stats are urban 53.3 mpg, extra urban mpg 70.6 mpg and overall 64.2 mpg. It also only cost £30 a year to tax vs. £475 for Hermann so I'm about 5 tanks of Diesel ahead already. Insurance (also annual) is £18 less.
Not planning much, if any, moddage to it except for higher tyre pressures and to see what techniques work best. In terms of FE mods the grill isn't blocked much (unlike the Polo Bluemotion) but it has (supposedly, will need to check what is on it) LRR tyres and slightly lowered suspension. Main feature is stop-start which works really well combined with hill-hold. It is also a manual 6 Speed.
It will be interesting to compare with Mrs A's Skoda Octavia estate which has the same engine but the 7 speed DSG.
So far using the built in display it has managed 48 and 55 MPG in fairly heavy traffic on two short trips - one to collect it and one to fill up.