3 door vs. 5 door

[beegarage]

from what i can tell.. mk3 vw 4cyl golf's in the 5 door flavor are 60ish lbs heavier than 3 door golf sports.. now.. i want to stick with a 4cyl.. and the 4cyl gti's have abs and other options that add additional weight.. so trying to find an older golf "sport" is silly.. and there are a few 5 door golfs floating around my area for cheap.. jetta's too.. but i don't know the weight..

A)i've read that.. 100lbs = about 2% effect on mpg.. yea? would that influence you to pay MORE and take more TIME finding a project..? i say no.. get a 5 door..

if above is a moot point.. )weight that is.(
B) is there a significant difference in the ultimate potential between a hatch and a sedan.. ie: golf v. jetta..? cause i have a jetta sitting around.. just can't decide if i'm gonna get show crazy with it..


as in my intro thread.. i'm tired of fueling my 8.1l silverado.. its just silly.. so i wanna pick up a little beater project to hypermile.. ha.. i'm used to forum discussions about lifted truck suspension or flow charts of turbo's for big power on race cars.. so this is funny to me.. but in the i'm jealous so i'll laugh at the kid who's cooler than me way..

please welcome me with open arms..

[fairdinkumfrankies]

IMHO you should go with the cheapest option to get out of driving the 8.1L beast. 2% will not save the world but improving 100%+ over the truck will make a difference. Just thinking.

[dremd]

What motor are you looking at? That will be a much larger difference.

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by beegarage

from what i can tell.. mk3 vw 4cyl golf's in the 5 door flavor are 60ish lbs heavier than 3 door golf sports..

60 lbs is not the end of the world.

The new 3door VW Polo Bluemotion gets 71.3mpg while the 5door version gets 69.2 mpg , so the difference is 2mpg (nearly 3% ) at these pretty high mpg.

now.. i want to stick with a 4cyl.. and the 4cyl gti's have abs and other options that add additional weight..

GTi's often get toyed with, and the cosmetic / performance upgrades aren't always beneficial for fuel efficiency.

A)i've read that.. 100lbs = about 2% effect on mpg.. yea?

Yea, in city driving with lots of stopping and acceleration.
At a far more constant speed on the interstates or larger roads, you'll hardly feel the difference.
So, it's a matter of where you do most of your driving.

(My best fuel efficiency so far was with over 400 lbs of additional weight in the car, but exclusively on the interstate.)

B) is there a significant difference in the ultimate potential between a hatch and a sedan.. ie: golf v. jetta..?

The Golf is lighter but being a hatchback, it has more aerodynamic drag.

The Jetta is just a Golf with a trunk, so with the same engine, they're very close in performance.

i'm tired of fueling my 8.1l silverado.. its just silly.. so i wanna pick up a little beater project to hypermile..

You say you've got a Jetta sitting around, so why not use that ?

Over here, most big displacement US cars and trucks get a LPG conversion as that's only half the price of gasoline, and it burns cleaner too.

[Arragonis]

If you mean MK3 Golf like this



Then another thing to influence you may be the shell. Somewhat unusually the 5 door shell is stiffer than the 3 door one.

[bestclimb]

in a 2000 lb car 60 lbs is 3% of weight not much effect in overall efficiency.

Drive the Jetta, The savings in fuel (if you have been tracking on your expenditures in the truck) will be astounding. in 6 months of going from 36-50mpg I saved 500 bucks. In six months going from 15mpgh to 40ish (my guess at how your doing now in the truck and what you could do in the jetta) the fuel savings will be pretty spectacular.

[nimblemotors]

If you are concerned about the rear doors weight, then remove them,
and replace them with some solid fiberglass panels, like a panel truck..
The glass is a lot of the extra weight, so just removing that would save probably 30lbs.

park that monster gas-guzzler!

Originally Posted by beegarage

from what i can tell.. mk3 vw 4cyl golf's in the 5 door flavor are 60ish lbs heavier than 3 door golf sports.. now.. i want to stick with a 4cyl.. and the 4cyl gti's have abs and other options that add additional weight.. so trying to find an older golf "sport" is silly.. and there are a few 5 door golfs floating around my area for cheap.. jetta's too.. but i don't know the weight..

A)i've read that.. 100lbs = about 2% effect on mpg.. yea? would that influence you to pay MORE and take more TIME finding a project..? i say no.. get a 5 door..

if above is a moot point.. )weight that is.(
B) is there a significant difference in the ultimate potential between a hatch and a sedan.. ie: golf v. jetta..? cause i have a jetta sitting around.. just can't decide if i'm gonna get show crazy with it..


as in my intro thread.. i'm tired of fueling my 8.1l silverado.. its just silly.. so i wanna pick up a little beater project to hypermile.. ha.. i'm used to forum discussions about lifted truck suspension or flow charts of turbo's for big power on race cars.. so this is funny to me.. but in the i'm jealous so i'll laugh at the kid who's cooler than me way..

please welcome me with open arms..