Taylors drive a Passat diesel 1626 miles on one tank - 84 mpg (US), 39 mph avg*
 

More: 1600 Miles On One Fill? Meet The Taylors And Their VW Diesel

* Assuming they drove 14 hours each of their 3 days on the road, that's an average speed of 39 mph.

http://www.blogcdn.com/green.autoblo...mpg-vw-628.jpg

The mpg is really impressive until one considers their average speed of 39 mph. Several years ago my wife drove our Golf TDi from Washington State (exit 59 on I-5) to near San Francisco doing 55 on cruise control on the flats, and slowing to 50 on cruise going up the passes...and averaged 72 mpg. My dad had died and my mom wanted me to take his old Ford truck home ('76 E250 with carb'd 460 CID gasser :eek:), which itself averaged 11 mpg on that trip. :)

TDi drivers quickly learn that with a manual you can plan an mpg by subtracting your mph from 120 on flat ground. For the Taylors that works out to about 120-39=81, so they did a little better than nominal. Maybe they did a little p&g along the way... :thumbup:

Exactly. I mean, it's still impressive, but also relatively slow.

That's why I always ask people about average speed when they post eye-popping fuel economy numbers (and why I always post mine).

People need context to understand just how "realistic" the results are (and everyone brings a different definition of what's a "realistic" average speed).

I have to agree, it's not that hard to get unreal mileage if you average 22 MPH. I think I got past 90 on my brothers 1990 Civic with TB injection and a 4 speed. I was using a dvom to read the voltage of the sending unit and many times after a 18 mile round trip the gas in the tank heated up enough to actually make the second reading higher than the first. Had to measure the tank temperature and wait until it was the same to get decent readings.

regards
Mech

84 mpg VW Passat
 

I'm not sure if anyone else has posted this yet, but I saw this articel on Fox News today:
Couple squeezes 84 MPG out of diesel Volkswagen Passat | Fox News

I wonder how much gas was wasted because other drives had to slam the brakes then re accelerate because these people were blocking traffic.

39 mph average may not necessarily be as slow as it sounds. I think I read that the EPA highway cycle averages about 45 mph.

I wonder how much gas is wasted from people driving full size pickups 85mph everywhere they go.

If there was no one around I can see doing 40 ish. Yesterday I got away with P&EOC'ing from 40 or 45 to 65. People didn't slam on their brakes so much as just move into the adjacent lane.

This is what you honestly expect us to believe they experienced?
On my worst day of holding back traffic ( doing the speed limit ) the worst I have ever experienced is the "professional" truck drivers pushing me (literally feet away) and then passing while giving the one finger salute, and then the finale .. cutting me off while they get back into the "slower traffic keep right lane"
Mostly its the professionals that give me cause for concern, the average driver happily follows someone doing the limit or slower as they are usually multi tasking anyway.

I just found the number, the average speed of the EPA highway cycle (highway fuel economy test- HWFET) is 48.3 mph.

If we all lived in Canada that might be true. Canadians are a very polite people.
Who cares, they're paying for it. They're not out there wasting other people's time and fuel.

Surprised no one else has mentioned... the 39mph avg is just that... an average. The article didn't really mention the routes or what exactly was meant by "driving no more than 14 hours a day", but I would not assume they got in the car in the morning, accelerated instantly to 39mph and then kept the speed constant for the next 14 hours til they stopped (instantly). I would guess they did not take freeways (straightest, fastest route is only ~1400 miles, not ~1630 miles according to Google maps) and that the 'driving time' included some rest stops / food stops along the way. I'm sure they didn't do 70mph, and they probably did drive relatively slow (45? 50?) most of the way, but it was probably within a reasonable range of the roads they were on.

Heck, I did ~2000 miles traveling 65 - 70mph and got 60mpg average... not all that hard in a Diesel. I just would have a tough time doing ~1600 miles on a tank since my tank is 3 gals less... :)

My trip to work(one way 65miles) with highs usually 66-70mph. My trip average was always 40-45 mph no matter how I drove it seemed. That was with my scan gauge. But even on the bike with just a clock it always takes me 1 hr 20 to 1 hr 35 minutes to get to work or home.

So if they took the two lanes roads and through some state where the speed limit is 55 mph on the highway. I can see this average. All about route planning.

From the link in Diesel_Dave's post:
I suspect that the speed was set to stay in the engine's BSFC sweetspot. Yet with an average speed of 39mph, they must have spent a lot of time going slower than 60mph.

Reminds me of when I told someone I'd done 1700km on a single tank, and he said he's done 1500km. He drives the same model, only larger engine. This got me interested until I found out that his model has the 70 liter tank. Mine has the 59 liter tank and I could sqeeze in 63 liters, so he could probably get another 4-5 liters too.

Absolutely.
A 65mph CC setting over long distance (>300miles) gave me 57 (with traffic jam) and 60 mph averages.

If I could do 52mph for this kind of distance, I'd go below 4L/100km (over 59mpg).


I have a very hard time believing 84mpg / 2.800 L/100km out of an unmodified vehicle this size and weight, with the 2.0L TDI.
Definitely won't happen @ 60mph.


Remember, Vekke is already pushing things to get below 3L in a car half the size.

They're wasting everybody's fuel.

Most of my Fiesta tanks average right at 38 MPH speed. When they talk about 14 hours a day behind the wheel, it's an assumption to include any stops in that time, since the stops are not "behind the wheel.
Take the older US routes (at least here) and traffic volume is much less than the Interstates. It would be relevant to see their route map. I'll bet they used the Interstates to get around congested areas and mainly used the older US routes (non interstate) for the vast majority of their trip.
Highway speeds? 40-50 MPH depending on the best BSFC speed in top gear, versus lowest aero drag.

regards
Mech

And driving prices up through increased demand.

Agreed... and the data is conflicting... the "distance vs time" data provided yields 39mph while the statement Piwoslaw noted (from Diesel_Dave's link) says The truth is probably somewhere in between.

Let's not forget about another fact from that article:
I doubt that Volkswagen's help was limited to supplying the car, fuel and VW t-shirts. Let us also remember that this record run was made public only after it happened. So, no by-standers to see how close the Passat was drafting the truck that VW had previously rented*.

To their credit, the drivers were champion hypermilers. While it is possible, I'm sceptical as to anyone being able to pull off such a feat with the following parameters:

• Stock car, not the lightest nor most aerodynamic,
• 39 mph average,
• CC set to 60 mph,
• Driving for 3 days with breaks (= engine cooling off),
• Obeying all laws.

Ecomodder Groar had some mighty nice numbers on his Megane. Even though he:

• Had a car which was much lighter and probably had smaller FA than the Passat,
• Had smooth wheel covers, grille blocks, Kammback, trunk lid extension, rear skirts and front semi-skirts,
• Drove mostly highway,
• EOC'ed quite often,

still didn't have a tank average higher than 78 mpg.


*) I'm not claiming that this is the case, but it is a possibility that can't be ruled out at my present state of knowledge.

They averaged about the same mph as me, and I drive 55-60 with the speed limit of 65. If others want to drive like idiots, they can kiss my shiny metal a$$, it's their insurance that will pay, not mine.

That's quite the MPG to pull off... I have been able to squeeze as much as 78.5 mpg (1114.7 mi on 14.201 usg) from a tank in my 1991 GTI TDI, bit it's got manual steering, no A/C, 2,420lb empty weight, .34 Cd and 20.559 sq-ft frontal area. In order to get that I had to drive mostly 1200rpm in 5th gear (about 35-40mph). I didn't have temperature in my favor though. This was done entirely with 15-30 mile trips starting cold every time over a month. I can't imagine what they did to average over 80 on a common rail Passat... :rolleyes:

I wonder this too

Some additional information (besides the standard press release regurgitation) can be found at High-MPG Taylors drive a Volkswagen Passat 1,626 miles on one tank of diesel. The 'image gallery' connected with the post is particularly interesting. Sounds like there is a "video available upon request". This posting also has a link to the couple's web site: Fuel Academy - Fuel Economy Specialists

The early 1.9 TDis where the cars that build the power & fuel economy legend for VW.

All their 2.0L Passat has to its advantage is lower Cd and better injectors ...
No-one with a recent Passat comes close on Spritmonitor.


Also, if you'll fill the tank to the brim anyway, why drain it first ?