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My wife and I are visiting the in-laws this weekend. Today we went out for a trip in the countryside - I got to drive. The car is a couple-years-old VW Polo Classic - the 1.6 petrol with 5 speed manual transmission. It's also got an instantaneous fuel-consumption display, something I haven't had a chance to play with since I joined this site.

We set off, and I drove as frugally as possible without freaking anyone out (successfully I think - I had no unusual comments about my driving). I kept flipping between the IFCD and the trip average, and was pretty pleased with the results for the first leg.

The trip was in three stages - not sure total distance, but it was probably between 80 and 100km. The first two led us out into the country along smallish roads, gaining altitude gradually, although the terrain undulates a fair bit. The last stage was back along the highway to our starting point - generally downhill.

Anyway - long story short... overall fuel consumption for the trip was 3.6l/100km (65mpgUS). I was stunned at this result, especially with four people in the car - I'd been hoping for anything under 5.5l/100km. I used all the techniques I could think of short of turning off the engine - but I'd say the three main contributors to my success were driving slowly, shifting early into top gear, and lots of coasting in neutral.

I think it's going to take me a long time to beat this record (unless we take another long drive tomorrow :D)

-Simon

Immediate gains could be achieved by jettisoning the other three occupants and turning off the engine while in neutral.

Seriously, Congratulations Simon! That's impressive. Makes me want to get the mpguino even more. I'm gonna have to do it. :D - Dale

I just checked the mileage logs. If I posted today's result as a new vehicle in the logs, it would come in at third position in the gasoline section - just behind the AeroCivic.

I'm now starting to doubt the accuracy of the Polo's IFCD :(

No way to verify the number either. Damn.

-Simon

Great numbers. Congratulations.

Is there a chance that the figure you got was the return trip and not the outward journey? You mentioned that it was slightly downhill. It's still a good job though so don't be too disheartened.

ollie

Hi Ollie,

The trip IFCD resets when the car is stopped for two hours or more. Neither of our stops were two hours, so I'm confident that the reading was for the whole trip. Average fuel consumption was about 5l/100km at the end of the second leg, and it gradually dropped from there as we made our way back on the third leg. Instantaneous consumption was 0.7 - 1.0l/100km when coasing in neutral, and 0.0 coasting in gear on the steep bits. The average dropped as low as 3.5 for a while, but the last part of the trip had some stops, so it crept back up to 3.6.

Even if the reading was a bit off, I still learned a fair amount during the trip. Specifically: shift up early and stay in a high gear; coast as far as possible; don't brake.

-Simon