I average about 18 to 19 in daily driving, 22 plus on highway with an open trailer. That's pretty good in my book considering how much you can stuff into one.
Yea... But I bet it doesn't get 15 mpg. I'm looking for something a little more economical. So I can spend my dough on race fuel and tires.
I doubt that you'd be traveling solo Andy? Splitting fuel with 2 or 3 buddies, or even 1, and you can roadtrip in comfort. $55-60 fills it up now. I was getting about 300 miles a tank. $300 easily gets you to Jennings (1450 miles roundtrip) and back when you go next month. $150 for ya if only 1 person goes with you. It's definitely nice having a dedicated track rig. 80 mph up and down any hill, pulls straight and smooth as can be. Hell, if I don't sell it, come and take it to florida. It needs to be driven anyway. I"ve only put about 6000 miles on it in over 2 yrs.
"I average about 18 to 19 in daily driving, 22 plus on highway with an open trailer. That's pretty good in my book considering how much you can stuff into one." thats what I get and since most of my driving is not towing I'd like to do better. I'm thinking a vw diesel will get 40 as a daily driver and 25-30 towing a bike. I'm sick of driving like granny to get decent mileage.
There's simply not enough demand for diesels in the US. I'd love to have more diesel options in small SUV's and mini vans. I think they would be in the 32-35 mpg range, and they would easily tow 3000 lbs. You would need trailer brakes, but it's not like that's a huge expense.
single bike on an open small trailer shouldn't impact a TDi mileage that badly. A small enclosed will. I had an '03 TDi wagon and towed a 5x10 enclosed with tools in it. It did ok and was about a 10mpg hit. Over 70 and the MPG dropped even more. That was a different engine from the new 2.0 common rail. I don't know enough about the new engine to comment. I'd definitely consider it again if I wanted a similar car.
I like the mileage figures for diesel, but the fuel cost offsets a significant amount of that savings and the initial purchase is typically a good bit higher. Anyone got life cycle costs on diesel vs gas?
Did some advanced geometry a couple of years ago when I was in the market for a diesel VW. It would take 38 months to break even considering the additional premium of purchasing a TDI vs. the money savings of the better MPG. This was done when diesel fuel was less than it seems to be now, so currently, the ROI would take even longer. F that. VW's new 1.8t (not the one we're all familiar with that was replaced with the 2.0t) runs on crap gas, gets high 30's, and makes decent power. That would be my choice.
Regarding tow cars, My Tiguan 2.0t gets 28mpg empty driving like a creampuff. Loaded with racebike in tow I wouldn't know. Bought a 5X10 enclosed and sold it the same day. Seemed too big for the Tiguan and I'm a bit sympathetic towards my vehicles. My Eurovan gets 22MPH loaded to the hilt with a full race weekend packed into the back. Back when I had a 1.8t GTI I would tow an open 4X6 Carry-on trailer with no problems and still managed 30mpg. The Golfs/GTI's are great little towers for their size.
Golf's have been tow car of the year for number of years in Europe. Oddly, the US bound VW's aren't rated to tow much of anything at all.
When I used my 98 Jetta TDI to tow I would get 32 with the A/C on doing 70-75. It was only one bike, but I still had generator, tools, and all the other crap in the trunk/backseat.
Info I've seen about that on TDIclub forums is that basically they think Americans are stupid so they lower all the tow ratings (not suppose to tow at all with some auto's here). They have the exact same tow ratings as the euro versions, but of course towing at the euro limits can void your warranty in the US.
