2.0T Gas Engine Fuel Consumption: L/100KM

10393 Views 12 Replies 6 Participants Last post by GOgg, Apr 6, 2007

EOSmage

Discussion Starter · Apr 3, 2007 (Edited)

I've heard that some people are concerned with the fuel performance of their 2.0T (Turbo Gas Engine). I've decided, since I track my gas usage very closely, that I'd post here for everyone's benefit. I hope that more people will post, in order to get a view of what the car is doing.

Things to remember:
1) I'm a Canadian, so all my measurements are listed in Litres per 100 Kilometers (L/100KM)

2) Car's advertised average amounts are 10.2 / 6.8 (city / highway)

3) I live in a fairly "flat" area, and have not really ventured into hills yet. Almost all of my driving is currently city, although I do get to drive a short-- 5 minute-- distance on a highway. I hope to change this soon

With that said, here are my results:

1590 KM 2012 KM 44.712 L 10.59 L/100KM 22.2 MPG
2012 KM 2467 KM 47.486 L 10.44 L/100KM 22.5 MPG
2467 KM 2915 KM 47.312 L 10.56 L/100KM 22.3 MPG
2915 KM 3381 KM 48.562 L 10.42 L/100KM 22.6 MPG
3381 KM 3803 KM 43.134 L 10.22 L/100KM 23.0 MPG
3803 KM 4193 KM 45.332 L 11.65 L/100KM 20.2 MPG <--- ooops

average price of fuel to date: $1.09 per Litre (min/max: 0.984 <--> 1.194)
Actual cost in gas: $325.45

My last figure here shows what happens when the "work in period" is over and I want to see what the car can do. That probably won't happen again. Although I am not driving the car like you see some do on Sunday afternoons, I'm certainly not "pedal to the metal" wherever I go.

I'm fairly happy with the performance of the car's engine. It is doing a much better job than my old SUV used to.

Note about fuel OCTANE types:
VWVortex (another forum I frequent) had a lengthy discussion about the octane level that should be used in the vehicle in order to maintain warranty and not damage the engine. I'll summarize it here:

The engine is tuned to perform with a specific octane level fuel, and that "number" is printed clearly on the inside of your gas-fill cover. If it says, "91 Octant" then using 91 octane gas will provide you with the most optimum performance of your engine.

Inside the manual, there is a warning that states that you "must not use octane levels below 87". This means if you find an unleaded gas that is 85 octane, you are going to "most likely" damage your engine. If you use the fuel listed in the manual, you will NOT damage your engine, but can not expect to get the best performance of your car. The engine will adjust itself to use the lower octane and will not harm it. IF, AND ONLY IF, you use the rated octane listed in the manual. (PLEASE CHECK your manual to confirm what the lower limit is before you start filling, my car may be different from yours).

So, in my case, VW of Canada has confirmed that filling with 87-90 octane will NOT damage my car in any way, but they stated that I will not get the performance that the car was designed to give. By performance, they mean acceleration, Fuel Economy, etc. If I use 91 octane, which is what the gas-door-cover suggests for my car, then I will be using what the car's engine was tuned for. If I use 92+ octane, VWoC said there were no test results to clearly state what would happen to the performance, however, it should not damage the car.

So...I've been using 91 octane exclusively for the car. That's what it was tuned for, that's what they recommend... Cost per tank is only about 2 or 3 bucks more, so... no big deal.

EDIT: Added Miles per Gallon

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EOSmage

Discussion Starter · #4 · Apr 4, 2007 (Edited)

neh321 said:
One strange thing though: on the inside of my filler flap it says this engine needs 97 octane fuel... Are your octanes better than ours?! We can get 95 or 98 so if the station has 98 that's what I put in. There have been only a couple of occasions when the station hasn't had 98 so I've put 95 in with no noticeable difference.

Is the engine tuned differently for Canada then where you obviously can't get high octane fuels? (for your interest BP have just started selling 102 octane here!)

Actually, European locations use a slightly different octane scale. The "Research Octane Number" (RON) is the European standard, and the "Anti Knock Index" (AKI) is the USA / Canadian one.

Although I'm sure this isn't perfect, I believe that the numbers are different by about 4 units. Therefore a 95 RON would roughly be equal to a 91 AKI.

We can get "super deluxe" fuel that has 94 AKI here too, however, most engines are not tuned to use it. VW of Canada didn't have any data to show what using a higher-than-requested octane would do. It "may" improve performance of the vehicle, but "certainly" shouldn't hurt.

I'm just going to stick with the level listed on the flap. The only reason I mentioned the fuel octane levels in the original post was to ensure that we all compared apples to apples. If I'm using 91 AKI, and someone else is using 89 AKI, mileage WILL be different.

By the way, there is a really great detailed discussion about Octane and the EOS located HERE.

It is important to note that we CAN use fuels of different octane ratings, as long as we remain ABOVE the minimum octane rating listed in the owner's manual. Fuels matching the rating listed on the gas cap flap are just optimal for your engine's performance tuning.

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EOSmage

Discussion Starter · #7 · Apr 4, 2007

Hugh Jass said:
According to VW, the automatic should be getting 10.3/100km which converts to 27.4 MPG, so your 22 is slightly lower, but maybe will get closer to 27 once broken in and the weather is warmer.

Hmm, maybe the online "conversion calculator" I used to convert the values was not accurate. I'm getting around 10.3-10.4 L/100KM average. That's fairly close to the posted average VW states for city driving.

LOL. I'll try and confirm the calculations manually, as maybe trusting in the online converters was a mistake.

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EOSmage

Discussion Starter · #12 · Apr 5, 2007

I didn't mean to start an Octane Rating War.

I was just trying to explain that when we look at fuel economy, it is important that we state what type of fuel we are using. VW has stated very clearly that Octane Rating WILL affect the mileage from a tank of gas. They also have stated that we will not damage our engines as long as we use Octane Ratings ABOVE the minimum listed in the manual.

Fuel economy (kilometres per tank or miles per tank) is such a hard thing to compare; everyone drives differently and on different terrains. So many things change how a car performs that we have to try and be as descriptive as we can when talking about it.

Someone posting that they are consistantly getting 45 MPG would really concern those of us who only get 25 MPG. Until we find out that they live in an area that is flat with no hills, that they drive back and forth on the highway outside of traffic hours and hate speed so accelerate slowly and only do the posted speed (if that).

Anyway, in my mind, information is power; the more we have, the better we are.

I was contacted by someone who was concerned with the fuel economy they were getting, and figured others might benefit from the information.

My overall summary is really just my "totally uneducated opinion" but it is simple: Use the fuel octane suggested on the inside flap of your gas filler cover. If you can't find that level of octane during a road trip, don't fret you can use a lower level and not worry about damage to your car (check the manual for the minimum rating). Just don't expect to beat any track records using the lower octane, and don't expect to set any world records on "furthest distance travelled on a tank"...

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