Yes, these figures are quite realistic. I owned a VW Rabbit diesel in the
late 80s and it typically ran in the mid to high 40's. It even got over 50
mpg on one 450 mile trip to Glacier National Park but that was its best.
The only problems were it didn't climb hills well (bogged down with a
smokey exhaust) and it didn't start in the winter unless its water heater
was plugged in to the nearest electrical outlet overnight. Plus the fuel
gelled on me a couple of times when the temps dropped under 20 below.
Otherwise, a very nice economical car.
Ironically, I usually only drove it to work when it was really cold out.
Otherwise, my 71BGT was my daily driver and back then I had a 52 mile one
way commute to work. But when it got really cold out, a little heat was
always nice to have.
David Councill
67 BGT
72 B
At 10:58 AM 6/20/2004 -0400, Stephen West-Fisher wrote:
>Sure, from a colleague who drives one. And then from the web:
>
>Scott's TDI page (http://www.stealthtdi.com):
>"Although I'm a bit of a leadfoot, my lifetime average economy over
>165,000-miles is over 43-mpg. I can get over 50-mpg simply by DRIVING THE
>SPEED LIMIT. My best tank without AC is 802-miles on 14.58-gallons,
>yielding 55-mpg."
>
>Popular Science:
>"Best Station Wagon: VW Jetta TDI, 50 mpg hwy. (EPA) Turbochargers use the
>diesel engine's exhaust gases to pump extra power without sacrificing fuel
>economy." (And I wasn't talking about a station wagon)
>
>Canadian Driver:
>"The diesel-powered Jetta Wagon TDI's fuel consumption figures of 5.6 litres
>per 100 km (50 mpg) in the city and 4.4 l/100 km (64 mpg) on the highway are
>exceptional"
>
>Just chuck in "jetta tdi mph" in a search engine.
>
>Since I don't propose putting a VW TDI in my MGB, I think we are getting a
>little far afield for the list, so I do propose letting the off topic
>discussion die.
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