Passat Bluemotion.....
 

While battling my own head about which car to buy as a motorway cruiser, I have decided to rent a car weekly for now.

This week I have the Passat Bluemotion, and call me a dirty lying barsteward of you will, but I am getting 59mpg :eek:

All round a decent cockpit to be in, if a little bare.
Has cruise control, which I need.
Tells me when to change gear to be most efficient, which I ignore. Cuts the engine when I stop, which I don't mind. I am still trying to beat the car by getting it into gear before the engine is ready to go, but no joy :(
Touch screen 6 CD player, cool.

Pretty happy with it, anybody actually got one?

Is there a downside to these cars that I have not discovered yet?

You could say uninteresting, but TBH I would change my 40mpg Alfa 156 JTD for a 59mpg bluemotion.

The question is, at 59mpg and a 70 litre fuel tank is there another car available new today with a greater range than the 907 miles the bluemotion can travel?

Yup, uninteresting, but ideal for long motorway rides.

Drove from Scotland to Chesterfield to work and then back and forth to Derby twice to sleep. Still well over half a tank left :D

Had a CLC 220 CDi last week and got just under 40mpg, more toys inside, but not that much better, certainly not much quicker.

Not quite a 355 is it? :D

Seriously I have always had Passat Diesels. But you get just as much MPG from the 140bhp/236lbs.ft model that I now have, as you do from the turgid hire-car/old fogey spec 105bhp/184lbs.ft model you've got. I can switch off the engine every time I stop, if I want to save another MPG and look a tw@t. I can even change up at 1500rpm or whatever to save another couple of MPG's.

However, I don't. I drive it quickly and still get 55mpg on a long motorway run, or worse case high 40's on a cross-country B-road journey.

Bluemotion my arse!

No, a 355 it is not :(

However on the plus side, it does about 50mpg more :D:D:D:D:D

I can't actually believe that I keep blatting on about mpg, everyone that asked when I had the 355 got the same response:

"I don't know and I don't care, that's not why I bought it!!!!"

I got an average of 56mpg out of my Octavia vRS on Monday during a 400mile round trip to Stevenage from Lymm, Cheshire!

I didn't do much more than 65-70 the whole trip (cruise control) but still quite repectable. My trip computer is about 1-2mpg on the optomisitc side.

Steve

Id that the PD 140ps or a CR 140ps engine? If its the PD, then what the hell is is wrong with our Altea?

It has the 140PS 16valve PD engine like many other VAGs (including Passats) and does mostly motorway/a-road work.

Doesn't matter who drives it, it does 39.5mpg. I've managed to get it up 42mpg by sticking to 65mph on the motorway, staying well off the turbo (changing well below 2K revs), a/c off, not using the brakes, slipstreaming trucks and generally driving like a granny. But this short of driving me insane.

(Also get 1mpg improvement by NOT using the cruise control, hmmm :wonder: )

Official figs are:

Urban - Cold: 37.7 mpg
Extra Urban: 55.4 mpg
Combined: 47.1 mpg

Goes well though when I have opened it up (and consequently been hammered at pumps by it returning sub 35mpg as punishment).

Do a manual calculation, could be the trip computer that is screwed. 4mpg difference between ragging it and granny driving does not make sense.

ALi-B: funnily enough I now have CR (2008), but used to have PD (2005 new shape) and before that 130PD (old shape). All 3 would do 50+MPG on a motorway run. Even if I ignore the optimistic Trip Computer readings, I can tell you that overall (including short trips to supermarkets, urban and extra-urban, hard driving, steady driving, motorway cruising at <80mph, sitting in traffic jams etc) I have recorded 43.7 MPG for both current shape 140bhp cars (1 PD saloon & 1 CR estate).

This is factual data from 3 years of a daily log that I keep for work.

And why not :thumb:

Cheers for that. Kind of backs up my theory there might be something not quite right with it or maybe its got a DPF hiding underneath thats being purged all the time. Either that or the gearing is shorter than other VAG diesels I'm used to (its a six speed, do I don't think so). Its running higher tyre pressure too (all in vain).

Or the deaf voice activation woman is punishing me for swearing at her for dialing the wrong number(s). ;)