How do you afford the petrol for the GTI??

[Teo10]

Interesting points, to be honest at this stage it is only the second week of owning the car so I cant bring myself to drive at 60MPH or motorways   However this shall be done in the future. And yes I have been driving more than usual and fast so this may explain the two petrol tanks I went through in a week..

RedRobin and others- The site I mentioned tells prices of Super-Unleaded as well and it highlights many of the supermarkets are cheaper which leads me onto my next point- is the super unleaded at the supermarkets okay to use and is it same as say V power? Thanks

What website was it? I cant find it

[RedRobin]

So you want to ban and burn him for suggesting a GTI LPG conversion?

Makes perfect sense if you can stump up for the initial outlay. Cake and eat it. 

....I was joking when I said ban him etc 

I'd rather spend that kind of LPG conversion money on some mods.

[RedRobin]

....Be aware, very aware, that although the 2.0T FSI engine will run on 95 RON petrol it is NOT recommended by Volkswagen. There should be a label inside your fuel cap saying so. Always run on higher octane fuel such as Shell V-Power except in emergency.

My 2007 GTI say 95 octane in the fuel cap 

....Really?  My 2005 GTI says:



And IIRC the Handbook recommends 98 rather than 95. But it's your car and up to you how you want to look after it.

[icenutter]

There is a site I have found petrol prices.com it shows cheapest filling stations near you, its free site. Can save you at least a fiver every time you fill up, might be helpful to many of us.

....Be aware, very aware, that although the 2.0T FSI engine will run on 95 RON petrol it is NOT recommended by Volkswagen. There should be a label inside your fuel cap saying so. Always run on higher octane fuel such as Shell V-Power except in emergency.

Super Unleaded is normally 97 ron, V Power and Tesco Momentum are 99 ron.  98 Ron is what's recommended.  So I suppose 97 is better than 95, and I'm sure that it wouldn't actually make a massive difference in reality.  Me?  I used V Power almost exculsivley.

I changed job about 6 months ago, and started doing a lot of motorway miles, and my average over about 16000 miles went up to 34.7 mpg with about 38+ on the purely motorway parts, that's travelling at 70 mph plus a some leeway with the cruise on.  I reckon that's pretty awesome considering the performance.  Incidentally my car was an 2005 car, which I'm told were more economical than later cars.

I swapped it for a 2006 B7 Audi A4 2.0 tdi quattro manual, and get about 41mpg on the same jorney.  Now that is rubbish...

[keano]

Will cruise control improve my MPG on a motorway run? Anyone tried a little test? 

[icenutter]

I found that it did for me, as it meant that my speed didn't drift around.

I'm sure that you could get better economy by slowing for the hills and speeding up on the downs, but on a long journey I find it more relaxing to set the cruise at 77 mph then concentrate on not getting annoyed by all the middle lane drivers.

[keano]

Thanks bud 

Are they worth a punt then? Would I be spending more than £100 to have it fitted? 

[Greeners]

Interesting points, to be honest at this stage it is only the second week of owning the car so I cant bring myself to drive at 60MPH or motorways   However this shall be done in the future. And yes I have been driving more than usual and fast so this may explain the two petrol tanks I went through in a week..

RedRobin and others- The site I mentioned tells prices of Super-Unleaded as well and it highlights many of the supermarkets are cheaper which leads me onto my next point- is the super unleaded at the supermarkets okay to use and is it same as say V power? Thanks

What website was it? I cant find it

http://www.petrolprices.com/

[icenutter]

Thanks bud 

Are they worth a punt then? Would I be spending more than £100 to have it fitted? 

The dealer did mine for £150 all in.

[ub7rm]

....Be aware, very aware, that although the 2.0T FSI engine will run on 95 RON petrol it is NOT recommended by Volkswagen. There should be a label inside your fuel cap saying so. Always run on higher octane fuel such as Shell V-Power except in emergency.

My 2007 GTI say 95 octane in the fuel cap 

....Really?  My 2005 GTI says:



And IIRC the Handbook recommends 98 rather than 95. But it's your car and up to you how you want to look after it.

This has come up before and when the part no for the 95 ron label was checked it was actually for a different model golf!

But there is no technical issue in using 95 ron other than you will not get the stated fuel consumption / power output.  I believe there has been some issues in the US attributed to lower ron fuel but the 'standard' unleaded there is lower than our - around 87 iirc and their premium unleaded is only around 91.

[RedRobin]

This has come up before and when the part no for the 95 ron label was checked it was actually for a different model golf!

But there is no technical issue in using 95 ron other than you will not get the stated fuel consumption / power output.  I believe there has been some issues in the US attributed to lower ron fuel but the 'standard' unleaded there is lower than our - around 87 iirc and their premium unleaded is only around 91.

....The U S of A petrol is a different animal and hence the VW's across the pond are different.

As I do recall, in the UK when the ECU is confronted with 95 RON fuel it compensates but compromises smoothness(?) in doing so. It might be Timing which is effected and so if you are remapped you should definitely avoid any petrol less than 98 except in emergency. Perhaps someone else can fill in the detail.

[Neimad]

This has come up before and when the part no for the 95 ron label was checked it was actually for a different model golf!

But there is no technical issue in using 95 ron other than you will not get the stated fuel consumption / power output.  I believe there has been some issues in the US attributed to lower ron fuel but the 'standard' unleaded there is lower than our - around 87 iirc and their premium unleaded is only around 91.

....The U S of A petrol is a different animal and hence the VW's across the pond are different.

As I do recall, in the UK when the ECU is confronted with 95 RON fuel it compensates but compromises smoothness(?) in doing so. It might be Timing which is effected and so if you are remapped you should definitely avoid any petrol less than 98 except in emergency. Perhaps someone else can fill in the detail.

Fuel in the US is not measured in RON (Research Octane Rating) as it here an in Europe, it's usually measured in AKI (Anti Knock Index), this means that the two numbers cannot be directly compared.  In the US they normally have a few different grades with ratings from 87 (which is about 91-92 RON) up to 93 (which is about 97-98 RON).

The effect of putting lower-grade fuel in your car should be minimal though as the GTI is equipt with a knock sensor, which basically allows the ECU to retard or advance the timing of the engine so as not to cause the fuel to combust too early, which could damage the engine.  In this situation the fuel economy and power will be reduced compared to the manufacturer's specifications.  It's also worth noting that changes in temperature and altitude can also cause this situation as they may also alter the rate of knock.

[TANNER]

Will cruise control improve my MPG on a motorway run? Anyone tried a little test? 

I used my cruise for the first time last week, set at 75 I got up to 28.2mpg over the 90 miles or so I was on the motorway. Not great but an improvement on the 26mpg I got on my last trip to Newcastle just on the right foot.
It became a personal goal not to brake and strategically overtake slower cars but I soon lost that game!

[GTIjames]

^^ i managed 29mpg in my cayman driving from london to newcastle - cruise set at 70-80ish, i would expect more from your golf

[winrya]

Will cruise control improve my MPG on a motorway run? Anyone tried a little test? 

I used my cruise for the first time last week, set at 75 I got up to 28.2mpg over the 90 miles or so I was on the motorway. Not great but an improvement on the 26mpg I got on my last trip to Newcastle just on the right foot.
It became a personal goal not to brake and strategically overtake slower cars but I soon lost that game!

You should get more than that. I did a 230 mile round trip on the motorway 6 weeks ago to pick the missus new car up. As she was following me for direction I was driving economically and on the motorway had cruise set between 75-80mph. By the end of the journey the mpg had risen to 40.2mpg at those speeds. Very impressive considering on the same journey the other halfs new Cooper d did 56mpg. Some way of BMW's claim of 72mpg