I mean I have come from a 1.6 focus diesel but this s3 ****** drinks lol. I’ve been driving really steady in efficiency going to work all week and I can’t get over 27mpg (mostly traffic driving). Is that about normal? I had 5 miles of range left earlier and put £30 fuel in and only got 145 miles til empty on fuel computer.
Does a brand new S3 use more fuel til it’s run in
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Firstly why are you using Efficiency lol - It's just horrible to drive in - Sounds about right though might get a little better when run in - I always drive mine in individual settings with engine in dynamic - On a long run with cruise control set at 70mph I can achieve 38-40mpg but gunning it it's obviously going to come down
Lol I’m just trying to get a base line of the best mpg I can get on my commute so assumed efficiency was the best setting? I tried using individual and set box to eco, engine sound to pronounced and steering in comfort but the engine sounded no different? It didn’t sound like it does in dynamic?
I can get 43 mpg driving home from work; 35 miles, M23,M25,A21 in equal measures, plus a bit of urban each end.
I quite like chilling out in efficiency after a work day, and the economy is a bonus. I know the route well - when to cruise and when to drop gears.
In the morning I blat to work in dynamic along lanes, 25 miles, about 25mpg.
Petrol burnt works out about the same.
Check that you are actually in efficiency. The car *always* starts in AUTO, despite what anything indicates. You must scroll through the drive modes to refresh and actually select one.
I quite like chilling out in efficiency after a work day, and the economy is a bonus. I know the route well - when to cruise and when to drop gears.
In the morning I blat to work in dynamic along lanes, 25 miles, about 25mpg.
Petrol burnt works out about the same.
Check that you are actually in efficiency. The car *always* starts in AUTO, despite what anything indicates. You must scroll through the drive modes to refresh and actually select one.
Ahh! When I start it shows In efficiency , so it’s actually in auto? Why does it still show as efficiency? Surely that’s easy to sort as it’s all digital? Is it a glitch?
Well mine isn't S3, but it surely remembers the last drive mode and also uses it without toggling the drive modes through. The only notice is that if you start in Dynamic, the transmission doesn't automatically go to S mode when you select the driving gear. If you select Dynamic during driving, it automatically changes D to S. But selecting D from the gear lever while in Dynamic keeps everything else in Dynamic settings.
But yes, the car uses more fuel when it's new. My previous car (also 8y A3) started to consume much less after I got over the 10 000 km mark. Now with my current A3 I'm just past that, but it still seems a bit too thirsty. Waiting for the consumption to get going downwards.
But yes, the car uses more fuel when it's new. My previous car (also 8y A3) started to consume much less after I got over the 10 000 km mark. Now with my current A3 I'm just past that, but it still seems a bit too thirsty. Waiting for the consumption to get going downwards.
I’ve just been reading about the drive select resetting, some seem to think it changes the throttle and everything else to auto when csr reset but others say it just switches gearbox to d instead of s. I’m not sure why it doesn’t show “auto” on the drive select if it is really Auto and not on dynamic where it was left. I’m sure there’s a reason
I've had my S3 for just over 3 weeks now, and done a tad over 1100 kms so far. About 300-400 of that is urban, short distances in D (Auto) up to about 2k RPMS, the rest is mostly longer road trips on B roads where I tend to push the car to about 3-4k RPMs in order to give it a good break-in. So far, it seems my average consumption is just above 10 liters per 100 kms (28 UK MPG), but my urban consumption is up to 14 liters per 100 kms (22 UK MPG). I feel it's OK for where we're at with the running in process and I should probably see an improvement in the next 5-10 thousand kilometers.
Ok, maybe I should be happy with my average 6,5 liters per 100 km and 8-9 liters urban... But on longer trips I got under 4,5 liters with my previous car, this current one hasn't done under 5 liters yet.
Mine is at about 3500 miles now, it is definitely more efficient now than it was new, it sounds a little better too on the exhaust and so does the sound system.
I am either doing very short journeys (school run) or doing 240 miles to Milton Keynes from Newcastle for work.
Doing a 2 mile school run is about 16mpg. Around the doors (10 to 20 miles) is about 31mpg and sat on the motorway doing an indicated 75-80mph is about 39mpg (it was about 35mpg brand new). I accelerate fairly hard to get to speed, but don't waste my momentum whenI get there (I come off the accelerator early heading towards roundabouts or a red light and read the road ahead well).
I am either doing very short journeys (school run) or doing 240 miles to Milton Keynes from Newcastle for work.
Doing a 2 mile school run is about 16mpg. Around the doors (10 to 20 miles) is about 31mpg and sat on the motorway doing an indicated 75-80mph is about 39mpg (it was about 35mpg brand new). I accelerate fairly hard to get to speed, but don't waste my momentum whenI get there (I come off the accelerator early heading towards roundabouts or a red light and read the road ahead well).
4.5l per 100km is 62mpg if my maths is right - that's 2.0TDI territory on motorway miles.
The resetting of the driving mode to default "comfort" on every ignition cycle has been happening since 2013 with the MK7 Golf (and likely 8V A3) - likely some EU directive to revert to "standard" efficiencies as per the published testing cycle. As previously stated, you need to cycle through the driving modes to have them take effect every time you get in the car,no matter what mode the car says it is in. S-mode on the gearbox really messes with efficiency - the gearbox will happily cruise in 5th (S5) when it would be in 7th in D mode.
I got that mileage on longer trips on country roads, only short runs on motorway. Most roads here are limited to 80 km/h or no more than 100 km/h, so the 35TFSI is pretty economical here. Or should be, if the consumption goes down to what I had with my previous car.
Ok, I have to test that. Should be easy to find out because the steering response is noticeably different between comfort, auto and dynamic modes. I mostly use the auto mode anyway, because the steering feel suits well to everyday driving. The efficiency mode is what I never use, since I've noticed it's not actually very much more efficient than the auto mode, but only makes the car feel limp. Don't know how it is in S3.
Managed to do that with a 30TFSI MHEV going at 65-70mph (105-113kmh) with some roadworks slowed to 50-60 here and there and so on. Early and latter parts of the 3+ hr journey were slower 40-50mph roads. Had a courtesy car A5 with the said 2.0TDI, going around 68-70mph mostly highway, arrived home with 70mpg! I think the A3 2.0TDI 150 could even do like 73-75mpg like for like compared to A5.
Guess the 35TFSI MHEV was mainly doing 2 cylinder '750cc engine' more efficient than a 3 pot 999cc engine haha.
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It's always been the same - the smaller / less powerful engine isn't always the more fuel efficient one, as it need more revs to keep the car going. Of course the limit there is pretty low, as we see with the S3. It's still a 4-banger and not that much more powerful than the 35 TFSI, but it seems to consume much more than the 35 TFSI. It's hell of a lot faster though. 
My 2018 Polo GTI+ was marginally more efficient than the crappy 1.0 Polo courtesy car I had for a service appointment. The 1.0 had no torque and very high gearing, it was like someone had pulled 1st gear out of a 6 speed box. You had to work it hard to get it to do anything. The 2.0 EA888 3b engine in the GTI+ utilises Audi valve lift tech and the Budack cycle under low loads (lean mix under higheffective compression ratio to give diesel-like efficiency when cruising with less than 20kW requirement.
That engine would sit at 80mph doing 47mpg or at 70mph doing 53mpg. If the 35 lump in the A3 is a 2.0TSI unit, it's probably the same engine.
It's these daft Audi badge designations based on power to weight ratios that are getting me confused. On an A4, a "35" or "40" TSI badge will get you the 2.0TSI EA888 3b unit in various states of tune from 163 to 205ps, with the "30" badge designated for the 1.5. The lighter A3 must get smaller output engines for same power to weight ratio. Lost count how many times people asked me about my 4 litre ("40", 2.0 TDI190) A4 and how quick it was.
Yup, i rolled up in my 30TFSI, and one of my friends, asked me how thirsty the 3.0 V6 is? I'm like, you are right, it's a 3 litre divided by 3, and V6 divided by 2. Eg..1.0 3 cylinder in line. It is my opinion that in a car like the A3, really they should put the 30 TFSI with the 1.5 130PS motor, use the 1.0 110PS in the A1. It would still fall within the 30 badge power range. I mean both the Golf and Seat Leon have 1.5 130 units in their cars, why not Audi?
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Cylinder deactivation makes a difference, but only a small one. If you have the mpg display showing, then you see a small drop in instantaneous mpg when 2 cyclinders shut down (shown by the mpg bar switching from white to green). But it’s only about a 10% reduction, from what I can make out. That said, small differences add up over time.
Why is my miles to empty so erratic? Im
Driving consistently yet the miles suddenly drop too fast and aren’t consistent. It will be say on 100 then 90 then 80 in 10 miles increments as you’d expect then it suddenly goes down like 30 miles in like 15 miles
Driving consistently yet the miles suddenly drop too fast and aren’t consistent. It will be say on 100 then 90 then 80 in 10 miles increments as you’d expect then it suddenly goes down like 30 miles in like 15 miles
Change in driving style and consumption between journeys. If I'm sat on the motorway getting 38mpg and run the tank down to 100 miles left, at that consumption, I only need just under 3 gallons to do that last 100 miles. I finish that motorway journey and later I jump in the car to do a 2 mile journey and only get 20mpg, the car knows on that basis, I'm only going to get 60 miles from the 3 gallons remaining.
Maybe my mpg was higher when i filled it up on Friday so it’s now adjusting itself down but I’ve been driving in the same style to work and back so thought it would stay the same.
I just did a return journey Newcastle to Birmingham (210 miles each way) earlier in the week. Doing 75-80mph on the motorway to get a consistent 37mpg each way. On shorter mixed road journeys of 10-20 miles its more like 30mph and taking the kids to school (a mile away and back), its more like 16mpg. My car now has 4400 miles on it.
I'm now at around 2600 kms on the clock. While the average fuel consumption continues to be a hair over 10 liters per 100 kms (28 UK MPG), I've noticed the urban consumption varies rather widely. In the mornings, when there is less traffic on my commute, I usually clock around 13 liters per 100 kms (around 22 UK MPG). In the evenings, with more stop and go traffic, i usually clock around 15 liters per 100 kms (19 UK MPG). Should mention those values are with the start-stop system running, however. Without it, urban fuel consumption increases by about 15-20%.
As for motorway driving, I've experienced around 7.6 liters per 100 kms (37 UK MPG) when driving around 150 km/h without cruise control, and up to around 8.5 liters per 100 kms (33 UK MPG) when using the cruise control (it tends to drop speed rather quickly when it detects a car ahead, and apparently the subsequent acceleration back to speed seems to increase consumption more than if I just drive the car manually).
That said, I believe the car still has a way to go until it settles into its fuel consumption, as I've yet to push it harder (I've only gone up to around 5500 RPMS so far) and know that I'm finished with its break-in process.
It's a prediction based on current and past use. My car generally indicates 430 miles on a full tank, which is about right if I do motorway miles and drops off quickly on short trips. It's no more complicated than that.
