Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Fuel Consumption: Mercedes Benz C180 / VW Passat 1.4 TSI / BMW 520d Touring



As the fuel prices continue to rise, the fuel consumption of a car is becoming a more important part of the operating cost of a car. On an early morning drive to work, during a general rush hour, I tried to see what fuel consumption could be achieved by driving as economically as possible.

This includes accelerating modestly, not driving at speeds above 120km/h (75mp/h), trying to anticipate stops by letting the car roll instead of braking and using cruise control as much as possible. The onboard computer was set to 0 before departing, the driving profile is segmented according to the type of road and the breakdown of each is displayed in the caption of the picture.

Possible some drivers are able to still lower this consumption, when the traffic congestion (lots of stopping and accelerating again) is taken out of the equation, it is probable that it will further reduce consumption. On the other hand, the onboard computer usually displays a lower consumption then really took place, but still I hope that these pictures will give you an impression of the fuel consumption of these cars.


Volkswagen Passat 1.4 TSI Variant (122hp / MY2012 / 6-speed manual gearbox / petrol)

Driving profile: 40% highway 50% secondary road / 10% inner city



Mercedes Benz C180 (156hp / MY2012 / 7G-tronic automatic transmission / petrol)

Driving profile: 80% highway / 15% secondary road / 5% inner city

The fuel consumption of the Mercedes Benz C180 seems to be too high, this can be caused by a defect of unknown origin. Possibly the tires did not have the right pressure, resulting in a higher fuel consumption compared to normal circumstances.


BMW 520d Touring (184hp / MY2012 / 8-speed automatic gearbox / diesel)

Driving profile: 50% highway / 35% secondary road / 15% inner city


BMW 520d Touring: the screen shows the fuel consumption during the last hour. On the left an increase due to city driving and switching from "eco pro" to "comfort" mode can be seen. On the right side the consumption driving at speeds of 80 to 100km/h while using cruise control resulted in a lower consumption.

Over a longer period (last time since resetting the onboard computer), the fuel consumption was 6,8l / 100km. Important, this was calculated over a longer trip as the one presented above, hence the difference.

After filling up the car, the onboard computer displays a range of 1218 kilometers (760  miles)

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