To the people who are calling me a liar about the 2.0 tdi economy vs the 2.0 tfsi, please read this

http://www.audi-sport.net/vb/audi-s4-a4-a4-cab-b8-...

I got my information from owner's real word experience on that forum and other forums. You have to remember as the dpf fills up the mpg will get slowly worse and during regeneration the mpg drops significantly. The fuel tests are done on a clean filter and don't last long enough to effect the results, therefore making real world mpg for diesels lower. Petrol engines don't have this problem

So,

Do all Main Dealers Push Diesel cars ?

That is the question.

I say no. They simply arrange for a recovery rescue truck rather than push them.

I think your use of the word "mugs" is a crass way of saying "brainwashed".

Crass yes and accurate too.

Some folks never learn and rely on Consumer Magazines to chose their next car, even buying it new before driving one!

There again, believing those manufacturer and magazine figures and taking them as gospel truth is lost on them too. Too many rely on the onboard figures as confirmation rather than actually carefully calculating their car's true fuel use by brim-to-brim fuel fill checks.

If I drive my aged Rover 45 Connoisseur for a whole tankfull with economy in mind, careful brim-to-brim fill checks show around 40 mpg.

My wife in her MG ZS with the identical 1.8 K-Series as the Rover 45 can get low 40s mpg on a run.

If I use a lot more performance available in either car, nice to hear that little K-Series doing its stuff, I can see the consumption increase/fall to mid 20s mpg.

All things considered I'm pleased with that. The BIG bonus for me is I'm not driving a heavy oil burning compression-ignition engine.

When my firm insisted supplying Diesel Hire cars to use when working away instead of using our own cars with allowances, I was always pleased to hand them back and get into my petrol turbos. They really are chalk and cheese driving experiences.

I've driven both and the TDI is better economy (at least with my driving style), this is on a largely B-road test run. Also you quoted 35 mpg, I get around 27 in my petrol, so that would be a step up. I think some of the people with petrol cars in that link are either talking crap or drive very carefully.

Petrol cars are fighting back though with ever more power powerfull, small capacity engines such as the almost universal 200bhp (ish) 1.6 turbo and VAGs turbo/twincharged 1.4 unit.

The problem with the small turbo petrols though is similar to the small diesels, you have to rev the nuts off the thing to get any resemblance of power thus resulting in awful real world fuel economy.

I was lucky to see 30mpg from my 2.0TFsi.

Didn't realise it started as early as that. My memories are of people in the late 90's raving about how fast their 306 D-Turbos were. In first year of uni, a boyfriend of one of the girls in my halls was staying for the weekend. On a night out he spent an hour trying to convince us all that his D Turbo was faster than almost anything else on the road and that we would literally piss ourselves with fear if we went in it with him. Strangely he declined to take any of us out for a drive the next day to demonstrate it.

I saw one the other day (a 306 D Turbo) and couldn't remember the last time I'd seen one. There were loads about at one time but I guess they're nearly all dead.

Oh yes, no doubting they were a good car at the time.

I've noticed the same as the OP. Its a shame and does indeed seem to be dealers pushing diesels because they have them in stock and need to sell.

I'd disagree having done many thousands of miles with VAG's 1.2 TSI and 1.4 TSI engines. Both deliver lots of torque from right at the bottom of the rev range and hardly need to be revved at all. Difference to a diesel is the power lasts a bit longer and doesn't tail off so early.