Furthest distance on single tank?

[romeogolf]

Which production car, in standard form, offers the furthest real-world distance off a single tank? Or at least which would be top contenders?

I can get around 650 miles off a tank (60 litres) in my current car but I'm sure it's far from the best around.

[JamesL91]

I suppose this would answer your question in one fell swoop

http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/about-us/news/259

[romeogolf]

JamesL91 said:

I suppose this would answer your question in one fell swoop

http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/about-us/news/259

It shows the record furthest, but it's hardly real-world consumption! Does it have a larger tank than the equivalent Golf? Or would the golf, being lighter, travel further in real world conditions?

[kambites]

The Passat has a larger fuel tank than the Golf. It probably also has better aerodynamics.

[JamesL91]

So you want the record furthest based on the smallest tank? What has tank size got to do with it? You asked for the furthest distance traveled for a standard car. Just because it has a bigger tank than the equivalent Golf doesn't exempt it from the rankings.. does it? If so, I think your question is "What the furthest someone can travel in a Golf"

[mrmr96]

I get over 700miles per tank in my BMW 730d.

It has the same engine and gearbox as the 330d, but it has an 80l tank. Obv the car weighs more, but that's not a big deal once you're rolling along on the motorway.

I think over 800 would be possible if it was all motorway and I drove in a more economic manner than I usually do, indeed I've had over 400 miles covered with the "range" computer showing over 400 miles remaining, I've just not had circumstances come up where it was necessary for me to do that journey.

[GuyW]

My recently picked up S60 D5 could stretch to 1000 miles to a tank if I really tried.
Last tank netted just shy of 850 miles and still had some left in the tank.

My old E91 330d's record was 700 miles and that's out a 63 litre tank which wasn't too shabby!

I reckon an E220 CDI with the optional 80 litre tank would be very hard to beat. (counting a factory option as standard!)

[kambites]

GuyW said:

I reckon an E220 CDI with the optional 80 litre tank would be very hard to beat.

Do you think it could beat the ~1600 miles of the Passat mentioned above?

[romeogolf]

JamesL91 said:

So you want the record furthest based on the smallest tank? What has tank size got to do with it? You asked for the furthest distance traveled for a standard car. Just because it has a bigger tank than the equivalent Golf doesn't exempt it from the rankings.. does it? If so, I think your question is "What the furthest someone can travel in a Golf"

I don't want any 'record' - I was asking about real world conditions. So which car would travel furthest on a single tank based on, I suppose, a tank-size-to-economy ratio. The link your provided, while interesting, wasn't answering the question because, while it was a production car, it was driven specifically to prove how far you could go.

My reference to the Golf was that it states in the article that the Golf uses the same engine, so I was wondering if a Golf had the same size tank and therefore if it would go further. If the Golf uses a lower capacity fuel tank, then it makes sense it may not go as far before running dry. But ultimately I don't car which car it is, I was just curious.

[kambites]

So you're asking what car will go furthest when driven badly?

[GuyW]

kambites said:

Do you think it could beat the ~1600 miles of the Passat mentioned above?

I think driven in such a way it'd be in with a shot. The Hybrid didn't fare too badly under such ridiculous non real world tests...http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/goodwood-festival-speed/mercedes-e-class-e300-hybrid-africa-goodwood-picture-special

[kambites]

I don't understand the "real-world" bit. The Passat was driven on normal public roads by a normal driver. If it had been 1600 miles around a private banked oval I could understand the comment. Obviously there was no stop-start city traffic involved, but once you start mandating certain amounts of that you end up with something contrived like the NDEC cycle.

[GuyW]

kambites said:

I don't understand the "real-world" bit. The Passat was driven on normal public roads by a normal driver. If it had been 1600 miles around a private banked oval I could understand the comment.

Because it'll have been driven no doubt with all the electrics off, no air con, at a low ish speed, which doesn't reflect at all how it'll get driven in real life.

[Encantada]

737 miles from 11 gallons in my A3 2.0tdi, but that took a lot of work to get that far....12 gallon tank ordinarily.


K

[kambites]

GuyW said:

Because it'll have been driven no doubt with all the electrics off, no air con, at a low ish speed, which doesn't reflect at all how it'll get driven in real life.

Well yes, but that's how you drive to get decent economy. Asking what car is most economical then forcing it to be driven in an uneconomical manner is a bit odd; you could probably get any one of a hundred cars to come top depending on exactly how you define the test.

[mrmr96]

kambites said:

I don't understand the "real-world" bit. The Passat was driven on normal public roads by a normal driver. If it had been 1600 miles around a private banked oval I could understand the comment.

I do get the real world bit. The record breaking passat would have been driven with low fuel consumption as the number one priority. In the 'real world' people don't tend to drive around trying to max their distance at the expense of everything else, they are usually trying to get somewhere. This means that by necessity their journey will include some suboptimal driving, be that junctions/minor roads etc.

A test track is one thing, I agree. But also you must recongnise the difference between a passat driven for a world record vs a car being used for normal SDP purposes?

[GuyW]

kambites said:

Well yes, but that's how you drive to get decent economy. Asking what car is most economical then forcing it to be driven in an uneconomical manner is a bit odd; you could probably get any one of a hundred cars to come top depending on exactly how you define the test.

I get that, but you wouldn't sacrifice every mod con on the car, and be quite so 'economical' with the driving styles, nor sit at 50 ish mph on motorways.

[kambites]

That strikes me as being rather like complaining that 0-60 times are measured when someone is trying to accelerate fast which most drivers don't do in real life. Should we quote all 0-60 times as being about 40 seconds because that's how long it takes most drivers to accelerate to 60 if they aren't in a hurry?

ETA: I do agree that knowing how cars do in terms of economy under different conditions would be interesting, but ultimately the only way to measure that is for the person who will be buying the car to drive it, because everyone has different driving styles and drives in different situations.

Edited by kambites on Sunday 2nd November 17:00

[mrmr96]

kambites said:

That strikes me as being rather like complaining that 0-60 times are measured when someone is trying to accelerate fast which most drivers don't do in real life. Should we quote all 0-60 times as being about 40 seconds because that's how long it takes most drivers to accelerate to 60 if they aren't in a hurry?

ETA: I do agree that knowing how cars do in terms of economy under different conditions would be interesting, but ultimately the only way to measure that is for the person who will be buying the car to drive it, because everyone has different driving styles and drives in different situations.

Edited by kambites on Sunday 2nd November 17:00

I think we have a different understanding of this thread. If you want the answer to "which car can achieve the highest mileage per tank" then the answer is probably that passat. But I though this thread was just asking about the experiences of the cars and owners on this website?

[shoehorn]

kambites said:

,because everyone has different driving styles and drives in different situations.

Edited by kambites on Sunday 2nd November 17:00

My cousin runs about 25 8-wheel tippers and says when he has a multi-load job it highlights the better drivers as he has maybe 3-4 wagons running together,identical units but all returning different fuel usage.
He has even swapped the best performing driver,fuel wise into the worst performing truck from the previous day to prove the point and uses the best performing drivers for the longer hauls.
It supports your theory and one I agree with.