Audi A4 - V6 diesel or 2.0 Petrol
Audi A4 - V6 diesel or 2.0 Petrol
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Discussion

Condi

Original Poster:

20,146 posts

199 months

Monday 3rd October 2022
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Does anyone have any experience or opinion on the engine options for an A4? The "performance" versions (excluding S4/RS4) are a V6 diesel in 2 states of tune, or a 2.0 petrol with 250hp. Both options are only offered in Quattro, with automatic S-Tronic gear boxes. The diesel appears to do slightly more MPG, especially around town (although who knows exactly what to make of Audi economy figures) while on the motorway they are both about the same. I'm probably leaning towards the diesel for the torque and economy - driving is short journeys followed by occasional long (2-3hr) motorway hacks.

ZX10R NIN

30,422 posts

153 months

Monday 3rd October 2022
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The answer depends on your usage if you're doing mainly short trips then it's the petrol, if you do more medium to long trips then the 3.0tdi is the pick.

Shiv_P

3,020 posts

133 months

Thursday 6th October 2022
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How often are the 2-3hr motorway hacks?

shtu

4,402 posts

174 months

Thursday 6th October 2022
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Condi said:
economy - driving is short journeys followed by occasional long (2-3hr) motorway hacks.
The diesel can gve single-figure mpg in stop-start traffic, it is very definitely NOT economical around town, and it's not really an economy engine in any use. I averaged 35ish in an A6 with the same engine, so expect similar, the running gear is the same and the weight isn't all that different.

Between that usage and the now-higher cost of diesel, I'd choose the petrol one.

Condi

Original Poster:

20,146 posts

199 months

Thursday 6th October 2022
quotequote all
shtu said:
The diesel can gve single-figure mpg in stop-start traffic, it is very definitely NOT economical around town, and it's not really an economy engine in any use. I averaged 35ish in an A6 with the same engine, so expect similar, the running gear is the same and the weight isn't all that different.
Really, that poor?

Officially the 218hp version does 60mpg in mixed driving, and while that's nonsense, on Honest John's real world MPG it gets an average of 47mpg which would be fine. The petrol, by comparison, only gets 32mpg. Looking at previous cars the Honest John site is roughly in line with what I was getting. It's surprising you were getting such low figures.

HelldogBE

285 posts

71 months

Thursday 6th October 2022
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Condi said:
Really, that poor?

Officially the 218hp version does 60mpg in mixed driving, and while that's nonsense, on Honest John's real world MPG it gets an average of 47mpg which would be fine. The petrol, by comparison, only gets 32mpg. Looking at previous cars the Honest John site is roughly in line with what I was getting. It's surprising you were getting such low figures.
Those 3.0L diesel lumps take a lot of energy to warm up. Expect 30mpg or less for the first 5 miles.
The 2.0L petrol unit also tends to run smoother (less vibrations, noise), especially when cold.

There's also the issue of the DPF needing to regenerate regularly. Are the long runs at least once every 2 weeks?

eleveneleven

163 posts

63 months

Friday 7th October 2022
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I had the 3.0D 218 for 3 years it's a fantastic engine! Quiet (you can't tell its a diesel) smooth as silk, plenty of low down grunt it's effortless. drives better than the 2.0 IMO which I also had for a few days when mine was in for a repair (sound system failure) Theyre both smooth units but the V6 diesel sounds better when pushed and has more power.

I got early 40's mpg from the diesel, mainly town driving with the occasional motorway trip. Only had the dpf light come on once in 3 years. A 40 mile motorway blast cleared it up.

Would highly recommend over the 2.0

Edited by eleveneleven on Friday 7th October 12:12