Slower Speed Does Work

A few weeks back one of my son-in-laws sent me a link about the mileage a diesel VW Passat achieved on a trip from Houston, Texas to Sterling, VA.  The couple that drove the car on this trip made it on one tank of fuel and got over 80 miles per gallon.  The key they said was driving at a speed of no more than 60 miles per hour and keeping the car in sixth gear.

The wheels in my head started turning.  Since I drive the interstate quiet a bit, I thought I would give that a try.  I started by setting my cruise control at 60 and watched as the other drivers zoomed by me.  They were probably saying, "speed it up you ole geezer."  So to ignore the speed thing I just listened to satellite radio and zoned out on the music. 

Since I have to drive about 60 miles each way it was going to take a couple of days for this Jetta diesel to get to the point where I could refuel.  Normally I average about 43 to 44 miles per gallon on a tank of fuel. 

Notice the mileage reading of 429.3 in the bottom right corner of the red data screen and below the mileage is the fuel gauge. The fuel gauge is registering about 3/8ths of a tank of fuel.  The mileage also includes around town trips so I knew the mileage was going to be lower than I wanted.

After filling up I figured my miles per gallon and had achieved 48.4 miles per gallon.  The next test will come when I take an extended trip on the interstate for a non-stop trip other than to purchase fuel.  Update to follow in the future.