[Vwdiesel] Final report on towing trip with New 2004 Passat TDI

[TexasTDI]

28mpg towing 1400lbs with an automatic transmission...very impressive!

Lately I've begun towing a 5 x 10 trailer with my son's motorcycle on it.  I
estimate I'm getting about 32mpg towing vs. 45mpg without the trailer.  And
this is with a chipped 5 speed.  But I should add this is at 70mph with the
A/C on.  I'm not complaining, though.  If I bought a diesel truck, I'd only
be getting about 22mpg at best.  And a gasser truck would be even worse.

Christopher J. Thornton
1991 VW Jetta 2 Door 1.6 Diesel - 242k miles
2000 VW Golf 1.9TDI (turbo diesel) - 104k miles
AMSOIL Synthetic Lubricants Dealer #1098500
http://www.amsoil.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Hayden Chasteen" <dieseltdi at earthlink.net>
To: <audi-VW-Diesels at yahoogroups.com>; "vW diesel mail list"
<vwdiesel at www.audifans.com>; "VW TDI Mail List" <vw-tdi at onelist.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2004 8:22 PM
Subject: [Vwdiesel] Final report on towing trip with New 2004 Passat TDI


> Well we made it home on Sunday but I have been catching up on many
> things.  Just wanted to update everyone on the overall performance of
> the Passat pulling my 1400 lbs trailer.  As I said before, the car went
> up every mountain pass that it was asked to go up with out complaining
> and with out loosing any speed even while on cruise control.  The
> highest pass we went over was Pipestone near Butte at a bit over 6300
> feet and we passed cars going up!  On many occasions, on mountain
> roads, people moved over into the slow lane or into the slow vehicle
> pulloffs to let ME pass!  Me in a diesel car pulling a trailer!  Wow am
> I ever impresses with the PD engine and the Tiptronic set up in the
> Passat.  We drove a total of 6498 miles and consumed 232 gallons of
> diesel fuel for an overall fuel economy of 28 mpg.  Highest mpg with
> the trailer on the car actually worked out to 32 and the lowest was 24.
>   Lowest mpgs were when climbing and going into a head wind.  I always
> drove between  60 and 65 mph despite speed limits up to 75 in a few
> states.  I just don't feel safe pulling a trailer at speeds above 65.
> We saw one guy jackknifed in the ditch in Missouri and judging from the
> skid marks on the road, he must have been going well in excess of 70
> (the posted speed limit) when he lost it.  Luckily, they ended up in
> the ditch with out turning either the car or trailer over.  Now that
> the car is thoroughly broken in (anther 800 miles and it will get its
> second oil change at 10000 miles) I want to take it on the road with
> out the trailer to see what it can do. BTW the trip was generally
> without incident.  Only two things happened: on the second day, a large
> pheasant in Nebraska took out my grill and grill emblem (and NO we
> didn't eat the road kill).  Luckily it wasn't a foot higher or it would
> have gone through the windshield at 65 mph.  The second incident was a
> flat on the camper at 60 mph.  Once again no real problems.  That is
> about all I guess.  hayden