Golf TDI Makes Lap of US on $300 of Diesel
Volkswagen’s Golf TDI traveled more than 8,200 miles around the lower 48 states on less than $300 of diesel in 16 days, the automaker said today.
The 16-day trip around the U.S. set a narrowly-defined world record for “lowest fuel consumption — 48 U.S. contiguous States non-hybrid car” by averaging 81.17 mpg in the Golf TDI. The car was driven by automotive journalist Wayne Gerdes and electronics engineer Bob Winger.
Quick math: If the duo averaged 15 hours of driving per day, the pair managed an average speed of 34.306 mph throughout the entire journey.
The record attempt improved on the 2013 mark set by a Volkswagen Passat TDI, also driven by Gerdes, which managed 77.99 mpg in a round-trip run of the U.S.
“Volkswagen’s TDI Clean Diesel engines are just amazing,” Wayne Gerdes said in a statement. “I don’t think people realize the potential mileage you can get from them. In our experience, it is possible to get truly impressive mileage results by using just a few simple fuel-saving techniques.”
Although the latest record run set the mark for a run around the U.S., it still fell short of a 2013 mpg record set by an Australian couple driving from Texas to Virginia. John and Helen Taylor managed 84.1 mpg in their 1,626-mile drive in a Volkswagen Passat TDI.
More by Aaron Cole
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Publicity stunt. Who cares what mileage you can get by driving in a completely impractical manner? Why not just helicopter the car to the top of a mountain and coast down for 10 miles and report that mileage? It's equally practical to what these clowns did.
Did they run the return trip and reported the average consumption, that's the generally-accepted testing standard, right?