# 2013 Beetle TDI Fuel Mileage?



## JDSnead (Apr 10, 2011)

We just got our 2013 Beetle TDI w/DSG.

The first tank averaged 33 mpg in all city driving.

What kind of fuel numbers are others seeing?


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## Beets (Sep 22, 2012)

I'm averaging 30 in town and nearly 36 highway in my 2012 2.5L.


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## Pelican18TQA4 (Dec 13, 2000)

33 mpg for all-city driving sounds about right. My lifetime average for my '05 New Beetle TDI DSG was mid-30s. Lifetime average for my '09 Jetta TDI 6-speed was 38 mpg. Some people get crazy mileage out of the TDI, but personal driving style, local traffic patterns, local elevation changes, etc. all affect what you actually get.


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## djmatte (Sep 16, 2012)

My combined average sits at 44.6. Now granted my driving habits are about 80/20 hwy city respectively. I typically keep RPMs as low as possible in town...always in a high gear but i drive stick. Hwy i never go above 70 and accelerate pretty reasonably.


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## JDSnead (Apr 10, 2011)

djmatte said:


> My combined average sits at 44.6. Now granted my driving habits are about 80/20 hwy city respectively. I typically keep RPMs as low as possible in town...always in a high gear but i drive stick. Hwy i never go above 70 and accelerate pretty reasonably.


 Is this a new diesel Beetle?


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## djmatte (Sep 16, 2012)

Late reply here...but yes this is my 2013 beetle tdi.


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## Front Runner (Nov 29, 2012)

djmatte said:


> My combined average sits at 44.6. Now granted my driving habits are about 80/20 hwy city respectively. I typically keep RPMs as low as possible in town...always in a high gear but i drive stick. Hwy i never go above 70 and accelerate pretty reasonably.


 Is your mileage hand calculated? I've been watching Fuelly for the 2013 TDI Beetle on a consistent basis and all are averaging in the mid thirties.


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## djmatte (Sep 16, 2012)

That's off the gauge and personal calculated. i get 545 miles on 12 gallons. I go by 12 because my gauge is under shooting its capacity. When i drive down to the empty line, it only fills 12g. Now that will be different based on driving style. I drive 43 min one way 5 times a week to work...mostly highway with less than 2 miles total non highway. If you drove more more city your mpg may be more in the 30s.


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## MelindaJBZ (Dec 21, 2012)

My first tank gave me 38mpg hand calc. 
Second tank 40.8 comp. calc. Lost receipt


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## JDSnead (Apr 10, 2011)

*Lead Foot*

Well, my wife is getting more confident in her car (read: more aggressive). She had a 2001 New Beetle TDI w/auto, and she felt her new 2013 was "much bigger." 

Now after a thousand mile, she drives with a heavier foot. 

First tank: 32.9mpg 
Second tank: 30.6 
Third tank: 29.5 

Still doesn't get the connection between boost gauge and mpg.:banghead:


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## Chrisho (Dec 1, 2012)

JDSnead said:


> Well, my wife is getting more confident in her car (read: more aggressive). She had a 2001 New Beetle TDI w/auto, and she felt her new 2013 was "much bigger."
> 
> Now after a thousand mile, she drives with a heavier foot.
> 
> ...


 I assume she is driving in town? I am always amazed at how many economy cars, especially hybrids, beat me light to light and my main driver is a Mustang. Anecdotal evidence, the fastest drivers are either young boys or moms.


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## eunos94 (Mar 17, 2002)

Chrisho said:


> I assume she is driving in town? I am always amazed at how many economy cars, especially hybrids, beat me light to light and my main driver is a Mustang. Anecdotal evidence, the fastest drivers are either young boys or moms.


 I drive like typical German. Smooth, slow and even tempered in town. Fast and smooth on the Freeways. Leaving the aggressive hooning behavior often seen by soccer moms to the twisty roads in the mountains. 

This behavior was ingrained in me by growing up in (you guessed it) Germany. One of my earliest memories is of my Uncle taking me to the cabin he rented in the Swiss Alps starting in Frankfurt. This would have been sometime between 1972 and 1973 which meant (providing you avoided rushhour) you could keep the pedal pinned to the carpet for hundreds of miles at a time. As an adult I still try and simulate that feeling of endless speed, roaring wind and that glorious scream coming from that flat 6 running hard north of 7000rpm. 

Long way of saying that my highway mpg are often VERY close to my city miles. I'm getting close to 30mpg in town and 32mpg on the highway... in my 2.5 automatic. I cannot begin to express how relieved I am to NOT have waiting for the TDI. The increased fuel costs, maintenance, insurance and initial buy in are not offset by any really appreciable amount. Seriously 3 to 6 mpg just is not worth it. TDI''s should be setting fuel economy records, be as reliable as death and dead simple. This is the opposite in every way from it's overly complex fuel system that likes to self destruct whilst taking out the rest of the engine in the process to it's horrible fuel economy it's all just a waste. For shame VW. For shame.


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## eunos94 (Mar 17, 2002)

hmmm these pain killers I took a half hour ago are REALLY GOOD. They managed to transform "I get over 30mpg on average in my 2.5" to all that crap I posted up there. :thumbup:


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## drtechy (Jun 3, 2009)

eunos94 said:


> hmmm these pain killers I took a half hour ago are REALLY GOOD. They managed to transform "I get over 30mpg on average in my 2.5" to all that crap I posted up there. :thumbup:


 Lmao

posted by Tapatalk


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## djmatte (Sep 16, 2012)

eunos94 said:


> I drive like typical German. Smooth, slow and even tempered in town. Fast and smooth on the Freeways. Leaving the aggressive hooning behavior often seen by soccer moms to the twisty roads in the mountains.
> 
> This behavior was ingrained in me by growing up in (you guessed it) Germany. One of my earliest memories is of my Uncle taking me to the cabin he rented in the Swiss Alps starting in Frankfurt. This would have been sometime between 1972 and 1973 which meant (providing you avoided rushhour) you could keep the pedal pinned to the carpet for hundreds of miles at a time. As an adult I still try and simulate that feeling of endless speed, roaring wind and that glorious scream coming from that flat 6 running hard north of 7000rpm.
> 
> Long way of saying that my highway mpg are often VERY close to my city miles. I'm getting close to 30mpg in town and 32mpg on the highway... in my 2.5 automatic. I cannot begin to express how relieved I am to NOT have waiting for the TDI. The increased fuel costs, maintenance, insurance and initial buy in are not offset by any really appreciable amount. Seriously 3 to 6 mpg just is not worth it. TDI''s should be setting fuel economy records, be as reliable as death and dead simple. This is the opposite in every way from it's overly complex fuel system that likes to self destruct whilst taking out the rest of the engine in the process to it's horrible fuel economy it's all just a waste. For shame VW. For shame.


 I'm getting at least 10mpg combined more than your 2.5. Even with the higher cost of diesel, *gas would have to be less than 2$ a gallon and diesel stay at 4 to ever justify a switch back. If you drove more city then you'd be better off in a hybrid...not a diesel.


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## Chrisho (Dec 1, 2012)

eunos94 said:


> hmmm these pain killers I took a half hour ago are REALLY GOOD. They managed to transform "I get over 30mpg on average in my 2.5" to all that crap I posted up there. :thumbup:


 I use fueleconomy.gov to track the mileage of all the cars I have owned. This includes a few Miatas, Golf TDI, my current 6sp 6cyl Mustang (2013), and far too many others. The Miatas over the life both averaged 29, the Golf 41, and the Mustang 25. Only cars I never had real luck with was the Murano or G35...


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## eunos94 (Mar 17, 2002)

Chrisho said:


> I use fueleconomy.gov to track the mileage of all the cars I have owned. This includes a few Miatas, Golf TDI, my current 6sp 6cyl Mustang (2013), and far too many others. The Miatas over the life both averaged 29, the Golf 41, and the Mustang 25. Only cars I never had real luck with was the Murano or G35...


 I just use a little spiral notebook. I've assigned one to every car I've ever owned and toss it in the glove compartment. 

My 1994 Miata 5 speed B package never exceeded 29mpg regardless of conditions and at it's worst which included about 20 laps of Mid-Ohio was 17mpg. God I miss that car it was just so perfect. 

My 2000 1.8T GLX Beetle worst was 14.56mpg and best was 36mpg but averaged 27mpg highway and 24 city with my normal driving.


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## MelindaJBZ (Dec 21, 2012)

MelindaJBZ said:


> My first tank gave me 38mpg hand calc.
> Second tank 40.8 comp. calc. Lost receipt


After a couple more tanks I have a hand calc. average of 39mpg with an individual tank high of 40.4mpg. 75% highway but with some very cold very windy days and plenty of days just idling in traffic jams for 30- 90 mins. I bet my spring mpgs will be so much better.


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## SaberOne (Apr 1, 2012)

djmatte said:


> That's off the gauge and personal calculated. i get 545 miles on 12 gallons. I go by 12 because my gauge is under shooting its capacity. When i drive down to the empty line, it only fills 12g. Now that will be different based on driving style. I drive 43 min one way 5 times a week to work...mostly highway with less than 2 miles total non highway. If you drove more more city your mpg may be more in the 30s.


I've had my 2013 TDI with A/T for about a month but I haven't been able to establish a baseline due to out-of-town trips and partial fill-ups'. However, yesterday I let the needle nearly peg flat and filled it up with 13.5 gallons. Hopefully this will allow me to get a good reading wereby my driving is about 75/25 highway/city. It may not pan out as well as some, as our freeway speed is 75 and I can run at 82~83 without a hassle. 

Sidebar: I was actually reluctant to buy the TDI simply because my 2007 Passat Sport with the 2.0 TSI looked like new with only 70k. However, it was a complete dog and underpowered for the size of the chassis and I hated it from day one. Likewise, the air conditioner never really seem to cool the car being black on black in the Arizona heat. :facepalm: 

Prior to that I had a 2005 1/2 fully loaded Jetta with the 2.5 A/T but I ran that damn thing into the ground (33k in 13-months). It was a much better car 'functionally' than the Passat and frankly, I should've held on to it. Still, with fule prices going to new highs' with our lovely president, I'm now Ok with signing that big fat loan for the new bug. eace:


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## Re2st (Feb 23, 2013)

Driving back from Riverside to San Jose (yes, I drove 800 miles round trip to get my 2013 TDI Convertible), the first tank averaged me 40.5.

3/4 left on the second tank, I averaged 34.5 with around 50-50 city/highway.


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## GLiscio (Jul 27, 2013)

First 1,000 miles. Averaging about 41 mpg. Manual trans; mostly interstate driving. Will be down-shifting a bit more aggressively now that the first 1,000 miles have been passed. 

Don't like to keep the RPM's below 2K as I think it contributes to carbon buildup in the cylinders.


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## 1958 harry (Jul 12, 2013)

Im averaging 58-65mpg out of my 2.0tdi with 6sp manual trans.

My cars done approx 10.6k miles


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## RedBugD (Jul 14, 2013)

I typically get 40 to 45 mpg in the convertible.
The most I have gotten on a tank was 49. The least was 40.

DSG.

Last fill up was 43.9mpg


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## harveyJ (Jun 22, 2007)

In 6 speed TDI Beetle convertible that's about 6 weeks old, I'm getting read-out of 49-50 MPG on highway, and about 44 MPG on local roads (not really city). Actual milage is a couple/few MPG less than the computer says it is. (Is that normal?)

I also notice that the mileage is much better or worse depending on elevation. On my daily commute of 13 miles using local roads, I consistently get 51 MPG one way, and 36 MPG on the way back, regardless of the route I take. It isn't a matter of traffic. One way I go from an elevation of 800 feet to 100 feet. On the return, it's going from an elevation of 100 feet to 800 feet. I'm surprised it makes that large of difference over 13 miles, but it must.


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## MelindaJBZ (Dec 21, 2012)

MelindaJBZ said:


> After a couple more tanks I have a hand calc. average of 39mpg with an individual tank high of 40.4mpg. 75% highway but with some very cold very windy days and plenty of days just idling in traffic jams for 30- 90 mins. I bet my spring mpgs will be so much better.


Now having Ferdinand for 7 months I can update my average MPGs. 70% highway/30% city since hubby is taking it to work on weekends now.

Hand calculated:

39.9 average
42.2 best


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