ford focus / VW Golf - ford focus petrol manual vs VW Golf diesel auto

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
What is life like with your car? Let us know and win £500 in John Lewis vouchers | No thanks
View Threaded
Sun 6 Jun 2010 03:50
ford focus / VW Golf - ford focus petrol manual vs VW Golf diesel auto - eustace

Hi,

I am trying to decide between a ford focus petrol manual vs a VW Golf diesel auto.

The disadvantage with the focus (1.6) is that it is supposed to give an mpg of only 30-32 on the motorway at near 70 mph.

I will be doing significant amount of motorway miles.

Does anyone know what sort of mileage I can expect from a VW Golf 1.9 diesel auto on motorway journeys at sustained speeds of near 70 mph?

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 6 Jun 2010 09:09
ford focus / VW Golf - ford focus petrol manual vs VW Golf diesel auto - daveyjp

I could get 40+ mpg from a Focus 1.8 on long motorway trips. Where is your 32 figure from?

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 6 Jun 2010 10:32
ford focus / VW Golf - ford focus petrol manual vs VW Golf diesel auto - eustace

I got these figures from the which review of the Ford Focus. The motorway mpg figures for the focus 1.6 is 30.7 mpg. The 1.8 returns a higher mileage of 34 mpg. But in all non-motorway driving the 1.6 is siginificantly more efficient than the 1.8.

These figures are also in line with the figures given in HJ's car by car review of the toyota corolla. The motorway mileage is stated to be only 34 mpg, because of the absence of a 6th gear.

Any idea what kind of mpg a VW golf diesel auto returns on motorway driving?

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 6 Jun 2010 11:00
ford focus / VW Golf - ford focus petrol manual vs VW Golf diesel auto - eustace

Just saw this interesting link.

http://www.focusautoclub.com/fuel-economy-2

One of the posters claim to get 40-43 mpg on motorway driving from a ford focus 1.6 auto.

Does this mean that an auto transmission returns better fuel economy for motorway journeys? This is all the more surprising, because if the reason for low mpg on motorways is the absence of a 6th gear, it should affect auto boxes even more, because they would typically have only 4 gears as opposed to the 5 on a manual.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link