T6 Beach fuel consumption.

[Borris]

Greetings fellow T6 Beach owners,
We own a long term 2019 seven seat T6 150ps dsg Beach which we have had from new. Being low miles for the year, at 13000 miles it's probably still tight and barely run in so the mpg figures may improve as the mileage increases. As we have other vehicles, we rarely use it for short trips and when we do take it out, I usually drive it for fifteen to twenty minutes of the trip (once up to full running temperature) at circa 3000rpm to force clean the DPF. It's just my regular maintenance regime. My driving style is smooth and relaxed so I rarely go much over 60-65mph even on motorways or 50mph on B roads.

Now here's my question. What mpg are you fellow Beach owners getting when referring to the average mpg reading on the dash ? Yes, I know a brim to brim test would be more accurate but I am not that bothered to go through all that faff.

The reason I ask is that it doesn't seem to make any difference what speed or loading the vehicle has, it always seems to show an average of around 34.6 mpg. Frankly, if it never improves from this figure it won't be an issue but a recent holiday trip to Gatwick airport got me thinking. We live near Canterbury so when going to Gatwick to catch a plane I never use the motorways. Someone only has to sneeze and you could be stuck for hours thereby missing your flight. So I always go cross country which is a good two hour drive through twisting B roads. As usual we had four adults, three children 9, 12 and 13, along with luggage on board. It showed 34.6 mpg. On the way back with the same load plus a few bottles of duty free, I used the motorway all the way home doing 60-70mph on cruise control for most of the way. It showed 34.6 mpg again. When not in seven seat mode the van only has five seats with the slide out tray, fridge, kitchen and camping equipment always loaded. Under those circs, again it usually shows around 34.6 mpg. Now for a largish bluff shaped vehicle weighing the best part of 3 tonnes, 34.6mpg isn't bad at all but I am curious as to why that figure rarely fluctuates far from that average. I must add that I have never driven the vehicle with one eye on the average mpg. In other words, I haven't tried to improve that figure by changing my driving style.

One final note. Most of the fuel used has been BP Ultimate diesel although I did use diesel van ordinaire whilst the prices were super silly.

All comments welcomed.

 

[CannonDale]

There are two averages, one is for the life of the vehicle the other is for your journey, look at the display and you will see in the top right under the solid line 1 or 2 if you switch between the two you will see a different average fig.

 

[Kayleigh]

Yes No2 is the long term average. My Beach was reset in June and when I checked it yesterday it was 35.2 mpg. On each journey it does vary a bit. Yesterday I got 33mpg over a 100 mile trip (1 up) and today 39mpg (3 up). My driving style is probably similar to yours @Borris.
I have put the differences down to the weather - wind speed and direction.

 

[Lambeth Cali]

My 2008 174 T5 is shockingly bad. I rarely get much north of 30mpg. Possibly too much 130kph.

I finally clocked past 60,000 miles and it was almost like a switch had been flicked. Got 39mpg at half term. Possibly caused by Wales 50 then 60 speed limits.

(I thought the No2 figure was for the last 1000 miles, not life of the vehicle, in my T5)

 

[Borris]

Thank you both.

I have learnt something from your posts. I'm terrible at remembering this sort of function detail. It wouldn't be so bad but this is the second T6 Beach we have owned! In fairness to myself, I may have read about the two settings in the hand book sometime ago, but have clearly either forgotten or it didn't sink in. That hand book isn't the most riveting of reads.

Having had many VW group vehicles before I just assumed the two settings indicated instant mpg and average mpg readings. Usually, I just get in and drive and don't look at the mpg.

Many thanks. I'll check out the second setting the next time we have it out on the road.

 

[Borris]

My 2008 174 T5 is shockingly bad. I rarely get much north of 30mpg. Possibly too much 130kph.

I finally clocked past 60,000 miles and it was almost like a switch had been flicked. Got 39mpg at half term. Possibly caused by Wales 50 then 60 speed limits.

(I thought the No2 figure was for the last 1000 miles, not life of the vehicle, in my T5)

I have owned a good number of new or nearly VW group vehicles over the years and I usually didn't notice much of an mpg improvement until the vehicle had done at least 20,000miles, sometimes a lot more. From my experience, they are really only properly run in at 100,000 miles plus.

I shall have to wait and see with our Beach.

 

[WelshGas]

There are two averages, one is for the life of the vehicle the other is for your journey, look at the display and you will see in the top right under the solid line 1 or 2 if you switch between the two you will see a different average fig.

Yes No2 is the long term average. My Beach was reset in June and when I checked it yesterday it was 35.2 mpg. On each journey it does vary a bit. Yesterday I got 33mpg over a 100 mile trip (1 up) and today 39mpg (3 up). My driving style is probably similar to yours @Borris.
I have put the differences down to the weather - wind speed and direction.

Thank you both.

I have learnt something from your posts. I'm terrible at remembering this sort of function detail. It wouldn't be so bad but this is the second T6 Beach we have owned! In fairness to myself, I may have read about the two settings in the hand book sometime ago, but have clearly either forgotten or it didn't sink in. That hand book isn't the most riveting of reads.

Having had many VW group vehicles before I just assumed the two settings indicated instant mpg and average mpg readings. Usually, I just get in and drive and don't look at the mpg.

Many thanks. I'll check out the second setting the next time we have it out on the road.

Setting 2 is average fuel consumption over 20,000 miles. It resets every 20,000 miles. At least it does on the T5.1.

All in the Handbook.

 

[rod_vw]

First rule for comparing / calculating your fuel consumption is to ignore the display on the dash, as a rule of thumb these figures are always on the optimistic side on some vehicles by as much as 10%. Our T5.1 was on the high side by almost 10% whereas our current T6 is about 5% up.
The only way to be sure is to constantly record all the fuel put in the tank and calculate the consumption against the miles that you cover. Even then you are relying on the odometer being accurate which I doubt many are.

Our current T6 is a LWB High Roof 140bhp (yes an early T6) which has covered 81,000 miles since we bought it new. Fuel consumption calculated as above works out at a whisker under 35MPG over that mileage, always filling with the cheapest diesel that we can source where ever we have been in the UK or Europe.

That being so I consider that a journey average shown on the dash display should always be 37MPG or over to maintain a real average of 35MPG (37 - 5% = 35.15).

 

[WelshGas]

First rule for comparing / calculating your fuel consumption is to ignore the display on the dash, as a rule of thumb these figures are always on the optimistic side on some vehicles by as much as 10%. Our T5.1 was on the high side by almost 10% whereas our current T6 is about 5% up.
The only way to be sure is to constantly record all the fuel put in the tank and calculate the consumption against the miles that you cover. Even then you are relying on the odometer being accurate which I doubt many are.

Our current T6 is a LWB High Roof 140bhp (yes an early T6) which has covered 81,000 miles since we bought it new. Fuel consumption calculated as above works out at a whisker under 35MPG over that mileage, always filling with the cheapest diesel that we can source where ever we have been in the UK or Europe.

That being so I consider that a journey average shown on the dash display should always be 37MPG or over to maintain a real average of 35MPG (37 - 5% = 35.15).

I Agree and Disagree.
If you are into monitoring your fuel consumption as accurately as you can, without specialist equipment then full tank to full tank is the most accurate bearing in mind that odometer can be upto 10% inaccurate and will vary overtime as tyres wear and the rolling circumference varies.
But the MFD will indicate changes in engine performance over time and is a simple way to indicate when further investigation may be needed.

 

[rod_vw]

I Agree and Disagree.
If you are into monitoring your fuel consumption as accurately as you can, without specialist equipment then full tank to full tank is the most accurate bearing in mind that odometer can be upto 10% inaccurate and will vary overtime as tyres wear and the rolling circumference varies.
But the MFD will indicate changes in engine performance over time and is a simple way to indicate when further investigation may be needed.

Yes WG I can't disagree with your comments but I did say "Even then you are relying on the odometer being accurate which I doubt many are."
However when taken over an extended period 'full tank to full tank' is in my opinion the best the layperson can do to establish a reasonably accurate average fuel consumption of a vehicle. Short term fuel consumption figures are skewed by road conditions, wind strength and direction, ambient temperature, traffic speed, light or heavy acceleration, etc. so need to be taken very lightly. I travel a specific three miles from home very regularly and know that the readout on the dash can vary by anything up to five MPG at the end point the reasons for which I have never discovered.

 

[Borris]

As the OP, my question has been answered. I had been looking at the average fuel consumption figure over a 20,000 mile cycle and not the other setting which apparently tells you the average mpg for that journey. I was merely curious as to why the mpg figure on the dash never seemed to change regardless of how the vehicle is driven and/or what load it had. Now I know. It was a simple case of pilot error or rather pilot ignorance.

I am not that interested in the vehicles fuel consumption to carry out regular accurate brim to brim calculations. The rough indication given by the dash settings is more than good enough. I bought the vehicle as a long term ownership proposition and knowing exactly what mpg it's returning won't change anything. So far the vehicle has averaged 3250 miles per year so fuel consumption isn't an issue.

 

[sidepod]

Seems odd to worry about fuel consumption and yet always buy the most expensive fuel you can get. I don’t mean premium over standard but BP in general.

 

[rod_vw]

Seems odd to worry about fuel consumption and yet always buy the most expensive fuel you can get. I don’t mean premium over standard but BP in general.

I totally agree. I only commented to my wife as we passed a BP station a couple of days ago that I couldn't understand why the public didn't boycott them completely due to their outrageous profiteering prices.

In fifty five years of motoring in all types of vehicle I have always used the cheapest available fuel be it petrol or diesel and never found it detrimental to any of my vehicles.

However Mr Wallet always says "Thank you".

 

[RoB5urf]

2017 Beach DSG 150 here, ~45K miles on the clock. I'm disappointed if the dash reading is less than 40mpg at the end of any trip. I tend to drive up to the speed limits but try to avoid heavy braking and acceleration.

Most of my trips are at least 30 mins long, and many include an element of motorway driving. In those circumstances is it necessary to 'force' a regen by driving with higher revs? It occurred to me the other day that I haven't heard the post-trip/engine-off regen kick-in for a while.

 

[Borris]

Seems odd to worry about fuel consumption and yet always buy the most expensive fuel you can get. I don’t mean premium over standard but BP in general.

If you are referring to my posts then you have misunderstood. I am in no way worried about fuel consumption. It isn't something I usually think about. I thought I had made that clear.

My original post was merely a query as to why the mpg figure never seemed to change and not about what mpg the vehicle was acheiving. Most of the time that screen isn't showing on the dash. For some reason it was on this journey and that got me thinking.

As for using BP Ultimate Diesel, well that is just a personal choice based on their sales blurb.

https://www.bp.com/en_gb/united-kingdom/home/products-and-services/bp-ultimate-fuels/bp-ultimate-diesel-with-active-technology.html

Whether it is better for the engine in the long term remains to be seen. However, why produce the stuff if it has no beneficial effects on engine life over supermarket fuel. BP and others have devoted much research time and money developing better fuels. I am using it to keep the engine in a better internal condition long term. You never know, it could pay me back the extra expense of the fuel by preventing expensive issues further down the line. If it wasn't a long term ownership vehicle, it would be getting supermarket van ordinaire like the rest of our fleet.

As for the extra cost involved in buying BP Ultimate Diesel, well I have never considered it before now. However, a quick calculation shows that if the difference between bog standard supermarket diesel and BP Ultimate diesel is 21.5 ppl then with our annual mileage of 3250, the extra cost of BP Ultimate would be approximately £92 pa. This is little more than the cost of half a tank of fuel and a price I consider worth paying.

Also, not included in this calculation is the extra mpg that BP Ulitmate is supposed to give and also the fact that not every tank fill has been this premium fuel. Some times it's not been available and others it's been so ridiculously expensive as to be off putting.

 

[Kayleigh]

If you are referring to my posts then you have misunderstood. I am in no way worried about fuel consumption. It isn't something I usually think about. I thought I had made that clear.

My original post was merely a query as to why the mpg figure never seemed to change and not about what mpg the vehicle was acheiving. Most of the time that screen isn't showing on the dash. For some reason it was on this journey and that got me thinking.

As for using BP Ultimate Diesel, well that is just a personal choice based on their sales blurb.

https://www.bp.com/en_gb/united-kingdom/home/products-and-services/bp-ultimate-fuels/bp-ultimate-diesel-with-active-technology.html

Whether it is better for the engine in the long term remains to be seen. However, why produce the stuff if it has no beneficial effects on engine life over supermarket fuel. BP and others have devoted much research time and money developing better fuels. I am using it to keep the engine in a better internal condition long term. You never know, it could pay me back the extra expense of the fuel by preventing expensive issues further down the line. If it wasn't a long term ownership vehicle, it would be getting supermarket van ordinaire like the rest of our fleet.

As for the extra cost involved in buying BP Ultimate Diesel, well I have never considered it before now. However, a quick calculation shows that if the difference between bog standard supermarket diesel and BP Ultimate diesel is 21.5 ppl then with our annual mileage of 3250, the extra cost of BP Ultimate would be approximately £92 pa. This is little more than the cost of half a tank of fuel and a price I consider worth paying.

Also not mentioned in this calculation is the extra mpg that BP Ulitmate is supposed to give and also the fact that not every tank fill has been this premium fuel. Some times it's not been available and others it's been so ridiculously expensive as to be off putting.

Yes, I thought part of the attraction of BP Ultimate was additional mpg. Have you seen any real difference? In terms of engine longevity, I would think this is more down to regular oil changes than fuel, although I have no proof of that, so just my opinion

 

[Borris]

Yes, I thought part of the attraction of BP Ultimate was additional mpg. Have you seen any real difference? In terms of engine longevity, I would think this is more down to regular oil changes than fuel, although I have no proof of that, so just my opinion

BP's claim that their Ultimate Diesel increases mpg isn't the reason I use it. I don't doubt their claim but haven't carried out any checks to confirm it. Apart from the aforementioned observation/query re the mpg not changing on the dash read out, I don't really monitor fuel consumption at all. When it needs fuel every couple of months, I fill it up. Unless the gauge started to drop quicker that usual I doubt if I ever would.

No, it's BP Ultimate's additives which BP claim, keeps the engines internals clean and working more efficiently that drives me to use it. Now some may claim that these super diesels are not worth the extra premium and what do I know, I'm not a petrochemist, they could be right. However, there are very many articles that detail their benefits. Here's just one picked at random.

Premium diesel and premium unleaded - are they worth it?

Do premium diesel and premium unleaded petrol give you extra performance and economy, and are they worth it? The Car Expert investigates.

www.thecarexpert.co.uk

Having owned this Beach from new with the intention of keeping it long term, paying an extra £90 pa for BP Ulitmate premium Diesel in order to keep the engine and fuel system working at peak efficiency seems to me to be a price worth paying. Who knows, as well as keeping the engine healthy and smooth in the mean time, its use may well save me some big bills after the warranty has expired.

 

[karliskarelkovs]

So thought to share my experience from owning our T6 Beach 150ps DSG.
I stick to 60-65mph on the motorways and I can confirm that it makes a massive difference in mpg in comparison to 70-75mph.
Another observation I have done is that using cruise control generally makes it worse - I have not done a deep dive on how coasting works, but just from the panel alone I noticed that a similar journey with cruise control on will be around 40mpg whereas by not using it, it will be closer to 45mpg.

However, since it is very rare that the whole tank is driven just on the motorway, I think 35mpg sounds about right for the volume, mass and engine.
Here are screenshots from the app I use and can recommend - Road Trip LE; it gives you a good idea of overall mpg as well as cost per mile
My readings are from 12,177 miles and on average it has worked out as 36.24mpg and this is the real world consumption in my case.

 

[rod_vw]

So thought to share my experience from owning our T6 Beach 150ps DSG.
I stick to 60-65mph on the motorways and I can confirm that it makes a massive difference in mpg in comparison to 70-75mph.
Another observation I have done is that using cruise control generally makes it worse - I have not done a deep dive on how coasting works, but just from the panel alone I noticed that a similar journey with cruise control on will be around 40mpg whereas by not using it, it will be closer to 45mpg.

However, since it is very rare that the whole tank is driven just on the motorway, I think 35mpg sounds about right for the volume, mass and engine.
Here are screenshots from the app I use and can recommend - Road Trip LE; it gives you a good idea of overall mpg as well as cost per mile
My readings are from 12,177 miles and on average it has worked out as 36.24mpg and this is the real world consumption in my case.

Very comparable with mine at 35.0722mpg over 81,000 miles especially as mine is a LWB high roof albeit a manual 140ps.

 

[Greg&Mel Australian Cali]

My T6.1 Beach gets 32 mpg around town and 36 mpg on a trip. It has only 7,000 miles on it after 12 months so a long way from being run in.

 

[Kayleigh]

Just checked the long term mpg in my Beach and it’s saying 35.7, so in the same ballpark.

 

[Celia Vanchez]

Greetings fellow T6 Beach owners,
We own a long term 2019 seven seat T6 150ps dsg Beach which we have had from new. Being low miles for the year, at 13000 miles it's probably still tight and barely run in so the mpg figures may improve as the mileage increases. As we have other vehicles, we rarely use it for short trips and when we do take it out, I usually drive it for fifteen to twenty minutes of the trip (once up to full running temperature) at circa 3000rpm to force clean the DPF. It's just my regular maintenance regime. My driving style is smooth and relaxed so I rarely go much over 60-65mph even on motorways or 50mph on B roads.

Now here's my question. What mpg are you fellow Beach owners getting when referring to the average mpg reading on the dash ? Yes, I know a brim to brim test would be more accurate but I am not that bothered to go through all that faff.

The reason I ask is that it doesn't seem to make any difference what speed or loading the vehicle has, it always seems to show an average of around 34.6 mpg. Frankly, if it never improves from this figure it won't be an issue but a recent holiday trip to Gatwick airport got me thinking. We live near Canterbury so when going to Gatwick to catch a plane I never use the motorways. Someone only has to sneeze and you could be stuck for hours thereby missing your flight. So I always go cross country which is a good two hour drive through twisting B roads. As usual we had four adults, three children 9, 12 and 13, along with luggage on board. It showed 34.6 mpg. On the way back with the same load plus a few bottles of duty free, I used the motorway all the way home doing 60-70mph on cruise control for most of the way. It showed 34.6 mpg again. When not in seven seat mode the van only has five seats with the slide out tray, fridge, kitchen and camping equipment always loaded. Under those circs, again it usually shows around 34.6 mpg. Now for a largish bluff shaped vehicle weighing the best part of 3 tonnes, 34.6mpg isn't bad at all but I am curious as to why that figure rarely fluctuates far from that average. I must add that I have never driven the vehicle with one eye on the average mpg. In other words, I haven't tried to improve that figure by changing my driving style.

One final note. Most of the fuel used has been BP Ultimate diesel although I did use diesel van ordinaire whilst the prices were super silly.

All comments welcomed.

Last year we did a round trip from St Malo to Barcelona and averaged 40mpg for the trip which really surprised me

 

[Parkinjm]

My 2021 Beach Camper is great for mpg on long journeys. To Denmark and return I managed 51 by very careful nursing. On trip from NW England to Southern Spain and back including Pyrenees, I managed 48.5. Round town I tend to get 37-40. However I drive gently and avoid heavy acceleration and braking where possible.

 

[Greg&Mel Australian Cali]

My T6.1 Beach gets 32 mpg around town and 36 mpg on a trip. It has only 7,000 miles on it after 12 months so a long way from being run in.

My 32 to 36 mpg is with a bi-turbo 4motion so I am pretty happy with that.

 

[Docmark]

Greetings fellow T6 Beach owners,
We own a long term 2019 seven seat T6 150ps dsg Beach which we have had from new. Being low miles for the year, at 13000 miles it's probably still tight and barely run in so the mpg figures may improve as the mileage increases. As we have other vehicles, we rarely use it for short trips and when we do take it out, I usually drive it for fifteen to twenty minutes of the trip (once up to full running temperature) at circa 3000rpm to force clean the DPF. It's just my regular maintenance regime. My driving style is smooth and relaxed so I rarely go much over 60-65mph even on motorways or 50mph on B roads.

Now here's my question. What mpg are you fellow Beach owners getting when referring to the average mpg reading on the dash ? Yes, I know a brim to brim test would be more accurate but I am not that bothered to go through all that faff.

The reason I ask is that it doesn't seem to make any difference what speed or loading the vehicle has, it always seems to show an average of around 34.6 mpg. Frankly, if it never improves from this figure it won't be an issue but a recent holiday trip to Gatwick airport got me thinking. We live near Canterbury so when going to Gatwick to catch a plane I never use the motorways. Someone only has to sneeze and you could be stuck for hours thereby missing your flight. So I always go cross country which is a good two hour drive through twisting B roads. As usual we had four adults, three children 9, 12 and 13, along with luggage on board. It showed 34.6 mpg. On the way back with the same load plus a few bottles of duty free, I used the motorway all the way home doing 60-70mph on cruise control for most of the way. It showed 34.6 mpg again. When not in seven seat mode the van only has five seats with the slide out tray, fridge, kitchen and camping equipment always loaded. Under those circs, again it usually shows around 34.6 mpg. Now for a largish bluff shaped vehicle weighing the best part of 3 tonnes, 34.6mpg isn't bad at all but I am curious as to why that figure rarely fluctuates far from that average. I must add that I have never driven the vehicle with one eye on the average mpg. In other words, I haven't tried to improve that figure by changing my driving style.

One final note. Most of the fuel used has been BP Ultimate diesel although I did use diesel van ordinaire whilst the prices were super silly.

All comments welcomed.

We have owned a 150 manual beach for 6 years (until a month ago when we traded it in for an Ocean due to the need to be more automated eg roof,dsg etc). Using the dash display we averaged between 42 -47mpg using it daily for mainly urban and some long distance driving. On motorways we would use cruise control set to 69 or 70 mph. On long distance driving at these speeds often got 50+mpg. I am not a slouch or tortoise when driving but listen to the engine and change gear accordingly. My experience with automatics has been that they use more fuel per mile.