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The 2009 Jetta TDI Clean Diesel goes hypermiling
While doing my daily research for this blog, I discovered a phenomenon that I was completely unaware of called hypermiling. An extreme version of ecodriving, this curious past-time has just one objective: to squeeze the maximum mileage out of a given vehicle.
To do this, a series of gestures, from the most obvious (turn off the engine when the car is parked) to the most dangerous, including the completely kamikaze drafting, which consists of very closely following a vehicle on the highway, ideally a tractor-trailer, in order to reduce your air resistance and in this way be literally pulled by the vehicle in front. Just like a cyclist in the Tour de France. Mental note: the maximum average speed at the Tour de France was 41.657 km/h (Armstrong in 2005) and the average weight of a racing bike is around 10 kg, while the maximum speed permitted on our highways is 100 km/h and the maximum weight of a tractor-trailer is 27,500 kg, and this is only during an ice-free period… Basically, forget about it! Don’t do it.
But I will return another time to the fascinating world of ecodriving as my goal this morning was simply to share some news that was taken up by a number of blogs including:
automobile, green daily, autobloggreen, wired and tdiclub’s forum
A couple of seasoned Australian hypermilers chose the 2009 Jetta TDI Clean Diesel to do the tour of the United States on only 12 tanks! Starting from the town of Chantilly in Virginia, they are doing an immense loop of nearly 13,000 km to finish their minimum-consumption crusade on September 26 in West Virginia, close to the place where they had departed from. Quite a detour to prove a point! I can already imagine the couple arguing in the car: “John, I told you to turn left at the light! Not right!”
You can follow their odyssey on the site of FuelAcademy.org.
7 Comments
Comments
I guess they most be proud of the 2003 Golf TDI too then 
No as there are a few known weaknesses that VW refuses to admit or fix. Bad turbos, leaky egr’s, clogged intakes, turn signal electrical issues, and rusting body panels to name a few.
Driveing at 100 km, no wind, no passing and coasting to the stop sign my 2005 Jetta 2005 will do 57 miles per gallon. Who needs a green car with a Jetta TDI.
I have a 2006 Jetta TDI and I get over 1100 km per tank. I had the smart car , but it was too small for my needs. For the luxury and the fuel milage and the quality this car has to offer, it is by far the best car I have ever owned.
I’ve managed 58+ mpg Ontario-PEI in my 2003 Jetta 1.9L wagon. Actually, if you read between the lines, the new Jetta 2.0L diesel looks like the old Passat 2.0L diesel, with just a tad more power, cleaner and a tad better mileage(?). So, what VW has to do now is give us a Golf Wagon with a 1.9 or 1.? and they can be even prouder. Pushing the Jetta up to Passat power/size might be good marketing for diesel re-entry, but they really need to take back the fuel economy crown. Massive diesel torque is better IRL than gas engine HP any day.
September 19, 2008 by Pete
Funny that VW is so proud of their new diesel. I know that both my 2003 Golf TDI’s blow the mileage of this 2009 TDI out of the water in terms of fuel economy and mileage per tank. With 350 000 km on the clock I can easily average 55 mpg on the highway.