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Thread: RS3 fuel consumption

  1. #1
    Registered User tailpipe's Avatar
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    RS3 fuel consumption

    I was interested to find out what kind of file consumption figures other RS3 owners are getting.

    My overall average is 23.3 mpg (12.1 L/100 km). I live in London, so a lot of my driving is city-based. In fact, my consumption can drop as low as 12 mpg ( 23.2 L/100 km) which is scary. On long motorway trips cruising at 80+ mph, consumption goes down to 31 mpg. I have even achieved 35 mpg (8 L/100 km) on a 200 mile journey. I think this is due to a longer 7th gear on the S-Tronic box.

    When you push the car, it is very thirsty.

    Overall, however, the RS3 is an amazing machine and I love the engine. it has so much power that you don't use it most most of the time. When you do floor it, it simply demolishes everything else on the road (including an older Porsche 911 Carrera S - the guy was so surprised when I 'owned him', he stopped me a few miles down the road so he could inspect the RS3).

    That said, if the next S3 has a 2.0-litre 4-cylinder engine that develops 250 bhp, but achieves an average consumption nearer 35 mpg (8 L/100 km), this may be a better option than an RS3 that develops 350 bhp but only does 25 mpg (11.3 L/100 km).

    what about you?

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    Avg about 27mpg normally with 30mpg if im not pushing it.

    I'm doing some big miles tomorrow, prob 200 plus and would expect 30+

    Stephen

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    My S3 only averages high 20's so the figures you guys are quoting for an RS3 are pretty good. Would love to tell you what my RS3 averages, but since coming off the production line in week 50 I have been getting the run around by Audi. It was supposed to have been delivered by the end of January, but having been told last week it had been waiting at some dock for the last 3 weeks, I am now told it is still at the factory. Local dealer has not been particularly good at sorting out what is happening or where the car actually is, so at this rate it is looking like March will be a more realistic delivery date, always assuming they actually know where the car is!

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    It’s early days for me as my RS3 has only done 750 miles but I understand what you’re saying about fuel consumption. The official figure is 31mpg. I’ve seen 32mpg+ on an open 20 mile run, but on my overall commuting round trip it’s more like 24-25mpg. I travel about 15 miles each way, with about 7 miles of those in urban conditions. Going into town in the morning I get about 27-28mpg, coming out it’s more like 23mpg (I assume the hit is caused by cold running in slow traffic). For comparison, my last car, a Corrado VR6, had an official figure of 29mpg but returned an average of about 27mpg on the same route. Now the Corrado’s consumption improved as the engine loosened up so that may still happen to the RS3. If it doesn’t, I’ll have to conclude that manufacturers nowadays manage to get away with more unrealistic official figures than those compiled 18 years ago.


    I’m not seriously surprised by the actual consumption given the power that’s on tap, but the discrepancy with that official 31mpg is a bit more than I’d anticipated . One thing I’ve noticed is that the car seems to drink fuel a fair bit faster than my Corrado when standing in a queue . It does relatively well cruising on the open road but is punished in congested traffic. I wonder if a Start-Stop technology might have made a difference if it could have been applied to this engine.

    Having said all that, it is an amazing vehicle and the saving grace for me is that my anticipated annual mileage is only about 7000 miles. That, I tell myself, is no worse in fuel costs than somebody with a 50mpg car doing 12000 a year (which usually implies a more benign profile of A-roads and motorways than mine). Given the awesome capabilities I'm getting for my money, the thought helps me sleep soundly at night

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    Did 250 miles today, very mixed driving but was trying to be efficient and only did about 5 foot down overtakes and didn't go over 70 on the motorway.

    All in all 31.6 mpg

    Not too bad.

    Steve

  6. #6
    Registered User AndyBG's Avatar
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    If your overall average is 23.3 mpg (12.1 L/100 km), that is fantastic! From that car, 20.0 L/100 km is what I would be expecting, at least...

  7. #7
    Registered User tailpipe's Avatar
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    If you hammer an RS3 down a winding B-road, then you will indeed burn through 20 litres of petrol for every 100 km travelled. But when it comes to cruising at high speed on a motorway or autobahn, I don't know any other performance car that delivers better economy above 90 mph. The idea of adding stop-start or even cylinder de-activation to future versions of the RS3 is very clever. I am sure it would make a big difference in slow-moving traffic (which sadly is so often a reality of modern driving). Anyway, I still love this car and hope you guys do too.

    Oh, one other thing: has anyone else experienced gearbox problems?

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    Not that i've heard - touch wood!!!

  9. #9
    Registered User tailpipe's Avatar
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    My gearbox troubles are behind me now, but I was interested to see if anyone else had encountered issues with the new 7-speed S-tronic unit. I am pleased that my failure seems to be an isolated incident. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that the RS3's gearbox is probably the best DCT available in any car.

    Still amazed by the RS3. It really is a remarkable machine.

  10. #10
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    Fuel consumption update. Did a round trip from Glasgow to Aviemore and back at the weekend (about 280 miles total). Northward leg got 31.2mpg, southward, 31.6mpg. Average on the stretch from Aviemore to Perth was 34.3mpg but that's an overall descent of about 200m over 85 miles. Still they’re not bad figures. Mostly I had cruise control on just above the legal limit. Engaged kickdown a couple of times to overtake long HGV-led queues and to burn off tail-gaters on the A9's few and frantic dual carriageway stretches but otherwise I behaved myself.

  11. #11
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    Just picked the car up and did 120 miles from Inverness North up the A9 to Thurso and averaged 30mpg. Not bad on a brand new engine and a twisty A road. Traffic was light so other than a few plays!, kept to sensible speeds. Having that 7th gear at about 34mph/1000rpm makes a big difference on this car and allows reasonable fuel economy, I didnt used to get any better on the same run out of my 8P S3,

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    Somewhere between 25 to 30 MPG. These are great numbers. Thanks for creating this thread here at http://www.rs6.com

  13. #13
    Registered User tailpipe's Avatar
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    I’ve just done a 2,500 mile round trip from London to Bologna, Italy via France, Germany and Switzerland. Most of the journey was conducted on motorways but about 25% of it was on B-roads.

    Points of note:

    Fuel consumption. My average for the entire journey was 25 mpg. If you keep the revs under 3,000 rpm (80-90 mph) you can easily achieve 28 mpg. Below 2,500 rpm (70-75 mph), you get 31.0 mpg. If you start to travel much over 3,500 rpm (100 mph+) then it starts to drop towards 24-25 mpg. Vicious acceleration, will drop your figures well below 20 mpg quite easily. Town driving also negatively impacts consumption figures. Overall, the level of economy is pretty impressive considering the amount of power on tap. If you’re getting more than 25 mpg, then you’re probably not driving it properly!

    Point-to-point speed. Driving this car over long distances, I’ve got to know it well. Its ground covering ability reminds me of the original Quattro and Lancia Delta Integrale that I drove back in the late 1980s. The RS3‘s ability to blast past slower traffic on B-roads while leaving an adequate safety margin to avoid oncoming traffic is simply mind blowing. In short, this car is as fast across country as it is on motorways. When the traffic is bad you simply pick the shortest, most direct route to your destination. You arrive at more or less the same time you would have if you had taken if you had stayed on motorway.

    Top speed. I was able to get the thing up to 130 mph on a stretch of empty autobahn and can report that it is very stable at high speed. However, above 120 mph, you run out of road very quickly. I wasn’t able to test the maximum of 155 mph, but even at 130 mph, I still had bags of energy left in the car.Above 90 mph, there is a lot of wind noise at the front.

    Aural delight. At all speeds, the engine noise is a wonderful sound. In sport mode, you get this wonderful automatic blip of the throttle on downshifts. It is a kind of ‘woofle’ sound that I love - very reminiscent of the original Quattro but better. The bass tone makes this very much a man’s car.

    Brakes. These are first class. I really thrashed the thing on a Swiss mountain road going up and down various mountain passes. I didn’t experience brake fade at all. The stopping power is entirely consistent with the engine power.

    Traction. Easter was wet. Switzerland was full of thawing roads with spots of black ice and snow encrusted pothole-filled roads above 1,000 meters. At no time did I lose traction nor did the traction control light come on. I could’t believe how sure-footed the RS3 is. You can do things in this car that would be suicidal in a rear-wheel drive BMW. Initially, after previous mountain driving in an M3, I found myself driving like a pussy, but as I gained confidence in the RS3’s abilities, I found myself going faster and fast. (As a married man with 3 kids, I tend to drive much more responsibly than I did 20 years ago, but with an RS3 I can go just as fast as I did then due to its manifold abilities. It is a car that flatters the driver.

    Q-car appeal. One particularly attractive feature of the car is that to most eyes the RS3 is simply another A3 hatchback. It doesn’t draw attention, like a BMW 1-Series M or RS5, except from discerning car enthusiasts who know exactly what it is and respect it.
    Ride. The ride is very firm. The next RS3 needs to have adjustable dampers and preferably the latest magnetic ride technology. That said, however, my kids much prefer it to my wife’s softer riding Mercedes-Benz A-Class.

    Comfort. I found the car very easy to drive for six hour stretches. If you intend to do a lot of long journeys, then I suggest you get the electric front seats because you can easily adjust them on road which ensures you don’t suffer from cramps etc. The dashboard ergonomics are brilliant. The pedal placement works well. The DCT gearbox is a joy to use in manual mode.

    Reliability. No issues whatsoever. Car feels as if it has been hewn out of rock crystal.

    Satnav. This now has dynamic guidance, i.e. It responds to real time traffic data. This would be great if the Italian authorities bothered to update the central traffic management computer to tell it that road works were finished. Indeed I encountered a number of situations where my route was erroneously changed due to bogus data. The Satnav has come a long way in the last 10 years, but there is still room for improvement. The ability to feed in your on pre-designed route would be helpful.

    Summary. Marginally better than the B7 RS4. Much better than the RS5. Another world away from the BMW M3 (E46) that I owned for almost four years. As big a step forward as the original Quattro and Lancia Delta Integrale were in their time. This is THE hot hatch.

  14. #14
    Moderator Benman's Avatar
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    Tailpipe, EXCELLENT updated review. I'm surprised you've found it to be much better than the RS 5, high praise! Also, on your comment of "as a married man with 3 kids...", boy, can I relate to that!
    Einstein once said, "I want to know God's thoughts, the rest are details."
    Ron Paul Fan

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