Fuel-saving secret skills showdown - FAW-Volkswagen Caddy fuel consumption test record

What is the most fuel efficient way to drive is a topic that many people often talk about. The ideal fuel consumption announced by the car factory is always based on the result of driving at a constant speed; the old drivers who drive from the carburetor to the EFI always think that it is the most fuel-efficient to put the neutral gear frequently; the new voice says to use the gear Coasting instead of neutral is a more economical method; some people say that now the engine technology is advanced, and high speed does not necessarily consume much fuel... There are different opinions, so we planned a special test to drive the Volkswagen Caddy into the night, once again Solve all mysteries with practice and numbers.

Endurance Tour

The Caddy used for this experiment is a very suitable item. As a working vehicle, fuel saving and energy saving are its important selling points. As with the Fit Fuel-Efficiency competition, this test was conducted late at night when there was relatively little traffic, on the ring road with the fewest traffic lights. In order to imitate the daily working conditions, considering that the Caddy is a working vehicle, we added 14 boxes of "Car Herald" to its tail compartment, with a total load of 260 kilograms. It's really good, the fourteen large boxes of magazines are easily loaded, and the start is not exhausted. The Caddy with the rear suspension of the leaf spring bounces greatly when it is not loaded, but with more than two hundred kilograms plus the load of two adults, the total weight of the whole car exceeds two tons, and the leaf spring shows its strong bearing capacity. force.

We tested using the four methods described above. Each round took about an hour and a half, so after four rounds, a total of more than 400 kilometers were run, and the sky was already bright. Don't stick your tongue out, who's to say that "Auto Bulletin" is all a bunch of guys who can't live without the accelerator?

Cruising at constant speed and high-turn driving

The first simulation is the test method of the factory data. That is, try to drive at a constant speed as constant as possible. Caddy's cruise control system provides great convenience for accurate testing. Cruise starts when the speedometer points to 80km/h, and the tachometer needle stops at about 2700rpm. The cabin is quiet and comfortable, and you can almost feel that the computer is sending accurate enough gasoline evenly into the cylinders. It took 1 hour and 39 minutes to run the 110km distance and consumed 7.6L of fuel.

The following rounds of tests use this time as a reference to obtain a similar average speed. The Caddy is a working car, and it is important to pay attention to efficiency, and it is impossible to trade time for fuel economy.

The second round is the high rotation test. The speed is still maintained at 80km/h, but in 4th gear, the whole process is maintained at 3000-3500rpm. One of the advantages of driving at high revs is that the car will have better power. The low-torsion performance of the Volkswagen engine has always been relatively dull, and the Caddy under high-revving gives a more spiritual feeling. However, the refreshing power comes at a price, which is the result of the 9.6L fuel consumption. The current engine technology is naturally different from what it used to be, and it will not be a problem to cope with long-term high-speed operation, but the fuel consumption caused by this is still not low.

Neutral? Tow?

The third round is the neutral sliding test. This is a traditional fuel-saving method. Increase the speed of the car, then take off the gear, let the inertia take the car forward, and when the speed drops to a certain level, re-gear and accelerate, and so on. The hand-blocking Caddy does this kind of action very easily, without the slightest bit of labor intensity. To be honest, driving in neutral is very relaxing, but for safety reasons, we rarely coast in neutral. But this method turned out really well: only 7.3L of oil was added.

The last item is gear coasting, which is a new fuel-saving method after the advent of EFI vehicles, especially for some taxi drivers. Also add oil and release the accelerator to let the car coast, but the car is always in gear during the coasting. The fuel-saving reason for this method is that when the gear is dragged and coasted, the fuel injection amount set by the computer is zero, and if the neutral gear is released, the engine still has idle fuel consumption. But after one round of driving, the result of 8.7L surprised us all.

In principle, when the car is in neutral, the car completely coasts by freewheeling; on the contrary, when the gearbox gears are engaged, there is a power connection between the engine, the transmission system, and the driving wheel, and the driving wheel slows down the speed of the speed drop, while the slow drop of the speed is on the contrary. The speed of the car is slowed down, so although the engine fuel consumption is zero during coasting, the coasting distance is greatly shortened. In addition, the weight we add to the car also increases the inertia of the car, increasing the distance of neutral sliding, but increasing the burden on the engine when the power is connected, so that the difference between the two is greater than our estimation.

The best fuel-saving method

From the test results, Caddy can indeed take energy-saving as one of its selling points. The most fuel-efficient first round, converted into 100 kilometers, consumes only 6.63 liters of fuel, and this is three times the load. Results after more than 100 kilograms. The 101hp horsepower is a bit hard to make this man-cargo work vehicle run fast on the road, but the fuel consumption level shown in the case of heavy load is really satisfactory.

As for the comparison of methods, it can be seen that the lowest fuel consumption figure is still obtained by the oldest method of putting in neutral, but it is well known that safety is compromised when coasting in neutral; and today, with more and more automatic transmission cars, this kind of method is not realistic. It can be seen from the data that the difference between the fuel consumption of constant speed driving and the minimum value of neutral sliding is only 0.3 liters/100 kilometers. It is obviously not worth paying the price of safety for these slight gaps. Therefore, we believe that the best way to save fuel is to imitate the working method of cruise control, keep the speed and speed of the vehicle as stable as possible, and keep pressing the accelerator with the most uniform and subtle force.