RPM's & MPG

[Overdrive]

I think it's kind of difficult for a Tiptronic owner to drive the car in quite the same manner as one with a 5 speed manual when just cruising. It doesn't help the car to be in 5th gear at 60, but not too many people buy an automatic because they want to keep it in 4th themselves, so I'm sure plenty of Tiptronic-equipped cars get "babied" in this way simply because that's the nature of an automatic.

My mileage is on the lower end, the last three tanks have been a pretty consistent 20.5 mpg, and it's a '97 with the 2.5 and a 5 speed manual, but I also put the car through its paces when I go for a drive, so I know that has to do with it to a point.

75mph in 5th puts me right around 3000 rpms, and I rarely let the car stay below 3000rpms for a prolonged period of time unless I don't have a choice or don't want to attract the wrong kind of attention because I'm in 2nd gear at 4000rpms doing the speed limit in the city...or 4000rpms in 5th on the highway (~100mph)

Folks have said having their engine computer tuned made a significant difference in their fuel mileage for the better. That's something to consider doing even if you don't do other modifications to the car, as those extra miles per gallon will add up over time.

[shlim8]

I've got a 2001 2.7l Tip with an IPD Plenum, BMC filter and a remapped ECU (but stock exhaust). My FC is probably in the region of 18mpg (abt 12l/100 - 12.5l/100). The car is used mainly on high speed highway (4k rpm avg, going up to 6k for overtaking).

I'm sure if I keep the average speed down to 65mph, I can get about 10+l/100 (22mpg). Perhaps a free flowing exhaust will help me in this case !

These cars are not very economical to run on the high speed highway runs... My E90 does the same run at about 27-30 mpg.

The FC above is with the top up, with the top down it's even worse ! And the noise level gets really loud.... always wondered if my Lexan windstop will fly off one day !

In all fairness, for a auto box, the Tip S is pretty decent, if you are in the mood for some fun, it does sense it and shifts pretty quick and it's smart enough to not shift up immediately when u back down (eg slowing for a corner). Not as quick as a VW DSG box but good enough and definitely smoother than a DSG on downshifts. I still prefer the control of a manual box though... but manual Boxsters are very rare here and hard to re-sell.

Most of my prev cars have the ECU re-mapped and all had better FC (and power) after the re-map. I found it strange that I had no improvement in the FC on the Box after the re-map, and I made the mistake of doing the remap before all the other mods (thought I wasn't going to add any mods but then got itchy).

[DFW02S]

I've got a 3.2 6spd and last week on a 240 mile highway run I got 24 mpg's at 70 to 90.