Discussion: What kind of car are you dr...

What kind of car are you driving?

Got a new VW Golf Diesel a week ago. Wanted a good roadtrip car for running around the northeast to O meets and trail races. EPA pegs highway mileage at 42, but reports I read online said that was grossly under figured. I've been getting low to mid 40's around town and obviously very fine mileage on the long drive.... And diesels supposedly get more efficient after a couple thousand miles of 'break-in'. Doesn't hurt that I'm also a pretty conservative driver...

If you want to be able to go a really long way on a tankful, a friend of mine drives one of those and knows the secret way to get significantly more fuel into the tank (with no adverse side effects).

700+ on a tank (if I want to push it) seems pretty good. Curious what your friends method is though...

It has something to do with pushing on some lever to open a vent that allows fuel to go into a space at teh top of the tank that needs to be empty if you're using gasoline, but it's okay if it's full of diesel fuel (same tank irrespective of the engine). I guess all the guys on the VW hypermiling forums are into doing this.

Ah, here we go:
http://www.myturbodiesel.com/1000q/a4/vent-fuel-ta...
(Looks like it applies only to older cars, and yours can presumably be filled all thea way without these gymnastics.)