JohnnyDriver

I'm getting an average of 13mpg in the city with my 3.0. I'm not driving it particularly aggressively, and even when I try to feather the throttle I'm still getting close to that.

Most of my trips are short, when the car is cold, because I have a 2.5 mile commute each way and also take my child to school every morning (1 mile r/t).

I have the 19" sport package with stock summer tires inflated to 37.5 psi. Usually I'm the only passenger and am not carrying cargo. My A6 has 2000 miles on it.

Thanks for any thoughts! Gas for this car is very expensive at this consumption rate.

PJRed2008

I would say therein lies the problem. AWD's seem to get very sucko mileage when they're cold, more so than others I've had. No modern car will get any kind of mileage when cold, they need to be hot to run correctly. Also, and a major concern to me, you're not running the car long enough to get the oil heated up properly, or probably even charge the battery up.

I drive 15 miles one way, 10 freeway and 5 fairly fast city stree. My trip mileage is usually at 30 or 31 by the time I get to work or home.

fEArmE

i usually get 20 mpg for similar short trip (5 mi round trip) with approximately 15 stops. 13 mpg is a little low. btw, i have a 18" non-sport with 38psi front and 41psi rear.

You should get pass the 13mpg barrier in your first 2 miles unless you are going up hill.

hockeyfox

In cold weather I see a big drop, but never as low as 13. My lowest in mostly city driving was 15 mpg. Now just this past weekend I averaged 31.5 in mostly highway driving. If you lay off the quick starts (hard to do), this engine can really shine in the MPG department. Now having said this, I do notice that the computer and actual MPG will vary by as much as 1 mpg, computer being higher.

snagitseven

The A6 3.0T engine probably has the widest range of possible mpg numbers I've ever owned in 40 years worth of cars. I suspect the supercharger is the primary cause. If you're doing a lot of short, stop and go trips in traffic, the gas mileage can be pretty dismal. However, get out on an empty highway on a long trip, turn on the ACC and watch the mpg meter climb like a baboon up a tree being chased by a leopard.

JohnnyDriver

Thank you for the great responses! I'm not going up a hill and I live in southern California, so there's no cold weather. But it does sound like there's nothing wrong with my car. I get excellent mileage on long trips, at least.

spoon2000

Try driving with the A/C turned off (if you can stand it in SoCal) and I'll bet you see a jump. My A/C stays on all the time and we drive the car about the way you do with similar results. The other day, however, I had the A/C off and windows open in city traffic and noticed an MPG increase.

Are you burning regular unleaded or premium? The car is smart enough to know the difference and to adjust engine timing to prevent knocks and/or damage. We put regular unleaded in our A6 and performance suffers slightly, but the cost savings are certainly substantial over what we would otherwise pay for premium unleaded. And, of course, you can overcome performance loss by keeping the transmission in "Sport" mode.

T60West

I get 16-17 on my 7 mile journey through town. And I regularly get 27mpg on the highway at speeds between 75-80. I'm happy with both.

JohnnyDriver

I'm using premium fuel and drive on weekdays in D and on weekends in S.

I don't think I can go without the A/C. It's similar to spending while on a vacation: if you add up what the vacation costs per day (or the car per month), it's worth spending a few percent more to get what you really want.

newmoon

Also if you crank your A/C down to LO, it will use a lot of engine power and kill your gas mileage. It is not even necessary to do this. The system knows to increase fan speed, A/C and set recirc in the beginning to cool down the car quickly, so just set it on Auto and your desired temperature, and let it do its thing.