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Diesel MPG (Diesel only please)

343K views 1K replies 353 participants last post by  regularguy79 
#1 · (Edited)
I did my first real fill up today. Since the last fill up I drove 445 miles in 12.1 hours for an average speed of 36.8 mph. I used 17.896 gal of fuel for an mpg of 24.87.

BTW, I paid $1.799 for the diesel fuel.
 
#3 ·
Great question - I should have answered it in the original post. Trip B, which was the tank, showed 445.3 miles and 24.7 mpg.

I would say it was very accurate because it is hard to tell when the tank is really full. You can keep adding a little at a time for quite a while.
 
#6 ·
We are about $2.02 to $2.10 most places, but for the last few months two stations out by my farm have been having a price war. I filled one tank for $1.699 (I had a diesel VW Jetta).

I hope they keep at it for a while. It is about 5 minutes out of my way but I can live with that. :grin2:
 
#8 ·
I am hoping for much better than 24-25 MPG. That's a bit disappointing!
 
#12 ·
The environment sounds like it's heavily biased to city driving, so the numbers look pretty good. I'm in the low teens right now with my V6 gasser and a short 4 mile commute on winter gas with a LOT of idling. I'd be plenty happy with those numbers in the city. On the highway I'd expect it to get well into the mid 30's with my driving style.
 
#13 · (Edited)
I am convince the Diesel MPG numbers will be better than the V6, also expecting lower than anticipated. Same happened with the V6; people had high hopes to be on the high 20s when in real life is lower. Still a good number for a truck though.

Unless the engine has the same power output of the 4 Cly gasser, I see no reason to get expectacular MPG numbers. I bet if you take the Duramax out and place a VW TDI instead, you will get easy on the mid 30s but not real power like the V6, just like the 4 banger.
 
#16 ·
With an average speed in the mid-30s on my V6, I can typically average about 20-21 MPG. (Mine is 2WD).

I would have hoped for slightly better MPGs from the diesel. However, first tank, be interesting to see after maybe 2-3K miles.

Does "winter-blend" impact diesels like it does gasoline engines? Could we expect better performance in warmer days? Is he using remote start or anything else to drive fuel mileage down? - Granted, that should show up in his average speed. The time spent learning the truck, checking out the acceleration & just getting used to truck will impact mileage. Another reason to await further results down the road.

Finally, and this is not the topic of this thread, how well does the truck perform overall, in regards to the shifting complaints of many? (This is a whole nuther thread I hope the OP addresses, and we need to wait till transmission has learned the driver.
 
#18 ·
With an average speed in the mid-30s on my V6, I can typically average about 20-21 MPG. (Mine is 2WD).

I would have hoped for slightly better MPGs from the diesel. However, first tank, be interesting to see after maybe 2-3K miles.
Given OPs is a 4WD then we'll likely be looking at ~27MPG in the same driving conditions/speeds on a Diesel 2WD (comparing apples to apples). 7MPG improvement in the city is awesome, combined with engine break in and diesel tunes in the pipeline I suspect we could see that more toward 10MPG by end of year.
 
#17 ·
If I am not mistaking, Diesel winter blends are more agressive than Gasoline. Low temps is Diesel fuel biggest eneny. From my days in the military on very cold weather periods, the the Diesel created a parafin at lower temps. Since we all went JP8 as universal fuel is no much the case. Even using straight Diesel on an M 1941 Pot Belly stove was dificult to ignite. JP4 and MoGas did a better job.
 
#23 · (Edited)
I did my first real fill up today. Since the last fill up I drove 445 miles in 12.1 hours for an average speed of 36.8 mph. I used 17.896 gal of fuel for an mpg of 24.87.

BTW, I paid $1.799 for the diesel fuel.
winter fuel, cold temps..this is great! My diesel 6.6l dmax loses 3 mpg on winter fuel
 
#24 ·
Great numbers for all around driving in a 4wd, brand new, during the winter diesel. I'd expect the same duty cycle in a V6 to result in about 17 mpg under an average driver.


Cary sees more but it varies by driver.


I average about 21 mpg in my I5 '09 Canyon, my wife averages about 16 mpg in the exact same car. The driver makes a large difference.
 
#46 ·
Remember I am driving a 2WD, sea level, flat ground for the most part. For at least part of my commute, if I catch the lights right, I am doing 40 MPH in 6th gear. I bet you with a warm engine at 40 MPH on flat ground with no stops, I could hit around 32MPG or better. Don't know the diesel's characteristics, but I could see it easily exceeding 40 MPG in that condition.

I can see a big difference depending on what I need to do. In the last few days, I had some good highway jaunts to help my mileage out, but those were driven down by two-three times I needed to ask my Canyon to pull out those 305 horses and get me out in traffic. The response of my truck when I need those horses is the biggest concern I have for the diesel.
 
#31 ·
$1.81 For Citgo in CT
 
#41 · (Edited)
Yes truck my truck is a 4x4. Also now that my truck has 1000 miles on it I must tell you how simply amazing the torque is off the line with this truck. I took some coworkers to lunch today...he kept setting his gloves on the dash and every time I took off I had them sitting in his lap. The torque rush last briefly then the truck shifts and it comes right back.
 
#43 · (Edited)
This is a useless thread. Most readers are attracted to it by the title. Unfortunately most of the posts are useless info about regional cost of fuel. Please keep to the topic which is Diesel MPG.
There are only 3 or 4 people on the forum who are now driving diesels, so there should be that number of replies with maybe weekly updates from them.
 
#45 ·
So I picked up my new truck yesterday. Drove her over 600 miles back home, all of it except the first 100 miles or so and a small area of 50 miles with traffic, was Interstate highway with cruise control on at 80Mph. Average MPG when I got home was 26.2
 
#50 ·
The point from Savage, it doesn't HAVE to be a cluttered mess.
I agree, nearly 50 posts in a mileage thread when there is no data to back it up.

Next week a new thread will be added with the same nonsense. It is never ending and everything just ends up being a cluttered mess of things not related to what draws the attention to the thread in the first place.

Not sure why people would even answer if they don't have a diesel to express their MPG concerns.
 
#55 ·
Mpg

Finished first tank of gas and mpg was 23. This was 90% suburban driving usually 45 mph or less, the other 10 % was highway driving but short trips of 30-40 miles. Probably can't tell much from the first tank but just thought I would put in my 2 cents.

Has anyone towed with there diesel yet? (I know this should probably be a different thread!)
 
#56 ·
Finished first tank of gas and mpg was 23. This was 90% suburban driving usually 45 mph or less, the other 10 % was highway driving but short trips of 30-40 miles. Probably can't tell much from the first tank but just thought I would put in my 2 cents.

Has anyone towed with there diesel yet? (I know this should probably be a different thread!)
Did you notice how this compared to the DIC MPG?
 
#58 ·
I know it would clutter up the thread, but it is obvious that driving style makes a big difference. I would love to know what people were driving before and what kind of mileage did they see in that. For instance, if they were driving a FS pickup and were getting 7 MPG with the 4.3L and now they are getting 23 MPG with the diesel twin, then the improvement is tremendous. However, if they were driving that same FS pickup with 4.3L and were getting 19 MPG, then not so good.

The real numbers that will help us understand the diesel will be after they hit a 1000 miles on truck, the transmission has learned the driver, and the engine is broken in a bit. Couple that data with some subjective comments about how well the transmission handles the complaints the gas owners have had with shifting would really tell me what I want to know.

It may make a for a tough decision on my part, but like SavageBob, my main focus is to see if I would want to replace my V6 with a diesel in the future. Not next year, but by 2019/2020. Granted, by then we should have 8/10 speed transmissions to factor into the decision.

And to some degree, I don't care that there are differences in summer/winter blends of fuel. Last I checked, I drive my truck year round. Can't park it for a few months of extreme hot/cold weather a year.
 
#61 ·
I would love to know what people were driving before and what kind of mileage did they see in that. For instance, if they were driving a FS pickup and were getting 7 MPG with the 4.3L and now they are getting 23 MPG with the diesel twin, then the improvement is tremendous. However, if they were driving that same FS pickup with 4.3L and were getting 19 MPG, then not so good.

The real numbers that will help us understand the diesel will be after they hit a 1000 miles on truck, the transmission has learned the driver, and the engine is broken in a bit. Couple that data with some subjective comments about how well the transmission handles the complaints the gas owners have had with shifting would really tell me what I want to know.

It may make a for a tough decision on my part, but like SavageBob, my main focus is to see if I would want to replace my V6 with a diesel in the future. Not next year, but by 2019/2020. Granted, by then we should have 8/10 speed transmissions to factor into the decision.

And to some degree, I don't care that there are differences in summer/winter blends of fuel. Last I checked, I drive my truck year round. Can't park it for a few months of extreme hot/cold weather a year.
Excellent point, CB. As you know, I just moved from a 2015 Z71 to the Duramax. I kept meticulous records on my V-6 and will do the same for the diesel. I'll keep posting my impressions and results so that others can have good, usable information. It looks like the oil burner is going to be the better choice for me, but the next guy might have different needs.
 
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