2015 Volkswagen GTI Real-World Mileage With the Manual Transmission
We already put a redesigned Volkswagen GTI through a mileage challenge as part of our recent $30,000 Cheap Speed Challenge. It bested the field with its optional six-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission during that contest. When a six-speed manual transmission model arrived at Cars.com’s Chicago office right around the time of a road trip to Milwaukee it seemed like it would be a good opportunity to see how it compared.
Related: 2014 Mini Cooper S Versus 2015 Volkswagen GTI
EPA ratings for the two transmissions are almost identical. Both are rated at 25 mpg city and 28 mpg combined, but the manual gets slightly better highway ratings at 34 mpg versus 33 mpg highway for the automatic.
I started my time in the GTI with a mixed drive home of open highway and suburban roads of about 23 miles. Later that afternoon I began my 75-mile each way road trip to Milwaukee to see Pearl Jam play at the Bradley Center.
Both the drive up and back were uneventful with me traveling faster with traffic on the way there and slower on the way back late in the evening. I was the only passenger, meeting friends at the venue. With no air conditioning needed on that cool autumn night, the trip computer showed ratings of 37 mpg on the way up and 39 mpg on the way back.
After a long night of powerful music (the band played 3.5 hours and the entire “Yield” album in its entirety for the first time) I headed into work after the usual morning rush. That lighter-than-usual run to work was not repeated on the way home that night with bumper-to-bumper traffic. I filled up the following morning before the commute in – which was a horror story even compared to the afternoon before – and topped off 8.185 gallons with 257 total miles driven.
The calculated mileage of 31.4 mpg was quite close to the trip computer’s readout of 32 mpg. I was a little sad I couldn’t register all open-highway driving to see just how efficient I could be, but it seems good mileage is in your future whichever GTI transmission you choose.
Cars.com photo by Anastasia Page
