The Volkswagen brand has done it again breaking its own record for the longest distanced travelled on a single tank of fuel, this time with the U.S. built 2012 Passat TDI SE sedan equipped with a six-speed manual gearbox.
John and Helen Taylor managed to drive the diesel-powered Passat for an impressive 1626.1 miles (2,617 kilometers) through nine states on one tank of fuel improving the previous record held by a VW Passat 1.6 BlueMotion diesel (1526.6 miles) in Europe by 99.5 miles (160.1 kilometers).
The couple began their journey on May 3, 2012 in Houston, Texas and finished on May 5, 2012 in Sterling, Virginia.
VW says that in order to make the drive as realistic as possible, they added 120 pounds of luggage and drove only during daylight hours to simulate normal traffic conditions. They each took turn on the wheel and didn’t drive more than 14 hours a day.
The Passat TDI’s 2.0-liter turbo diesel produces 140 horsepower and 236 pound-feet of torque and with a manual transmission returns an EPA estimated fuel economy rating of 43 mpg (5.5lt/100km) on the highway.
Over the course of three days, John and Helen Taylor achieved an average fuel economy of 84.1 mpg (2.8 lt/100km), which VW says comes to 4.65 cents per mile.
The Taylors aren’t your normal driving couple, however, as the pair has participated in many events all over the world having collected more than 90 world fuel economy and vehicle-related records from their drives.
“We’re excited to have broken the record for the longest distance driven on one-tank of fuel,” said John Taylor. “The Passat TDI was the perfect car for the trip. It offers plenty of interior and cargo space, yet is frugal enough to help us achieve this record.”
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