Audi A4 - fuel tank size

pburns

I was a bit surprised when re-fueling my new A4 (B9) to find that under €40 brimmed the tank.

It turns out the standard tank is 40 litres with a bigger 54 litre tank a no-cost option. This leaves it with a range (according to the display) of approx 450km. Was anyone else informed of this by their dealer? I'm a bit annoyed the salesperson didn't point this out...
https://www.carwow.co.uk/blog/audi-a4-dimensions-0364

colm_mcm

I wonder if the 54 litre tank would make it incur more vrt and road tax.

demanufactured

Wow that's a small tank...

porsche boy

colm_mcm wrote:

I wonder if the 54 litre tank would make it incur more vrt and road tax.

Can't see how it would affect road tax, if it was a free upgrade then it shouldn't have effected the sale price either.
I'd say the salesman wasn't aware of it or the car was already built when 'ordered' and came with the tank.
OP it should be possible to fit the larger tank without much issue.

JoeA3

It's down to weight saving to get the official mpg / C02 figures down. I think BMW do this too on some models.
Doesn't affect tax / VRT to opt for the larger tank afaik.

colm_mcm

Yeah, audi in Ireland offer it as a no cost option as well as the uk for diesels. Petrols get the bigger one standard. bizarre.
Option for a bigger dpf fluid tank too.

One thing, you'll obviously get a lot more than 450km from the tank.

tossy

This is madness. I'd be pushing for the bigger tank next service.

Laeot

I've a 2016 A4 too and it came with the bigger tank without me requesting it.
No difference in road tax.

Sounds like it's down to different dealers I suppose.

JoeA3

Bigger tank easily retrofitable I wonder?

pred racer

40 litres :eek: that's pathetic

bazz26

Having to refuel that frequently would annoy me too.

Atlantic Dawn

I'd doubt the fuel tank comes in to the "official" CO2 test figures, I'd imagine it's a level x litres rather than a full tank that is tested. I'd prefer the dealer to mention it to me and let me decide.

AndyBoBandy

I'd be fuming if I'd bought a car for close to €40k and found out it had the same size tank as my mothers Yaris!!

JoeA3

BMW 330e has a 30 litre tank! Granted it also has an electric motor but that has a range of only about 80km :pac:

JoeA3

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

I'd doubt the fuel tank comes in to the "official" CO2 test figures, I'd imagine it's a level x litres rather than a full tank that is tested. I'd prefer the dealer to mention it to me and let me decide.

It definitely does. Manufacturers do everything they can to reduce weight for the official figures. Hence spacesavers in the boot, etc.

And as we know, the official figures do tend to be massively on the optimistic side.

pm.

I have a 2016 A4, but because I ordered the 3.0tdi it came with the bigger tank... Luckily enough as I fill this 3 / 4 times per week... 40 Ltr tank would make me hate the car

pburns

Laeot wrote: »

I've a 2016 A4 too and it came with the bigger tank without me requesting it.
No difference in road tax.

Sounds like it's down to different dealers I suppose.

Does yours have an Ultra badge? According to the link above these are the ones get the smaller tank as standard...

No common sense applied to all this eco-crap & associated shenanigans to circumvent standardised tests

pm.

pburns wrote: »

Does yours have an Ultra badge? According to the link above these are the ones get the smaller tank as standard...

No common sense applied to all this eco-crap & associated shenanigans to circumvent standardised tests

No m8..

_Kaiser_

My A6 has an 80L tank I think but I still end up filling it more than once a week. A 40L tank would drive me crazy

Laeot

pburns wrote: »

Does yours have an Ultra badge? According to the link above these are the ones get the smaller tank as standard...

No common sense applied to all this eco-crap & associated shenanigans to circumvent standardised tests

Yes it is Ultra.

I never requested the larger tank and was only told when I picked up the new car .

Atlantic Dawn

It should be the first question before them asking if you want metallic paint.

CiniO

pburns wrote: »

I was a bit surprised when re-fueling my new A4 (B9) to find that under €40 brimmed the tank.

It turns out the standard tank is 40 litres with a bigger 54 litre tank a no-cost option. This leaves it with a range (according to the display) of approx 450km. Was anyone else informed of this by their dealer? I'm a bit annoyed the salesperson didn't point this out...
https://www.carwow.co.uk/blog/audi-a4-dimensions-0364

40 litres to travel 450km?

That's 8.9 l/100km fuel consumption (31.7 MPG).
That sounds like an very poor fuel economy for a modern car.

kirving

Not at all if the car is driven around town or on short journeys, in either of these cases 31mpg isn't too bad.

Apparently, I have no link, the CO2 and emissions testing is carried out with the tank 2/3 full. So, the default option when buying the car has to be the smaller tank.

shietpilot

That's a small enough tank alright, especially for a diesel which would be used for longer journeys. I wonder if you can go back to the dealer and get them to upgrade the fuel tank free of charge? There must be a bit of labour involved in it though...

R.O.R

shietpilot wrote: »

That's a small enough tank alright, especially for a diesel which would be used for longer journeys. I wonder if you can go back to the dealer and get them to upgrade the fuel tank free of charge? There must be a bit of labour involved in it though...

LOL

New tank is probably a few hundred from parts, then 1-2 hours labour at least to drain current tank and re-fit the new tank - that's if it's a straight swap. Could well be a few differences which means it's not possible to fit if it wasn't done at the factory.

The standard fuel tank size and no cost option to upgrade to the 54l tank are all in the product guide, so the OP just didn't do his homework before buying the car. If the dealer was aware then they probably should have mentioned it - if it was a fresh build car, but if it was pulled from stock they'd only need to say what extras were fitted, not what wasn't fitted (as that would probably be a very long list).

Our supplying dealers were made aware at launch of the new model to order all of our cars with the larger fuel tank. Most were unaware at that stage of the tiny standard tank and are now ordering anything for stock with the larger tank.

I've one on the road with the standard tank as that was pulled from stock for a driver. Arrived with me on the light so had to put fuel in - was nice to hand a car over with well over half a tank, even though I only put 20 litres in.

pburns

R.O.R wrote: »

LOL

New tank is probably a few hundred from parts, then 1-2 hours labour at least to drain current tank and re-fit the new tank - that's if it's a straight swap. Could well be a few differences which means it's not possible to fit if it wasn't done at the factory.

The standard fuel tank size and no cost option to upgrade to the 54l tank are all in the product guide, so the OP just didn't do his homework before buying the car. If the dealer was aware then they probably should have mentioned it - if it was a fresh build car, but if it was pulled from stock they'd only need to say what extras were fitted, not what wasn't fitted (as that would probably be a very long list).

Our supplying dealers were made aware at launch of the new model to order all of our cars with the larger fuel tank. Most were unaware at that stage of the tiny standard tank and are now ordering anything for stock with the larger tank.

I've one on the road with the standard tank as that was pulled from stock for a driver. Arrived with me on the light so had to put fuel in - was nice to hand a car over with well over half a tank, even though I only put 20 litres in.

It was a fresh build car. With all due respect, I don't think it's fair to label this as 'shoulda done your homework'. The larger tank option is buried near the bottom of the equipment tab & it was never mentioned to me at any stage by the salesperson that this was an abnormally small tank. Piss poor communication/product knowledge IMO.

I need to get another fill, do proper measurements & get a handle on just how this might effect me. My mileage over the last few days has been v small but more local than usual. However I'm already just one bar off half-full which beggars belief.

JoeA3

Unfortunately, in my experience, you just can't rely on a salesman to be up to speed on specs of the cars he's selling. You need to do your homework! i.e. download the product guide and go through it... and check out dedicated owners forums, threads, etc...

for example, in the Buying forum on here there is a 100+ page thread on the Golf GTI/D/R, mainly made up of buyers / potential buyers asking questions that their salesman can't answer.

biko

Yup, it says so here too

Fuel tank volume 40 l

http://www.auto-data.net/en/?f=showCar&car_id=22292

Apparently this is the fuel consumption

Fuel consumption (economy) - urban 4.6-5.0 l/100 km.
Fuel consumption (economy) - extra urban 3.4-3.9 l/100 km.
Fuel consumption (economy) - combined 3.8-4.2 l/100 km.

Truckermal

JoeA3 wrote: »

Unfortunately, in my experience, you just can't rely on a salesman to be up to speed on specs of the cars he's selling. You need to do your homework! i.e. download the product guide and go through it... and check out dedicated owners forums, threads, etc...

for example, in the Buying forum on here there is a 100+ page thread on the Golf GTI/D/R, mainly made up of buyers / potential buyers asking questions that their salesman can't answer.

This is so true when buying a new car last year i couldn't believe most salesmen hadn't a clue on specs etc, in fact I knew a way more about the car than them...

I seen that piece in the product guide months back about the small tank..

CJhaughey

FFS this is shameful behaviour by the car sellers 40l! whats next a 5 litre can in the boot and an optional 20l jerrycan?

mikeecho

The 70L tank on my bmw was a selling point for me.

GustavoFring

Ze lab resultz tell uz zat ze bigger fuel tank iz completely unnecessary thanks to Gunters efficient map.

Pleaze ignore ze tip-ex on ze lab report.

Vorsprung durch technik.