A Greener VW Golf

BGREEN PERFORMANCE

Our previous emissions article focused on a customer vehicle that saw offroad use which had a bit of age behind it. Today we are going to look at the ‘coin-flip’ car in many workshops around Australia, the workshop courtesy car! 

For some business owners the workshop curtesy car(s) are their pride and joy, while for others it is simply a necessary evil. Whichever way you may look at your curtesy car, there is a service to keep customers happy, costs low, and all while being a bit green. 

A few readers of TAT magazine reached out after the previous article with a couple of inquiries. What about newer cars, do they need a “green” service? We take great care of our vehicles surely, they don’t need additional services? What do the emissions values look like during the service and how quickly does the chemistry react? 

These as well as a few others will hopefully be addressed in this article. Today we will be focusing on a candidate vehicle found in nearly every workshop, the curtesy car. Typically, most modern mechanic workshops offer a curtesy car for customers to use during the service/repair of their own car. I have affectionately called these vehicles ‘coin-flips’ as each business tends to yield their own approach of either maximum or minimum servicing these cars. 

One such workshop that offers a well looked after curtesy car in Dandenong is Aussie Tune. Owner operators Nigel and Rachel Tilly make use of a 2011 VW Golf with a 1.4L twin-charged engine as both a daily driver and curtesy vehicle. The Tilly’s have been users and advocates of BG products and services for several years since their opening in 2006. 

The vehicle is relatively newer (2011) with lower mileage (136,261km) than our previous test subject, its constant use and representation of the workshop drive the need for reliable and green performance. Nigel takes pride in owning this car and changes the oil every 5,000km! Emissions testing was conducted before and after vehicle servicing using the BG Products Performance Service Kit for petrol vehicles (part number 6577). 

Before testing, the vehicle was test driven to acquire operating temperature. 

GOLF EMISSIONS OVER TIME

During this service, an additional reading was taken to have a view of the emissions before draining the engine oil. This is to highlight the effectiveness of the chemistry independent of having new engine oil in the vehicle. These values were taken at idle after 15 minutes of runtime at 1200 rpm with chemistry in the fuel tank and old engine oil. 

After draining the old oil out and completing the service, the vehicle was again test driven to ensure completion of service as well as obtain operating temperature. Emissions testing was conducted and recorded after values remained unchanged for one minute. 

For me personally, I have always thought BG Products were quite good. As we used them we thought the cars ran better, the oil certainly stays cleaner ... But it really is quite nice to have some actual tested evidence that supports that. For me that’s really good and the reason why we use BG Products because they just work — Nigel Tilly owner of Aussie Tune