Catherine Posted October 7, 2006 Report Share Posted October 7, 2006 Can someone tell me how reliable BMW's fuel consumption figures are. When we had the M3 it was supposedly capable of 20 MPG and we continually got 27. So when I decided to swap the Astra VXR for something a bit more fuel efficient we plumped for a 318i M Sport with an alleged Combined 38 MPG. The car did 31 MPG on the first tank and at the moment is doing 31.3 MPG on the 2nd which has involved quite a bit of motorway cruising (approx 50%). I am a little dissapointed, is it that BMW are over optimistic or is it that the car needs to have done a lot more than 600 miles before it delivers the true fuel consumption figures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterS Posted October 7, 2006 Report Share Posted October 7, 2006 38 mpg sound high for real world use IMO Catherine. The E90 is quite a heavy car, and with 1.8 (or is it 2 litre ) petrol engine I'd have thought low 30s would be the most you could hope for. I've not managed to match BMWs combined figures in any of the BMWs I've had...( E46 330d, E90 330i, E61 525d, E87 120d and E61 535d) All have been at least 5mpg below, but then I don't tend to drive for economy Just my thoughts... Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catherine Posted October 7, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 7, 2006 Hi Peter, It is a 2.0 in the 318i. In fairness I didn't think I would get the claimed 38.7 but I didnt think it would be 20% out on the claimed figures. I don't think I have owned a car that is that far out, hence my concern. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterS Posted October 7, 2006 Report Share Posted October 7, 2006 Well, if you're currently getting 31 it should go up a bit as the car runs in. I'd still think 33ish would be the best you'd get. The 535d should do around 35mpg on the combined cycle, and I've averaged around 30 over 15,000 miles, so 12% ish below. Finger crossed Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizze Posted October 7, 2006 Report Share Posted October 7, 2006 I owned an E46 318ti and over the 36k miles I had it I returned 29.8mpg on the obc, the combined figure for that was just short of 40mpg. It is not BMW's fault that their figure is optomistic, the figures are gathered by running a car on a rolling road, it is out dated and a very poor way of doing it, but they have no choice. On a heavy car like the E90 you will see very little between the 318i, 320i, 325i, 330i or the 335i. Didn't you take the car out for a long test drive before you bought it?? I took the 130i out the other day for a couple of hours, into town at 9am and then back out into the sticks for a bit of a blast and then back to mine, this is pretty much how I would drive on an everyday basis and the obc was showing just under 21mpg when I got home. That is the only way to tell. Audi are the same, I got 32mpg from my 1.9tdi A6 avant against the quoted 44mpg, and only 31mpg from the 2.5tdi a4 avant against the 42mpg that was quoting. My A3 did however get 44.4 against the 48mpg quoted and the 120d is getting 38mpg against the 41mpg quoted, it seems the lighter the car the closer the figures will be, probably right as the figures are taken from a rolling road?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted October 8, 2006 Report Share Posted October 8, 2006 Same thing as your other "loosen up" post. Our E46 only started getting better after 7k miles and now has actually done 50MPG at 12k miles! So then I went and bought a 420BHP V8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imageking Posted October 11, 2006 Report Share Posted October 11, 2006 Tonight just done my first brim fill up from previous brimmed fill up..same garage. Its all been a pretty mixed A & B roads of 45 mile each way drive to/from work. Only 5 miles of Dual carridgeway, traffic limits the amount of right foot flexing. Typically I have a 15 miles stretch at a constant 45-50 Mph each trip. So 466 miles on 51.7 litres of Ultimate Diesel....thats 40.9 MPG ! offical EU figures for the 335D auto are 27.4 MPG Urban 47.9 MPG extra urban 37.7 MPG Combined can't see me getting that very often when the car starts to pass the gets run in figure in a week or sobeyond 1000-1500 miles On the MINI Cooper S (45K miles) I typically get 36/38 MPG on the same run...early in its life it was returning 32/34 MPG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catherine Posted October 14, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 14, 2006 I am pleased to report that the car is getting better. Tank 1 (Dealer filled with allegedly 97 Ron) 31 MPG Tank 2 (Tesco 99 Ron) 31 MPG Tank 3 (Shell V Power) 33.6 MPG The car certainly likes V Power, it's performance is vastly improved since switching to it. We have filled the car again today with V Power so will have to see if it keeps improving. The car has about 1000 miles on it so is nearly at the end of it's running in period. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterS Posted October 14, 2006 Report Share Posted October 14, 2006 Good news Catherine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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