Considering an E46...

[bimmer_87]

gizlaroc said:

bimmer_87 said:

.......especially crawling in traffic up a hill is the worst!

Pull the left paddle back for 3 seconds and it ups the revs and stops it rolling backwards.

that feature is only on the M3 SMG 'boxes, that has alot more features and is more reliable, hense the £2000 for it when new.

where as mine was only £960!

[rottie102]

55mph on a motorway? Come on!

Guys, please don't forget that the 30MPG on 330i as much as it's achievable realisticly kills all the fun of owning one. While 30MPG on 330d is a pretty much standard thing NO MATTER HOW YOU DRIVE IT!

Plus, 330d with a simple remap will leave 330i behind while still having better MPG when you have fun in it.

[blackburnbmw]

rottie102 said:

55mph on a motorway? Come on!

Guys, please don't forget that the 30MPG on 330i as much as it's achievable realisticly kills all the fun of owning one. While 30MPG on 330d is a pretty much standard thing NO MATTER HOW YOU DRIVE IT!

Plus, 330d with a simple remap will leave 330i behind while still having better MPG when you have fun in it.

If you are referring to my earlier post about cruising at 55mph, let me explain: I did want to experiment to see what the OBC would register at a gentle cruise, but the primary reason for that speed was that I was leaving a medical appointment in Cheadle and the only place I was headed was back to work in Blackburn. For many reasons, there was no need to rush that day...

[Fox-]

rottie102 said:

55mph on a motorway? Come on!

Guys, please don't forget that the 30MPG on 330i as much as it's achievable realisticly kills all the fun of owning one. While 30MPG on 330d is a pretty much standard thing NO MATTER HOW YOU DRIVE IT!

Erm, do you own a 330i? I suspect not. 30mpg on a 330i is easy on a long distance trip no matter HOW you drive it because realistically its hard to do 200 miles with your foot flat to the boards. I did 120 miles in my 530i late on Sunday night and I didn't bother driving for economy. End result - 31mpg. The 330i is lighter so will at least equal it. I drove back from Southampton in the same style, but on mostly single carriageway A roads, 30.4mpg.

If you DO drive economically you'll be north of 35mpg let alone 30mpg. On a Motorway cruise at the legal speed limit with the cruise on you can almost reach 40mpg.

rottie102 said:

Plus, 330d with a simple remap will leave 330i behind while still having better MPG when you have fun in it.

A 330d won't 'leave a 330i behind' at all, at least, not a 330i with a gearbox allowing the driver to change down.

The M54B30 is a very economical engine when it's up to temperature. We have two in the family - one in my 530i and one in the Z4. We've also got an M57B30 as well in a 530d so I'm familar wtih the diesel engine also. Like for like (ie, comparing 5 with 5), the 530d is about 6-7mpg more economical than the 530i in any given situation (Ie when getting 20mpg around town in the 530i you'll get 27mpg in the 530d, and when getting 38mpg on a Motorway cruise the 530d would return 45mpg). When you consider the fact the fuel is 10p a litre more expensive there are not many journeys where the 530d is noticeably cheaper to take than the 530i. As for the Z4, it's a good 300kg lighter so is capable of even more suprising fuel economy figures.

They do, however, suck when cold and driven around town under which circumstances I'm lucky to exceed 21mpg. But then a diesel in the same situation is hardly going to be doing amazing mpg either, is it?

Edited by Fox- on Wednesday 24th December 23:04

[rottie102]

Fox- said:

Erm, do you own a 330i? I suspect not. 30mpg on a 330i is easy on a long distance trip no matter HOW you drive it because realistically its hard to do 200 miles with your foot flat to the boards. I did 120 miles in my 530i late on Sunday night and I didn't bother driving for economy. End result - 31mpg. The 330i is lighter so will at least equal it. I drove back from Southampton in the same style, but on mostly single carriageway A roads, 30.4mpg.

Edited by Fox- on Wednesday 24th December 23:04

Well, one of my cars is a turbocharged E34 535i so I don't really care about MPG
No, I don't own a 330i but had owned few 328s and 325s. Plus few diesels. And I know that fuel consumption goes up drastically if driven hard (I'm not talking "200 miles with your foot flat to the boards" on the motorway, but fast normal traffic driving) in petrol cars, where it stays on a pretty much constant level in diesel engines, being it Audi, Peugeot, BMW, Ford etc.

So to summarise - your choice should depend on how you drive your cars. How you REALLY DRIVE, not how YOU COULD BE DRIVING TO SAVE FEW QUID because that's not the point if you're buying a 3litre BMW.

[Fox-]

It's not a car you buy on the basis of fuel economy but it's handy to know that on a long journey the 3 litre petrol still offers you the advantage of a 500 mile tank range and reasonable mpg. Infact, so much so, that it makes the x30d largely pointless unless you are buying nearly new cars wiht warranty because the cost of replacing the turbo or injectors wipes out the tiny saving on fuel costs.

[fluffnik]

rottie102 said:

55mph on a motorway? Come on!

I get >28mpg from my 4.6l B10 @75mph cruise.

[Doctor Bone]

rottie102 said:

55mph on a motorway? Come on!

Guys, please don't forget that the 30MPG on 330i as much as it's achievable realisticly kills all the fun of owning one. While 30MPG on 330d is a pretty much standard thing NO MATTER HOW YOU DRIVE IT!

Plus, 330d with a simple remap will leave 330i behind while still having better MPG when you have fun in it.

That's just not true. 30mpg is easily achievable in a petrol. 55mph with cruise will yield 40+mpg in a manual 330i. The general feeling is that the auto box is about 5mpg less economical than the manual in any circumstances.