Efficient Dynamics - How good is it really?

[[TW]Fox]

Well so far, not very.

Collected an E91 318d SE Touring on Monday as I've taken the parents Z4 back to the supplying dealer to have a few issues worked out. I've got it for about a week and due to the location of the dealer I've already covered 400 miles in it.

Now, according to BMW this particular model will do 48mpg urban, 58mpg combined and a staggering 67mpg on the extra-urban cycle. Now we all know that the quoted figures are rubbish but it shouldnt be too far off, right?

Well, so far, I've not managed to get it above 53mpg. I drove from Worcester to Devon and never once exceeded 70mph. Proper take it easy cruise down the M5. This should yield record mpg - it got me 39mpg in my 530i Sport. But no - average at the end of the trip was just 52.6mpg.

So today, the urban test. Cold start, into town, queued to get out of town, trip to the industrial estate then back down a few miles of dual carriageway.

29.7mpg. On the same driving, my 530i Sport gives me 20-22mpg. Hardly a huge saving really.

What gives? Ok it's now got 1200 miles on the clock so it's reasonably tight still but.. these figures are a LONG way off whats quoted. A very long way. And I'm hardly caning the life out of it.

This is a shame becuase the car is otherwise very impressive for what it is.

Edited by [TW]Fox on Wednesday 6th August 23:19

[Chipper]

They do look poor figures from your 318D as from the start in my 335D which is rempaaed i managed 35mpg all day long but nothing better. The only thing i would say though is since i've gone past 30000 miles the mpg has improved from 35 around town and on a run 40/42 giving me a range on every tank of min 500 miles. Give it time and report back when you've put more miles on.

[greygoose]

Perhaps the figures will improve with mileage, the quoted figures for mpg are impossible to achieve in the real world for any manufacturer though.

[Swiss Tone]

[TW]Fox said:

29.7mpg. On the same driving, my 530i Sport gives me 20-22mpg. Hardly a huge saving really.

What gives? Ok it's now got 1200 miles on the clock so it's reasonably tight still but.. these figures are a LONG way off whats quoted. A very long way. And I'm hardly caning the life out of it.

This is a shame becuase the car is otherwise very impressive for what it is.

Edited by [TW]Fox on Wednesday 6th August 23:19

My friend I feel you are in much to much of a rush. There is a marked difference to the MPG (overall performance too) of most cars that have done 1000 miles to 3000 miles to 10,000 and so on. Look at it as the same as the difference its makes when you first turn on low energy light bulb at home, it takes a few minutes to warm up to get to 'ideal' lighting potential.

Yes manufacturer's publish figures that very few of us can get. But they are by law 100% accurate, but done only in ideal 'testing' situations. Unfortunately we all live in different world's from each other therefore we will never get or be the same as the next, be it you're mate down the road or the manufacturer.

Regards,
Swiss.

[[TW]Fox]

Swiss Tone said:

My friend I feel you are in much to much of a rush. There is a marked difference to the MPG (overall performance too) of most cars that have done 1000 miles to 3000 miles to 10,000 and so on. Look at it as the same as the difference its makes when you first turn on low energy light bulb at home, it takes a few minutes to warm up to get to 'ideal' lighting potential.

Thats a shame, as I suspect it goes back next week. It's only a loan/demonstrator car. It's even liveried up with Efficient Dynamics on the side.

[gizlaroc]

There is no way any car on modern roads can get official figures, as a rule of thumb somewhere between urban and combined will be the figure you get once the car is run in.

My 320d ED auto was sat at 37mpg for the first few thousand miles, now it is around 42mpg.

Journeys have gone from 42 mpg to 50mpg.

If I drive like a nun and stick to free flowing A and B roads I can see high 50's now where as 48mpg was teh max till I got to 10k miles on it.


Diesels on short jouneys round town are pretty poor, it is when cruising they start to make sense.

[M5Dave]

I think the biggest selling point of the efficient dynamics cars are the lower CO2 emissions, which means cheaper road tax for most models.

[[TW]Fox]

gizlaroc said:

There is no way any car on modern roads can get official figures, as a rule of thumb somewhere between urban and combined will be the figure you get once the car is run in.

I tend to get pretty close to the official figures with my 530i.

[doodlebug]

[TW]Fox said:

gizlaroc said:

There is no way any car on modern roads can get official figures, as a rule of thumb somewhere between urban and combined will be the figure you get once the car is run in.

I tend to get pretty close to the official figures with my 530i.

Me too, easily.

[rfn]

doodlebug said:

[TW]Fox said:

gizlaroc said:

There is no way any car on modern roads can get official figures, as a rule of thumb somewhere between urban and combined will be the figure you get once the car is run in.

I tend to get pretty close to the official figures with my 530i.

Me too, easily.

I regularly beat the combined figure in my Mondeo, and my mate seems to get near the official figures in his 325i.

[Neil.D]

As stated, the engine is far too new.
Once the car has 15k miles or so, try it again then. Im sure you'll see an improvement.

[[TW]Fox]

Neil.D said:

As stated, the engine is far too new.
Once the car has 15k miles or so, try it again then. Im sure you'll see an improvement.

I suspect by the time this car has 15k on it, it will have been sold as an Approved Used Car to its first private owner.

[Neil.D]

[TW]Fox said:

Neil.D said:

As stated, the engine is far too new.
Once the car has 15k miles or so, try it again then. Im sure you'll see an improvement.

I suspect by the time this car has 15k on it, it will have been sold as an Approved Used Car to its first private owner.

...who will be enjoying the quoted mpg figures.

[[TW]Fox]

Neil.D said:

[TW]Fox said:

Neil.D said:

As stated, the engine is far too new.
Once the car has 15k miles or so, try it again then. Im sure you'll see an improvement.

I suspect by the time this car has 15k on it, it will have been sold as an Approved Used Car to its first private owner.

...who will be enjoying the quoted mpg figures.

Does make you wonder what the point in having fully livered Efficient Dynamics demo vehicles which are incapable of delivering the headline economy figures ED is all about?

[Neil.D]

[TW]Fox said:

Neil.D said:

[TW]Fox said:

Neil.D said:

As stated, the engine is far too new.
Once the car has 15k miles or so, try it again then. Im sure you'll see an improvement.

I suspect by the time this car has 15k on it, it will have been sold as an Approved Used Car to its first private owner.

...who will be enjoying the quoted mpg figures.

Does make you wonder what the point in having fully livered Efficient Dynamics demo vehicles which are incapable of delivering the headline economy figures ED is all about?

I would imagine just to try and steal some of the Prius and Polo 'fox' owners away from their £35/year tax bracket yet still retain some of the BMW prestige marque.
I can imagine a much older person being sold on it.

Neil

[gizlaroc]

[TW]Fox said:

gizlaroc said:

There is no way any car on modern roads can get official figures, as a rule of thumb somewhere between urban and combined will be the figure you get once the car is run in.

I tend to get pretty close to the official figures with my 530i.

Petrols always seem to get better results.

Problem with diesels is they take a good 8 miles to warm up, up until that point they are petty naff consumption wise.

Also just look at how the tests are conducted, extra urban is crusing at 30mph with 5% of the journey at 70mph, the combined figure is an average of urban and extra urban.
All these tests are done when the car is up to temperature, so unless you do lots of long journeys getting the official figures in a diesel is very hard.

For those that do 20, 30, 40k miles a year though they are great.

My last tank returned 51.3mpg, not bad for an auto that has sat at 90mph all week.
The 530i auto which is about the same speed (my 320d is mapped and I still have the 530i) doing the same jouneys would be just under 30mpg.
So as a work horse the diesel makes alot of sense, but as something fun the NA petrol will always win, specially with a manual box. The new 330i (272bhp) manual would be my choice if doing it again.