E46 M3 manual daily commute - thoughts please
Discussion
I bought my M3 last March at a time when I walked to work and did no more than about 7 - 8k miles a year - making it the perfect weekend and social car. However, at the start of the year I changed jobs and now do around 200 miles a week commute on a boring 2 lane carriageway. Needless to say the petrol is going to start to become a pretty expensive and regular occurance.
I'm getting (for me at least) a pretty decent return of around 25.5mpg and about 285-290 miles out of a full tank on a combined work / weekend mix. Pootle along daily on cruise control and rarely get above 70 to and from work.
My questions though are:
1. Is there anything else I should be doing to improve the MPG I get back (aside from tyre pressures, luggage, speed and short shifting)
2. Buy a cheap diesel daily (any suggestions for about £3k - but £3k + tax + insurance buys a lot of fuel!)
3. Ditch the M3 and get a 330D or maybe even a 530D?
4. Does anyone else commute in their M3 and what sort of return are you getting?
I am having major doubts because at last I have the car I want and don't want to lose it but I have to be realstic - £80 a time for less than 300 miles is pretty poor given that any half decent diesel will do 450/500 if driven the same way!
Any thoughts, advise, comments greatly appreciated!
I'm getting (for me at least) a pretty decent return of around 25.5mpg and about 285-290 miles out of a full tank on a combined work / weekend mix. Pootle along daily on cruise control and rarely get above 70 to and from work.
My questions though are:
1. Is there anything else I should be doing to improve the MPG I get back (aside from tyre pressures, luggage, speed and short shifting)
2. Buy a cheap diesel daily (any suggestions for about £3k - but £3k + tax + insurance buys a lot of fuel!)
3. Ditch the M3 and get a 330D or maybe even a 530D?
4. Does anyone else commute in their M3 and what sort of return are you getting?
I am having major doubts because at last I have the car I want and don't want to lose it but I have to be realstic - £80 a time for less than 300 miles is pretty poor given that any half decent diesel will do 450/500 if driven the same way!
Any thoughts, advise, comments greatly appreciated!
I found myself in this situation a couple of years ago, somewhat compounded by the snow at that time. My solution was to buy a 1.2 clio from my brother. At the time this seemed like a good idea, however….
When you start to work out the numbers it isn’t so great, admittedly the market in E46 M3s has moved against me, but taking everything (including depreciation) into account I am about £500 better off over the two years that I have done this – when I say this I mean taking the scenario of never having bought the clio against what I have actually done.
My sums were based on the following, similar to yourself really:
230 miles a week commute, 2 lane A road.
26mpg in the M3, 45mpg in the clio .
Roughly 5k ‘personal’ miles on top of the 15k or so commuting I do (there’s an element of business travel on top of my day to day commute)
Taking the mileage related adjustments from glasses’ guide based on the theoretical mileage the M3 would be on now if I’d used it daily.
The saver is the petrol, and the reduction in mileage related depreciation of the M3, what scuppered my plan is the fall in value of M3s over the last couple of years (so saving depreciation by reducing mileage is less of a plus) and the insurance / servicing / road tax of running a second car – I bought the clio off my brother and he insured it for £150 a year, unfortunately, due to being unable to use NCB twice (never got my head round this, surely NCB is attributable to a driver, not a car!) I was paying £500 a year. Nothing major has ever gone wrong with the clio, so, in a real world situation, with all the figures in front of me I can honestly say I saved about £250 ish a year….for driving a clio over an M3, the only caveats I can think of are:
1) more may have gone wrong with the BMW if it was in daily use, but I’ve had the usual bills to factor into my sums, RTA bushes, springs snapped, ins 1 service etc etc
2) the days when it snowed last year I’d have been forking out £8 return for the train, instead of £5 odd in petrol.
Someone will point something out I’ve forgotten, but, based on facts, I’d say the money makes no difference, so it comes down to how much you want to preserve your M3…balanced against getting to drive it every day..
i would say admiral multi car has saved me a bit in insurance the last year, but it's not massive.
When you start to work out the numbers it isn’t so great, admittedly the market in E46 M3s has moved against me, but taking everything (including depreciation) into account I am about £500 better off over the two years that I have done this – when I say this I mean taking the scenario of never having bought the clio against what I have actually done.
My sums were based on the following, similar to yourself really:
230 miles a week commute, 2 lane A road.
26mpg in the M3, 45mpg in the clio .
Roughly 5k ‘personal’ miles on top of the 15k or so commuting I do (there’s an element of business travel on top of my day to day commute)
Taking the mileage related adjustments from glasses’ guide based on the theoretical mileage the M3 would be on now if I’d used it daily.
The saver is the petrol, and the reduction in mileage related depreciation of the M3, what scuppered my plan is the fall in value of M3s over the last couple of years (so saving depreciation by reducing mileage is less of a plus) and the insurance / servicing / road tax of running a second car – I bought the clio off my brother and he insured it for £150 a year, unfortunately, due to being unable to use NCB twice (never got my head round this, surely NCB is attributable to a driver, not a car!) I was paying £500 a year. Nothing major has ever gone wrong with the clio, so, in a real world situation, with all the figures in front of me I can honestly say I saved about £250 ish a year….for driving a clio over an M3, the only caveats I can think of are:
1) more may have gone wrong with the BMW if it was in daily use, but I’ve had the usual bills to factor into my sums, RTA bushes, springs snapped, ins 1 service etc etc
2) the days when it snowed last year I’d have been forking out £8 return for the train, instead of £5 odd in petrol.
Someone will point something out I’ve forgotten, but, based on facts, I’d say the money makes no difference, so it comes down to how much you want to preserve your M3…balanced against getting to drive it every day..
i would say admiral multi car has saved me a bit in insurance the last year, but it's not massive.
I do exactly the same as the OP. I commute 21 miles each way to work on an A road, so approx 200 miles a week.
I usually average 25-27mpg, although i get around 34-37mpg sat in traffic at around 45-55mph and not overtaking anyone.
I have bought a cheap Astra which I also use as a runaround and keeps the miles down a little bit on the M3.
I was looking at a 123D coupe/ or a Alpina D3, but talked myself out of it because to save money on fuel you have to fork out a hell of a lot of dosh to buy it in the first place, making it not worthwhile, and then i would be driving around in a diesel all sad.
I usually average 25-27mpg, although i get around 34-37mpg sat in traffic at around 45-55mph and not overtaking anyone.
I have bought a cheap Astra which I also use as a runaround and keeps the miles down a little bit on the M3.
I was looking at a 123D coupe/ or a Alpina D3, but talked myself out of it because to save money on fuel you have to fork out a hell of a lot of dosh to buy it in the first place, making it not worthwhile, and then i would be driving around in a diesel all sad.
I had an E39 M5 for 5 years and did 90.000 km in that, almost exclusively on motorways to the tune of 23 mpg. Every time I drove it I felt special to be in something that was clearly overkill for cruising at 150-160 kph, but ultimately that was also why I sold it (and that it had reached 8 years and 200.000 km): I simply didn't use its potential, and all the TDIs of the world would be cruising at the same speeds, while doing double the mileage.
In the end replaced it with a C220 CDI, and 6 months on that was sold too, as simply a step too far toward the average and void of any automotive emotion.
If I were you, I would enjoy the M3, realising that fuel economy is not that important in the big scheme of things, instead of getting a horrible/frugal daily driver that you will have to spend so much time in.
In the end replaced it with a C220 CDI, and 6 months on that was sold too, as simply a step too far toward the average and void of any automotive emotion.
If I were you, I would enjoy the M3, realising that fuel economy is not that important in the big scheme of things, instead of getting a horrible/frugal daily driver that you will have to spend so much time in.
. My answer to this is to short shift the m3 into 6th at anything above 40mph and keep it there. I find it greatly improves my MPGI'm currently doing a 90 mile daily commute in my e46 M3 (manual) so feel i can probably add some useful info on running costs etc.
Up until Sept 2011, i had run a 320d Sport as a daily, with the Trophy as a track car. All in, for 2k per month (98% usage of the derv), the total cost of running both, for tax, ins, tyres & fuel, was about £450 (derv fuel accounted for £230 or so). I was always in the derv, but always wished i was in the Clio.
In comparison, the M3 costs me considerably more in fuel, but i dont have to have all the running costs of clio as well (well i do, but i am stuggling to justify it lol), so overall its costing me about £500 a month (of which fuel is roughly £410).
So only a little bit extra, which i think is worth it. The irritating thing is you see fuel expenditure far more than tax & insurance - ie going to Shell every 3.5 days for a tank of VPower does get a little tiring.
But then i go for a drive around the Brecons, & it all makes sense.
I'm averaging 28mpg btw, sitting at 80-85 leptons for most of the time, get 31 if i stick to 70.
Up until Sept 2011, i had run a 320d Sport as a daily, with the Trophy as a track car. All in, for 2k per month (98% usage of the derv), the total cost of running both, for tax, ins, tyres & fuel, was about £450 (derv fuel accounted for £230 or so). I was always in the derv, but always wished i was in the Clio.
In comparison, the M3 costs me considerably more in fuel, but i dont have to have all the running costs of clio as well (well i do, but i am stuggling to justify it lol), so overall its costing me about £500 a month (of which fuel is roughly £410).
So only a little bit extra, which i think is worth it. The irritating thing is you see fuel expenditure far more than tax & insurance - ie going to Shell every 3.5 days for a tank of VPower does get a little tiring.
But then i go for a drive around the Brecons, & it all makes sense.
I'm averaging 28mpg btw, sitting at 80-85 leptons for most of the time, get 31 if i stick to 70.
chris_cgc said:
Convert to LPG as I did. I do daily commute,20K miles PA and get 21mpg on gas, which is 72p litre, equiv 40mpg. No loss of performance, I have now clocked up 160K miles. Top of the range Prins conversion was 2K.
According to my man maths, based on 20k per year:Diesel pence per litre £1.419
LPG pence per litre £0.739
28.0mpg, £384 per month in fuel
21.0mpg, £267 per month in fuel
£117 saving per month. Cost of conversion = £2000.
Breakeven at 17 months - not entirely sure thats worth it.
Have you thought this through(not meaning to be rude!)?
According to my, admittedly crap maths the difference between 25mpg and say 30mpg over 10,000 miles is approx 60gals or less than £400 pa. That's nothing compared with all the other costs associated with running your car and nothing at all compared to running a second 'cheaper' car. Got to say mpg is the last thing I worry about in my cars. Depreciation, general running costs etc etc a MUCH bigger hit.
According to my, admittedly crap maths the difference between 25mpg and say 30mpg over 10,000 miles is approx 60gals or less than £400 pa. That's nothing compared with all the other costs associated with running your car and nothing at all compared to running a second 'cheaper' car. Got to say mpg is the last thing I worry about in my cars. Depreciation, general running costs etc etc a MUCH bigger hit.
The whole point in posting this whole thing was to get a wide opinion from other similarly placed people. My biggest worry is the mileage and depreciation on the car itself - the mpg and daily cost is of course the smaller side of it.
About to get 2 new tyres, Tax, Service and Insurance in the next 30 days so looks like the M3 will be with me for a while yet.
Will I end up getting a cheap daily or swap the M3? I hope not but it's a possibility down the line....
Will just have to use the missus' Beetle a bit more on rainy days to make it a little less painful!
Thanks for all the comments and thoughts.
One thing though - I think the nearest LPG station is 10 miles out the way so not a viable option in my neck of the woods at the moment!
About to get 2 new tyres, Tax, Service and Insurance in the next 30 days so looks like the M3 will be with me for a while yet.
Will I end up getting a cheap daily or swap the M3? I hope not but it's a possibility down the line....Will just have to use the missus' Beetle a bit more on rainy days to make it a little less painful!
Thanks for all the comments and thoughts.
One thing though - I think the nearest LPG station is 10 miles out the way so not a viable option in my neck of the woods at the moment!
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