I can't believe BMW's claimed MPGs

[Volte]

Was looking at the specs for BMWs and I really can't believe the mpg figures!

These are for the 3 series coupe. I was shocked by the 325i: 0-62 6.6secs but 39.8mpg combined.

http://www.bmw.co.uk/bmwuk/pricesandspecifications...

My 03 325ti sport was quoted at 31mpg but never averaged better than 28.

I had a 1 series as a courtesy car that has that new start/stop technology, but I can't believe you'd get anywhere near these figures in real life!

[niva441]

My experience of a 120d fell woefully short of the official fuel consumption specs, never showing any sign of achieving the spec, regardless of how it was driven.

[Welshbeef]

niva441 said:

My experience of a 120d fell woefully short of the official fuel consumption specs, never showing any sign of achieving the spec, regardless of how it was driven.

Well I always tend to go by the combined achieved by Autocar real world driving not labs. Its similar to the RAC route finder it will give you a time for a journey and as it turns out its pretty accurate - much better than distance/expected ave mph....

[Catherine197]

Our experience has been interesting.

An E46 M3 that constantly did 27 mpg

An E90 318i M Sport that only did 31 mpg

An X5 which did about 25 mpg

A Z4C which did about 26 mpg

A 120D which did 39 mpg

The best car however

An E92 330D which did 37 mpg

So overall the majority were no where near what the claimed figures were, but there were a couple of diamonds in there.

[kentmotorcompany]

All qouted MPG's are calulated using the exactly the same test. Whilst the results never reflect reality, it is a very fair way to compare one car to another.

[Welshbeef]

kentmotorcompany said:

All qouted MPG's are calulated using the exactly the same test. Whilst the results never reflect reality, it is a very fair way to compare one car to another.

Well not the makers claims but the Govt claims (but country to country the test will be different). There is no NCap equivalent test for MPG.

The other thing to consider is everybody drives their car differently, on different roads with different conditions carrying x amount of weight - some people never carry more than 50% of a tank of fuel which significantly increases ave mpg but at the cost of more frequent fuel stops. Some take out their rear seats & some even their spare, some never turn on their air con while others have it on all the time. Some dont check their tyre pressure very often others check it every day. Many people dont drive smoothly so its race away from the lights and brake hard for the next stop while others judge the road far better and ease off - to the extent they rarely need to the use of 1st gear.

Some change up early others hang onto the gears. etc etc

[Welshbeef]

kentmotorcompany said:

All qouted MPG's are calulated using the exactly the same test. Whilst the results never reflect reality, it is a very fair way to compare one car to another.

What I think they should do is have a racing driver drive the car as hard as possile round a track until the tank is empty (or use a set 10ltrs of fuel) then an exceptional driver on the M ways same again on A/B roads and again in town.

One thing though clearly the stop start in the BMW's IS making a big improvement to what would have been your urban MPG without question. Personally I think this feature should be std accross all new cars - especially to help reduce chest problems in the citys where our kids suffer from unnecessary smog.

Also why no Hybrid Artics yet?? Come on Honda lawn mowers/marine engines/truck engines get your .... in gear.

[Frik]

Welshbeef said:

kentmotorcompany said:

All qouted MPG's are calulated using the exactly the same test. Whilst the results never reflect reality, it is a very fair way to compare one car to another.

Well not the makers claims but the Govt claims (but country to country the test will be different). There is no NCap equivalent test for MPG.

No, but I there is an ISO standard.

[Methane Bloke]

I can't remember some of the older BMs that we have had however the more recent ones averaged:

E36 M3 EVO 17MPG

E46 330d (184) 27MPG

E46 330d (204) 28MPG

These cars were doing the same 9 mile commute every day so the fiqures were a good between models comparison.

The journey changed into a 45 mile commute and the numbers changed:

E46 330d (204) 32MPG

E90 335d 33MPG

The next two cars have been used for much longer journeys so the averages have been higher:

E46 320d Touring (136) 45MPG

E87 120d 47MPG

All the numbers quoted are calculated fiqures over many tanks of full not the spurious numbers generated from the OBC, I could easily boast that I achieved 72MPG from the 120d on a 100 mile trip that was all motorway but that was just one journey and I was on a fuel save experiment.

Regards

Chris

[Ginger2003]

I have an E46 320Cd M Sport Coupe which has averaged 44mpg over the last 30,000 miles.