Buying 540i (1997) Manual

[junglie]

Interested in one of these cars and noticed the chap selling a 2000 model. Is the fule econokmy really that bad at sub 20 mpg combined? I will be doing 100 miles per day on the motorway - cruise in at a steady 80 mph, what would you expect then? Circa 25 mpg? I know I should not buy with fuel pricesas they are but a 286 bhp, 6 speed manual, rear wheel drive saloon is very tempting. I know it is never going to be an M5 but sounds like great fun!

[Huff]

Well it's not going to be any worse than an E34 540 auto, and mine seems to return pretty good figures on motorway runs; 28-29 easy, 30-31 not difficult; these things are very high geared and 70 in top is only 2000rpm - very relaxing. Incidentally for mine best economical speed seems to be closer to 85 than 60, by the way - possibly just an artifact of having the torque converter lock-up.

Pressing the naughty switch on the autobox brings bigger smiles and circa 18-22mpg on a hoon; but overall, over 7kmiles, about 25-26MPG.

[bob1179]

As Huff said, you'll get around 22mpg around town and 28mpg on the motorway, they are very nice motors.

Huff - That is one very sexy looking motor

[papercup]

i have a 1999 Auto 540 and it does about 18 round town, 30 @ 70mph, 25 @ 90mph

21 overall since i got it over a year ago

[Digger.]

Yep mine is similar as mentioned above. It's also an auto.

Edited by Digger. on Friday 17th October 15:46

[Fox-]

22 around town from a 540i? Forget it - try teens. I get 22 from my 530i around town and thats a considerably more fuel efficient car.

[Job38]

Manual will be around 10% more economical.

[Fox-]

Mine is a manual, so best case scenario.

[bob1179]

Fox- said:

22 around town from a 540i? Forget it - try teens. I get 22 from my 530i around town and thats a considerably more fuel efficient car.

Mine is an auto and I average around 22mpg. The only time it drops below that is when I'm being a bit brutal with the throttle.

[welwynnick]

If you're going to be doing 100 motorway miles a day, I think there's probably no better car for the money. I had a 1999 540i manual for several years. I suspect that it was a lot more economical than any comparable automatic. Mine would do 28-29 mpg commuting and 34-35 mpg cruising, according to the trip computer.

In general, when people talk about consumption, do they go by the computer or by a brim-to-brim fill-up and amount used? There's a difference.

Careful with a 1997 car BTW, I think that was the year they switched to Alusil blocks. Only the importer can tell you for sure.

Nick

Edited by welwynnick on Monday 20th October 09:45

[stone-islandV8]

The nikasil affected engines in the 5 series were the M60 blocks used in the E34s as well as others. The E39 V8s got M62 engines 1996 on so no nikasil issues.