E46 330i Auto - 400+ miles range
Discussion
Just thought I'd post this up as I thought it somewhat impressive. My average fuel consumption for the last 21 months has been ~26mpg, however my daily commute is only 11 miles and is through the city, which brings the average down somewhat.
Anyway, as can be seen, I achieved 375 miles from the tank with 45 miles remaining (I normally only get around 260 miles to a tank). This was over the course of 5 roundtrip journeys:
1 x 200 mile roundtrip journey, 4 up with roof rack and skis on the top.
1 x 120 mile journey, again 4 up with luggage (no roof bars).
1 x 35 mile journey in a mix of town and countryside.
2 x 10 mile commutes through the city.
Now I know this won't be any sort of record, but it does show that an E46 330 (auto) can be reasonably economical when driven on longer runs. Anyway, no real point to this post other than to share.
Anyway, as can be seen, I achieved 375 miles from the tank with 45 miles remaining (I normally only get around 260 miles to a tank). This was over the course of 5 roundtrip journeys:
1 x 200 mile roundtrip journey, 4 up with roof rack and skis on the top.
1 x 120 mile journey, again 4 up with luggage (no roof bars).
1 x 35 mile journey in a mix of town and countryside.
2 x 10 mile commutes through the city.
Now I know this won't be any sort of record, but it does show that an E46 330 (auto) can be reasonably economical when driven on longer runs. Anyway, no real point to this post other than to share.
The manual isn't bad either, best result I had was 378 miles between fills...a right result compared to my old z4m. That was on a fairly mixed run too leaving about 30 miles apparently left in the tank.I find that premium 99 gives a much better mpg on average. Heading down to st Ives next week so I might go for the record!
thats good - I used to get 420 miles if you added the miles remaining to the miles driven on a tankful, from my 330Ci 5 speed manual and that was travelling when the traffic was fairly light so not too much stop/start commuting. When I test drove a 330 before I bought mine the only car my local dealer had available was an auto and we spent a lot of time stuck in traffic and the OBC (which I had reset) was reading 18mpg at the end of the drive!
My wife has averaged 23.5MPG in hers over the last couple of years, mainly pootling around locally. We keep thinking about changing it as it's going to be 8 years old this year, but every time I drive it, it's just such a good car. Not a single rattle or squeak and just feels so well made. I fear that a newer car may well not be a better car.
^^^ Cheers 
Don't worry about the mpg figure, I'll soon get that back down. I'm driving the car back from Austria to the UK at the end of March, which means German Autobahn. This would normally involve a knife-edge balance between speed and economy, however the fuel for the trip will be paid for. So it'll be V-Power 100 octane and regular explorations of the upper end of the sixes rev range.
Don't worry about the mpg figure, I'll soon get that back down. I'm driving the car back from Austria to the UK at the end of March, which means German Autobahn. This would normally involve a knife-edge balance between speed and economy, however the fuel for the trip will be paid for. So it'll be V-Power 100 octane and regular explorations of the upper end of the sixes rev range.
cslwannabe said:
thats good - I used to get 420 miles if you added the miles remaining to the miles driven on a tankful, from my 330Ci 5 speed manual and that was travelling when the traffic was fairly light so not too much stop/start commuting. When I test drove a 330 before I bought mine the only car my local dealer had available was an auto and we spent a lot of time stuck in traffic and the OBC (which I had reset) was reading 18mpg at the end of the drive!
I drive an E90 330i auto as my daily. I work in central London (luckily company pays for parking and C-charge). At the moment my OBC is reading 15MPG - they are shocking once you encounter traffic/temporary traffic lights/more traffic/driving round endlessly looking for parking spaces.
Once on the motorway, it easily climbs into the mid-thirtees if you stick around 70-80.
I used to have a Mini Cooper S (new more efficient turbo one) and that only used to manage about 22MPG doing the same sort of driving.
I honestly don't know what car would be decent in terms of economy for me.
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