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      01-04-2012, 03:56 PM   #1
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3.0D MPG on a 10k miler

I've got some nagging doubts about the MPG my recently purchased 3.0D is achieving. Sorry if this topic has been covered elsewhere.

By way of a test (and also to visit my 88 year old granny for tea and cake) I made a journey from London to Henley on Thames and back again, around 30 miles each way. Both legs are roughly 50/50 motorway / A roads. I had clear roads, only having to stop 3 or 4 times at lights. Traffic was light so no excessive speed up / slow down was encountered.

On the outward journey I drove in my usual manner, enjoying the acceleration when safe but defiantly not like some dumb arse boy racer. In fact It's a (sad?) fact that I've not had a speeding ticket in 20 years. The motorway was clear so I set the cruise to 85. By the time I reached my destination the computer said 31mpg.

During the return journey I drove the path of the righteous. On the motorway stretch I aquatinted myself with that lane on the left, doing between 60 and 70. Quite nice really. When I reached my destination I'd achieved only 37mpg.

Do those figure sound right to you? Bear in mind the car has 10K miles on the clock so I reckon it should have settled down by now. The car does have 396 (staggered) rims with runflats, so I guess the wider rear wheels will have a slight effect on rolling resistance. On each leg of the journey I reset the MPG calculator. During the journey the stereo, satnav, aircon and lights were on but would they really make such a difference?

The BMW car configuratoriser sates the 3.0D should give 47.1mpg combined. I'd happily accept a few MPG less but 10 MPG whilst driving like an angel, what gives?

If anyone can shed any light on my dilemma or give comparative data then I'd be interested to hear from you.

Still loving the car.

Thanks,

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      01-04-2012, 04:16 PM   #2
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Those numbers do seem a little poor. Our 30d now has 9,500 km on it (~6,000 miles). Recently returned from a 2,000 km round trip over Christmas/New Year and for the highway driving averaged 6.6 l/100km (42.8 miles/UKgal) on the return 900km leg at an average speed of 92 km/h (57 mph). In my normal day-to-day commuting with fairly free flowing traffic I usually get around 8-8.5 l/100km (33-35 miles/UKgal).

Note that these fuel efficiencies are not from the trip computer but from manual calculation based on re-filling tanks. My experience to date has shown this is fairly close to that from the trip computer but has on ocassions varied by up to +/- 8% (ie its swings both under and over).

Hope this helps.

Tony

Last edited by brissim; 01-04-2012 at 04:17 PM.. Reason: spelling (again)
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      01-04-2012, 04:27 PM   #3
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This sounds about right to me. 37mpg is pretty good and 31mpg at 85 is not bad at all.

10mpg under the unachievable BMW euro-cycle figures is my personal experience with my current vehicles. By way of comparison, I run a 118d SE (the original efficient dynamics model) as a second car. BMW claims combined mpg of 60.1mpg. Driving like a saint at 60 I can get just about 50 and driving normally it does low 40s.

Also, my 4 cylinder Q5 has never seen 30mpg. I get 23mpg around the town and 27mpg on a run. Audi claim 40 combined.

So 10mpg under manufacturers euro-cycle figures is in line with my experience, with my driving style.

Its about time the EU legislated to make these figures more real world. One should only ever use them as a comparison between models, not as an expectation of real world usage.
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      01-04-2012, 04:38 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dnw View Post
One should only ever use them as a comparison between models, not as an expectation of real world usage.
+1 for comparison only. The figures are meaningless in isolation as they don't represent real life driving. They should quote consumption over 50 miles at 40mph, 50mph, 60mph, 70mph, 80mph so we can make our own minds up and see something meaningful. The urban and extra urban tests are meaningless IMO. All of that said my petrol GTI could easily get much closer to its advertised combined figure than my X3. I have to drive like Miss Daisy to get anything over 40mpg and it should be 50mpg combined. I still love the fuel economy though. My gripe is only with the presentation of the cycles and this isn't BMW's fault as they don't define the tests. Hills seem to affect the fuel economy more in the X3, presumably because of the extra weight. And don't use cruise control if you really want to drive conservatively. I can always get better mpg without it because of the way it maintains a constant speed over hills
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      01-04-2012, 04:45 PM   #5
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I'm not sure if this 100% accurate but lots of people don't know what urban, extra urban and combined is so here is the defiintion

Quote:
Urban fuel consumption (mpg) (cold) defined as: The urban test cycle is carried out in a laboratory at an ambient temperature of 20oC to 30oC on a rolling road from a cold start, i.e. the engine has not run for several hours. The cycle consists of a series of accelerations, steady speeds, decelerations and idling. Maximum speed is 31mph (50 km/h), average speed 12 mph (19 km/h) and the distance covered is 2.5 miles (4 km).

Extra-urban fuel consumption (mpg) defined as: The extra-urban cycle is conducted immediately following the urban cycle and consists roughly half steady-speed driving and the remainder accelerations, decelerations and some idling. Maximum speed is 75mph (120 km/h), average speed is 39mph (63 km/h) and the distance covered is 4.3 miles (7 km).

Combined fuel consumption (mpg) defined as: The combined figure presented is for the urban and the extra-urban cycle together. It is therefore an average of the two other parts of the fuel consumption test, Urban and Extra-urban cycles, weighted by the distance covered in each part.
http://www.savefuelsavemoney.co.uk/carsaveintro.htm

Note in particular that average speed on extra urban is 39mph and this is all done on a rolling road with a drag coefficient applied to represent wind resistance. The same drag coefficient is applied to all cars as I understand it which, if true, isn't a fair reflection. Its mpg over 200 miles on a motorway at 70mph would be much more meaningful.

Would love to do a real life urban test to compare mpgs but don't know the full schedule
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      01-05-2012, 01:40 AM   #6
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Just came back from Rome over New Year, and did Rome > Vienna in under 10 hours, at an average consumption of 9.6 litre of Agip Diesel Blu. Speed on Italian autobahn was constant 140-150 km/h, and during the night on Austrian autobahn 160-170km/h, lots of times on cruise.

On the way from Vienna to Rome I took it slow, never more than 140km/h and had an average consumption of 8.1 litre.

(Dunlop winter 245/50-18 all around).

The only time I saw really low-ish consumption was on a totally flat, totally empty autobahn doing 80km/h on cruise for about half an hour, which resulted in 6.7 litre average.

All in all I'd say till around 140km/h (2000rpm) the consumption is quite ok, after that you trade time for money on a heavier scale ...

P.S.: Too lazy to do the litre > mpg conversion thing so early in the morning ;-)
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      01-05-2012, 03:50 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RSchneider View Post
Just came back from Rome over New Year, and did Rome > Vienna in under 10 hours, at an average consumption of 9.6 litre of Agip Diesel Blu. Speed on Italian autobahn was constant 140-150 km/h, and during the night on Austrian autobahn 160-170km/h, lots of times on cruise.

On the way from Vienna to Rome I took it slow, never more than 140km/h and had an average consumption of 8.1 litre.

(Dunlop winter 245/50-18 all around).

The only time I saw really low-ish consumption was on a totally flat, totally empty autobahn doing 80km/h on cruise for about half an hour, which resulted in 6.7 litre average.

All in all I'd say till around 140km/h (2000rpm) the consumption is quite ok, after that you trade time for money on a heavier scale ...

P.S.: Too lazy to do the litre > mpg conversion thing so early in the morning ;-)
I worked them out as I was interested

6.7l/100km => 42mpg
8.1l/100km => 35mpg
9.6l/100km => 29mpg

80km/h => 50 mph
140km/h => 87 mph
150km/h => 93 mph
160km/h => 99 mph
170km/h => 106 mph
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      01-05-2012, 04:31 AM   #8
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My 3.0D now has 9,000 miles on the clock, fuel consumption would be almost identical under similar running conditions.

The usual average for my car is around 25 mpg because 80% of the time I'm towing 2100 kg of race car trailer.

Still this is 3 mpg better then the Mercedes it replaced and 12 mpg better than the petrol Range Rover before that, so I'm delighted!
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      01-05-2012, 07:29 AM   #9
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As Lotus was pointing out to me privately after I followed his tip and imported a digital cockpit battery monitor, at present my 3.0d hardly ever goes to stop/ start as the engine is busy making electricity to power winter gadgets. On my short commute 30 to 40 mph this has dropped my mpg from 37 / 40 to nearer 30 or less. Still not bad for what is a panzer, but the colder starts etc do make a big impact.
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      01-05-2012, 05:01 PM   #10
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Looks about right to me.. might have expected a little higher on the 60-70mph run, but certainly nowhere near their claimed figures.

When I ordered it, I said I would be happy if I got high 30's / 40 compared to their 'claimed' figures.. as above, none of the BMWs I've owned have ever come close to their claimed figures.

Have heard lots of people say that if you tune the engine with one of the many mods out there, one of the 'benefits' of that is you can get improved MPG, but ive not ventured down that road as the company I was told was the one to use and recommended, I could never get to answer the phone, so wasnt prepared to even try their product.
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      01-08-2012, 04:03 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by favorite sock View Post
I've got some nagging doubts about the MPG my recently purchased 3.0D is achieving. Sorry if this topic has been covered elsewhere.

By way of a test (and also to visit my 88 year old granny for tea and cake) I made a journey from London to Henley on Thames and back again, around 30 miles each way. Both legs are roughly 50/50 motorway / A roads. I had clear roads, only having to stop 3 or 4 times at lights. Traffic was light so no excessive speed up / slow down was encountered.

On the outward journey I drove in my usual manner, enjoying the acceleration when safe but defiantly not like some dumb arse boy racer. In fact It's a (sad?) fact that I've not had a speeding ticket in 20 years. The motorway was clear so I set the cruise to 85. By the time I reached my destination the computer said 31mpg.

During the return journey I drove the path of the righteous. On the motorway stretch I aquatinted myself with that lane on the left, doing between 60 and 70. Quite nice really. When I reached my destination I'd achieved only 37mpg.

Do those figure sound right to you? Bear in mind the car has 10K miles on the clock so I reckon it should have settled down by now. The car does have 396 (staggered) rims with runflats, so I guess the wider rear wheels will have a slight effect on rolling resistance. On each leg of the journey I reset the MPG calculator. During the journey the stereo, satnav, aircon and lights were on but would they really make such a difference?

The BMW car configuratoriser sates the 3.0D should give 47.1mpg combined. I'd happily accept a few MPG less but 10 MPG whilst driving like an angel, what gives?

If anyone can shed any light on my dilemma or give comparative data then I'd be interested to hear from you.

Still loving the car.

Thanks,

Fave Sock
THis does Not sound good at all to me.
I have covered 1575 Miles, my last "Blast" from Gatwick and back in that wind on Saturday morning covering 345 miles was as follows.
Brimmed before leaving @ ASDA, covered the 345 Miles and brimmed again.
I did 80 MPH as much as possible on a mix of roads and 90 MPH as much as I could on the way back fully loaded with 4 bodies and 4 Cases ( each weighing 20Kg + Hand luggage ).
MPG 35.5
Thats the worst I have seen from the car.
It usually gives 37/41 .

I would get that checked.
PS) A/C on and headed seats on, also on winter Dunlop's.
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      01-08-2012, 08:13 AM   #12
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Thought I'd share my 2 cents on this topic. My 3.0d has 14500km (9000 miles), I've been very gentle on the first 7000kms (4500 miles) w/o ever reaching more than 3000rpm. I have not dropped my average consumption one single time, and currently it's at 9.1l/100km (around 30mpg). But most of my trips are done within city limits with no highways around.

I did however make several trips via highways with an average speed of 97km/h, which resulted in 6.4l avg consumption (36.7 mpg).

I'm pretty much okay with these numbers, it's a SAV, with 4x4 and all.
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      01-10-2012, 04:49 AM   #13
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Jealous. I would love a diesel X3 here in the states. X5 has it, but it is just too big a car.
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      01-25-2012, 10:07 AM   #14
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My car has done 4,600 miles. I've just driven 160 miles in the UK (M6 / A14), I drove around 60 mph, the average for the journey was 55 mph. I'm astounded to have achieved 46.8mpg (that's manly imperial mpg....). This was gentle driving but not a total economy run, the traffic was free flowing.

Summing miles driven with remaining range I have a theoretical 715 miles range in this tank of diesel.
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      02-14-2012, 01:48 AM   #15
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Quick update on 3.0d consumption:

Lots of short range city driving these days, quite low temps (-10 to -15 deg Cel), reasonable driving style, and I use around 9.0 to 9.5 litre Diesel per 100km, which is as low as 25mpg (US).

Not too great I say! I had hoped for not lower than 30mpg (US).

Overall consumption after ~8.000km is 8.5 litre, or 28mpg (US). Let's see in spring, with summer tires and warmer temps ...
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      03-04-2012, 10:51 AM   #16
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Ok, warmer weather! At least somewhat, 8 deg C = 46 deg F. And consumption is down to 7.1 litre per 100 km, over a 200 km country road trip. That's 33 mpg. And a marked increase in economy over the cold days few weeks ago, same road, same kind of traffic. 1.5 litre better, to be precise (= 5 mpg better). Looking forward to summer tires!
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      03-04-2012, 01:15 PM   #17
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UPDATE on the 35D M Sport MPG.
2675 Miles covered, last blast in cold weather to and from Coventry @ 85/90 constant until the "Average speed area" 36 MPG brim to brim.
heated seats (4) and AC on. To and from the Golf course 25 miles each way I get 41MPG never exceeding 75MPG or the local speed limits.
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      03-04-2012, 01:26 PM   #18
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My understanding that Driving over 58-59mph will decrease the advertised mileage on the car in the US.

Just think about the higher the revving the more gas it consumes, thus reducing the mileage :P
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      03-04-2012, 03:40 PM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by johnbmw6 View Post
UPDATE on the 35D M Sport MPG.
2675 Miles covered, last blast in cold weather to and from Coventry @ 85/90 constant until the "Average speed area" 36 MPG brim to brim.
heated seats (4) and AC on. To and from the Golf course 25 miles each way I get 41MPG never exceeding 75MPG or the local speed limits.
You mean UK? That's 35 US. Guess that's do-able on cruise control. When I do 80 on cruise the red consumption bar hovers around 6 liter (47 UK). That's really not bad for a brick with a 3 litre engine. But I'm quite surprised how much difference the ambient temp makes. Even the oil temp is a hair closer to 100 now.
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      03-05-2012, 06:19 AM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RSchneider View Post
You mean UK? That's 35 US. Guess that's do-able on cruise control. When I do 80 on cruise the red consumption bar hovers around 6 liter (47 UK). That's really not bad for a brick with a 3 litre engine. But I'm quite surprised how much difference the ambient temp makes. Even the oil temp is a hair closer to 100 now.
Yep UK brim too Brim figures.
Temp does affect MPG.
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      03-19-2012, 02:18 PM   #21
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100 km (62 miles) B-road driving today, average speed 55 km/h (35mph), ambient temp 12 deg C (54 deg F) = 6.6 litre per 100 km (36 mpg US, 43 mpg UK).

Back via autobahn, 150-160 km/h constant (~100 mph), consumption average climbing to 7.7 litre per 100 km (30.5 mpg US, 37 mpg UK).

Shell v-power diesel, still on winter tires, 2 pax, no cargo.

Can't complain I'd say!
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      03-19-2012, 05:22 PM   #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jbinbi View Post
Jealous. I would love a diesel X3 here in the states. X5 has it, but it is just too big a car.
+1

Definitely hoping that it will be available come Dec 2014 when my lease runs out (but not holding my breath). The non-diesel nets me about 22mpg on average.
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