BMW EfficientDynamics - how to tell visually if a BMW has it

E92

I have at last found the answer to this question. The 1 series and 5 series got facelifts almost a year ago, but BMW left out the 116i and 520d for quite a while for whatever reason.

The 1 series and 5 series excluding the 116i and 520d are simple, it 's the facelifted version, it has EfficientDynamics, if it isn't the facelifted version, then there is no EfficientDynamics.

Any facelifted 6 series has ED, and any new model X5 also has ED.

But recently the 116i, 520d and the entire 3 series range gained ED, and the rest of the car was left unchanged.

Or so I thought.

But if you look at the exhaust pipe, you will get your answer for the 116i, 316i, 318i, 320i, 318d, 320d and 520d.

It's matt black for those without ED, it's a chrome exhaust pipe for those with ED, and in the case of the 318d and 320d, it sticks straight out like a petrol car does, rather than the traditional downturn for diesel models.

The reason I mention this is for anyone thinking of importing a BMW from the UK after July wondering short of coming to revenue with the car whether you've got a BMW with the lower rate of CO2 or not, and also anyone who's buying a used one can know whether its the one that uses more fuel or not.

Hope that will be of some use to some of you;).

Zonda999

Just how big a difference will ED make??And another thing, do you notice that nearly all new 5 series you see have no model inscription.Do people really want to hide the fact that they got the cheapest one(520d)???

bazz26

It makes a big difference to VRT and road tax rates in July.

E92

Zonda999 wrote: »

Just how big a difference will ED make??And another thing, do you notice that nearly all new 5 series you see have no model inscription.Do people really want to hide the fact that they got the cheapest one(520d)???

520ds have only one exhaust pipe, and the slits in the grille are black, the 6 cylinder models(excluding the 535d) have 2 oval exhaust pipes, the V8s and the 535d have 2 circular exhaust pipes, and all 6 cylinder and V8 models have chrome slits in the grille.

4 cylinder 3 series have one exhaust pipe and black grille slits, the 6 cylinder models have 2 exhaust pipes and the chrome grille slits(though some 4 pots have the 6 cylinder grille stuck on them), in the case of the 335i and 335d there is one exhaust at either side of the back bumper, in the case of other 6 cylinder models there are 2 at the left hand side.

The 6 cylinder 1 series has 2 exhausts as well, the 4 cylinders have a squareish single exhaust bar the 123d which has a single oval exhaust.

Deleting the model inscription doesn't hide the fact you chose the cheapest model at all at all!

Zonda999

I'm not calling the 520d a poor relative or anything.The 520d is one if the best value cars on the road in today's prices not-a-mind next july.However, i'm sure i've heard that the 520d auto is going to cost something like 5g more than manual.BTW fair dews for knowing all that stuff about how to distinguish between the models.Up to now if i was curious, i took a glance at the tax disc.what do you think bmw-ireland are going to do about the 520d in july??Leave the customer have the full discount or hike up the price and add a few luxuries??

bazz26

You can specify from the factory not to have the model inscription on the boot. People with more powerful engined BMWs also do this so that a would be thief would not be drawn to it. But any half clued car thief would not need a badge to know.

E92

Zonda999 wrote: »

I'm not calling the 520d a poor relative or anything.The 520d is one if the best value cars on the road in today's prices not-a-mind next july.However, i'm sure i've heard that the 520d auto is going to cost something like 5g more than manual.BTW fair dews for knowing all that stuff about how to distinguish between the models.Up to now if i was curious, i took a glance at the tax disc.what do you think bmw-ireland are going to do about the 520d in july??Leave the customer have the full discount or hike up the price and add a few luxuries??

It will be fantastic value in July. You can get a new 520d in July for not a lot more than a basic 318d costs now.

They have committed themselves to passing on the VRT savings in full, and the spec is remaining unchanged. The 520d is coming down by €8,190, and thats from the MD Sean Green. It makes the models just above it seem like very bad value for money though. I mean you pay 5 grand more for a 523i, but in July you will be paying around 12 grand more for the exact same car(the 523i is coming down in price as well, as it's emissions are lower than an Audi A6 2.0 diesel, but it is only coming down a small bit while the 520d is coming down hugely). Really, if you're not going for the 520d, you might as well go the whole hog and get a 530d or 530i or a 535d, as any of these will cost €600 to tax a year, compared to €1290 now, the 530d with a manual gearbox will cost €430 to tax and is in 24% VRT(the Auto and the others are in 28% VRT).

See the "Expected Prices July 08 thread", all you need to know about BMW and all other makes is there about what the prices should be in 5 months time.

maidhc

E92 wrote: »

Deleting the model inscription doesn't hide the fact you chose the cheapest model at all at all!

Well from 99.99% of the population it does!

Anan1

E92 wrote: »

, and in the case of the 318d and 320d, it sticks straight out like a petrol car does, rather than the traditional downturn for diesel models.

4 cylinder diesels fitted with particle filters have always had straight-out, rather than turned-down, exhaust pipes.

pburns

A salesman from a rival marque told me Efficent Dynamics is a load of bull because to maintain the CO2 level rerquires the constant replacement of particulate filters (which cost €€€s) come service time. The engines, unaided, are no more environmentally-friendly than their rivals. Obviously he had a vested interest is saying this...:rolleyes:

Any truth to this though? I mean BMW is rolling out the ED models thick-and-fast without any form of major re-engineering... Surely there's a catch?

If true, it ranks alongside Bangle-ised syling and their insistence on run-flat tyres on my list of reasons NOT to buy a BMW:D...

pburns

pburns wrote: »

A salesman from a rival marque told me Efficent Dynamics is a load of bull because to maintain the CO2 level rerquires the constant replacement of particulate filters (which cost €€€s) come service time. The engines, unaided, are no more environmentally-friendly than their rivals. Obviously he had a vested interest is saying this...:rolleyes:

Particulate filters have nothing to do with C02 emissions.

Theyre job is to filter out the black soot that oil burning engines pump into the atmosphere.

pburns

ronoc wrote: »

Particulate filters have nothing to do with C02 emissions.

Theyre job is to filter out the black soot that oil burning engines pump into the atmosphere.

Well maybe it's not the particulate filter specifically but some other form of emissions filter fitted to ED models? Possibly BS but i'd be interested to know...

PaulieC

I thought that ED was less to do with filtering and more to do with not wasting energy by recapturing the enery lost under braking to recharge the battery, auto stop/start in traffic, shutting down unneeded components when driving etc ?

redbag

I'm not sure if this was introduced with ED or not on the 520d but is the X5 type auto lever another indication?

Anan1

pburns wrote: »

Well maybe it's not the particulate filter specifically but some other form of emissions filter fitted to ED models? Possibly BS but i'd be interested to know...

It'd want to be a very big filter to filter out CO2.;)

E92

pburns wrote: »

A salesman from a rival marque told me Efficent Dynamics is a load of bull because to maintain the CO2 level rerquires the constant replacement of particulate filters (which cost €€€s) come service time. The engines, unaided, are no more environmentally-friendly than their rivals. Obviously he had a vested interest is saying this...:rolleyes:

Any truth to this though? I mean BMW is rolling out the ED models thick-and-fast without any form of major re-engineering... Surely there's a catch?

I'd love to see that salesman try to replace the particulate filters on the petrol BMWs with ED then. Oh wait.....

He would say that wouldn't he anyway. Whether ED works or not is debatable, but apart from Audi, everyone else is fooked in July, because their emissions are miles higher than any comparable BMW(especially Merc), and if nothing else, ED gets the cars in much lower VRT brackets, so they can price them better, and they will have lower road tax every year.

Particulate filters, as other people have explained, are there to reduce the bad smell from diesels and to reduce the soot and the other bad pollutants from diesels.

ED is more or less a hybrid without the cost of an electric motor, CVT gearbox, and all the weight of the batteries, and in the case of Automatics and/or anything that hasn't got 4 cylinders, no Auto Start Stop which can be turned off if you don't like it(not that that matters too much not having uit or turning it off because in yesterdays Sunday Times, BMW reckons that at the very most, no Auto Start Stop increases fuel consumption by a mere 3% on average).

If a 3.0 straight 6 petrol can get into the same VRT and road tax category post July (BMW 325i, 170 g/km CO2) as a 2.2 4 cylinder diesel(Lexus IS 200d, 164 g/km CO2) because of ED, then I think it might just be of some use;)!

E92

Anan1 wrote: »

4 cylinder diesels fitted with particle filters have always had straight-out, rather than turned-down, exhaust pipes.

AFAIK BMW have fitted DPFs to all of their diesels cars since autumn 05, and the 3 series diesels have had downturned exhaust pipes right up until the 2008 model year, when EfficientDynamics was fitted.(the 5 series diesel incidentally has had a DPF since the E60 came out in late 03, and the diesels in that had the option of the straight out exhaust pipe, though the downturned ones were standard(in later years all 5 series diesels got straight out exhaust pipes, around the time the 520d was introduced AFAIK).

Biro

Was the 650i then the first ED engine BMW brought out? (Or 550i or 750i, whever it resides!)

Anan1

E92 wrote: »

AFAIK BMW have fitted DPFs to all of their diesels cars since autumn 05, and the 3 series diesels have had downturned exhaust pipes right up until the 2008 model year, when EfficientDynamics was fitted.(the 5 series diesel incidentally has had a DPF since the E60 came out in late 03, and the diesels in that had the option of the straight out exhaust pipe, though the downturned ones were standard(in later years all 5 series diesels got straight out exhaust pipes, around the time the 520d was introduced AFAIK).

No, the particulate filter was still listed as a (rather expensive) option for our cars in 2007. Cars without have the downturned exhaust, cars with don't.:)

High&Low

bazz26 wrote: »

You can specify from the factory not to have the model inscription on the boot. People with more powerful engined BMWs also do this so that a would be thief would not be drawn to it. But any half clued car thief would not need a badge to know.

I saw a BMW 335i the other day, it had the model inscription on the boot removed but its number number plate was 07-D-3351 :rolleyes:

Biro

High&Low wrote: »

I saw a BMW 335i the other day, it had the model inscription on the boot removed but its number number plate was 07-D-3351 :rolleyes:

Not as bad as a girl here who had 07-county-316 on the reg. Imagine paying to advertise that you have an over priced crap car!

E92

Anan1 wrote: »

No, the particulate filter was still listed as a (rather expensive) option for our cars in 2007. Cars without have the downturned exhaust, cars with don't.:)

I presumed when Helmut Panke said back in 2005 that all diesel BMWs had DPFs at that stage they did!(they were fitted to all UK cars since 06 AFAIK, and Irish spec BMWs are meant to be identical to those across the pond bar the speedo being in km/h)

Though it being Ireland and full of VRT, I'm not surprised we were left out(again):)!

E92

Biro wrote: »

Was the 650i then the first ED engine BMW brought out? (Or 550i or 750i, whever it resides!)

Nope. First was the 1 series facelift in March(bar the 116i).

Then the next was the 5 series in April(excluding the 520d).

Next after that was the new X5 in May.

After that came the 3 series in October(a technical update, visually identical to 3 series without ED bar the chrome exhaust pipe for 4 cylinder models, not sure about the 6 cylinder models because a) I've yet to see one and b) some 6 pots like the 335i/d already had chrome exhaust pipes), the 520d and 116i(these are distinguished by chrome exhaust pipes, those without a chrome exhaust pipe have a kind of gunmetal grey I think, not really sure what the actual name of the colour is:D), and in November the 6 series facelift came.

The Z4 also got a technical update in recent times(I think some sort of bar or something was changed, and it shaved a few g/km off the CO2)

Future models with ED include the X6, coming in May, the next generation 7 series (F01/F02) next year, and next years new Z4.

The MINI hatch got it early on last year as well and all Clubmans have it, as will the new MINI convertible due out in the latter half of the year.

There isn't such a thing as certain engines having ED or not in a sense, it was just applied to the entire range bar the 116i and 520d. Some engines, like the V8s and the 3.0 twin turbo petrol, and the 3.0 diesels were there before BMW rolled out their EfficientDynamics programme, others, like the 4 pot and 6 pot petrols(excluding the 3.0 twin turbo, which is not related to the other 6 cylinder petrols being based on an older design i.e. the 530i engine that came out in 01) are basically the same but now have high precision injection, and no longer is it a case of just the 116i and 316i not having Valvetronic, they are all minus Valvetronic these days and they all got a bhp and/or torque increase as well.

The 4 cylinder diesels with ED are to the best of my knowledge a brand new engine, and have more power and torque than before.

MINI engines with ED are also identical to those without(and btw, MINI are passing on VRT savings in full to the customer just like BMW are).

Biro

I see. The 4.8 is a new engine too though isn't it? Replaced the old 4.4.
I think it was that the 540 had the 4.4 V8, then it was modified to give it more power, that was then called the 545i and now it's gone in place of the 4.8 which has more power and lower emissions and is badged 550i. (replace 5 for 6 or 7 as necessary!).
So I assumed it might have been the first.

E92

Biro wrote: »

I see. The 4.8 is a new engine too though isn't it? Replaced the old 4.4.
I think it was that the 540 had the 4.4 V8, then it was modified to give it more power, that was then called the 545i and now it's gone in place of the 4.8 which has more power and lower emissions and is badged 550i. (replace 5 for 6 or 7 as necessary!).
So I assumed it might have been the first.

You're sort of right. The old 7 and 5 series(E38 and E39 respectively) V8s had the M62 engine, 3.5l for the 535i/735i and 4.4 for the 540i/740i.

When the current(well current as in pre facelift) versions of both came in, the 735i remained, but it was a brand new engine(had Valvetronic, Double VANOS and direct injection) the engine code is N62, but was now a 3.6, had 272 bhp, compared to 235 bhp that the older engine had, and was never offered in the 5 series.

The bigger V8 was basically the same N62 engine, just it was a 4.4, and had 333 bhp compared to it's predecessors' 286 bhp(nowadays you get 286 bhp in a 3.0 6 pot twin turbo diesel from BMW), and was offered in both(as well as the 6 series initially).

The 7 series got a facelift in 2004, and the 5 series got a whole new range of engines in spring 2005(as did the 6er), and these V8s were enlarged to 4.0 and 4.8 litres respectively(and the 4.0 was added to the 5 series).

The badging was now 740i/540i and 750i/550i etc.

All they did with those V8s when they came out a few years ago was make them bigger;).

Of course there is a 4.4 twin turbo V8 on the way, first car to get it will be the X6 xDrive50i, not sure if it's a brand new engine or not, but believe it is and has in excess of 400 bhp:D. I'd expect most future BMW petrol engines will have twin turbos, the company look like they are going down the route of smaller capacity and twin turbos for their petrols(quite a big change considering that BMW until very recently wouldn't touch turbos for petrols with a forty foot bargepole).

Biro

E92 wrote: »

I'd expect most future BMW petrol engines will have twin turbos, the company look like they are going down the route of smaller capacity and twin turbos for their petrols(quite a big change considering that BMW until very recently wouldn't touch turbos for petrols with a forty foot bargepole).

Surprising seeing as they practically pioneered it with the 2002 turbo.

E92

Biro wrote: »

Surprising seeing as they practically pioneered it with the 2002 turbo.

I always thought the 2002 turbo was noted for turbo lag(I wasn't even born at the time, so I have no idea what it was like) though? IIRC that was why BMW shied away from turbos for so long, cause they didn't consider them smooth enough and didn't have a linear power delivery cause of the turbo lag, though again, not even having been born at the time, I don't really know enough about it.

Anan1

E92 wrote: »

I presumed when Helmut Panke said back in 2005 that all diesel BMWs had DPFs at that stage they did!(they were fitted to all UK cars since 06 AFAIK, and Irish spec BMWs are meant to be identical to those across the pond bar the speedo being in km/h)

Though it being Ireland and full of VRT, I'm not surprised we were left out(again):)!

I'm guessing he meant all German-market diesel BMWs. I know ours didn't because it was an option when my mother ordered hers in Feb 07. I'm pretty sure it was an option in the UK too, because a popular mod was/is the fitting of a straight-out endpipe in place of the turned-down one. To be honest, I kind of lost interest after my mother's car arrived, so i've no idea what happened since. Have a look here though: http://www.e90post.com/forums/

Biro

E92 wrote: »

I always thought the 2002 turbo was noted for turbo lag(I wasn't even born at the time, so I have no idea what it was like) though? IIRC that was why BMW shied away from turbos for so long, cause they didn't consider them smooth enough and didn't have a linear power delivery cause of the turbo lag, though again, not even having been born at the time, I don't really know enough about it.

There was huge Turbo lag with that car alright. But it was still a first (to the best of my knowledge!). The reason was that back then they didn't have the materials to withstand that heat and still be light, so the turbines are made from some heavy metal that's good at withstanding the heat, therefore require a lot of exhaust fumes to spin them! The lighter the material of the turbine (and the lighter the turbine) the easier it is to spin, so it'll start spinning at a lower rev, thus reducing the lag. There's more to it than that, but that's just a brief crude explanation.
But ya, the turbo kicked in at something like 4k rpm in the 2002 turbo, or 3.5k at least, and the car was slow till that point, then would fling itself forward!