BMW 320d MPG?

rocksolid

Guys, i have a 2002 BMW320d se. Im getting 38.2mpg and am wondering is this normal reading for this car. To me it seems a bit low, the car is serviced every year and i get my diesel from the same garage every week....

If its on the low side what are my options?

coolbeans

How do you measure the figures you're getting? if you're not doing that properly all that will be said after this will be a waste.

rocksolid

its been at 38.4 for i dunno the last 3 years or so, i do a good bit of long haul driving and just thought that i should be getting more miles out of it.....what do you mean how do i measure it??

Jimbob 83

My 1.4 petrol Skoda Octavia gets 38-44mpg on my 15 mile mixed drive to work every day

Alanstrainor

NoelDoran wrote: »

its been at 38.4 for i dunno the last 3 years or so, i do a good bit of long haul driving and just thought that i should be getting more miles out of it.....what do you mean how do i measure it??

That's shocking.

When was it last serviced?

rocksolid

Alanstrainor wrote: »

That's shocking.

When was it last serviced?

Thats what i thought to be honest, only serviced a few months ago, done it myself so i know everything was changed.

Alanstrainor

NoelDoran wrote: »

Thats what i thought to be honest, only serviced a few months ago, done it myself so i know everything was changed.

And I hate to break it to you, but what the computer says, and what you're actually get are two very different things. My 2001 325ci is telling me im getting 27mpg around town...bahahaahaha.

rocksolid

Alanstrainor wrote: »

And I hate to break it to you, but what the computer says, and what you're actually get are two very different things. My 2001 325ci is telling me im getting 27mpg around town...bahahaahaha.

good point, is there any way to accurately to tell what my mpg is??

And what could i do to up my mpg??

Jimbob 83

Fill tank reset trip and work out mpg from tank size

Spipov

and reset the mpg reading, to start again. 3 years means its so averaged out it would never get a proper reading.

SomeGuyCalledMi

I'm getting 57 mpg from an S-max if that comparison is any use to you. Mostly country and motorway driving.

Alanstrainor

Also, you should reset the MPG reading the car gives you. God only knows how long that's been averaging your readings.

/* When you have the mpg displaying, press and hold the button on the indicator stalk that you use to show mpg, mph, miles left in tank etc and hold it for 5~seconds. */

Jumpaddict

NoelDoran wrote: »

good point, is there any way to accurately to tell what my mpg is??

And what could i do to up my mpg??

Most accurate way is to fill the car, reset trip counter, drive until empty, refill and take note of the liters used to refill the car and calculate with reference to the figure from the trip computer.....

dharn

surely average taken over 3 years is going to be more accurate than one sample run, where you could drive very economically and get a great reading or drive like you stole it and get a very bad result . perhaps op figures are very accurate and the rest of us are deluded,my 320d 06 trip computer tells me im getting 43 mpg average, i do a lot of short runs 3 miles or so ,and when i do a long trip to dublin i drive quickly so that average is good by my reckoning

yllw.ldbttr

I drive a 2006 320 CD. Didn't think the coupe should be that different from the saloon in terms of fuel economy.
Here's mine the last few months.

Road Trip iphone app, update at every fill.

Yellow = price / litre
White = Litre / 100km
Dotted = moving average

high horse

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Also, you should reset the MPG reading the car gives you. God only knows how long that's been averaging your readings.

/* When you have the mpg displaying, press and hold the button on the indicator stalk that you use to show mpg, mph, miles left in tank etc and hold it for 5~seconds. */

Mine takes an average reading over a maximum of about 10k miles. When it goes over 10k miles since the last time it was reset the display just shows four dashes instead of digits, like this: ----

biko

Beemers aren't great for mpg, I'm lucky to get 36 motorway driving.

JustLen

yllw.ldbttr wrote: »

Tell me more about this app?

high horse

biko wrote: »

Beemers aren't great for mpg, I'm lucky to get 36 motorway driving.

That will depend on the engine in your car. I had an E30 318is which was averaging 37mpg with mixed driving which I considered to be excellent. If I was getting that kind of mpg from my 320d I'd be getting worried

yllw.ldbttr

JustLen wrote: »

Tell me more about this app?

What do you want to know?

Dirkster

dharn wrote: »

surely average taken over 3 years is going to be more accurate than one sample run, where you could drive very economically and get a great reading or drive like you stole it and get a very bad result . perhaps op figures are very accurate and the rest of us are deluded,my 320d 06 trip computer tells me im getting 43 mpg average, i do a lot of short runs 3 miles or so ,and when i do a long trip to dublin i drive quickly so that average is good by my reckoning

I'd say the complete opposite. Fair enough if circumstances over the 3 years have not changed but this is rare and this is assuming that it was the OP even owned it for 3 years. Sure the first 2 years of the average could've been spent driving around town on 3 mile runs and since the OP "hypothetically" moved house/job/bought the car he has been doing decent spins on 100km/hr roads with no town driving. The average will be so heavily weighted from the first 2 years that he will need about another 6 years to get it close. Either way it isn't respresentative of what driving is actually being done.

I'd say resetting every 1k miles is good and accurate.

drunkmonkey

Was waiting to see what I got out of my last tank today before posting. 806km used 57 liters. Which is about 39.8mpg so op's figure isn't far off the mark at 38mpg.
It's no where near as good as lads would have you believe, most people I talked to were getting 50mpg +, I've neve got near that so either they can't add or they drive very slowly on the motorway.

yllw.ldbttr

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Was waiting to see what I got out of my last tank today before posting. 806km used 57 liters. Which is about 39.8mpg so op's figure isn't far off the mark at 38mpg.
It's no where near as good as lads would have you believe, most people I talked to were getting 50mpg +, I've neve got near that so either they can't add or they drive very slowly on the motorway.

If I drive at a steady 80 km per hour, on a dual carriageway/ motorway (very rarely happens) I can jusdt about reach 48-50 mpg.

That is the only time. Ever.

Normal driving for me, which is 70% motorway @ 120 (ish), and 30% city yields around the 35-37 mpg, slight less more often than not as I like to floor it quite a bit when taking off.

bmstuff

yllw.ldbttr wrote: »

What do you want to know?

Like what the heck is that? iPhone app?
Thanks

Francie Barrett

Lads, throwing out random MPG figures for lots of different cars is about as useful as a chocolate teapot.

I would say that the reason anyone gets crap MPG from their car in 90-95% of cases is down to their driving style. I have a diesel Passat, and I typically average 36/37 mpg. This figure sounds awful initially, but you have to bare in mind that I ride the accelerator pretty hard. When I have made an effort to drive efficiently, I managed to get 47 mpg from a combined cycle over two tanks of fuel.

Driving style is almost as important as whether you drive a petrol or diesel as to how much mileage you get from your fuel.

yllw.ldbttr

bmstuff wrote: »

Like what the heck is that? iPhone app?
Thanks

Yes, it's an iPhone app named "Road Trip", there's an iPad version as well.
Author is Darren Stone, he does a free Lite version too. Pay version was 3 or 4 euro I think.

bridgepeople

Do you ever look at the website Fuelly? It's great for real world mpg comparisons. There are seven 2002 BMW 320d's listed on that site with an average economy of 42.4 mpg. Two of the seven 320d's listed are reporting a 38 mpg. Highest is 46.6. So you are about right for the car.

For comparison, a 2012 Toyota Prius will get you 58.9 mpg and a 2012 Chevy/Opel Volt will get you a whopping 111!

Paddy@CIRL

You'll definitely need to reset your MPG-o-meter-thing and in my experience, the BMW one is pretty accurate. Usually +/- 1MPG when measured against refills and the odometer. If you are getting low figures, start with cleaning the EGR valve as they can get coked up quite badly. I've a re-mapped 2006 320D with ~220BHP & 400Nm and get around 50MPG on motorways and around 35MPG with heavy city driving. All depends on driving style though and when I'm feeling particularly miserly ...

dharn

you could reset your obc, then drive a mile down the road in the most economical fashion possible then post that photo, i would think to sustain that average with any 3 series bmw would be impossible

king_of_inismac

I get ~48mpg from my e90 320d

conzy

If you do a lot of city driving and "spirited driving" then 38MPG doesnt seem too bad.

A lot of people are under the impression the 320d is a 50MPG car, its 50MPG on the motorway, thats best case scenario not average

challengemaster

conzymaher wrote: »

If you do a lot of city driving and "spirited driving" then 38MPG doesnt seem too bad.

A lot of people are under the impression the 320d is a 50MPG car, its 50MPG on the motorway, thats best case scenario not average

I doubt it's even 50mpg on motorways. I'm getting ~45 average, I'll see if that changes after an EGR clean but I doubt it'll add 5MPG.

Francie Barrett

challengemaster wrote: »

I doubt it's even 50mpg on motorways. I'm getting ~45 average, I'll see if that changes after an EGR clean but I doubt it'll add 5MPG.

It all depends on your speed. If you're taking it handy doing 90kmph then you'll get 50 mpg fine. Bump it up to 130kmph and you'll be getting 36/38 mpg.

yllw.ldbttr

Francie Barrett wrote: »

challengemaster wrote: »

I doubt it's even 50mpg on motorways. I'm getting ~45 average, I'll see if that changes after an EGR clean but I doubt it'll add 5MPG.

It all depends on your speed. If you're taking it handy doing 90kmph then you'll get 50 mpg fine. Bump it up to 130kmph and you'll be getting 36/38 mpg.

Exactly, if I'm stuck behind a Sunday driver, cruising at 80kmph in 6th gear with the aircon off I can get around the 50mpg mark, but to be honest I'd nearly rather walk than drive like that. I'm all for fuel efficiency, but not if it's at the expense of enjoyable motoring. I might as well drive a Nissan Micra if that's the case.

If I'm doing my usual motorway commute driving it on a bit around the 120ish mark +-10% I average my earlier results in the 35-38 range.

It's more to do with the driver than the car IMO.

challengemaster

yllw.ldbttr wrote: »

cruising at 80kmph in 6th gear

I'd be of the opinion 4th or 5th would be more economical at that speed, considering recently I had a night trip short on fuel which I did @80km/h in 4th and the OBC was showing 50.2MPG, which was probably underestimating

Being in 6th at that speed is the same as cycling a bike in it's highest gear all the time as you're wasting energy. Being closer to peak torque in diesels is usually where it's most economical as the engine has less strain/load for the same amount of work, and that's usually when on boost.

Going by a dyno run of my car - peak torque is 2400rpm. 6th @80km/h wouldn't even be 1500rpm

dharn

challengemaster wrote: »

I'd be of the opinion 4th or 5th would be more economical at that speed, considering recently I had a night trip short on fuel which I did @80km/h in 4th and the OBC was showing 50.2MPG, which was probably underestimating

Being in 6th at that speed is the same as cycling a bike in it's highest gear all the time as you're wasting energy. Being closer to peak torque in diesels is usually where it's most economical as the engine has less strain/load for the same amount of work, and that's usually when on boost.

Going by a dyno run of my car - peak torque is 2400rpm. 6th @80km/h wouldn't even be 1500rpm

interesting opinion, but surely the lower revs would be more economical unless the car was really struggling up hills, but steady motorway driving at 80k in sixth gear would give the best results

challengemaster

dharn wrote: »

interesting opinion, but surely the lower revs would be more economical unless the car was really struggling up hills, but steady motorway driving at 80k in sixth gear would give the best results

It makes sense that lower revs = less fuel being burnt = better economy, but think of it this way. Peak torque is where you'll get the most power for your fuel, making it easier for the car to overcome drag, wind resistance, friction, etc etc. All of these apply even on a steady pace on a motorway.

Same as on a bike. You use the gear appropriate. You wouldn't cycle a straight in 1st as you'll be going like a maniac to keep up speed. You also wouldn't go in the highest gear as you'll be struggling to overcome the forces to turn the wheels due to the gear ratios.

While it may not be at it's lowest revs, it's getting more bang for buck which should make it more economical (imo)

Paddy@CIRL

dharn wrote: »

you could reset your obc, then drive a mile down the road in the most economical fashion possible then post that photo, i would think to sustain that average with any 3 series bmw would be impossible

I regularly achieve 50+MPG on runs to the airport from Waterford, but it can also drop to mid-30s depending on driving style. Averaged 48.7MPG on a recent return trip to London, would have been higher only for manic traffic on the M25.

There are a couple of causes for high fuel consumption on the 320D, but driving style accounts for a lot of it. Like Challengemaster said, find out when your making peak torque and use that as a reference.

sunny2012

Over a 180 mile journey from Derry to Galway, I regularly get 50mpg averaging 50mph over the journey. 320d e46

Zascar

This is a great site: http://www.fuelly.com/car/bmw/320d