BMW and M Power Owners

I had a couple of 30i cars on around 2001-2002 registrations which would do over 40MPG in similar conditions. He describes a long motorway run. It really hasn't changed much.

Diesels have come much further than petrols...

Yes the average was always down in the high 20's/early 30s, but so will the average of an M340i i would bet.
 
Jez said:
I had a couple of 30i cars on around 2001-2002 registrations which would do over 40MPG in similar conditions. He describes a long motorway run. It really hasn't changed much.

Diesels have come much further than petrols...

Yes the average was always down in the high 20's/early 30s, but so will the average of an M340i i would bet.
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I find diesels haven't moved much at all. 20 years ago we had a diesel golf which did 60mpg on average. The 1.9 litre 140bhp one. Since then i see smaller 1.6tdi diesels with stop start but they seem to do worse average mpg.

Although big diesels seem to have improved. Had lots of 3 litres+ v6 diesel SUVs over the years and have gone from expecting high 20s mpg to high 30s mpg on average and actually achieved 46mpg on my 465 mile run to cornwall.
 
Jez said:
While good, i think the above actually shows that we reached where petrol engines were going to get to (economy wise) absolutely years ago. While i know that it can develop more peak power, the end result isnt actually very different to the BMW 6cyl with the same capacity around 20 years ago :)
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Yes I appreciate it's a fairly 'best case' example given the relatively constant speeds and valid point about the peak power being the difference. I'm pretty sure my E90 330i never made it over 40mpg though, that thing used to drink fuel but that's perhaps more about how I drove it back then! I will need to check the long term average on the M340i, although thats a relative term in a car thats only done 6k miles or so.
 
Jez said:
I had a couple of 30i cars on around 2001-2002 registrations which would do over 40MPG in similar conditions. He describes a long motorway run. It really hasn't changed much.

Diesels have come much further than petrols...

Yes the average was always down in the high 20's/early 30s, but so will the average of an M340i i would bet.
Click to expand...

I absolutely disagree that the m54b30 could achieve over 40mpg real world on anything other than a downhill motorway section where you reset it at the top. Low to mid 30s in my 330i was absolutely best-case door to door, and up to 36-37ish in something light like my z4, and they were manuals - autos were way worse. In reality, the b58 in my 440i can comfortably get into the 40s on a door to door run, driving a similar way that i'd get low to mid 30s from the 330i, but with 100bhp more on tap and auto. I think the engines/gearboxes etc have come a HUGE way.

Now when pressing on, the b58 absolutely can and does use far more fuel though :D
 
Jez said:
I had a couple of 30i cars on around 2001-2002 registrations which would do over 40MPG in similar conditions. He describes a long motorway run. It really hasn't changed much.

Diesels have come much further than petrols...

Yes the average was always down in the high 20's/early 30s, but so will the average of an M340i i would bet.
Click to expand...

The last 2 3.0+ litre BMWs I had on 07 and 10 plate cars refused to do more than 35mpg.
 
Brok said:
Had a drive from Leeds area to Cheltenham yesterday so thought I would see what kind of mpg I would get out of my M340i on a run. I used the adaptive cruise and stuck it at the speed limit and ended up at 43mpg for the whole run. However, until I hit traffic on the M42 that was start/stop I was achieving the below. Pretty insane for an engine like this in my opinion.

b9Au9ex.jpg
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That’s impressive. My M135i with the new 4 pot gets about the same as that, and I know which engine I’d rather have in my car if it were a choice :)
 
Jez said:
While good, i think the above actually shows that we reached where petrol engines were going to get to (economy wise) absolutely years ago. While i know that it can develop more peak power, the end result isnt actually very different to the BMW 6cyl with the same capacity around 20 years ago :)
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What do you mean by end result? Because while the economy figures might not be that different (though I doubt a 2001 330i would have consistently cracked 40mpg?), they are worlds apart to drive. It isn't just peak power, it is power absolutely everywhere across the range.
hurfdurf said:
The last 2 3.0+ litre BMWs I had on 07 and 10 plate cars refused to do more than 35mpg.
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Not that I try for economy in any way whatsoever but my best tank averages for my 3.0L+ petrol BMWs have been:

M5: 27.61
M2: 33.14
M3: 24.22
Z4: 34.14

I'm certain that with hypermiling type techniques I could have got well north of 35mpg in the Z4 35i and in the M2. I could crack 30 in the M5 I reckon. No chance whatsoever of getting 30mpg out of the M3 though. The M5 runs on fresh air in comparison, especially when you look at long term averages which considering the difference between the two cars is quite remarkable.
 
Greebo said:
I find diesels haven't moved much at all. 20 years ago we had a diesel golf which did 60mpg on average. The 1.9 litre 140bhp one. Since then i see smaller 1.6tdi diesels with stop start but they seem to do worse average mpg.

Although big diesels seem to have improved. Had lots of 3 litres+ v6 diesel SUVs over the years and have gone from expecting high 20s mpg to high 30s mpg on average and actually achieved 46mpg on my 465 mile run to cornwall.
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Emissions legislation became much tighter so some mpgs were sacrificed
 
rG-tom said:
I absolutely disagree that the m54b30 could achieve over 40mpg real world on anything other than a downhill motorway section where you reset it at the top. Low to mid 30s in my 330i was absolutely best-case door to door, and up to 36-37ish in something light like my z4, and they were manuals - autos were way worse. In reality, the b58 in my 440i can comfortably get into the 40s on a door to door run, driving a similar way that i'd get low to mid 30s from the 330i, but with 100bhp more on tap and auto. I think the engines/gearboxes etc have come a HUGE way.

Now when pressing on, the b58 absolutely can and does use far more fuel though :D
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DRZ said:
What do you mean by end result? Because while the economy figures might not be that different (though I doubt a 2001 330i would have consistently cracked 40mpg?), they are worlds apart to drive. It isn't just peak power, it is power absolutely everywhere across the range.
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Too many people disagreeing with me, and ive not driven a remotely new BMW petrol, so i will bow out :p I have done quite a few miles in those old x30i cars though, and they definitely did return 40MPG for me when covering some distance. Mr Fox used to get similar i am sure, i remember comparing with him as he used to do a few miles in his i think. The new model clearly is better, but it didn't look a world apart from the orange dot matrix display of old to me, hence not being very impressed with it!
 
Jez said:
Too many people disagreeing with me, and ive not driven a remotely new BMW petrol, so i will bow out :p I have done quite a few miles in those old x30i cars though, and they definitely did return 40MPG for me when covering some distance. Mr Fox used to get similar i am sure, i remember comparing with him as he used to do a few miles in his i think. The new model clearly is better, but it didn't look a world apart from the orange dot matrix display of old to me, hence not being very impressed with it!
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I can see where you're coming from at first glance but rather than look at it from a 'new 3.0 engine doesn't do much better than an old 3.0 engine', if you instead think of it as 'new 375hp engine does much better than an old 375hp engine', it's very different - the tech has come on massively and if you compare on a power basis rather than arbitrary engine sizing, economy has improved hugely for given performance.

You also have to bear in mind different driving styles - whilst others may not have got 40mpg from the older cars where you did, consider that you might drive an M340i in such a manner that it gets nearer 50mpg :p
 
The last point is very true! I'd be interested to try a modern petrol, not driven a worthwhile petrol for a long time.
 
Kenai said:
You also have to bear in mind different driving styles - whilst others may not have got 40mpg from the older cars where you did, consider that you might drive an M340i in such a manner that it gets nearer 50mpg :p
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Furthermore, as already mentioned, we’ve been able to squeeze better performance out of the “same” engines with as good/if not better economy, which in itself is mind boggling.

And!

Cars have gotten heavier, as they’ve become more advanced/better soundproofing/more tech


IIRC, G80 M3, as an example, is 200kg ish heavier than an E46 M3
 
I would have thought that the ability of the B58 to get such good MPG is enhanced by the 8 speed auto allowing ultra low revs at motorway speeds.

My N52 powered manual 130i will average 35MPG when cruising at GPS 70mph on long motorway journeys. I think revs are up around 2,750 at that speed.
 
Not to sound pedantic, but have they improved or is it just the fact that they typically have small engines with turbos rather than large displacement. My e92 M3 gets maybe 25 to the gallon on a motorway at reasonable speeds:D. My old 911 turbo (3.6 twin turbo) would easily get 35 on the motorway, for a car that came out in 2001 and is still faster than most cars today I think that's pretty impressive. I guess the other things that help are cylinder deactivation (which I know will annoy many people, but I wish mine could do it:p).
 
theone8181 said:
Not to sound pedantic, but have they improved or is it just the fact that they typically have small engines with turbos rather than large displacement. My e92 M3 gets maybe 25 to the gallon on a motorway at reasonable speeds:D. My old 911 turbo (3.6 twin turbo) would easily get 35 on the motorway, for a car that came out in 2001 and is still faster than most cars today I think that's pretty impressive. I guess the other things that help are cylinder deactivation (which I know will annoy many people, but I wish mine could do it:p).
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The whole conversation started with early 2000s naturally aspriated 3 litres in 330i etc Vs the turbocharged 3 litre in the m340i, so it's pretty like for like except it's got a turbo and a boat load more power
 
roadie said:
I would have thought that the ability of the B58 to get such good MPG is enhanced by the 8 speed auto allowing ultra low revs at motorway speeds.

My N52 powered manual 130i will average 35MPG when cruising at GPS 70mph on long motorway journeys. I think revs are up around 2,750 at that speed.
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That brilliant ZF box definitely plays a part. The E46/E39 generation didn't even have a 6-speed box on the M54s.

But as mentioned above, the x30i cars from the 00s would have had 231, 265 or 272 bhp. The M340i is pushing out almost 400..
 
mjt said:
That brilliant ZF box definitely plays a part. The E46/E39 generation didn't even have a 6-speed box on the M54s.

But as mentioned above, the x30i cars from the 00s would have had 231, 265 or 272 bhp. The M340i is pushing out almost 400..
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Good point, I suspect its lots of little things that have made a difference. I know when I'm at motorway speed, mine is far away from idle so that's got to make a difference.
 
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