Looking to replace my time machine

Slowing down to 65-70 will save you a fortune.... And not actually be much slower in the real world. You need to cover huge (hundreds) of miles at lol speed difference to pick up decent time savings ...
 
Have to agree with above.

With JB3 on my old one id still see mid to late 30's mpg wise on my glasgow to edinburgh commute.

It averaged just over 30 on mixed driving in the 15k or so miles I had it. I say keep it and drop the settings a few notches. No point in sitting at 90 either, just take it a little easier.

As per what Fox says too, I never noticed any lag on mine either, the power delivery was super smooth (too smooth actually imo to the point it was a touch soul-less)
 
Or he could have course take your advice and drive like a knob in 420BHP car to maximise his MPG by half a percent and work the BMW into the ground :p

That would make much more sense..
 
Where have I suggested he drives like a ****? :confused: I said stick to the speed limit on the Motorway - thats hardly driving like a **** - and if doing 90 gets him 27mpg he can improve by rather more than half a percent by doing this.

There is no point running two cars - especially an old shed for that sort of mileage. Needs to be something nice. So, if the 3 Series definately isn't suitable for his usage then the answer is not a shed and his 3 Series, the answer is sell the 3 Series and get something else.
 
Might help if we know what sort of MPG you would find acceptable.

Maybe a BMW 3 litre of some kind? The book and reviews say they can get in the late 30's in MPG on a run. At 230bhp it will be fun too. Doubt you will get anything near that MPG with the performance to match.

If it is Diesel then maybe a Alfa 159 2.4JTDm 210bhp and 51mpg on a run. 42mpg combined.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...radius/1500/postcode/rh130ql/page/5?logcode=p
 
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To be clear, I have been driving it very tamely since loosing the fuel card, it is amazing how much it hurts when you pay for the fuel yourself. :)

Careful driving on the motorway 70 - 80 with careful acceleration gives me the 27MPG. Sorry if I worded it wrong before and sounded like I batted around at 90 all the time.

Common sense tells me to sell it and get a diesel, break even on the swap and get cheaper fuel. The other half of me says keep it and spend the extra ££ to have a nice car and forget the hassle of swapping over. The contract is 3 - 6 months and most likely will extend beyond that being government.

Unfortunately, with my payment / tax methods, I cannot claim for fuel expenses so it will come out of my pocket.

Decisions. At the moment I have no idea what to replace it with, and being me, I will probably keep it until it starts to hurt.

On the turbo lag, when I switch off the JB3, I really notice the turbo lag. It isn't much, but it is definately there. Map 5 is higher boost and reduced turbo lag. Also I need to see what MPG it does with the JB3 switched off. Not tried it yet and it actually might be the answer to everything.

Oh it is an auto btw so lower MPG, but I tend to paddle shift all the time.
 
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Might help if we know what sort of MPG you would find acceptable.

Maybe a BMW 3 litre of some kind? The book and reviews say they can get in the late 30's in MPG on a run. At 230bhp it will be fun too. Doubt you will get anything near that MPG with the performance to match.

If it is Diesel then maybe a Alfa 159 2.4JTDm 210bhp and 51mpg on a run. 42mpg combined.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...radius/1500/postcode/rh130ql/page/5?logcode=p

mmm, that looks nice, thanks.
 
I think I'd either keep the 335i, or switch completely to something that better suits your needs.

The closest thing is really a 335d with similar tuning, but looking at your current economy I wouldn't expect you to get much more than about 37 MPG from a 335d.

Over 20,000 miles per year, the fuel saving of a 335d over a 335i would be about £1,100 if you use normal unleaded or £1,400 if you use super.

Don't bother with the 159 - the 335d manages 350 HP tuned and 42 MPG combined..
 
If all you have done is a remap I'd have thought the loss on MPG with the cruise control on at 70 would be much less than you are suggesting.

I found that using cruise control made a significant difference to not using it and just maintaining the speed manually. You have to concentrate a lot harder to get good fuel economy when not using cruise. Over long distances this isn't always hugely achievable.

I did 3 months of 220 + miles/4 hours drive to and from work late last year. Using cruise set at 60 mph the best I managed was 56.6MPG from my vRS (180 BHP twincharged 1.4) Using no cruise and just 'going with the flow of traffic doing 70-80 it was mid 30's. A huge huge difference. The best bit was, even over that distance, the time difference was barely worth the extra effort of 'going with the flow'.

Try doing the journey next week with the cruise set to 60 and no hooliganism from junctions or on sliproads. I'd be amazed if you can't get that MPG up.
 
If all you have done is a remap I'd have thought the loss on MPG with the cruise control on at 70 would be much less than you are suggesting.

I found that using cruise control made a significant difference to not using it and just maintaining the speed manually. You have to concentrate a lot harder to get good fuel economy when not using cruise. Over long distances this isn't always hugely achievable.

I did 3 months of 220 + miles/4 hours drive to and from work late last year. Using cruise set at 60 mph the best I managed was 56.6MPG from my vRS (180 BHP twincharged 1.4) Using no cruise and just 'going with the flow of traffic doing 70-80 it was mid 30's. A huge huge difference. The best bit was, even over that distance, the time difference was barely worth the extra effort of 'going with the flow'.

Try doing the journey next week with the cruise set to 60 and no hooliganism from junctions or on sliproads. I'd be amazed if you can't get that MPG up.

Thanks,

I start a week on Monday up and down the M6, so will switch of the JB3 boost and try the cruise control method.
 
Might help if we know what sort of MPG you would find acceptable.

Maybe a BMW 3 litre of some kind? The book and reviews say they can get in the late 30's in MPG on a run. At 230bhp it will be fun too. Doubt you will get anything near that MPG with the performance to match.

If it is Diesel then maybe a Alfa 159 2.4JTDm 210bhp and 51mpg on a run. 42mpg combined.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...radius/1500/postcode/rh130ql/page/5?logcode=p

If the OP is after economy unless that is some clever 4wd system that isn't always on he will have a huge hit on economy. That, and does anyone really get close to book figures on a diesel.

The real 'on a run' figures are ususally a lot lower than just resetting the fuel economy computer at 60 on the motorway. The real world cold start engine at 4 degrees ambient temperature. The slow stop start to get to the motorway/a-road, the 30 minutes until the diesel gets up to operating oil temperature... etc etc leads to much lower and true figures. Who cares what the car can get at full operating temperature sat on a flat motorway with an empty car. No one actually drives like that, and as such the figures are totally useless.
 
Common sense tells me to sell it and get a diesel, break even on the swap and get cheaper fuel. The other half of me says keep it and spend the extra ££ to have a nice car and forget the hassle of swapping over. The contract is 3 - 6 months and most likely will extend beyond that being government.

So if it's not even planned to be a commute longer than 6 months, keep it? Surely?
 
Might help if we know what sort of MPG you would find acceptable.

Maybe a BMW 3 litre of some kind? The book and reviews say they can get in the late 30's in MPG on a run.

Errr he already has a BMW 3 litre of some kind and the 335i is no less economical than the 231bhp petrol six BMW did...
 
If the contact is only six months I'd be inclined to deal with the extra fuel costs until I could determine whether it was going to become permanent or not.
 
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