Ridiculous MPG

[TW]Fox;9982734 said:
If you throttle off approaching lights, it will take you longer to reach them than if you drive up to them at normal speed (Using fuel) and then brake. This increases the chance that the lights are changing to green by the time you reach them, avoiding having to come to a complete stop, which stops the need to accelerate from rest, saving more fuel.
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This is a handy trick for those of us with less powerful motors as well. Driving a modest 1.6 has taught me that maintaining momentum is a smoother, more economical and generally nicer experience, and has improved my driving style accordingly.
 
Conscript said:
This is a handy trick for those of us with less powerful motors as well. Driving a modest 1.6 has taught me that maintaining momentum is a smoother, more economical and generally nicer experience, and has improved my driving style accordingly.
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Most people don't even consider it and prefer instead to simply assume the way they do things is best and anyone acheiving high MPG either lies or drives like an old man :)
 
Indeed. Like you say, its not hard to look ahead and plan accordingly.....I can often be found planning my racing lines across roundabouts, not because I consider myself a racing driver but because I don't want to go and spend more money at the petrol station so soon :D
 
[TW]Fox;9982825 said:
Most people don't even consider it and prefer instead to simply assume the way they do things is best and anyone acheiving high MPG either lies or drives like an old man :)
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I tend to do what you do and predict the road ahead etc, so you can just engine brake rather than use your foot. It makes for a smooth ride too.

But I tend to drive like this mostly, then have the odd burst of speed getting around and away from the roundabouts etc. It's like a little reward for driving so nice and smoothly the rest of the time. :D

(edit: beaten!?) :p
 
Smooth driving like that helps when you are driving something that handles akin to a small planet strapped to a rollerskate, like my Estima. It's a case of plan ahead, keep momentum up, take smoothest lines on roundabouts and corners.
 
DreXeL said:
Smooth driving like that helps when you are driving something that handles akin to a small planet strapped to a rollerskate, like my Estima. It's a case of plan ahead, keep momentum up, take smoothest lines on roundabouts and corners.
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Aye, negotiating roundabouts in 5th gear f.t.w ;)
 
[TW]Fox;9982703 said:
Manual.



It wasn't a pure Motorway trip, far from it I think. I've had over 50mpg from it on Motorway trips.



The best I've ever had was 39.2mpg over 381 miles from Devon to Yorkshire at an indicated 75mph, including negotiating the M42 somewhat slower. Although I did have Dunlop SP Sport 2000's on it at the time which are presumably lower rolling resistance than the F1's its got now. Usually though, for pure Motorway, it's 38mpg. I'm off to Hampshire tommorrow, which is mostly A road, and I expect it'll do 33-34mpg for that trip.
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I see we dont have any respect for anyone elses life or your own life for that matter... i can tell you dont have any kids





:D :p
 
Pants said:
I just averaged 40.8 mpg over 250 miles on my trip back from wales.

This included lots of 40mph driving behind blue rinsers, some traffic, some fun driving and lots of cruising at naughty speeds.

I love my Octy vRS, good economy, 200+bhp, and the best bit is that you get full boost from 2K to 7K rpm so I can leave it in 5th and it makes driving very easy. :)

Diesel can also achieve 200+ bhp and better ecomony, but you can't get such a lovely wide power band which I like.

ANyway i'm going on a bit, but this is the first long trip I have taken and i'm pretty happy with the car. :D
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I just got 40mpg (98.9ppl for 250 miles, the rest all town and 40mph dual carriage driving) average too driving from Gosport to Luton and then to Hillingdon and back to Gosport, most of the M1 side we went via was on the 50mph average speed check zone but traffic was heavy during the daytime hours and we never really managed anything more than 20mph for that particular stretch :/

Still, I drove with a full load of passengers and drove as indicated above in other posts, anticipating what is about to happen ahead - anticipation for the win :) Almost 500 miles on a full tank!
 
It's a bit mad going from 350-400 miles per tank (diesel jeep) to 700-900 miles per tank. I miss the hot petrol chick :(
 
I drove to london this weekend,

on the way there - 160 miles in 1h 20mins and got 42.7mpg.

way back 160 miles in exactly 2 hours and got 43.6mpg

This is on an automatic box with a chipped uk (shudder) remap.
Remap had done wonders for my fuel economy.
 
commited said:
How much bhp did you get post remap? That's very good mpg for an auto - apparently they're brutal on fuel.
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Don't have a clue about how much BHP post remap, but imo that is not really much to be bothered about, get over to your local tuner in Ireland and ask him to map it for you (if they are worth their salt, they should do it free) so you can try it out.
It truely changes the car, the most major thing is motorway driving, I used to kick down sometimes to overtake quickly, now there is none of that, top end has gone up a little bit too, managed to get it to 145 indicated up from 138.
 
Does your car now boost earlier?

There are very few tuners over here, I think I'll start the research. It's only another £50 on the insurance..
 
I've done 10k in my 530d tourer auto, since I bought it in May. Its 'average' MPG since I bought it is 39.7MPG. I dont really understand the people who complain they cant even get 35mpg out of their 530d's.

And yeah, 50mpg is dooable on the right run. Went from Oslo (Norway) to Trondheim, which is 300 miles, and I averaged 50mpg. Then drove another 400 miles up and down the mountains and was still around 46mpg.

Do you have the 12channel amp in yours? I find the sound system is ok. I replaced the CD player with an MP3 changer, and added a real sub in the back, and it sounds pretty good. Felt the treble is a bit bright as standard, but running with the treble down 1 notch, and everything else flat, and the sub handling < 80hz it sounds quite together. And totally stock look deters the theives.. Less of them want a 12inch wide computer control panel. Much harder to shift down the pub (or even on ebay) than a standard 'DIN' sony/pioneer/kenwood headunit.

The Business head unit isnt all that bad, its got a 6V output, which can be handled by many 'aftermarket' power amps without the need for 'speaker level' convertors. Its quite possible to replace the 12channel BMW amp with a more powerfull amp, all the connections are in the boot, and everything's wired back there. Although the most 'basic' version of the 530's sound system the speakers are wired directly to the headunit, without the additional 'HiFi' or DSP amp, and then its a very underpowered system.

Oh yeah, I enjoy taking joyrides up and down the welsh mountain roads, good windy/hilly roads up there, and I've got the sports suspension, so can chuck it around... Honestly I dont think im getting Grandad MPG :P. I'd say driven 'normally' it's probably returning around 41mpg, and driven 'enthusiastically' it still returns a good 37.5mpg.

Planning on getting the remap eventually, would like a little more power between 4k and 5k, as in sports mode it does tend to rev up to the redline, and there isnt much power beyond 4k. The remap I was looking at claimed to have the power starting at 1.5k instead of 2k, and extend the power band up to 4.5k. Thats an extra 1000 rpm total added into the powerband, Should make the car feel a lot better.
 
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I have no amp in my car as far as I know - receipt from the new sale has no mention of it.

An amp is definitely in the plans!
 
commited said:
I have no amp in my car as far as I know - receipt from the new sale has no mention of it.

An amp is definitely in the plans!
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Depending on the year of the car, the amp could have even been 'standard'. Mine is a 99, and the original spec sheet does list the 'Hi-Fi' upgraded sound system. But I have a feeling the facelift cars came with an amp as standard. (Not sure though). The americans got amps as standard really early. Pretty much all yank 530's have an amp in the boot.

Still, its not a hard job to get the stock head unit's output send down the back, and amped up. If you keep the stock head, dont bother with any 'fancy' convertors, they just add distortion to the signal. The head's designed to be connected straight onto a 'line level' amp. Cheap amps generally expect a 4V signal, but even then the majority of amps still have a big enough pot on their input sensitivity to cope with the 6v input.

Oh yeah... If you do have the amp, its a silver/aluminium box which sits somewhere near the CD player in the cubbyhole. On the tourer its slotted behind the CD changer. Not sure on the saloon, but it would be in that general region. It's all wired with twisted pair. but thats fine, TP's better at noise supression in cars, and you can just solder up some RCA/Phono connectors. True its connecting a balanced output to an unbalanced input, but there really are no 'side effects' that matter, certainly not in the 'car' environment.
 
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Pants said:
and the best bit is that you get full boost from 2K to 7K rpm so I can leave it in 5th and it makes driving very easy. :)
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I still forget this when overtaking on a single carriageway and drop to 3rd then nail it like I used to have to do in my 306 :o

As Fox says its all about keeping it smooth, something I'm not great at but even I managed just over 42 mpg over a 30 mile A/B road + bit of town trip over the book 36 mpg.
 
Well I average about 20mpg (US).

Damn. :p Around town driving and general hooning for the l00se in my instance :D

Ah well, noise compensates for it.
 
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