Surprising MPG from my Z4 (N54 engine)

Clarkey said:
I get that, and there is no official mpg in the manual I have. 320i and 323i are identical though at 42.2mpg 'out-of-town'. I never get close to that, all of my driving is 'out-of-town' and I drive it pretty gently.
Ironically, the best mpg I've achieved so far in this car was 29.1 and that was giving it hell round the welsh mountain roads.
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Yeah 42mpg is dreamland for any e36 with a 6 cylinder unit. I got on average mid to high 20's in my 328, not being particularly careful. Driving normally most of the time but with friday being "like i stole it" day.

think I could hit 33 on a run, maybe 35 if i really,really tried - but the kind of driving required to get that just isn't for me. The newer engines are better in this respect (as you can see from this thread)

I've read the mythical "my e36 328i does 35mpg combined" stuff on the forums etc too, but I find it very hard to believe
 
my 3.0 does around 40mpg on a 60-70 run pretty consistantly :)

lol but as it has been pointed out it wasn't designed to mile munch :D
 
I averaged 23mpg between Oxford and Brussels in the M, mixed driving. I reset on the way back and was simply cruising at about 29mpg with the odd overtaking of lorries.
 
28 MPG on a motorway and 17 MPG around town in a BMW E38 740i V8which I'm pretty happy with.
 
That's pretty normal for a 3.0 Z4. I could average 40mpg for the motorway section of a long run if I sat at 60ish.

However, I ran a 3.0Si (N52) Z4 for 4 years and my average over that time was 28mpg. It's good, but not mind blowingly amazing :p
 
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I was thinking the same yesterday. I took mine (35i) for a 200 mile round trip to Fleet and got 38.7 too :) Couldn't manage 40 though.
 
Scuzi said:
That's pretty normal for a 3.0 Z4. I could average 40mpg for the motorway section of a long run if I sat at 60ish.

However, I ran a 3.0Si (N52) Z4 for 4 years and my average over that time was 28mpg. It's good, but not mind blowingly amazing :p
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Not had a long motorway run yet but I was getting low- to mid-30s cruising a bit faster than that, yeah.

Bought mine at 4 years old, average consumption was showing 28.5. I reset it, within a week it was back to 28.5 and hasn't changed since :p. The fuel consumption is supposed to be better than my old Mondeo ST200 but I'm getting exactly the same.
 
Im just happy a car with this sort of power can still do decent MPG if required.

Exp after couple weekends ago mates were trying to wind me up saying "you wont get 25mpg in that thing even on the motorway"............in there smelly dervs.

They keep there gob shout when i take them out with the roof down and hear the engine in its full glory :D
 
LordVader said:
Im just happy a car with this sort of power can still do decent MPG if required.

Exp after couple weekends ago mates were trying to wind me up saying "you wont get 25mpg in that thing even on the motorway"............in there smelly dervs.

They keep there gob shout when i take them out with the roof down and hear the engine in its full glory :D
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Makes me laugh now how MPG is the new MPH. Suddenly very few people seem bothered about performance anymore.

Imagine how farcial it would have seemed 15 years ago to berate someone driving a 300bhp+ coupe by highlighting and exaggerating its supposed inefficiency.

Nowadays it's as though you have to justify yourself in a performance car, it's downright odd.
 
[TW]Fox;21612681 said:
None of these figures are 'when pressing on'.
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If I didn't have a dag dag up front, I might be less eager to press on so I can get out of the car quicker. :p

Still mulling over a 330/530i. I won't derail the thread though!
 
Matt82 said:
And is this the revision that went to 260bhp?
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No.

The maximum power output of a UK M54 was 231bhp.

You are thinking of the N52 which in '3.0i' form was available in varying power outputs from 258 to 272bhp.

The N52 is a newer engine than the M54 - but the N54, the twin turbo jobby, is based on the M54 (but with added direct injection etc) not the newer N52.

To confuse things even more in 2007 the N53 appeared - a direct injection normally aspirated engine only available in European markets. This one is even more impressive mpg wise - it has COMBINED consumption figures of between 36 and 40mpg depending on the car you'll find it and at the sort of speeds discussed in this thread will do well over 40mpg because it is a stratified direct injection engine. Sadly the cost of this stunning fuel economy is that the N53 is particularly troublesome reliability wise, suffering injector issues as you'd normally expect with a commonrail diesel :(
 
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:)
 
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