MPG on my 1 Coupe M-Sport-only 41 mpg?Help.

[cookie74]

Hi guys and gals,my first thread.

Have had my 1 coupe m-sport 120d now for a week,love the car.

However,im concerned about the MPG-i'm driving economically,doing everything can to get the MPG up-but don't seem to be able to get above 42MPG at best on the computer.

The dealer said 58mpg was easily achievable-any tips or advice folks would be appreciated

[BrokenVert]

Im not sure about your numbers but the cars do not reach their full fuel economy ablilities until about 5K miles on the odo.

[turner23]

Hey, sorry I am not familiar with the diesel economy. 42 mpg sounds pretty good to me though. Did u mean the dealer says 48 mpg is easily obtainable? Or do u mean it is easy to obtain 8 mph higher than what you currently ahieve? I think it's unclear. Not that it's comparable, but on long road trips my 128i easily gets 32 mpg-not too bad for a
3.0L gasoline I6!!

[cookie74]

Thanks for replying mate,im in the UK.

Corrected my OP, dealer said i'd get 58mpg easily, there were 6000 miles on car when I bought it, ive only done 1000 this week driving it around quite a bit

[turner23]

Broken vert is correct, driving home from taking delivery at the performance center in SC I was getting 27-28 mpg. After a few thousand miles it had slowly crept to 32+. Is your 42mpg an average over a whole tank/single trip/etc.?

[cookie74]

Originally Posted by turner23

Broken vert is correct, driving home from taking delivery at the performance center in SC I was getting 27-28 mpg. After a few thousand miles it had slowly crept to 32+. Is your 42mpg an average over a whole tank/single trip/etc.?

Tried resetting it, but its still refusing to go up anywhere near 50mp, never mind the 58mpg that the handbook and dealer said!

Dont get me wrong,the first 2 days I was heavy footed,testing the car,and loving it!!

But I reset everything and filled the tank,switched off the aircon,using the auto stop/start function,to try and boost the MPG-but alas,to no avail.

[BMWeber]

First off the UK gallon is larger(like 18%) than a us gallon so that's why you see ratings like 58mpg and us american are amazed. I would personally do the math on a tank or two of diesel make sure your computer is not measuring in us gallons or something weird. and also what kind of driving do you do, is there lots of stop and go. low 40s is what you should expect for lots of urban driving.

[tbird]

Of course, the little mileage computer is only an estimator. It doesn't have to be accurate at all.

You want to know exactly what you are really getting? You fill the tank to the very very top. Spend the time and run the pump veeeeery slowly till the fuel is all the way up the fill tube and right at the level of the gas cap.

Then drive the car on a long highway-driving-only trip. Then hit the fuel station, fill up again to exactly the same super-high-topped-off level. Then just do the math of miles traveled to gallons used. Nothing more accurate than that.

[cookie74]

Thanks for all the advice guys,really appreciated.

I guess should just be patient,although its the huge gap between what i'm actually getting,42mpg, and what it says I should be getting,58-59mpg,which worries me most.

If it was just a few out,or I was driving like a lunatic,I wouldn't be concerned.But i'm trying to be economical.

[tbird]

I just wish we had the diesel over here. I would love to be getting even 42mpg on my little commuter car, let alone 58mpg.

But America is just like China, we have no interest in being green. Having high-mpg vehicles is low interest. We just act like idiots and think the Prius is a good vehicle.

So enjoy what you have already, and we 1Addicts will hope you get up to 58mpg soon.

[JimD]

You will get highest mileage from a steady cruise at a moderate speed on the highway. Any sort of stop and go will reduce mileage significantly. Accelerating more gradually helps and I presume stopping the engine every time you stop helps (a very little) but you still will not be able to get to the mileage of a steady cruise. Usually, the slowest speed you can hold steady in top gear is about the best mileage. For my 128 with 3.0l, that would be around 45 mph. That is not a practical or even safe speed to drive on the interstate but I would expect to get best mileage at around that speed. The only long trips I've taken have been mostly 70 mph+ and a little under 30 mpg. But I have less than 2,000 miles on it so I expect it to go up a little (possibly to a little over 30 on trips, especially if I back off on speed some).

Jim

[Tom K.]

As Tbird said, until you begin to record your actual miles traveled divided by gallons consumed (averaged over at least 3~4 tanksful to compensate for differences in fill levels), you won't know your true mileage. Are you resetting the MGP counter with each fill-up, and have you checked your odometer accuracy as well? Once you do this, you can calculate your BC MPG error and then use it to determine your mileage. In different BMWs, I've seen the BC off by anywhere from 1 to 9%.
Also, I suspect that you'll only see upwards of 55 mpg (Imperial) with extended top gear cruising at speeds around 60 mph.

Tom

[Schnorbitz]

The "official" mpg figures quoted in Europe by the manufacturers are derived from a computer driving the cars on rollers in a laboratory to a strict preset plan e.g. 120 seconds allowed to accelerate to 35km/h followed by 400 seconds at steady speed etc etc. These figures only serve as a comparitor between different cars and cannot accurately predict what the car is actually capable of in the real world with a real driver.

[Erik219]

Do 2 things :
(1) Keep your revs below 2250rpm and
(2) always drive at a constant rate of 105km/h.

That's the only way you can beat the official figures.
Point 2 is obviously impossible on normal roads.
Point 1 is technically possible, but for some strange reason my body does not always want to perform the shifting action so soon...