135i = Awesome Road Trip Car

[BrokenVert]

My gf and I just made the drive out to Sandusky, Ohio today from LI. For those of you that don't know thats about a 9-10 hour drive.

Not only was the 135i very comfortible the entire trip but get this. According to my own calculations using the Trip Odometer and the amount of gas I burned I averaged 24.78 MPG...at and average speed of 87.4 MPH




Before you guys ask...I-80 was clear as day and was moving very...very quickly.

[SG Spiff]

This is good news. I'll be driving out to California with two friends in less than a month. I hope our experience is similar.

[Lubo]

and what is funny about this car that I always achieve better fuel milage cruising around 80. Once I get bellow 70 I cannot achieve even 25mpg. cruising at 80 car returns solid 27mpg. And yes the car is comfortable as hell. My longest drive was from Brooklyn to Buffalo few weeks back.

[oneintheory]

I did 8 hours with one of my friends (top down the whole way, it was about 40º outside) and we did spurts of 120 and still managed 22 mpg. It was pretty comfy, too.

[cagekicker]

great news!

[Cuz5150]

Originally Posted by Lubo

and what is funny about this car that I always achieve better fuel milage cruising around 80. Once I get bellow 70 I cannot achieve even 25mpg. cruising at 80 car returns solid 27mpg. And yes the car is comfortable as hell. My longest drive was from Brooklyn to Buffalo few weeks back.

You found the sweet spot, Im gonna have to copy that. BTW, my Jeep 4.7L was the same thing. It got better gas mileage at 72mph than at 60mph-65mph. It was gearing/torque/aerodinamics stuff...

[GreatDane]

Nice! I was surprised at how much space there is in the front. (More room than my old Disco!) It doesn't feel small at all, and its a great place to spend some time.

Now... having to ride in the back may not yeild the same results.

[Excitmnt94]

the Zed definitely returned much better fuel economy than the 135i, however the confort factor is much higher with my 135i.

[jkp1187]

Hope you have a Radar detector. The Ohio Highway Patrol is not to be trifled with.

How's Cedar Point?

[roscoe]

Originally Posted by Lubo

and what is funny about this car that I always achieve better fuel milage cruising around 80. Once I get bellow 70 I cannot achieve even 25mpg. cruising at 80 car returns solid 27mpg. And yes the car is comfortable as hell. My longest drive was from Brooklyn to Buffalo few weeks back.

Weird. 70 mph seems to be the sweet spot for me. On a 400-mile road trip (Pittsburgh to London, ONT) my 135i returned 28 mpg overall, and the stretch from Pittsburgh to Erie was close to 30 mpg. Maybe cuz it's downhill most of the way to Buffalo, possibly.

[scorcherjf]

Originally Posted by BrokenVert

My gf and I just made the drive out to Sandusky, Ohio today from LI. For those of you that don't know thats about a 9-10 hour drive.

Not only was the 135i very comfortible the entire trip but get this. According to my own calculations using the Trip Odometer and the amount of gas I burned I averaged 24.78 MPG...at and average speed of 87.4 MPH

Wow that's one hell of a drive! Hope you make it back safely for the autocross on saturday!

[Tom K.]

Do any of you 135i drivers take any long trips? My 128i 'vert traveled 8,000 miles last year on a month long cross-country excursion and 4,300 miles this year to eastern Canada & New England. Overall mpg was 28.5 with zero oil consumption.
Tom

[jkp1187]

Originally Posted by Tom K.

Do any of you 135i drivers take any long trips? My 128i 'vert traveled 8,000 miles last year on a month long cross-country excursion and 4,300 miles this year to eastern Canada & New England. Overall mpg was 28.5 with zero oil consumption.
Tom

Wow - you're racking up the miles.

We'll be taking a trip through West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio in September, probably be around 1,000 miles total. Wish we had the time for more serious road trips (say, down to Texas, or out to the Rockies,) but it's just tough with our work schedules.

[TMR013]

Originally Posted by Lubo

and what is funny about this car that I always achieve better fuel milage cruising around 80. Once I get bellow 70 I cannot achieve even 25mpg. cruising at 80 car returns solid 27mpg. And yes the car is comfortable as hell. My longest drive was from Brooklyn to Buffalo few weeks back.

I have actually found the sweet spot around 84. Radar detector fully deployed.

"But officer! I was only trying to save the enviroment!!"

[jeremyc74]

Originally Posted by Tom K.

Do any of you 135i drivers take any long trips? My 128i 'vert traveled 8,000 miles last year on a month long cross-country excursion and 4,300 miles this year to eastern Canada & New England. Overall mpg was 28.5 with zero oil consumption.
Tom

I've done IN to West Palm Beach in mine 3 times (1k miles each way), two trips to Detroit, and about a dozen 7 hour runs to where my parent live in VA. I drive a company vehicle on weekdays about 75% of the time, and I hate to say it, but I've still managed to put 31k miles on the car in just over a year.

On the FL trips I was averaging about 23MPG, but I was also travelling well above the speed limit for significant portions of it. I hit the FL line right after filling up early in the morning on one of them and had an average speed over that tank that I don't really want to admit in public.

I've seen as high as 29MPG on a tank (holiday weekend, lots of traffic and lots of cops), but 25-26 is much more typical.

I agree that this car is a pretty good road trip car, at least for two people. The only real gripe I have is the small fuel tank, but that's minor. The only car I've ever driven that was better on a long haul was the GTO, which as far as I'm concerned is one of the best GT cars on the road today, at least for reasonable money.

[Tom K.]

Originally Posted by jkp1187

Wow - you're racking up the miles.

We'll be taking a trip through West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio in September, probably be around 1,000 miles total. Wish we had the time for more serious road trips (say, down to Texas, or out to the Rockies,) but it's just tough with our work schedules.

Long vacations are one of the advantages of the teaching profession (and now semi-retirement). My wife & I used to take summer trips by motorcycle, then a Z4, now the 1er makes the perfect touring vehicle for the two of us.

Hope you can eventually find more time as the Rockies and Texas (especially Big Bend) are both great in a BMW!

Tom

[cadeucsb]

I crossed the Rockies (Grand Junction to Denver) at 80-85mph averaging 27-28mpg...not bad for several mountain passes.

[AchtungF80]

During European Delivery we did quite a few 4-8hr drives to and from different parts of Italy, Austria and back to Germany. Wish I could re-live it all again!

[Cris]

Originally Posted by cadeucsb

I crossed the Rockies (Grand Junction to Denver) at 80-85mph averaging 27-28mpg...not bad for several mountain passes.

Where in Denver are you located? I'm getting stationed at Buckley and am heading out there in a few weeks. The drive from California, though, isn't something I'm looking forward to.

[Citizen Z]

I put over 10,000 miles on my 135i in June on a road trip from DC to Seattle, down the coast and back to Kansas. The sport seats area amazing, especially compared to the standard seats in the 328i loaner I've been driving. My longest day of driving was 770 miles across Ohio to Illinois (trying to get the hell out of the Rust Belt as fast as I could) and my focus and ability to pay attention to the road gave out before my backside. These are easily the best seats I've ever been in.

[pjdvd]

for those of you who remember (or even had) thermodynamics class, engines are more efficient at higher speeds. Excerpt from wikipedia below...

Gasoline (petrol) Engines
Modern gasoline engines have an average efficiency of about 25 to 30% when used to power a car. In other words, of the total heat energy of gasoline, 70 to 75% is ejected (as heat) in the exhaust or consumed by the motor (friction, air turbulence, heat through the cylinder walls or cylinder head, and work used to turn engine equipment and appliances such as water and oil pumps and electrical generator), and only about 25% of energy moves the vehicle. At idle the efficiency is zero since no usable work is being drawn from the engine. At slow speed (i.e. low power output) the efficiency is much lower than average, due to a larger percentage of the available heat being absorbed by the metal parts of the engine, instead of being used to perform useful work. Gasoline engines also suffer efficiency losses at low speeds from the high turbulence and head loss when the incoming air must fight its way around the nearly-closed throttle; diesel engines do not suffer this loss because the incoming air is not throttled. Engine efficiency improves considerably at open road speeds; it peaks in most applications at around 75% of rated engine power, which is also the range of greatest engine torque (e.g. in the 2007 Ford Focus, maximum torque of 133 foot-pounds is obtained at 4,500 RPM, and maximum engine power of 136 brake horsepower (101 kW) is obtained at 6,000 RPM).

[AchtungF80]

Originally Posted by Citizen Z

I put over 10,000 miles on my 135i in June on a road trip from DC to Seattle, down the coast and back to Kansas. The sport seats area amazing, especially compared to the standard seats in the 328i loaner I've been driving. My longest day of driving was 770 miles across Ohio to Illinois (trying to get the hell out of the Rust Belt as fast as I could) and my focus and ability to pay attention to the road gave out before my backside. These are easily the best seats I've ever been in.

Didn't you also put a couple thousand miles on your ED trip? I remember your video I think.