BRAD

8 Mths into ownership I'm averaging 34mpg in my 520d- Mix of motorway and town driving- Wondered how that compares with other 520d owner's experiences. Mine's a manual. Sort of feel i should have opted for auto- The reason i didn't was that I thought it would sap power from the just adequate engine.

dawi

I've had my 520d for nearly 6 months now and have just done 10,000 miles. I'm averaging 41.5mpg accordiung to the dash computer, haven't tested it manually yet. I'm pretty happy with this figure as my previous Audi A6 deisel never really got above 40mpg.

Mine is a mix of town and motorway driving as well but I guess most of my journey to and from work every day is a fairly fast dual carriageway and so this will bump up the average.

What mileage has yours done and do you find first gear very low? I feel like I want to set off in second as first runs out of puff to quickly on pulling away, but it's too easy to stall by pulling away in second. I guess this is a functiuon of having 6 ratios now as the norm in that the first 5 gears are going to relatively lower than if driving a car with 5 ratios.

Otherwise I am really happy with the combination of performance, fuel economy and company car tax as the emissions are getting really quite low with the latest BMW engines and certainly better than the equivalent from Audi and Mercedes. This is one of the reasons I didn't choose the auto as it saps the power, puts the emissions up, lowers the fuel economy and increases my tax burden. A no brainer really !!

hector

I have only covered just over 4K but consumption is Jekyll & Hyde. Running to & from work (11 Miles) which is a mix of mostly A roads & some town, I get 34mpg :thumbsdown: . When I travel on Mway and set cruise at 85, I get between 45 & 47 !!

These figures have been validated by constant tank to tank refills and I have trimmed in my Fuel Computer -6.5% to corelate and is now bang on!.

In conclusion, I feel the engine is tuned for top-end performance rather than bottom end grunt (totally opposite to VAG lumps) and the end result is poor efficiency / consumption on low rev pick-up.

I am toying with the idea of either a Tuning Box or re-map to try & reduce the bottom end lethargy but haven't decided yet - I'm a bit concerned about the DPF and higher fuelling at 1500 - 2000 rpm .

Can anyone provide feedback on either system on the 2.0D 163hp motor??

BangleBox_530d

I've now done 30K miles in my 530d, and my (computer) average is 35MPG

I considered a tuningbox, because I liked the idea of unplugging it before services But in reality it just squirts more fuel, all the time. That might give you more power, but the price is fuel economy. A remap is more sophisticated. My personal experience is that the fuel economy is slightly better after a remap, so after a few years the remap is paid for in fuel savings.

BRAD

Does anyone have any feedback on 520d with auto trans. As I've chosen manual i'm hoping for negative feedback to endorse my decision but would love to know how the auto tans marries with the 2litre diesel.

bruce_miranda

I was averaging nearer the 50 mpg mark before my CIP was updated to 23.01, after which it fell to the 30s. Anyone else notice the economy degrade after the latest CIP upgrade?

Uk525i

Dosn't sound right, check in Idrivethat it is still Imperial gallons, if it is I'd take it back!

BRAD

I'm sure this is a rookie questio but what is CIP upgrade, how do i get it and does t cost?

Hardy

Was getting 46mpg on my computer with mainly motorway and A roads (06 520d). Brim to Brim checks showed it was more like 42mpg. Recently had a new ECU which was reprogrammed, computer now shows MPG at 42 and Brim to Brim checks still also show 42mpg. Don't trust the OBC!

Can get 46mpg if driving more steady.

34 sounds very low, make sure you havn't got US gallons selected in I-Drive as this is the default.

Auto would be worse economy than manual.

andymac

I am quite suprised at how poor you guys are doing. I do a real mix of driving and get about 42MPG on average without trying.