jim_rockford

All you guys.... Thanks to all you folk who told me to take the plunge - what a beastie!

Two questions I have. Mine's a Sep 06 model. Is voice activation standard? I have taken eight of them out and not once has any dealer shown me the voice activation controls, and I certainly wasn't shown them in the one I've bought. I just happened across the button for the whole thing last night and it's a lot handy than using the old jelly mould while you're driving - at least on certain menus anyway. On others it's a bit of a half-wit! So, anyway - have I got an option they didn't tell me about it, or have eight consecutive dealerships failed to show it to me?

The other thing is the thorny issue of fuel consumption. Part of my decision to ditch my trusty X5 after 14 months was that the published figures indicated I should get 5mpg more on average from the 535d. Now, given this is my 2nd day of ownership and I appreciate I've still got a bit of a heavy right foot with it, I only averaged 34mpg on the M5/M6 150 mile route back home with cruise set at 80mph in sixth on the manual (with the intermittent blast of the right foot to impress my mate and make it so he has to pick his head back up from somewhere behind the front seat).

And since then on A and B road trips I'm pretty much around 25mpg. Is this me being a moron and giving it too much right foot? Even when I try to be gentle, it doesn't seem to reward me with any good figures. Should I try to use the manual shifts more? At the moment I plain and simple don't care because it's just putting a smile on my face all the time, but it's something that could start annoying me when I have to eat tinned spaghetti for a month when I'm run out of money!

Have BMW now invented a new breed of human - DIESELHEADS?

olli_535d

Is that consumption OBC reading or brim to brim calculation ?
If it is OBC reading, make sure the units are set to UK and not US gallon.

If your car has the media package the voice activation should be standard on a 56reg car.

Good luck and enjoy

Gulo Luscus

With regard to fuel consumssion, mine is almost two years old now and I average 34 MPG all the time, the only time this has reach 38.1 was on trip up to Scotland recently.

ressla

Many '56 reg cars came with Media Pack included as Olli has stated.
And w.r.t. the fuel consumption your figures are similar to mine (I usually ignore the OBC and calculate myself). I get 24 mpg on on my 12 mile commute which is 80% city driving.I get 37+mpg with the cruise set at 70mph.

BTW do you have 19" wheels? These reduce the fuel efficiency compared to the standard 18".

And your last point about dieselheads is spot on. BMW have turned the image of diesels upside down with the staggered bi-turbo in the 535d/335d.

ressla

Further note: although diesels are theoretically more fuel efficient than petrol engines,this tends only to be evident on long journeys. Hence they are the engine of choice for travelling salesmen. On short trips and around town they can be as bad as most petrol engines (particulary in "performance" engines like in the 535d).

Aeroresh

I was under the impression that voice control became part of the media pack for the '06 push button start cars.

However mine never came with it either but I had it retro fitted by my local dealer. Alot of the commands on there are just a gimiick but there are some feature that work quite well like changng a radio station/CD no. or dialling a phone book entry.

Im sure it was only about ?200 fitted so its definately worth the effort IMO.

As regards fuel consumption, you should be getting between 30-35 mpg average with mixed use.

My OBC has been stuck showing 30.9 mpg for the last few thou miles now and seems to be fairly accurate.

I drive around 100 miles a day, 70 of those on the motorway before and after peak hour so I do get to "utilise the cars' stupendous performance" more than most so I reckon your 25-35 figure is fairly typical.

Blondie

Hi, I get about 33mpg's, or about 525-550 per tank of fuel, mainly motorway driving, i find that acceptable especially considering the performance! As already mentioned make sure you units are set to British, I didn't initially and became somewhat downhearted when I first had mine!

diveleader

Does anyone agree with my thoughts that using cruise control increases fuel consumption?
I'm convinced that it does.

jim_rockford

Thanks to those of you who suggested it may be in "US" mpg. It was!

This is really where this forum comes into its own - when you're a halfwit like me, anyway!

Cheers all!

I was always led to believe that cruise control would increase your economy, but it depends if you encounter a lot of inclines with it on, I suppose - it would probably be natural if you were using your right foot not to give it as much grief on the hills, whereas cruise will show no mercy. Having said that, I went up to Buxton via the Cat and Fiddle early doors Saturday morning - anyone who knows that road will guess at my joy in dealing with it in a 535d. I thought someone had flattened it all!

On balance, it would be more fuel efficient to use it though.

GarryF

I'd have thought cruise more efficent, it does a better job than most humans can with less over/under speeding, possibly your finding that with cruise on your average speed will be higher compared to trying to do the same on manual.