very poor mpg from 525D auto 2005 177bhp
#21
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Originally Posted by DD_545i' post='773628' date='Jan 21 2009, 01:50 PM
I don't think anyone can say that 21 mpg means there's definitely something wrong. There can be a huge difference between one person's urban figure compared with another. It all depends on your urban cycle. Someone who regularly drives through town and hits on average a traffic light every 5 minutes and slows down and speeds up once every 2 minutes is going to do fine compared with someone who drives a really bad route through town and spends 75% of their time stuck at 0mph waiting for lights and generally being stuck in a jam. Remember, at 0mph you're getting 0mpg. My mpg figure which includes about 50% town driving but no traffic jams at all ever averages about 22mpg (545 petrol engine). I know that even if I was driving a diesel, if I was driving the daily route I used to when I was working in London then my mpg would be garbage. It took me 45 minutes to drive about 4 miles. That can't be good.
hey, DD have you been on the sauce again
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thats not true mate...at 0mph your still burning fuel (unless you have turned your engine off) and if you were doing that it would not be valid anyway, so 0mph is very high mpg (respectivly on a journey, when your moving also)
your mpg figures are quite good as you have a monster petrol engine
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cheers mate.
#22
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I don't have to drive the rush hours as I work from home. So I don't spend a lot of time stationary. My actual average is 13.3L/100km since October 2008 when I got the car, and that's about 21.2 UK MPG.
#23
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Originally Posted by Poolie' post='773967' date='Jan 21 2009, 11:30 PM
My 530d 54 reg auto is only getting 23mpg around town mines been remapped looking at other peoples figures mine seems low as well.
What could this be?
By the way parmablagan if you take your car to the dealers about this keep us posted mate.
What could this be?
By the way parmablagan if you take your car to the dealers about this keep us posted mate.
#24
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Originally Posted by Poolie' post='773967' date='Jan 21 2009, 11:30 PM
My 530d 54 reg auto is only getting 23mpg around town mines been remapped looking at other peoples figures mine seems low as well.
What could this be?
By the way parmablagan if you take your car to the dealers about this keep us posted mate.
What could this be?
By the way parmablagan if you take your car to the dealers about this keep us posted mate.
#25
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Originally Posted by Poolie' post='773967' date='Jan 21 2009, 11:30 PM
My 530d 54 reg auto is only getting 23mpg around town mines been remapped looking at other peoples figures mine seems low as well.
What could this be?
By the way parmablagan if you take your car to the dealers about this keep us posted mate.
What could this be?
By the way parmablagan if you take your car to the dealers about this keep us posted mate.
then if there are any parts that ned replacing he can do it for a fraction of the price.
the car goes in some time next week and i will let you guys know what it comes back with
#28
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My Ride: 07 E61 530d M-Sport.
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Im not so sure 21mpg isnt unrealistic around town on a 6 mile journey(if its in traffic). My 530d needs about 4 to 5 miles before its warm enough to return good mpg. If your starting and stopping during that time as well then the mpg will be low as DD said. The diesels really need to be warm and be on a run to give good mileage. My 530d only does 10 mile work journeys and will return about 30mpg on them Thats not driving efficiently/slowly but it is all dual carraigeway with only a few traffic lights and no traffic. If I get it on a motorway though I can easily see into the high 40s or low 50s. Don't forget these are nearly 1.8tons of car and stop start traffic will hammer the fuel.
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Originally Posted by DD_545i' post='774492' date='Jan 22 2009, 06:41 AM
My point is that while stuck at a light or in a jam, and driving 0mph, you are quite literally getting 0mpg. For every gallon of fuel you're using during that time, you're travelling 0 miles.
So let's take an example. A car gets 40mpg while travelling at a constant speed and drives for 40 miles and uses up one gallon. The perfect 40mpg scenario.
Now in a different scenario, let's suppose that half of that gallon gets burned up while that same car is stuck in traffic not moving at all. When he does get moving again, and travels at his perfect 40mpg speed, his gallon will be used up not after 40 miles this time, but after 20 miles (because he burned half of the gallon stuck in traffic not moving). The mpg figure for this hypothetical trip? 20MPG. It's still a 40MPG car, but in traffic where you spend a lot of time stationary, you're MPG is gonna suck. The worse the traffic, the worse the number.
I don't have to drive the rush hours as I work from home. So I don't spend a lot of time stationary. My actual average is 13.3L/100km since October 2008 when I got the car, and that's about 21.2 UK MPG.
So let's take an example. A car gets 40mpg while travelling at a constant speed and drives for 40 miles and uses up one gallon. The perfect 40mpg scenario.
Now in a different scenario, let's suppose that half of that gallon gets burned up while that same car is stuck in traffic not moving at all. When he does get moving again, and travels at his perfect 40mpg speed, his gallon will be used up not after 40 miles this time, but after 20 miles (because he burned half of the gallon stuck in traffic not moving). The mpg figure for this hypothetical trip? 20MPG. It's still a 40MPG car, but in traffic where you spend a lot of time stationary, you're MPG is gonna suck. The worse the traffic, the worse the number.
I don't have to drive the rush hours as I work from home. So I don't spend a lot of time stationary. My actual average is 13.3L/100km since October 2008 when I got the car, and that's about 21.2 UK MPG.
what i was saying is MPG is not a measure of distance (in this case miles) its a measure of fuel used (by the engine) so even when a car is stuck in traffic, or driven hard, it gives a MPG figure (nothing to do with how many miles you can travel for your gallon) its a misnomer
MPG is a measure of how "frugal" an engine is, how "thirsty" it is, and the miles is just a by product, as in every day life you will come against traffic motorways and every thing inbetween, but the engine is the "constant".
they should rename it energy or output per gallon
static generators use fuel, but as they have no wheels, they are not classified as having MPG, because no miles at all can be racked up.
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so your car would not be a 40mpg car if stuck in traffic...it would be a genuine 20mpg car because its still working....a smaller engine car or a more fuel efficiant engine also stuck in the same traffic would produce better MPG there is your comparison with better or worse MPG figures.
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#30
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MPG is a measure of how "frugal" an engine is, how "thirsty" it is, and the miles is just a by product, as in every day life you will come against traffic motorways and every thing inbetween, but the engine is the "constant".
they should rename it energy or output per gallon
static generators use fuel, but as they have no wheels, they are not classified as having MPG, because no miles at all can be racked up.![Laughing](https://5series.net/forums/images/smilies/imported/laughing.gif)
they should rename it energy or output per gallon
static generators use fuel, but as they have no wheels, they are not classified as having MPG, because no miles at all can be racked up.
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We can give an answer to similar, but crucially different, questions like "At a constant 70mph on the section of M1 between X and Y, and with only one 180 pound driver and no luggage and not a windy day with dry road, my car only gives me 35MPG - is this bad". Then any one of us can repeat the same test and say yes it is bad, we got 45MPG. It's the same reason the government figures for MPG are done at test tracks and not on the road. It'd be slightly unfair if they tested a BMW for it's urban MPG in London and then did the Mercedes test in some sleepy little seaside town.
So when the OP asks is my twenty something MPG figure in urban driving bad, we don't want to be answering yes it does seem bad because some of us are managing thirty something MPG in urban driving, that's a bad answer. The question should be responded to with other questions, like has it suddenly changed recently? is someone syphoning your fuel? are you experiencing more or less traffic jams than usual? has your driving style changed? are you looking at the trip computer's dynamic mpg figure? are you calculating it from your fill-up costs vs how many miles you got for that tank?