Nopointsyet

Thank you. I have thought for some time that I should have got a 530d instead. When I first had the car I did a mostly motorway trip around France: 1800 miles, ave 63 mph and 36 mpg.

I always double check the OBC against my own mental arithmetic and it is there or thereabouts. I will try the motorway cruise suggestion, but it will be hard to find a quiet motorway in South East England!

Many thanks to everyone for their responses

NPY

gIzzE

I am not saying the 530 or the 535d will be any more economical, just that they probably won't be any worse.
Surely 4mpg is a small price to pay in moving from the 330d to the 525d??

Nopointsyet

True, but it is all about expectations!

Incidentally, do you know anything about the DMS "chip" and whether this works or not. Car mag have tested a DMS'd M5 and raved over it and I see that they can also do things for the 525d. Any thoughts welcomed

NPY

norham

Only 22mpg surely this can't be right, I have a 520i and around town gives me 27 and travelling to work each day 30ml in heavy traffic I get anywere from 29 to 31. I had a MB 220cdi before and I got 40mpg easily and an A4 before that and got 47
If it were me I'd be back to BMW what a dissapointment

gIzzE

All I can tell you is the DMS transforms the BMW diesel range, I thought the stock 535d was pretty impressive, but once DMS have worked on it the thing flies!!
Hardly ever see anything on the road that can leave it to be honest, but it is not only the overall speed but the way it makes the car feel so much more responsive that really impress'.

If you join www.bmwland.co.uk there is a forum offer available which saves about ?350 on the remap.
I am not sure on the figures for the 525d but if they get similar results on that as they do the 525d then I would say go for it, plus they will re-write the software for free if BMW overwrites it, which they tend to do occasionally.

norham, the fact you had a 30mile commute in heavy traffic may mean that your journey may have been fairly economical, if it took you say 1h30mins that would be an average of 20mph. For all we know needforspeed may have a 5 mile journey that takes over an hour, he could be averaging 4mph and that would cripple your mpg!


The only way you can ever tell if it is your car that has a problem is borrow another one from the dealer for a day and see how that is, if you suddenly find you get 50% more MPG then you have cause for concern, if it is the same you know it is your driving.

djone101

I too recently moved from a 3 to a 5 - I went from an '02 320d Touring to an '05 525d (auto) E61.
I was getting average 44-45 mpg in the 320d , I'm now getting average 34 mpg in the 525d (auto) :'( .

I've certainly noticed that around town its about 26mpg while on a motorway run over 100 miles or so it was 37mpg.

It is a shock to the system. I used to get 600 miles out of a 60l tank now I'm doing well to get 500 out of a 70l tank.....

Still - I do enjoy the comfort and in my opinion it's the best looking BM shape out there and I guess that's the price I have to pay.

It certainly makes the 520d a sensible proposition, however call me old fashioned but I still think the 5 series should have a 6 cylinder motor....

Dave

needforspeed

Agree with you Gizze - there are so many variables here. Including for instance my habit of sitting parked at my destination for 10 minutes with the engine running while I finish a phone call - real MPG killer.

In regard to the various posts about adjusting the mpg ratio - I have to say, whilst it might make someone feel better about their fuel costs, I can't see the science.

I just can't understand how anyone can judge their MPG with more accuracy than the computer, unless they run the tank bone dry then brim it every time (which is clearly not possible).

A London commute can be uniquely rubbish - it can easily take an hour to get from the M25 to Paddington. In that sort of traffic anything over 20mpg is pretty good IMO.

wales34part

Surely all you need to record is the actual amount of fuel used to brim the tank from a previously brimmed tank against the actual distance travelled, repeat this over 3 or 4 refills and you will have pretty accurate MPG usage.

You obviously dont need to empty your tank as your reference point is a full tank to begin with.

Obviously this method assumes your odometer is accurate.

In theory you could do a test over a very small distance re-brim and calculate, but larger distances are obviously better.

Apologies if i have misunderstood your point but this is a simple method of checking MPG and i certainly dont mean to patronise.

needforspeed

No patronisation taken

I think what I meant was, that you're still reliant on brimming to the same point each time (IMO this is not possible), accuracy of the pumps, your odometer and the notes you take (for instance most people find that their speedo reads about 2mph high - does this translate to the odometer?). It just seems to me that they are just as likely to be a fraction out as the computer.

Also (as I understand it) the computer records a 'rolling average'. So when you reset it the figures initially bounce around a lot then settle after a little time. Perhaps also if someone can explain how this rolling average is calculated it might explain why some people have noticed a discrepancy (ie how far back does the data set extend).

Each to their own, but IMO I can't honestly see the point of altering the ratio used by the computer other than to make yourself feel a bit better.

Sad fact is that our nice big cars use lots of fuel which is expensive (at least in the UK).

wales34part

I agree but i take solice in the memory that my first car, a 1977 900cc vw polo, only returned 30mpg!!!!! poor little thing did get a caning though!! RIP EYG 626T