Quote:
Originally Posted by steve-p
How's your fuel consumption doing? Mine's dropped to 30 now I've been driving it more enthusiastically. The car MPG reading is 10% out too - it says 33, but it's only 30 when compared to real brim to brim consumption.
30 might be quite good for a 535i, I'm not sure, but I do know that with my usage pattern I always get about 10% less than the official EU combined figure for every car over the last 15 years... until now. This one is 33% less! I seriously doubt that BMW ever got the 44.1 they claim because the best journey I have achieved so far is 37 (car read 41). I would be interested to hear if you are doing any better in case mine's not working properly  |
Interesting subject, as there isn't much experience with something like a 5-series with hybrid technology in the UK.
I'm sure the official stat's looks much more promising than the average driver will ever get near. I sense we are talking of very light use in easy urban conditions to see decent gains over a 535i. We have to get decent energy recovery to be able to use it and convert to saved mpg. Driving harder and faster just doesn't add up in my mind, as energy demands grow dramatically as we work a car harder. It is a heavy car with a weight penalty over the 535i.
On the subject of getting near the official results, as the manufacturers squeeze out the last bit of savings, we the drivers, have less ability to get to the figures than the old days, when the 'slack' was there for the economy driver to exploit.
I could easily exceed the official combined figure in my E39 540i. Exceed it by over 25% long term in mixed driving, with a 26 - 28mpg figure according to season. My F11 535i with all "the on paper" credentials for much improved economy is never going to give me the combined figure long term, in the same conditions, driving similar acceleration and speeds as I would the 540i.
There is just no slack with a combined figure of over 33mpg for the 535i. I'm currently running about 30mpg long term, hope to get about 31mpg average over the year, once we get warmer seasons added.
For me, the reality... a 1998 E39 touring 4.4-litre V8 at 26 - 28mpg (20.7mpg combined) vs F11 touring 3.0-litre turbo at 29 - 31mpg (33.2mpg combined). Shows how official figures and reality are changing with the emphasis on adding Eco features, which do help get good official results. Many of us don't get the full Eco benefits in our real world driving. MPG shortfall is growing across the manufacturers.
Hope you get some results in from other ActiveHybrid 5 users. I'm interested to see the figures as well.
HighlandPete