2013 X5 3.5 Premium LOW MGP

I recently took notice of my gas consumption on my new X5. I currenly have ~500 miles on it and cheched the onboard info. To my suprise my MPG is only 12.9. I think sticker has it 16/17 city and 22/23 highway with an average of 19. I forget what the exact numbers are, but still i would think my MPG to be closer to 16 if not just over it on an avg base. Am I missing something here? My drive is usually local with occasional stretches on the highway.

I avgd 12.6 in my X3 on my 2 mile all city street commute.

So this is considered normal then to have the MPG so far below sticker? I am by no means a grease monkey and wish I understood more about car engines but this seems so much lower than the factory marketed MPGs.

Did u idle or get stuck in heavy traffic alot during this 500 miles? I'd also assume you havent been driving it hard? It does sound low but I wouldn't say it's abnormal, considering the engine hasn't been broken in and running on winter gas by now. Check your tailpipe and see if there's alot of black soot built up, which would indicate that ur running rich. FYI the car does get pretty poor mpg in local driving, I've seen as bad as 15mpg in pure local/stop and go traffic conditions.

I did notice black soot at the end of my tail pipes. I just assumed it was normal. Perhaps not. What is the remedy to fix it if the car is running rich? Must/Can it go to BMW for corrections? THanks for the help!

I do mostly Highway driving and get 25-27mpg; on weekends, mostly "just driving around" it drops to about 20mpg.

I would wait until you get at least 2500 miles on the odometer to start getting serious about MPG. The engine hasn't broken in, you're doing mostly city driving, you're not used to the car, etc.

Originally Posted by TripleDrawLow

I did notice black soot at the end of my tail pipes. I just assumed it was normal. Perhaps not. What is the remedy to fix it if the car is running rich? Must/Can it go to BMW for corrections? THanks for the help!

Dealer will most likely say it's normal or give it some more miles. I doubt they will even spend the time to plug into ecu for a diagnostic test, unless u have a cel light on. IMO u should give it some more mileage, at least 1500 miles, to see if the mpg improves. Also, try running it on the hwy at less than 70mph for a good stretch at moderate throttle, you should see at least low 20's mpg on pure hwy conditions. My best was about 25mpg

Originally Posted by TripleDrawLow

So this is considered normal then to have the MPG so far below sticker? I am by no means a grease monkey and wish I understood more about car engines but this seems so much lower than the factory marketed MPGs.

Interesting choice of words.....

Anyway, without knowing the type of driving you do it is IMPOSSIBLE to tell you if there is anything wrong... getting spun up about tailpipes and 'rich running' is silly.

Furthermore, are yoiu using the "MPG" diplay on the computer? Or are you calculating 'miles used versus fuel added'?

What is your average speed? Is it city driving with 90% of the time under 15mph?

In the sticker, take a look the the range printed at the bottom of two big number printed . It will tell you some of the variations of the engine. I do not by have the 35i. So, I can't look it up. I am not surprised you can go lower than city rating by epa.

Sent from my LG-P999 using Bimmer App

CITY: Expected driving range for MOST drivers 13-19

EPA is an estimate, if you get more will you complain or think something is wrong?
It also depends on how you are driving. If you are stepping on the gas at the light trying to beat the T&LC drivers to the lane, then you shouldn't expect to get the advertised 16 MPG. I've gotten around 10 MPG in the city before and that is red lights at every block.

Not surprised that the N55 gets terrible MPG.

Originally Posted by henrycyao

I am not surprised you can go lower than city rating by epa.

yeah. For the extreme, park you car in the driveway, reset the mpg, let it run for 4 days until it runs out of fuel...then look at the MPGs.

Originally Posted by AutoUnion

Not surprised that the N55 gets terrible MPG.

It gets great mileage as well, it just depends on how you drive it. We had been getting 18 mpg just driving it around town, but then drove it to the east coast last week and depending on what I kept the speeds at, I got anywhere from 20-27 mpg over 1700 miles of highway time. Fuel economy starts to drop over 75 mph, but when you're stuck at 65 mph through Ohio wanting to stab your eyes out, mpg are great. I'll take low 20s at 85-90 mph across Kansas though, decent trade off for making good time.

Originally Posted by ND40oz

It gets great mileage as well, it just depends on how you drive it. We had been getting 18 mpg just driving it around town, but then drove it to the east coast last week and depending on what I kept the speeds at, I got anywhere from 20-27 mpg over 1700 miles of highway time. Fuel economy starts to drop over 75 mph, but when you're stuck at 65 mph through Ohio wanting to stab your eyes out, mpg are great. I'll take low 20s at 85-90 mph across Kansas though, decent trade off for making good time.

Posting from a different planet huh?
The OP was saying that he was only getting 12.9 MPG in driving HIS X5 and asking if there was a problem.

You posted that you are getting 18MPG so it almost looks like you are driving two different vehicles so not really applicable to the OP, right? Are you trying to indicate that he should be able to get 18MPG rather than 12.9 in his X5 for some reason? You also didn't post HOW you got that type of mileage (average MPH, length of trips, type of traffic, etc... no details what so ever).

I guess your claims of exceptional highway mileage may help bump your ego but not certain how any of that changes the OP's condition or that it has ANY relevance for this thread what-so-ever.

Originally Posted by ndabunka

Posting from a different planet huh?
The OP was saying that he was only getting 12.9 MPG in driving HIS X5 and asking if there was a problem.

You posted that you are getting 18MPG so it almost looks like you are driving two different vehicles so not really applicable to the OP, right? Are you trying to indicate that he should be able to get 18MPG rather than 12.9 in his X5 for some reason? You also didn't post HOW you got that type of mileage (average MPH, length of trips, type of traffic, etc... no details what so ever).

I guess your claims of exceptional highway mileage may help bump your ego but not certain how any of that changes the OP's condition or that it has ANY relevance for this thread what-so-ever.

What are you talking about? I was replying to a post that inferred all N55s get bad gas mileage with my experience with mine, that's all.

Originally Posted by AutoUnion

Not surprised that the N55 gets terrible MPG.

I think the mpg is pretty decent for what it is: a 5000+ pound SUV. MPG is slightly better than I used to get in my E53 3.0i, and the E70 is bigger, heavier, and faster.

To the OP: 12 mpg certainly sounds low, but I could see it in heavy city driving with a green engine.