Gas mileage on 330ZHPs and 330s?

Originally Posted by swchang

1500 rpm? I try not to drop below 2500 and am usually around 3000. Others here say they cruise at 4000 or so.

Maybe I'll try your method. But if you're that low and you have to constantly rev-match to downshift, doesn't that take away some of your "gas savings"?

Some people just like to hear the engine purring at high rpms... And it does purr ... But there is absolutely no 'practical' reason to drive around above 1500 RPM. Since friction and stress goes up as the square of the RPM, cruising at 3000 RPM incurs 4 time the gas use due to engine friction. (It also wears your engine components 4 times as fast too. ) E46's with the smaller engines may need to run at a little higher RPM in order to have some level of acceleration available, but the 3 liter engines actually accelerate nicely and smoothly from 1500 rpm. (Athough down shifting to a lower gear is more 'satisfying'. )

I'm not sure I understand the comment about rev-matching.... If I do have to downshift to accelerate or such, just the very slightest pressure on accelerator is all that is necessary. Think of it this way: I just have to get the RPMs up to a higher level for an instant, you got the RPMs up to a higher level and kept them there for an extended period....

The next time you fill up with gas, reset the mpg on your computer and watch it as you go different speeds/rpms (it's most noticeable soon after resetting the computer). It can be quite an education. (You can, of course, reset it anytime, I just like to do it at fill-ups so I can more easily monitor the mpg per tankful.)

Originally Posted by grayghost

Some people just like to hear the engine purring at high rpms... And it does purr ... But there is absolutely no 'practical' reason to drive around above 1500 RPM. Since friction and stress goes up as the square of the RPM, cruising at 3000 RPM incurs 4 time the gas use due to engine friction. (It also wears your engine components 4 times as fast too. ) E46's with the smaller engines may need to run at a little higher RPM in order to have some level of acceleration available, but the 3 liter engines actually accelerate nicely and smoothly from 1500 rpm. (Athough down shifting to a lower gear is more 'satisfying'. )

I'm not sure I understand the comment about rev-matching.... If I do have to downshift to accelerate or such, just the very slightest pressure on accelerator is all that is necessary. Think of it this way: I just have to get the RPMs up to a higher level for an instant, you got the RPMs up to a higher level and kept them there for an extended period....

The next time you fill up with gas, reset the mpg on your computer and watch it as you go different speeds/rpms (it's most noticeable soon after resetting the computer). It can be quite an education. (You can, of course, reset it anytime, I just like to do it at fill-ups so I can more easily monitor the mpg per tankful.)

Yeah, I have the 3.0L engine as well, and I have noticed that accelerating is smooth above 1500 rpm. Anything less and the engine will lug. However, I think there's something to be said for being closer to your peak torque range, especially in the city (Baltimore in particular) where you don't know what pedestrians, bicyclists, etc. will go flying into your path. Besides, if you cruise at 1500 rpm, in regular city/suburb driving you'll likely range +/- 500 rpms easily, and the idea of often dipping down to ~1000 rpm does not suit me well.

I will, however, take your advice and probably cruise at 2000 rpm or so when I'm trying to be gas-conscious. When I'm driving more, shall I say gas-unconscious, I'll probably continue to cruise at between 2500-4000 rpm, though.

I average 23 mpg, mostly highway driving.

22.4 on the mileage computer. 8400 miles or near enough.

Filled up at Costco today, got 20.83 mpg.

'Course I have been shifting at a somewhat higher point lately.

Originally Posted by swchang

21.1 over car lifetime

How do I get this number?

The gas mileage on my 330i SP seems to always hover right near 20 MPG. I drive mostly rural roads, but with decent amounts of traffic.

I'm just rounding out my break-in, and have about 21.5 (according to the 'puter) for the last 500 miles, or so. All in town, with a few jaunts in the hills, and country highways.

Originally Posted by rumratt

How do I get this number?

The gas mileage on my 330i SP seems to always hover right near 20 MPG. I drive mostly rural roads, but with decent amounts of traffic.

I have found that if you mostly drive 330 in town, with traffic light and stop side, stop and go, the mpg is very low. I have seen as low as 18~19mpg on one tank with this kind of situation.

On highway, For those people who go above 30mpg, I really don't know how you did it. The highest i have never seen is 29mpg. This is after I filled up, reset computer, and immidiately took it on highway a 100 mile road trip with speed of say 80mph.

eel

Originally Posted by rumratt

How do I get this number?

Never reset the mpg meter!





rumratt wingspan

Originally Posted by wingspan

Never reset the mpg meter!





rumratt wingspan

Exactly. I leave trip meter 1 and only reset trip meter 2. I wish I'd done it the other way around, though. Trip meter 1 is the only one that shows up on the OBC display under the speedometer.

Originally Posted by grayghost

Some people just like to hear the engine purring at high rpms... And it does purr ... But there is absolutely no 'practical' reason to drive around above 1500 RPM. Since friction and stress goes up as the square of the RPM, cruising at 3000 RPM incurs 4 time the gas use due to engine friction. (It also wears your engine components 4 times as fast too. ) E46's with the smaller engines may need to run at a little higher RPM in order to have some level of acceleration available, but the 3 liter engines actually accelerate nicely and smoothly from 1500 rpm. (Athough down shifting to a lower gear is more 'satisfying'. )

I'm not sure I understand the comment about rev-matching.... If I do have to downshift to accelerate or such, just the very slightest pressure on accelerator is all that is necessary. Think of it this way: I just have to get the RPMs up to a higher level for an instant, you got the RPMs up to a higher level and kept them there for an extended period....

The next time you fill up with gas, reset the mpg on your computer and watch it as you go different speeds/rpms (it's most noticeable soon after resetting the computer). It can be quite an education. (You can, of course, reset it anytime, I just like to do it at fill-ups so I can more easily monitor the mpg per tankful.)

I want grayghost's clutch replacement business.

Originally Posted by swchang

Exactly. I leave trip meter 1 and only reset trip meter 2. I wish I'd done it the other way around, though. Trip meter 1 is the only one that shows up on the OBC display under the speedometer.

I did it the other way around. I leave meter 2 alone, never reset, to keep track of average MPG for the life of my car. For meter 1, I reset it everytime I refill.

eel

I have a manual tranny, Does that mean I should get a better gas mileage as compared to automatic ? or is it the other way around?

I get around 19 in mixed city/hwy driving (mostly city though). Very similar to the 98 M3 I used to have.

I got between 10-12mpg at the track (depending on the session).

At the track, mine got the worst mileage between these cars: 98 M3, 03 330ZHP and 03 A4 1.8TQ. I am convinced it got worse mileage than the M3 because I had to keep it more in the upper RPM ranges (and because I was faster ). The Audi was not pushed that hard so I'm not surprised there, otherwise it can be pretty thirsty as well (he got 14mpg).

Do I actually care? Not really, it's just an amusing number to watch as far as I'm concerned (short commute).

Originally Posted by FAR

I have a manual tranny, Does that mean I should get a better gas mileage as compared to automatic ? or is it the other way around?

If I remember correctly the AT get 1 mpg better than the MT.

[QUOTE=LDV330i]If I remember correctly the AT get 1 mpg better than the MT.

Thanks for the info. I thought it was the other way around, guess I was wrong!!

[QUOTE=FAR]

Originally Posted by LDV330i

If I remember correctly the AT get 1 mpg better than the MT.

Thanks for the info. I thought it was the other way around, guess I was wrong!!

Originally Posted by bmwusa.com

Fuel Consumption

6-speed manual transmission - City 20 mpg

6-speed manual transmission - Highway 30 mpg

5-speed automatic transmission - City 19 mpg

5-speed automatic transmission - Highway 27 mpg

Sequential Manual Gearbox (SMG) - City 1 20 mpg

Sequential Manual Gearbox (SMG) - Highway 1 29 mpg

For the past week-19.8 MPG mostly city driving. Not bad since i'm still in break in but i wonderful if i'll be able to do 32mpg on the highway as with my 325.

Originally Posted by woody underwood

I want grayghost's clutch replacement business.

I'd like to understand why you feel that way.... I think you'd go rather hungry...
Almost all my shifts (when in gas saving mode) are at low rpms with a rather small rpm change in the shift. Assuming a make a decent shift (and I've been doing this a loooonnnggg time), this is about as 'stress-free' on the clutch as a shift can be. If you figure that I'm making more shifts because I'm using a higher gear much of the time... perhaps, but given the very 'mild' nature of the shifts, the 10 - 20% more shifts I make would be almost insignificant. One 'brisk' run up through the gears probably puts more wear on the clutch than a week of what I do....

Don't misunderstand, I'm not advocating that everyone drive this way all the time... what fun would that be?? I do think that it is helpful to be able to conserve gas effectively... you never know when it might come in handy. And, if gas prices go much higher.....

Originally Posted by swchang

Originally Posted by bmwusa.com
Fuel Consumption

6-speed manual transmission - City 20 mpg

6-speed manual transmission - Highway 30 mpg

5-speed automatic transmission - City 19 mpg

5-speed automatic transmission - Highway 27 mpg

Sequential Manual Gearbox (SMG) - City 1 20 mpg

Sequential Manual Gearbox (SMG) - Highway 1 29 mpg

Those numbers are different from my 2004 3 series booklet. There the number for a 330i are:

6MT= 20/30
5AT =20/28
SMG = To be Determined.

Originally Posted by LDV330i

Those numbers are different from my 2004 3 series booklet. There the number for a 330i are:

6MT= 20/30
5AT =20/28
SMG = To be Determined.

Hmm, well I just lifted these off the site today, so I'd imagine these to be more accurate.

I've been having way too much fun driving to keep track of the mpg, and certainly haven't been trying to achive a high mpg value, much the opposite actually. Almost all of my driving has been spirited city/rural driving. According to the computer the car is averaging 18.5 mpg since it's birth. I did monitor the mpg on the way home from the dealership, about 90 miles, all on the hwy, and got 25 mpg. I was pretty impressed with that, since I was varying the speed a lot and really wasn't trying to maximize the mpg.

To be honest, this car is way too much fun to drive to be worried about mpg, even if the price of gas is outrageous.

Originally Posted by grayghost

Since friction and stress goes up as the square of the RPM, cruising at 3000 RPM incurs 4 time the gas use due to engine friction. (It also wears your engine components 4 times as fast too. )

Who gives a sh!t? Gas use due to engine friction is minimal relative to the gass use due to moving the car around.

Pick ANY gear and accelerate, and see what happens.

Then pick any reasonable gear and set the cruise control on a FLAT area of road... It doesn't make nearly as much difference as you think.

Originally Posted by wingspan

Never reset the mpg meter!

rumratt wingspan

I don't have NAV, so I don't have the option of having two tripometers. I didn't even know NAV provided this extra functionality.

Originally Posted by swchang

Hmm, well I just lifted these off the site today, so I'd imagine these to be more accurate.

Sorry, I did not mean to give an impression that I was questioning the numbers you posted.

Mine was really an incomplete post. I was really wondering why the numbers would be different now than when the booklet was published since they are for the same MY. The numbers in the booklet are not noted as preliminary or estimated. My question would be if BMW has tweaked the engine management software so much, to address some of the issues discussed on this board, that it had to have the whole motor/transmission retested for EPA.

Originally Posted by LDV330i

Sorry, I did not mean to give an impression that I was questioning the numbers you posted.

Mine was really an incomplete post. I was really wondering why the numbers would be different now than when the booklet was published since they are for the same MY. The numbers in the booklet are not noted as preliminary or estimated. My question would be if BMW has tweaked the engine management software so much, to address some of the issues discussed on this board, that it had to have the whole motor/transmission retested for EPA.

Hmm, perhaps. Or maybe they just messed up.