E36 fuel mileage question.

my ti with the AUTO gets between 30-33 average. 45 miles of highway, 25 miles of city/backroads- One way. And I'm not driving to get MPG. The OBC says the average speed is 48.

Damn.

Who wants to swap for a slightly used and lowered V6/auto 95 Dakota??? Less then 20mpg on this one is killing me.

The OBC in my '98 M3 averages about 21 for a mix of suburbs/city/short highway hops. Steady state highway typically averages 26.

What surprises me is that it usually gets about 9 on track which seems pretty good for a 3.2 liter car over 3k pounds. My 1000cc Radical doesn't do all that much better.

I think this is another thread where people inflate their numbers, don't record them properly, report their straight hwy mileage, etc. Look below:

http://www.fuelly.com/car/bmw/328i
http://www.fuelly.com/car/bmw/325i
http://www.fuelly.com/car/bmw/325is
http://www.fuelly.com/car/bmw/328is

Sure looks like low 20s to me.

I get about 21 mpg in mixed driving in my E36 M3. We only see about 19 mpg in our E39 530i. I do not hypermile.

1988RedT2 wrote:

SupraWes wrote: I think they are exagerating, 18/26 is almost exactly what I get. I am geeky enough to have a gasmileage spreadsheet with a sheet for every car I ever owned. It goes as low as 16 when I do lots of short trips in cold weather. 92 325i 261k 4D 5 speed. Chip, intake, exhaust, 225 summer tires (it seemed to do around 1mpg better on the original 205 all seasons)

You get 18 city?? Yer a stoplight drag racer! Is that redline in every gear?

Shift at about 3000 with an occasional visits to 7000. 18 is what the city mileage on the car is rated at by the DOT or NHTSA or whoever does the ratings. Lots of short trips, I walk to work, so I am only doing short ~5-10 mile trips all in town to go meet someone for lunch or go shopping every few days. The engine barely even gets warm unless I go out of town somewhere. OBC mileage statements are bogus.

1988RedT2 wrote:

SupraWes wrote: I think they are exagerating, 18/26 is almost exactly what I get. I am geeky enough to have a gasmileage spreadsheet with a sheet for every car I ever owned. It goes as low as 16 when I do lots of short trips in cold weather. 92 325i 261k 4D 5 speed. Chip, intake, exhaust, 225 summer tires (it seemed to do around 1mpg better on the original 205 all seasons)

You get 18 city?? Yer a stoplight drag racer! Is that redline in every gear?

Torque peak is well below red line, even w/ a Conforti flash and an M50 manifold. Launch at about 4, try not to boil the tires in first, shift at about 6.8k for the rest.

In reply to The_Jed:

My 1994 325i only gets 28mpg cruising 70ish on the highway. It's been averaging around 24-25mpg even with the occasional autocross (which generally requires a decent highway drive.) I did have slightly undersized tires on it this summer (205/50R16s). Overall, I am pretty happy with the gas mileage.

ProDarwin wrote: I think this is another thread where people inflate their numbers, don't record them properly, report their straight hwy mileage, etc. Look below: http://www.fuelly.com/car/bmw/328i http://www.fuelly.com/car/bmw/325i http://www.fuelly.com/car/bmw/325is http://www.fuelly.com/car/bmw/328is Sure looks like low 20s to me.

Bah. I recorded EVERY tank full over 20,000 miles, and that's the mileage I got. I could care less if you think I'm lying about it.