Bad Gas Mileage with 2005 330i BMW with Performance Package

I recently purchased a 2005 BMW 330i with performance package and
absolutely love driving it. Unfortunately, I've been alarmed by the
poor gas mileage thus far (3 tanks worth): 14 city/24 highway. Has
anyone had this experience with their 330i with performance package?

The brochures say it should get 21/30 and the sticker on the car said
17/27, but I don't think Humvee mileage is acceptable for a 3 series.
My research indicates the larger tires and aero kit may be hurting top
end mileage, but I don't think the chip and exhaust should hurt city
driving. The dealership is getting back to me on this issue.

I appreciate your insights.

-Bummer Owner

On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 21:02:08 -0800, Kent Lewis wrote:

> I recently purchased a 2005 BMW 330i with performance package and
> absolutely love driving it. Unfortunately, I've been alarmed by the
> poor gas mileage thus far (3 tanks worth): 14 city/24 highway. Has
> anyone had this experience with their 330i with performance package?
>
> The brochures say it should get 21/30 and the sticker on the car said
> 17/27, but I don't think Humvee mileage is acceptable for a 3 series. My
> research indicates the larger tires and aero kit may be hurting top end
> mileage, but I don't think the chip and exhaust should hurt city
> driving. The dealership is getting back to me on this issue.
>
City mileage can vary significantly from the advertised values depending
on roads, conditions, and driving style. However, extended highway driving
at posted US speed limits on relatively flat roads with few stops should
be about as good as advertised values.

FYI: From the EPA documents on mileage tests (so you have a basis for
comparison of your driving):

" Vehicles are driven over identical driving patterns by professional
drivers in controlled laboratory conditions on a dynamometer. Road forces
and aerodynamic forces are fully accounted for in this test."

"The city test is approximately 11 miles long and is a stop and go trip
with an average speed of about 20 miles per hour (mph). The trip lasts 31
minutes and has 23 stops. About 18 percent of the time is spent idling (as
in waiting for traffic lights). A short freeway driving segment is
included in the test. The engine is intially started after being parked
overnight."

" The highway is a 10 mile trip with an average speed of 48 mph. The
vehicle is started "hot" and there is very little idling and no stops."

--
The instructions said to use Windows 98 or better, so I installed RedHat.

Kent Lewis wrote:
> I recently purchased a 2005 BMW 330i with performance package and
> absolutely love driving it. Unfortunately, I've been alarmed by the
> poor gas mileage thus far (3 tanks worth): 14 city/24 highway. Has
> anyone had this experience with their 330i with performance package?

Interesting. My 1994 530i averages about 19 city, 25 highway. Average
speed for city driving is about 25 mph. I'm obviously pulling more
metal than you (3 series weigh less than 5 series, don't they?) so it
would stand to reason you should be getting similar mileage. All I can
say is that driving styles may be involved. I tend to coast a lot if I can.

Vern

In article > ,
Vernon Balbert > wrote:
> Interesting. My 1994 530i averages about 19 city, 25 highway. Average
> speed for city driving is about 25 mph. I'm obviously pulling more
> metal than you (3 series weigh less than 5 series, don't they?) so it
> would stand to reason you should be getting similar mileage. All I can
> say is that driving styles may be involved.

But isn't the E34 530 a V-8 and these are always more thirsty than a 6,
like for like?

--
*If you don't pay your exorcist you get repossessed.*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

(Kent Lewis) wrote in message . com>...
> I recently purchased a 2005 BMW 330i with performance package and
> absolutely love driving it. Unfortunately, I've been alarmed by the
> poor gas mileage thus far (3 tanks worth): 14 city/24 highway. Has
> anyone had this experience with their 330i with performance package?
>
> The brochures say it should get 21/30 and the sticker on the car said
> 17/27, but I don't think Humvee mileage is acceptable for a 3 series.
> My research indicates the larger tires and aero kit may be hurting top
> end mileage, but I don't think the chip and exhaust should hurt city
> driving. The dealership is getting back to me on this issue.
>
> I appreciate your insights.

Sell your expensive PERFORMANCE car and buy a Honda Civic? Change your
driving style? Complain to the dealer - what is he going to do, give
you another expensive PERFORMANCE car to complain about?


>
> -Bummer Owner

"Dave Plowman (News)" > wrote
> In article >,
> Kent Lewis > wrote:
>> I recently purchased a 2005 BMW 330i with performance package and
>> absolutely love driving it. Unfortunately, I've been alarmed by the
>> poor gas mileage thus far (3 tanks worth): 14 city/24 highway. Has
>> anyone had this experience with their 330i with performance package?
>
> What mileage did you get with your previous car doing similar journeys,
> and what was that car?

Dave's question is very incisive. Mileage mostly depends upon the
driver. For instance, my '01 330xi gets around 28/29 mpg highway
(usually with the cruise control set on 75 mph) and around 23 in my
usual mix of city/arterial driving. Your car should get similar to mine.

Your car is brand new, and the mileage will bump up about 1 mpg
when well broken in (5K miles or so). Have you been following the
break-in recommendations?

Floyd

Mileage is GREATLY affected by how agressive you press on the pedals. The
numbers onthe brochure should be expected if you shift early, and drive in a
VERY mundane manner. If you are like most of us, you enjoy the spirited
trips to 5000 RPM, but this is what is dragging your mileage numbers way
down. As boring as this may be, try shifting earlier, say about 2500 RPM,
and watch your mileage go up. Instead of driving in slow traffic in a low
gear, 2nd for example, see what happens if you are in 3rd or even 4th. You
can't rapidly accelerate anyway, and there is nothing at all wrong with
poking along in 4th at 1500 instead of 2nd at 3000. Sure, you may need to
downshift if the traffic speeds up, but in my experience, you can go from
around 5mph in 3rd all of the way to 70. You can do 10 or 15 in 4th, and
carry that gear all of the way to 110.

When the traffic light turns green, you are limited at how fast you can
accelerate, so you may as well shift as early as the car will tolerate, my
typical shift points come at between 2000 and 2500, and sometimes as late as
3000. When I am wanting to have some fun with my car, then I shift in the
5000 range, but I expect my mileage to suffer when I drive that way.




"Kent Lewis" > wrote in message
om...
> I recently purchased a 2005 BMW 330i with performance package and
> absolutely love driving it. Unfortunately, I've been alarmed by the
> poor gas mileage thus far (3 tanks worth): 14 city/24 highway. Has
> anyone had this experience with their 330i with performance package?
>
> The brochures say it should get 21/30 and the sticker on the car said
> 17/27, but I don't think Humvee mileage is acceptable for a 3 series.
> My research indicates the larger tires and aero kit may be hurting top
> end mileage, but I don't think the chip and exhaust should hurt city
> driving. The dealership is getting back to me on this issue.
>
> I appreciate your insights.
>
> -Bummer Owner

In article >, Jim Levie says...

>" The highway is a 10 mile trip with an average speed of 48 mph. The
>vehicle is started "hot" and there is very little idling and no stops."

There ya go, keep it under 48mph and you should be fine.

I don't think you have a problem.


--
Jason G
"This isn't a matter of being tolerant,
it's a matter of being sane." --REP, a.s.c.

Thanks ya'll for the responses. A little more background for you:

My previous car was a 2000 BMW 323Ci with a few mods (cold air, chip
and exhaust). It was a manual tranny, and sport package. After mods
and 2 year breakin period, I took it on a 4,000 road trip around the
West and averaged 33 MPG. I even top-ended outside of Grand Canyon at
146 MPH. But usually, I averaged 20 city and 30 highway (same as
indicated in the brochure). A great car around town and on the track.

My new 330i is a steptronic automatic with 18s, and as you may already
know, modified chip, camshaft and final drive (as part of the
Performance Package). After getting 14 MPG on my first tank, I took
it "easy" on the second and third tanks (I'm at 720 miles total now)
and the best I could get was a 14.5 average. When I reset the MPG
trip computer for a long highway trip, I managed a whopping 24, with
no city driving. I just refilled and am doing city driving and
kicking ass with a 12.8 MPG average after a quarter tank.

I stopped by the dealership today and talked to my trusty tech, and he
said the following could be factors:
-new engine needs to break in (as stated by another post, this may
improve MPG by maybe 1 or 2 points at most)
-winter gas is lower octane and gets worse mileage (which didn't
explain my extremely poor mileage and the fact that a buddy of mine is
getting 18 city in his new 325Ci auto on the same fuel).
-the chip runs richer mixture (very possible, but I would say if
that's true, then the factory chip is garbage. On my 323, the Dinan
chip and Remus exhaust gave me similar acceleration enhancement
without compromising mileage - in fact, it improved.)
-the bigger tires (255/35/18s in the rear offers more meat, but even
with low tire pressure, they can't affect mileage that much.)
-the car's weight and aero kit (doesn't explain the city mileage and
it's a negligible difference at best.)
-my driving style (as I said earlier, after my first shocking tank
experience, I basically putted around at 2K RPM and it doesn't seem to
make a difference.)
-my commute (I drive 2 miles to work, less than 10 minutes, and my car
likely doesn't warm up fully, so it's running a richer mixture, which
may be the primary culprit, but still not an acceptable answer.)

So I set up an appointment to have the techs run diagnostics and check
tire pressure, etc. and I'll continue to document my mileage for a few
more weeks or months and see what happens. If any 330i owners with
performance packages out there can share their mileage/experience, I
would appreciate it. Let me know if I missed anything.

Thanks - KjL

(Kent Lewis) wrote in message . com>...
> I recently purchased a 2005 BMW 330i with performance package and
> absolutely love driving it. Unfortunately, I've been alarmed by the
> poor gas mileage thus far (3 tanks worth): 14 city/24 highway. Has
> anyone had this experience with their 330i with performance package?
>
> The brochures say it should get 21/30 and the sticker on the car said
> 17/27, but I don't think Humvee mileage is acceptable for a 3 series.
> My research indicates the larger tires and aero kit may be hurting top
> end mileage, but I don't think the chip and exhaust should hurt city
> driving. The dealership is getting back to me on this issue.
>
> I appreciate your insights.
>
> -Bummer Owner

In article >, Kent Lewis says...

> 323Ci

>330i

Keep that in mind. 700cc is a lot of gas volume!

As I said, your city+hwy/2 is about the same as mine, so not sure you have a
problem. If you DO find a problem, please let me know, as that means I probably
do too.


--
Jason G
"This isn't a matter of being tolerant,
it's a matter of being sane." --REP, a.s.c.