Xoutpost.com - Gas Mileage Experiment

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I did an experiment like this a while back with a 318ti, 5spd. Try this - instead of using CC - just 'lock' your foot angle into the same spot. So get up to about 55mph, if that's the speed you'll be cruising at, and keep it there. Nevermind you may decrease in speed going up an incline. If you go up - you will go down, so your speed will naturally increase. Try not to brake if possible and pop it in Neutral any chance you get (even if you have an automatic) : Coast to stop lights and when moving into the exit lane to get off the highway.

In a car that was originally designed to get a max of 29 MPGs highway, I was averaging 33.1 MPGs.

But because CC will vary your throttle position to maintain your speed, it doesn't really give you max performance. Maintaining the throttle position is what will get you MAX mpgs.

As I mentioned before, I travel the same couple miles everyday and it bores me so much that I look at my mpg needle on the dash... if you're accelerating to something like 45mph on a local road and want to stay there, typically you'd keep your foot on the gas just enough. What you actually can do is let off a tad and the needle will show that your mpg increases quite a bit... if you hit the gas again just a bit to maintain, it will still show better mpg. I'd say at least by 10mpg on the meter. I don't know if it messes with the gearing but you're basically going from a pull to a coast. Seems like common sense but we drive in the 40mph range so often on local roads that you just don't think about stuff like this. I just find it interesting how much you could possibly save if you wanted. Personally, I don't drive frequently enough to care... I spend about $120/mo. on gas, 2 fill-ups.

I ended up having to drive some highway miles on this and had to cut it short. I did, however, get just under 200 miles of strictly city driving. Again, I have a 2008 4.8, so these are not 6 cylinder results. I averaged 23.2 mph with an average of of 17.8 mpg. I ended up driving in the downtown vicinity and noticed that the consistent stop and go was horrible on the mileage, and it was hard to manage the X5 trying to feather the gas and then slow down/ coast to the stoplights. It pissed off the other drivers too, so I had to moderate as best as I could. I am currently on another tank of gas and am seeing my city MPG be around 14-ish, but again, I can drive around South Bend for a while and not have so much stop and go. I think I will be seeing about a 4 MPG difference, but I will follow up. I will say that the thing i s way much more enjoyable to driv ewith your foot than the CC stalk.

You should have purchased the diesel. I don't have to watch the way I drive and I get pretty decent mileage...

Craig

I wouldn't even attempt this experiment. I would fail miserably after the first mile. Driving this beast like a priest is the equivalent of hell.

As I said in a previous post, it is boring as hell, and I really did not enjoy it. I have been driving it normally for this tank and am so much happier when I am in it. I can actually here the exhaust note!
I just wanted to see what the actual difference in Mileage would be, not that I bought this for good mileage. It is showing up to be a difference that in your daily driving cause you to think, especially as premium is nearing $3 per gallon. I figure I will juice a project a for a little extra coin and cover my gas expenditure sthat way right?

I reset my consumption before I hit the road for my drive to CT for the meet. On the first leg of the trip up the Garden State Parkway, traffic was fairly light and I was able to maintain 75 mph and achieve 18.8 mpg. Traffic conditions changed once I crossed into NY.

On the way home I had a wide open road but maintaining one speed is boring. I jumped on her and had some fun, having to dodge the damn left lane hoggers and those that feel the need to block the roadway by driving steering wheel to steering wheel :rant: 80 or so all the way home. An hour and 10 minutes including a bathroom and coffee stop, I managed to average 17 for the trip. :thumbup: Not bad considering my norm is 13.5

I'm done with my experiment :rofl:

I will be making a 1600mile road trip shortly, will give a good idea how good the mpg is ;) BTW, when I am driving I usually get 17.5 in mixed city/hwy driving, what I have noticed with BMWs, atleast my 328is and X5 is that accelerating hard and then cruising, anticipating the stops and avoiding getting stuck behind left lane hogs, gets you pretty good mileage and you don't miss out on the fun ;)

We take our 08 3.0si up to the White Mountains, about a 170mile trip through Boston so there is some traffic. After some breakin we were getting 22-23mpg on the roundtrip. Speeds run from city traffic for 30 or so miles to 75+/- on the interstate to 45 on the last 30 miles. For local suburban driving we are getting 17-18. We are not doing much of that since we got a Mini for local.

Quote:

Originally Posted by swisstype (Post 625976)

I use my X5 as my DD, which I am sure most of us do. I read, prior to buying, how bad or less than good gas mileage was. Coming from a Toyota 4Runner, after driving the X5, I will say that it wasn't as bad as I thought.
Well, I noticed something recently. My wife is Pregnant, and really does not like the bumpiness of the ride. It seems to be a job to manage feathering the gas and the brakes so as not to jerk her too badly as well, so I came up with something. I use the CC getting around and have noticed a better response from her regarding the stop and go aspect - she still doesnt like the stiff ride, makes our baby bounce around.
WEll, I always clear out the BC so I can see a new set of info for mpg, mph, and miles left. On the way home from getting gas, I noticed that I had an avg mpg of 17, with and mph avg of 28. Not bad I thought. So i set up parameters of not exceeding 10 MPH over the designated speedlimit where I am at, which should at least ensure that I don't piss off the other drivers, and using the cc to see what happens. So far, I am at about 78 miles and 17.6 mpg - ALL City. I will say that it seems less of an enthusiastic way to drive this vehicle, and I sure as hell did not buy this for mileage...just a little experiment to myself and thought I would share the results. I DO enjoy Sport Mode on my own, and having fun with my vehicle, but for this tank of gas, I will do my experiment and fill you in with final results. Just thought some of you might beinterested or at least give you 2-3 minutes of reading over your coffee.

G

2007 X5 3.0is Easy driving results.