318is, 320i, 325i Fuel Economy

[rado-steve]

Hi All,

New here so be nice

Right i'm a VW man (own a sorted 1.8T corrado as my toy) Here's a pic just for self whoring purposes





but After driving my mates E30 325i cabby I'm seriously tempted by some bavarian goodness!

So I'll be using it as a daily, 15mile run on mainly A and b roads from Darlington to Bishop auckland! Cruising at about 60mph!

So whats the fuel econmy like on all 3??? I currenty get about 360miles from £60 of unleaded from my current daily, so just wondered how each engine compared???

I really fancy the 318is as it has that revvy twin cam M42 motor but as most of my mates have pointed out a proper BM has a 6 up front:) so the 325 and 320...is the 320 6 a sweet thing or do i plump for the extra cubes of a 325i???

Thoughts and advice appreciated

Cheers

Steve

[greggy]

i wouldnt mind knowing this also

cheers

[fuzzy]

iirc about late 20's - 30 mpg is about average for a 325 driven sensibly enough.

[DHFiS]

The handbook gives the following consumption at 56 and 75 mph.

318iS 47.9/37.2
320 38.2/30.7
325 42.8/34.4

[rado-steve]

Yeah but nobody really achieves those figures......

Talking real world driving C'mon guys I'd really like to know what mpg you get from each engine??

[Jon_Bmw]

Poor ol' 320i. Doesn't have a lot going for it, does it?

[rado-steve]

Poor ol' 320i. Doesn't have a lot going for it, does it?

Why do you say that???

[Alex]

i live in Darlington

[Alex]

my obc averages 30-32 mpg, and i mainly do town driving with the odd run up or down the country a couple of times a month

thats from an IS

[odbod]

Yeah, I get 31-33 on my IS on mixed driving, and 28mpg now I'm on GAS.

[ShepsEvo3]

My 318is OBC is reading 39.2mpg right now... Mixed motorway driving and round town to and from work.

On a recent run up to Manchester and back to Bristol it averaged 43.9mpg. I kept the throttle onthe 1st stage opening and the GPS speed on TomTom stayed around 70-75mph with downhill going to 82mph Up hill, I teased the 2nd stage slightly That time I got 480 miles out of my tank. Now the light comes on at around 370miles and I need to fill up at around 410 miles. It takes close to 50ltrs from empty to brimmed. I think thats pretty good.

[Alex]

My 318is OBC is reading 39.2mpg right now... Mixed motorway driving and round town to and from work.

On a recent run up to Manchester and back to Bristol it averaged 43.9mpg. I kept the throttle onthe 1st stage opening and the GPS speed on TomTom stayed around 70-75mph with downhill going to 82mph Up hill, I teased the 2nd stage slightly That time I got 480 miles out of my tank. Now the light comes on at around 370miles and I need to fill up at around 410 miles. It takes close to 50ltrs from empty to brimmed. I think thats pretty good.

thats very good, your too light footed

[paulisa]

i have a 325 auto touring and get less than 20mpg but it gets thrashed everywhere all the time

[oi_oi_savaloy]

I've got a 320 Touring and get 25/26 mpg on average.

When they say poor 320 (it hasn't got much going for it) what people mean is that it hasn't got the power of the 325 or in fact the 318is, it has the extra weight over a 318is and basically is neither one nor tother.

I've just bought a 325 Touring because i need better mpg and I think a BM has to have a 6 pot in it (I don't have to worry about insurance issues - I'm old enough!).

[rado-steve]

Ahh Ok, so if It's a 6 i'm after best Get the 325 then???

[rado-steve]

i live in Darlington

Cool where abouts??? Not seen your is about, but then you've prob not seen my C either lol!

my mate with the cabby is from darlo too!

[ShepsEvo3]

My 318is OBC is reading 39.2mpg right now... Mixed motorway driving and round town to and from work.

On a recent run up to Manchester and back to Bristol it averaged 43.9mpg. I kept the throttle onthe 1st stage opening and the GPS speed on TomTom stayed around 70-75mph with downhill going to 82mph Up hill, I teased the 2nd stage slightly That time I got 480 miles out of my tank. Now the light comes on at around 370miles and I need to fill up at around 410 miles. It takes close to 50ltrs from empty to brimmed. I think thats pretty good.

thats very good, your too light footed

Ah, I don't need to be heavy footed, its how I tuned it

[Alex]

i only know one other person from darlington with a cabby and he has just joined up on here, what colour is the cabby ???

i live next to Hummersknott School more or less

there seems to be quite a few from Darlington who are members on here now

have you seen Omi's on north road ?

[Alex]

is his cabby black ????

[oi_oi_savaloy]

If it's a 6 your after then definitely go for the 325i. A 320 has 129bhp as standard. A 318is has 137 and a 325 has (i think) 174. Buy a 320 and you'll want more power almost immediately. Cheapest way to do it is not to buy one in the first place and get a 325!

[Alex]

IS has 136 actually

although most that have been put on the dyno produce around 140bhp

[rado-steve]

No it's blue, cream leather interior on Apline Reps lol he'll love me for saying that

Pic:

[Alex]

no ive never seen that, my old 316i had alpina reps not a lover i used to get wheel wobble with them

looks really smart, where about is that usually parked

you might see my step dads touring around, lazur blue 4 pot with black leather on 15" bbs

[georgen]

Ahh Ok, so if It's a 6 i'm after best Get the 325 then???

Yes,

I'm not knocking the 320i as they are throughly respectable things to bomb about in, but the 325i has the same ( if not better ) fuel consumption. When you compare the difference in power between the two engines ( 42-ish bhp ), you can see that the 325i is the one to go for.

Saying that, I'd rather have a tidy 320i than a rotten 325i. Dropping the 2.5 engine into a 320i is apparently rather easy.

[ShepsEvo3]

IS has 136 actually

although most that have been put on the dyno produce around 140bhp

Mines making 153 But generally I see around 140-142bhp for a totally standard 318is. 325i's also make the factory figures if all is well, but not usually any more. 320i... well I don't know, I havn't had anyone with one of them venture onto my dyno yet!

[DHFiS]

IS has 136 actually

although most that have been put on the dyno produce around 140bhp

Mines making 153 But generally I see around 140-142bhp for a totally standard 318is. 325i's also make the factory figures if all is well, but not usually any more. 320i... well I don't know, I havn't had anyone with one of them venture onto my dyno yet!

Going OT Shep but what have you done to get that figure?

[Alex]

what mods is yours packing then

[minicooper172]

My 325i got me 33mpg calculated from tank to tank about 10 times and averaged out, that's with booting it every now and then. OK, extremely rarely. Driving like a bit of an old man, changing at 2k, but doing 70 and above on the motorways.

Driving was 70% motorways and 30% town driving / A roads.

[ShepsEvo3]

Mines totally standard, except has the Evolve Eprom chip with raised limiter which took it to 147bhp, I then LIVE remapped it on my dyno with a Unichip Q and improved it even more and it gave 153 on 95 Unleaded

I aimed for max economy upto around the first third throttle, then eased in the fueling for max power to around 75% throttle, then max power from there on. Its a really smooth, nicely driving engine now.

Thing is I havnt finished playing with it for economy, I reckon I can get it even better.

Some more proof that you do not need a BBTB on a 318is... my car makes the same power throughout the rev range with just over 75% throttle as it does at full throttle!!!

[Alex]

[Alex]

i thought once remapped it would wipe the chip ??

whats the unichip q ?

[ShepsEvo3]

The throttle thing with making the same power with 75% throttle as full throttle is more to do with the flow of the head/exhaust. The inlet side is not restrictive below 200bhp, so if the head was ported and flowed, with better cams, the 75% throttle figure will eventually be lower than full throttle ;) I am doing some R&D on some heads soon.

[ShepsEvo3]

i thought once remapped it would wipe the chip ??

whats the unichip q ?

Don't want to hog the thread, so I'll pm you ;)

[pac1982]

So the BBTB are not worth the money on the M42 then???

[ShepsEvo3]

So the BBTB are not worth the money on the M42 then???

In my opinion... no. If you have head work, cams, etc, then yes it will benifit, but on a standard M42, nope.