320i fuel comsumption - surely this can't be right?

[mr_dink]

hi everyone,

i drive a 1988 320i and I average 20mpg in it.

Those were the sort of figures I used to get in my old 730i!!!!

Does anyone else have a 320 and if so what sort of fuel consumption do you get?

And does anyone know any way to improve this? I read somewhere that chipping/remapping can actually give better mpg. Anyone with any experience of this?

And before anyone suggests LPG (or a 318is conversion!) I will probably do one of those eventually, but am on a very tight budget at the moment.

So what sort of mpg do you get from your car?

Please include what engine and gearbox you have, and what sort of driving you do, i.e. my 320 is an auto and all my driving is in the city centre.

Thank you!

[e30bmlover]

what miles do you get to a tank? i used to get 230 - 240 driving around norwich ( well to work and back ) i now get a minimum of 240 to a tank with the engine swap.

[mr_dink]

tbh i never actually fill the tank....... I get about 40 miles to £10 of fuel so approx 20mpg. (very rough calculation)

Not sure how much a full tank costs so a bit hard to compare!

[e30bmlover]

mine at todays current prices costs £45( i know this because i only fill her up, i dont bother putting the odd tenner in), mind you i never run it to empty, i dont even know if the reserve light works!

[Cloggy Saint]

I get low to mid 20's on my 320i. That's with a mix of town and motorway driving.

[mattyb240]

I tend to get around 25mpg driving with my 88 320i, 30-40 on motorways.

[mr_dink]

£45 = approx 9 gallons, so e30bmlover that works out about 25-26mpg.

do you guys have manual gearboxes??

[e30bmlover]

do you guys have manual gearboxes??

yes, a 320 box to be exact and the 320's final drive.

[e30topless]

my 320i is auto i get between 10-20 mpg depending on how many chavs i race on the ring road on the way home

[o22ie]

my 320i is auto i get between 10-20 mpg depending on how many chavs i race on the ring road on the way home

LoL like it

[mr_dink]

my 320i is auto i get between 10-20 mpg depending on how many chavs i race on the ring road on the way home

Lol I'm about the same! 20mpg is the best figure i can get, driving sensibly, no sudden bursts of acceleration, engine hardly getting above 2000rpm.

If I start playing then it goes way down.

Has anyone ever fitted a chip to this engine (motronic) and did it have any effect on economy?

[murran]

yeah in my 320i, mid to low 20s round town. but your is an autospastic. so thats the equivilant of me driving with my handbrake on while towing a caravan. so id say your doin well in the most uneconomical e30! lol!

[shedrool83]

Has anyone ever fitted a chip to this engine (motronic) and did it have any effect on economy?

I get roughly 23mpg from mines

It has been chipped,didn't notice any effect on economy.

[StuBeeDoo]

tbh i never actually fill the tank....... I get about 40 miles to £10 of fuel so approx 20mpg. (very rough calculation)

Not sure how much a full tank costs so a bit hard to compare!

Mate, you can't calculate fuel consumption like that.
The only way to get an accurate figure is to brim the tank. Your "20mpg" figure could be 5mpg either way out.

[StuBeeDoo]

Forgot to say.....
The worst I've ever got on petrol (I've converted to LPG now) is 24.2mpg around town. I don't hang about and I'm regularly between 4k and 6k rpm when accelerating.

[georgen]

270 miles on a full tank on my old 320i auto. My ( chipped ) manual 325i's economy is much better..

[Chris]

I generally drive fairly sensibly but i do accelerate briskly using all of the rev range, but then i use the engine braking a lot which uses no petrol.
I've been recording my economy over the last couple of months cause i'm going LPG and i wanna know the difference, So on average, pretty much all town driving, with the odd 20miles motorway every few weeks.

23.7MPG

Standard 320i Touring.

[Brianmoooore]

As low as 20 MPG is entirely achievable with a 320 auto without too much effort, but you can easily lose a mile or three per gallon by lack of maintenance.

[WerkdE30]

i have a 320i with a manual box and 4.4 diff.

it uses more fuel than my auto 3ltr 1986 nissan. which weighs another 200kgs!!! but hits the speed limit effortlessly under very light excelleration.

i think its because of the very low torque in the bmw because i hafto rev the shit out of it to get going and not be left behind at the lights. The m20 2ltr is a nice engine if your on the limit it seems to like to rev and makes decent power up high. but low down torque is almost not there.



does anyone know what sort of consumption they get from a 2.5 or 2.7 ? my guess is itd be less.

[darkchild]

My 320i (auto) drinks petrol around town, hence why I only use it on longer trips. According to the OBC I usually average 30-32mpg. Highest I've ever had was 35.7mpg but that involved driving like a nun!

[dannyboy759]

In my 320 touring i used to get about 240-260 per tank!
The 325 touring ive got now does that on about 40 ish ltrs!!

[Dr Firefly]

Mine averages about 27mpg round town, and 32 on the motorways. That's on a 318 diff though, so it's lower on motorways than it should be. It's a manual

[StuBeeDoo]

Mine averages about 27mpg round town, and 32 on the motorways. That's on a 318 diff though, so it's lower on motorways than it should be. It's a manual

318i and 320i use the same ratio diff.

[jcjdavis1]

Hi My 320i auto is sh*t as well.

[dannyboy759]

320 and an auto, bad combo for mpg

[mattyb240]

Was impressed with mine yesterday did a load of short journeys and not exactly at slow pace (1-7 miles) and have got 30 miles out of my five liters of fuel!! I think I am losing a couple of miles due to the fact my car isn't as warm as it should be when it's been running, it only just on the first white mark ( I know it's better then it over heating) but meh

[mr_dink]

Forgot to say.....
The worst I've ever got on petrol (I've converted to LPG now) is 24.2mpg around town. I don't hang about and I'm regularly between 4k and 6k rpm when accelerating.

These figures wouldn't be too bad but I have to drive like a nun to get anywhere near 20mpg.

As low as 20 MPG is entirely achievable with a 320 auto without too much effort, but you can easily lose a mile or three per gallon by lack of maintenance.

This is very true, and a service will happen soon.....

yeah in my 320i, mid to low 20s round town. but your is an autospastic. so thats the equivilant of me driving with my handbrake on while towing a caravan. so id say your doin well in the most uneconomical e30! lol!

Hi My 320i auto is sh*t as well.

320 and an auto, bad combo for mpg

Has anyone ever converted an auto to manual, and how much hassle is involved??

[murran]

the price of 320i's autos or manuals means its just not worth the hassle. sell yours buy a manual.........

[fuzzy]

i get those sort of mpg figures from my 2.0 but at least mine has a big turbo attached.

[Aleksandar]

@fuzzy

@topic after a bit of work on it(basic stuff, air hoses etc) it spent 9 litres per 100 km which is 31 MPG with 70% city, 30% open road, in heavy-slow city conditions it does 16 MPG and with some real revving and using 5k rpm+ a lot of times today it did 34 mpg in 80% open road, I was impressed.

[Chris]

So they all seem to be fairly low.

How does Neil - 320touring, Claim 38mpg in his avatar?

[murran]

So they all seem to be fairly low.

How does Neil - 320touring, Claim 38mpg in his avatar?

maybe he has 80 profile tyres on his 15" bbs???? lol!