Posts: 10
Registered: May 2001

posted 07-07-2001 01:55 PM            

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I would like to open this topic concerning several issues/questions around M3 Gas Mileage.

1 - What are typical gas mileages experienced by other M3 owners.

2 - Can someone explain the Gas Guzzler tax and why we pay the extra $1000 bucks?

3 - How does the computer calculate its Average Gas Milage. My computer seems to be miss-calculating.

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1 - I currently have approximately 6400 miles on my M3. During the entire time, I have kept a detailed record of every fill up and the mileage for each tank of gas. Here are my results:
For the life of the car i have averaged 20.78MPG. The worst tank was 18.0 (where I spent a full day auto-crossing). And the best recorded was 28.0MPG (a trip from DC to Charlotte, NC). It seems unusual to me that I can get as high as 28MPG however the sticker shows an expected 16 in the CITY and 24 on the HIGHWAY.
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2 - My previous car was a 1998 Ford Mustang Cobra. The average over 27K miles was: 18.92MPG. Max: 22.3MPG. Min: 15.8MPG. Why didn't I have to pay Guzzler tax on this one?
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3 - I've been keeping track of the value that BMW's on board computer calculates for each tank of gas. It reads consistantly 1MPG better than I actually am getting by taking the number of miles on the trip odometer divided by the gallons of gas that I pump. Is anyone else seeing this?
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--Tripp
2001 Laguna Seca Blue www.trippcat.com/m3

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Posts: 207
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 08-05-2001 08:34 PM            

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I have never gotten over 20 mpg on the E46 M3. I was really actually very surprised at the demise gas mileage.

My C5 vette consistently got over 20 mpg!

The mileage seems to get better with miles from my experience.

The guz tax I THINK is based on the federally mandated min mileage for passenger vehicles...I think. And since its a fed stand..fed tax..it gets added to the sticker? I dont know..just a guess. I did read that the tax is 1300 on the M5.

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posted 08-26-2001 06:02 PM              

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Gas Guzzler tax is applied to cars (not light trucks/SUV) that have a combined EPA city/highway average of 22.5 or less. M3 being 16/24 has avg. of 20 so you get taxed. I DON'T KNOW when this tax was implemented but I'm assuming that you bought your Mustang Cobra in 97 before it was implemented. Or maybe you just overlooked the tax...I'm not sure.

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posted 09-13-2001 03:31 PM              

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The gas guzzler criteria generally changes every year. The intent of the law was to encourage manufacturers to continuously improve their MPG. That is why the M3 is classified as a guzzler today, but would have been ok 5 years ago.

I only recently purchased my M3 cab and have yet to purchase gas, but with 200 miles on the odo, the computer shows 19.2 MPG. I have seen the reading go as high as 22 MPG when I really baby it, but as soon as I do any city driving it drops to around 19. So it seems to be consistent with others on this forum.

The question that I have is whether the MPGs would improve as the car breaks in. I have read many articles that BMWs performance and MPG continues to improve until 30K miles. Has anyone seen that?

I expect the computer to be be off by 5-10%, just by design: 1. The sampling methodology , and 2. the tolerance of the flowmeter. I have seen about a 2 MPG difference on another vehicle I own. Your manual calculation is the more accurate one.

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Posts: 18
Registered: Jul 2001

posted 10-04-2001 09:31 AM            

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I also got 28mpg recently on a 300 mile drive from Washington DC to New Jersey. My cruising speed was about 90mph most of the drive. I do recall that my 99 540 speedo was 8mph faster at the that speed and wonder if the m3 also has that problem. I also wonder what your cuising speed was when you got 28? Could it be that by driving near the peak torque rpm the m3 gets great mpg? Any thoughts? Btw, this is a 2001 Laguna seca blue coupe and I adore it.

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Posts: 10
Registered: May 2001

posted 10-04-2001 07:15 PM            

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Yes... cruising speed was nearly the same. A little slower in VA (no radar detectors allowed) but 80-90 most of the way. I'm still seeing improvements in mileage over the life of the car. My overall MPG average is now 21.68 (now at just over 11K miles). LSB here in Charlotte... thanks for the replys!

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