E39 525i Consumption

I was having another think about this.

You know the fuel in America has a lower octane rating that we have here or something similar, as they always mention that power is less on cars when run on limpwristed American fuel.

As yours is a Japanese import is it designed to run on a different grade of fuel? 

If you are using ordinary 95 octane unleaded might you get lower mpg if the engine was meant to be running on higher octane stuff and the engine can't adjust itself for a reason unknown to me and gives you lower mpg?

Killian,

next time, rather than relying on the OBC to tell you your mpg. Work it out the old fasioned way first

Ever heard the saying:

To err is human but to completely f**k something up requires a computer.

Peter Fenwick wrote: To err is human but to completely f**k something up requires a computer.

Nah, a person will do just as good a job as a computer to f**k something up.  You obviously haven't worked with some of my colleagues!

Nigel wrote: My OBC says I average 34.8 with the 2.8. The best I've ever obtained was 39.2 on a run to essex.

That's very good Nigel.  My E39 with the 2.5 (auto) would only average somewhere between 29 and 31 from memory with 39.something recorded on a run (using VPower) from Glasgow Airport to Perth. 

Peter Fenwick wrote: That's because Nigel is an old man and drives everywhere at 35 mph

Ah, thanks for clearing that one up Peter.

It's more likely that I'm almost always on the "extra urban" side of things.

I rarely use it around town, my wife and daughter both have the smart for two city cars now, the wifes being the soft top, and they are so much fun to drive around town I usually nick one of those.