E39 real world economy

Well, I eventually took it on a long run from Aberdeen to Wiltshire and back mainly on motorways (I love cruise control). With 2 adults, 3 small kids and a boot full of **** it averaged 31 mpg on the computer, so similar to spikes typical consumption.

Not quite the 38 for country driving in the manual but I thought that was optimistic anyway. If I sat at 60 all the way it would probably do 35. Still, I would rather pay for the extra fuel than lose the years off my life that would occur with driving 3 kids for any longer than is necessary

Cheers

Stone

91 525i SE man (Sold - broke my heart)

97 528i SE man

Country road driving (counts as my urban commute) with a lot of gear changes and right foot action yields 23.7 on the computer - A/C is on most of the time too. I don't think that's too bad in the grand scheme of things.

Other thing is the kids insist on the windows being open on most short (<15mile) journeys so that will probably knock a fair bit off the fuel economy as well.

Stone

E39 97' 528i SE Man

Nick_Baldev wrote: my e39 520i drinks petrol. i get about 18-21mpg, that is all town driving though.how do you lot manage good economy, any tips you can pass on??

With town driving their isn't a great deal you can do to improve the economy. My 328 gets similar MPG driving around town. 

Over the past 15k miles the 523i has averaged a nice round 34mpg on the obc. 

I have a 40 mile round trip commute, half and half main road and town and then a lot of longer open road runs at weekends, not too many cold start/short runs.  Use the Cruise a lot and it seems to make a difference and don't use the climate that much.  I've cross checked the obc with brimming the tank and its reasonably accurate in my case, within 1mpg.  With the decent sized tank I usually get 550-570 miles from a tank of regular unleaded. 

1998 540i Auto

I looked and myt current average is 23.7 That's my daily commute (60miles) with mainly motorway plus a few miles of country roads to blat - I drive reasonalbe fast.

Best - 34.6 run to Scotland

Worst - 13.7 - lighning run down to southampton via the A32!