RS4 beats M3, Autocar 18 July

No larzy, that reading was taken over around a 3 mile slog through rush hour dublin traffic one night when it literally took me 15 mintues to get approx 500 yards from the gates of the office.  I knew it was going to be a doozy so I reset the mpg but not the odo.  It took me around 1.5 hours to get from harcourt street to drumcondra.  An extreme situation I grant you, but 11mpg is not a ridiculous figure given the right conditions.

The problem with these guys is that quotes like this get taken as gospel......people will be going around now saying stuff like, "oh I heard the new M3 only gets 11mpg"

OMG!!!! Journalists-in-flog-a-car-as-hard-as-you-can-but-only-get-11 mpg-shocker!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am actually shocked the pu**ies didn't manage to get it under 11!!

Alex, I don't doubt the veracity of your quote but that comment about the zonda is absolute and total bullsh1t, no doubt about it.

These guys took the car, ragged the crap out of it, probably powersliding the thing all over the place, revving it to 8200 rpm in every gear available and then complain about mpg?????  IS this what passes for motoring journalism these days?

I frequently get 8-9mpg at mondello, often get low teens  around town and this is what happens when I am stuck in traffic for a while:

I suspect most owners will get far more than 11mpg. EVO magazine got the car to evalute it's performance so it will have been driven very hard. I could get my 530 to well under 20mpg easilly if I drove the nuts of it, however in reality I rarely see less than 25mpg, because most of the time I don't get the chance to drive it like that.

Petrol is the one thing that is still relatively cheap here in Ireland!

Sporty1's point on consumption seems likely; you may well average 11mpg for the first few weeks but it's bound to improve with more sensible, everyday, driving.

635CSi wrote: (Peter Fenwick wrote: How? the original M3 had a straight 4. Just because the last two incarnations had a straight 6 doesn't mean that it has to stay that way.) That's really my point, the amount of cylinders has doubled since the original. Also, I would have thought having a big V8 under the bonnet would make it less nimble than the E30 and more 'nose heavy'. (Sporty1 wrote: The V8 engine is lighter and more powerfull than the outgoing straight 6 so that can't be all bad.......... The 11mpg's however is just shocking........may not be regarded as a supercar, but certainly has supercar thirst.) That's part of my point again, 11 mpg is quite frankly shocking!

Well the v8 car should have less weight in the nose as a V8 is not as long as a straight six, its lighter, so as long as it's not like an old school Audi and mounted on the front grill balance shouldn't be a problem.

At Bruntingthorpe a few years ago my SE's comsumption dropped down to 15-16mpg's and I doubt Evo mag were were driving like my gran.

635CSi wrote: In my opinion it was a big mistake fitting it with a V8, it's moving the M3 too far away from it's heritage.

The V8 engine is lighter and more powerfull than the outgoing straight 6 so that can't be all bad..........

The 11mpg's however is just shocking........may not be regarded as a supercar, but certainly has supercar thirst.