I think the Alpina D3 BiTurbo would cut the best balance between pace and fuel economy. Those twin-turbo diesels really are incredible!
If you had to stick to speed limits though, the BMW 520d could potentially give you 1,000+ miles out of a tank of fuel...and you'd be comfortable doing it.
"This is hardcore." - Evo's John Barker on the TVR Tuscan S
Beware of the BMW ECE mileage figures. A Dutch investigation found out that they used special tyres to achieve those, which were never available to the consumer in the street. They will do everything to cock up the ECE figures and hence the CO2 emission fiigures to please the authorities.
The same research also compared actual mileage figures with officially quoted ones. It comes as no surprise that the Prius and the Honda Hybrid, but also the small cars like the Smart or the C1, scored 40-50% higher than they should. And for the record, for my car the figure was 18% above the official one (7.3 l/100km vs 6.2) while my average is 10% up, (6.8).
Also interesting, the ECE mileage for the 599GTB is 21.3l /100, observed mileage 31.....
The figures for the BMW 5-series officially hover around 6.1-6.3, and in reality they are about 7.1.-7.4, so very much comparable to what I observe for my car.
Last edited by henk4; 08-01-2010 at 11:30 PM.
"I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting, but it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously." Douglas Adams
What do people think is, aside from BMW cheating, the major flaw in the test that overly punishes/rewards those car?
"Kimi, can you improve on your [race] finish?"
"No. My Finnish is fine; I am from Finland. Do you have any water?"
"I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting, but it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously." Douglas Adams
Cheating or not, it's hard to fault a BMWs mechanical prowess.
However, apparently the more spectacular the figure is, the more it tends to stray from reality. At km77.com there's a very interesting series of articles comparing several cars fuel consumption, if anyone is interested. Only in Spanish though.
Lack of charisma can be fatal.
Visca Catalunya!
as in our country some car related taxes or based on the level of CO2 emissions, I don't care about the prowess, I want them to use the real figures and not the fabricated artifical ones, which cannot be reproduced, because the cars are not equipped with the means to do so.
"I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting, but it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously." Douglas Adams
To be honest though, I'd rather them do everything they can to reduce the CO2 emissions for the tests, because (at least in the UK) road tax is skyrocketing for most new performance cars. It's £435 a year to tax a 350Z, even if you're only doing 6,000 miles. That's before you pay for fuel, tyres, insurance etc. etc.
"This is hardcore." - Evo's John Barker on the TVR Tuscan S
Even so, it's hard to fault the BMW in real life.
There you go.
Pruebas De Consumo | Curvas enlazadas
14 cars tested so far.
Lack of charisma can be fatal.
Visca Catalunya!
It has other qualities, and if you stick to standard suspension and wheels it is not so bad. However, if all you care about is going comfortably from A to B, regardless of everything else; like speed, fuel consumption, handling or quality amongst other; yes there are indeed better option out there.
Lack of charisma can be fatal.
Visca Catalunya!
That's an interesting link, but there is one flaw, they do not mention the ECE mileage, but just the part that is measured a 90 kph at constant speed, and is therefore ridiculously low. Also nice to see that the PSA diesels (Ford) are more frugal than the VAG stuff, even when fitted with this DSG gearbox.
"I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting, but it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously." Douglas Adams
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