What would be the fastest?

[Ferrer]

Just remember that the most powerful equipment in a car it's the driver.

True, but it needs good accesories...

[Clivey]

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.

[henk4]

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.

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.

[f6fhellcat13]

What do people think is, aside from BMW cheating, the major flaw in the test that overly punishes/rewards those car?

[henk4]

What do people think is, aside from BMW cheating, the major flaw in the test that overly punishes/rewards those car?

the major flaw in the car tests is that the testers are basically male persons in the age of 25-35 with a high testosterone level, with no family and purely see the car as a single seater for the driver only.

[Ferrer]

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.

[henk4]

Cheating or not, it's hard to fault a BMWs mechanical prowess.

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.

[ruim20]

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.

Could you post the link directly to the article, i browsed around but couldn't find it, thanks!

[Clivey]

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.

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.

[Ferrer]

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.

Even so, it's hard to fault the BMW in real life.

Could you post the link directly to the article, i browsed around but couldn't find it, thanks!

There you go.

Pruebas De Consumo | Curvas enlazadas

14 cars tested so far.

[henk4]

Even so, it's hard to fault the BMW in real life.

to the contrary, it is quite easy, it has no real comfort...

[Ferrer]

to the contrary, it is quite easy, it has no real comfort...

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.

[henk4]

Pruebas De Consumo | Curvas enlazadas

14 cars tested so far.

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.

[Ferrer]

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.

Actually they use the extraurban figure (not limited to a constant speed AFAIK) because he tests the cars outside cities, on roads and motorways.

[henk4]

Actually they use the extraurban figure (not limited to a constant speed AFAIK) because he tests the cars outside cities, on roads and motorways.

with average speeds up to 108-110 kph, which is much higher than the ECE cycle AFAIK.