[Fox530]

Hi there,

Has anyone here got an Efficient Dynamics 330i with a manual box?

If so, what sort of fuel economy are you finding its delivering on a long Motorway run, and around town?

I currently drive an E39 530i which delivers 19-22mpg on my typical town usage, 25ish on a cross-country hoon but a solid 34-38mpg on long motorway drives with the cruise set to 70 (I like to save my hoonage for the A roads, Motorway drives are for relaxing with the music on). My longterm average split 30/70 town/Motorway is 26mpg.

I'm looking to replace it with either an E92 330i or 335i at some point this year, and I'm interested as to how each would compare with what I currently have. I also drive an LCI E60 525i and interestingly this appears to be about 15-20% more economical than my 530i. I'm wondering if the same might apply to a 330i.

On paper the 330i and 335i are some 9mpg apart combined.

Whats it like in the real world? If the 330i is a useful amount more economical than a 335i then it becomes an interesting choice - in todays 320d obsessed times the appeal of a 272bhp Straight Six offering excellent economy is quite high.

But if it drinks as much as a 335i, then it becomes pointless and a 335i it must be..

Thanks!

[Fox530]

I should probably have posted this in the UK General section. Whoops!

[reidtastic]

I've got a non Ed 330i and roughly see 17-23 about town I drove to York and averaged 35 and wasn't hanging about ! On a trip to peebles which has a lot of twistys and 50-60 driving I'm about 37mpg, so not to bad ! Put your foot down though and you will empty the 63 liter tank in about 210 miles

[briers]

I love the 330i engine and i know it isn't truly applicable to your request but the ED 330i i drove which was an auto had no issues averaging low 30's and was capable high 30's on a run.

Loved the engine, the economy and emissions make it a great package considering it's power. If you can find the right one with a manual box, get it. Most are auto's which is almost a crime with that engine.

[mrwindymiller]

Hi, I moved from a manual E39 530i sport to a manual 330i non ED and have noticed quite a difference in the MPG.
On a good run the E39 would manage around 32ish depending on how much was motorway or A road, the E90 manages 37-38 on a similar journey.
Just chugging around doing the daily short runs the E39 was about 24 and the E90 about 28.

I do find the E90 to have a far more modern feel to it, the engine is far smoother, it feels more agile especally on A and B roads and is equally as quiet on the motorway. Having said this the E39 was getting on a bit with 130,000 miles on the clock.
However, I do feel the E39 was screwed together better and used better trim materials. Time will tell.

[ALF_E90]

I have a 2007 330i Touring which is ED but pre-facelift (quoted 179 g/km and 38mpg combined). It is an auto but a manual ought to be better in the real world!

I never get less than 23ish mpg even on a short town trip where it barely warms up - typical average is 33mpg for a mix of spirited driving and motorways. I got an average of 30 for a commute to central London when the traffic was (relatively) quiet over Christmas. Long trips at an indicated 85 can see 36mpg averages, which I think is amazing for this sort of car. I also have telematics kit on the car that measures fuel use and tracks actual mileage and BMW's reporting of both is unusually accurate.

In my case I do a lot of business miles and compromised with the auto box (which, partly because of the paddle over-ride is much better than expected) but I can't bear 4-pot turbo engines and don't like diesels. That left me just with cars using this engine to consider, really - no one else gets close to this economy/CO2 with a 3-litre 6 cylinder petrol engine in a decent sized car.

[Fox530]

Great info so far, thanks guys.

I'm pretty similar to you Alf in that I am no fan of 4 cylinder or diesel engines. It has to 6 cylinder petrol engine.

On paper the 330i is considerably more economical than a 335i and the 335i is considerably faster than a 330i meaning the pro's and cons equalise making it a hard decision. I wanted to check that in reality the fuel consumption of the two cars wasnt much closer together, which would make the 335i a no brainer.

Do I keep my existing fuel bills and gain a massive increase in performance with a 335i, or do I reduce my existing fuel bills and gain a marginal increase in performance with a 330i, I guess that a question only I can answer, and it'll become easier with access to more real world reports.

The problem I find is that a lot of people drive everywhere really hard. This is great but it makes the consumption figures they post meaningless. I couldnt care less how much fuel my car uses when I'm out having a hoon, but when I'm just driving normally its quite nice to acheive low consumption from large engines.

I fear for my license too much do go everywhere at 85+ on the Motorway, so it's cruise on at 70 with the loud pedal saved for once I've turned off

[ALF_E90]

I consider myself a keen driver but do a lot of long journeys and very little town driving or short journeys, as a result I tend to wince at other people's reported mpg's on forums!

I have a friend with a 335i Touring M Sport - it is now chipped and modded to hell but before he did that I had a run in it and it was vastly faster than mine particularly at low/medium revs. I passengered so can't say about lag but it must have some - I'll trade some performance for the instant response and revviness of a NA engine personally.

335's do seem quite a bit worse on economy, but then ED 330's have electric steering which is probably the car's worst feature. Another consideration is longer term running costs - turbo replacement is an engine-out job on a 335 and they do fail, some did on press cars at very low miles. The one turbo car I did run had some turbo issues - it was only a £60 valve but the dealer wanted to do a £2k turbo swap until I investigated it further

[Fox530]

Thanks for the input - really useful.

Is the 330i still what could be considered a genuinelly 'fast' car? 0-60 appears to be listed as 5.9 seconds - my 530i is 6.7 and I fancy an upgrade from that. I also drive a Z4 3.0i from time to time, this is 5.7 seconds and it's this level of performance I would be happy with.

Reliablity I'm not sure is a concern. I consider both 335i and 330i to be a significant risk reliability wise and consequently I'll not be touching one without without a decent warranty - probably the BMW one.

[ALF_E90]

What do you think is a risk on the 330? I am pondering a warranty but have generally chosen/serviced carefully with no warranty to date. A bigger NA engine ought to be low risk. Warrenties are a partial solution but is it far nicer for things not to break in the first place!!

I look at 0-100 times when considering performance - 0-60's are a bit of a weird comparison and often down to gearing and the first few metres off the line. Two cars with similar 0-60 times can be seconds apart by 100. I think the 330 is around 15 seconds to 100, which makes it the same as my 156GTA and what I consider quite a quick car. Around 18 seconds to 100 seems to be my threshold for just not seeming quick enough for overtaking comfortably.

Until the recent mega hatches like the Focus RS and Meganes, 15 seconds to 100 is still ahead of any hot hatches like a Focus ST or even Golf R32.

The 335 is way quicker again and must be putting out more horses than BMW suggest.

[Fox530]

The risk I perceive on the N53 engined 330i are the high pressure fuel pump and direct injection system. My father has a 2007 LCI E60 with the same engine and it's just dropped a £1500 bill on him. So for peace of mind I'll be looking for the BMW warranty.

I don't think it's the low risk proposition my M54 engine was (Mind you thats hardly cheap to keep fixing).

Is your 330i an N52 or an N53?

[ALF_E90]

No idea, I'm still new to this BMW lark (I'm an Alfa fan really, but theit V6's are pretty horrible in economy terms!). It is a Dec 2007 model with Efficient Dynamics but pre facelift. It is only just out of warranty and low miles so I am considering the BMW warranty. Generic third party ones seem to have more get-out clauses.

I have a total of 6 years and 150k miles in Alfa V6's with no trouble, and did 100k in a VAG V6 again without trouble, I would hope the BMW's straight 6 would be alright as it only has 20k up.

[Fox530]

Yours sounds like a 272bhp N53 engine then. I'd personally want the BMW warranty, especially if your car is low mileage. I think it's only about £540 with zero excess and BMW Emergency Service included.

[beemerbird]

Originally Posted by Fox530

Is the 330i still what could be considered a genuinelly 'fast' car? 0-60 appears to be listed as 5.9 seconds - my 530i is 6.7 and I fancy an upgrade from that. I also drive a Z4 3.0i from time to time, this is 5.7 seconds and it's this level of performance I would be happy with.

Reliablity I'm not sure is a concern. I consider both 335i and 330i to be a significant risk reliability wise and consequently I'll not be touching one without without a decent warranty - probably the BMW one.

Personally I wouldn't consider it a genuinely 'fast' car per se, more a quick car. I had a new E90 330i M sport on an '06 plate (build date of late 2005) and it was auto, so options to play in a sort of manual mode. I found when out on a country run, I was always wanting for that bit more bhp but only really thought that when hooning through North yorks tbh, everyday was fine. Lovely smooth engine obviously and I never bettered more than 30 mpg but I always cruise 85-90 on the motorway. My daily commute of 22 miles mainly dual carriageway and constantly moving traffic was always around the 26 mpg mark. Obvioulsy technology has moved on since then and I never bother about mpg, just drive the car tbh. Super unleaded did give 1 or 2 mpg better actually.

Engines appear to generally sound ie. the N/A six pot petrols but I'd always have a warranty for piece of mind.

[RichJ]

I have and ed 330i auto, paddles make a nice change! Great all rounder and plenty powerful enough and quick enough for my needs and taking into account overall running costs. Urban i average around 28 and on runs 35 plus. Currently getting around 380-400 miles per tank. Car is transformed since putting on non runflat conti 5p's!

[ASR1]

Pre-ED 330i

Urban: 23 - 28mpg
Motorway/A-roads: 34-38mpg

My old 535d only did 26 mpg / 33 mpg in comparison

[bandos]

2006 330i auto

I achieve 32MPG according to my computer: 70% motorway / 30% town.

Economy is crap around town, pretty good on motorway.

[nicko44]

Originally Posted by ASR1

Pre-ED 330i

Urban: 23 - 28mpg
Motorway/A-roads: 34-38mpg

My old 535d only did 26 mpg / 33 mpg in comparison

My Pre-ED 330i E92 SE Auto ( N52 272hp engine - build date June 07) did more or less exactly as shown in the post above.

My current car, a Pre-ED E92 335i M Sport manual (N54 306hp engine - build date July 07) does on average about 5 mpg worse. So I am now getting at best 33 to 34 mpg on a long motorway/A road only trip with no significant time in towns and this drops to 24 to 25 mpg when the route involves London. Urban only will be 18 to 20 mpg.

My driving style sounds very similar to the OP. On the M25, with speed cameras over almost every bridge, I set cruise control at around 72mph. I save my fun times for dual carriageways and empty country A and B roads that I know well, and at really light traffic times like early morning.

On the question on whether the 330i could be considered a fast car, I agree with the other posts. I would say the 330i is quick, but not fast in the same way the 335i is. My 330i was remapped by Evolve, taking the BHP up from 268 (272hp) to around 281 BHP. This made it quicker to the extent that the performance to 100mph was identical to my daughter's E91 335d (neck and neck all the way). Her car was over 100kg heavier than mine, and I always run V Power, she uses standard unleaded. But the 335i is much more lively low down and in the mid range thanks to its twin turbos. The N52 engine IMO is smoother, revs much more freely to 7000rpm, and is generally considered much less trouble free than the N54 engine.

If you have been used to 0-62 times around 6.7 seconds, you will certainly enjoy the 6.0 seconds on the 330i manual, but I think you would always regret not going all the way to the 335i.

So it is a matter of trade-offs all the way, only you can decide.

[nicko44]

Originally Posted by nicko44

I always run V Power, she uses standard unleaded. .

oops!....................what I meant to say was that she uses standard diesel, as opposed to V Power diesel.

If she had been using standard unleaded in her 335d, then I would expect even a Skoda would have been able to keep up!

[Fox530]

Thats really useful. Thanks. Interesting you say how the 330i kept up with the 335d until 100mph. Kinda removes the 335d from my list - I'd want considerably benefits to put up with that diesel noise, diesely power delivery and autobox.

So, if you were to do 150 miles on the Motorway with the cruise at 72 you'd get about 34mpg in the 335i?

On paper the 335i appears to be almost identical ecnomy wise to my M54 based 530i.

[zltm089]

335i drinks like a bitch...mine does!....town driving 17 mpg circa....

To be considered a "fast" car, these days you need at least 350bhp and 0-60 time of under 5 seconds...

some common issues with 335i ...

injectors (carbonisation etc), HPFP, vanos, and shitty run flats....

If I had to chose between 330 and 335 ....gota be 335 all day longgggggg.....

forget about mpg and leather bluetooth options....get the 335 engine!...

[nicko44]

Originally Posted by Fox530

So, if you were to do 150 miles on the Motorway with the cruise at 72 you'd get about 34mpg in the 335i?

Yes, if I reset the OBC just as I get on to the motorway, and if I keep the car on cruise at 72, then the OBC will show around 35 mpg for as long as I can keep going at this speed. On my car the OBC is about 1 mpg optimistic, so a brim to brim check will bring this down to about 34 mpg.

Don't forget my car is pre ED. I'm sure the latest N55 engine version, in combination with ED, would be quite a lot more economical, especially if you were to get the DCT version with its high 7th gear.

I agree with the comments in the last post about the 335i. I know there can be problems with the N54 engine, and I am praying I don't encounter them. I've taken out a 3 year third party warranty just in case.

With regard to the comments about the RFT's I don't find the standard Bridgestones too bad, apart from the dreadful tramlining. However, I am switching to non-RFT Continental 5P's next week and I know this will improve the ride and wet weather behaviour considerably without hopefully damaging the dynamics. I put 17" Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetrics on my previous 330i SE, and whilst these gave a really quiet boulevard ride and amazing wet weather grip, they did result in slightly wallowy behaviour. I'm hoping the Conti's will be better, having seen glowing reports on this forum.