[Spoonhead]

Originally Posted by TwfYong

So, I've done 26000 miles as of today. My overall MPG since I got the car last December is 61.4. How is everyone else doing?

Not enough motorway driving for me to ever get into the higher numbers, but for around town and A road driving not too bad

[RWD]

Originally Posted by TwfYong

So, I've done 26000 miles as of today. My overall MPG since I got the car last December is 61.4. How is everyone else doing?

Thats good going

Just done over 24k and my overall MPG is running at 59

[rich1068]

Idiots at the dealers reset my figures so I thought I'd have play today. On the trip back from Grimsby to Doncaster (A180, M180) I averaged 47mpg in my non-ED 320d with the cruise set at 70mph. Christ it was tiresome. Stopped for a wee at the services and then off to Sheffield (M18, M1) Set the cruise to 85 Better!

[LevRiviera]

Originally Posted by TwfYong

So, I've done 26000 miles as of today. My overall MPG since I got the car last December is 61.4. How is everyone else doing?

Almost 14,000 since March and 61.54 based on calculation of odometer reading divided by litres purchased, converted to gallons.

Even stepped up the cruise from 65MPH to 70 MPH (by cruise display) wreckless devil that I am.

[AGL]

2700 miles and an avg of 49.5!

Although, most of that is pootling about town, and the last tank featured a house move and about 11 round trips within a city, ferrying stuff about.

Will do 74mpg on the A1, just I never get on the road as much as I used to.

[Lightsab3r]

Good effort guys. I didn't think I was doing that well but seems I'm maxing out the combined MPG

Bad news is that someone keyed my car last night...it's all the way from the back of the front door to the front mirror

[kiforrest]

Out of interest anyone put a tuning box on their 320ED. Chap at another company I deal with has an E90 320ED and took me out in it with a DTUK box on it (CRD-T) or something like - went like stink and he reckoned was getting slightly better mpg too i.e. 56mpg before and 61mpg after.

Not wholly convinced yet as I have had remaps in the past after owning the car for 18 months to make it feel like a new one. However, on a company car wouldn't do it - a tuning box may be an option though?

Any opinions - or a definite steer well clear?

Cheers

[AGL]

Anyone else's Bluetooth need re-setting every 4 weeks? Poxy thing.

[paulf]

Originally Posted by AGL

Anyone else's Bluetooth need re-setting every 4 weeks? Poxy thing.

Once in a blue moon it doesnt connect my phone - after the missus has used the car with her phone paired. Reboot my phone and all back to normal

[Spoonhead]

Originally Posted by AGL

Anyone else's Bluetooth need re-setting every 4 weeks? Poxy thing.

Never. Only ever paired with mine so but it's been faultless so far. (queue it going wrong next week )

Gazza

[R80TER]

7000 miles in and i am ONLY averaging 49.5mpg...

[flying_scotsman]

Originally Posted by R80TER

7000 miles in and i am ONLY averaging 49.5mpg...

I am at 47.9mpg and I drive across London every day!! You must have a heavy right foot or a body in the boot

[Tommyg]

Originally Posted by gazzared_typer

Not enough motorway driving for me to ever get into the higher numbers, but for around town and A road driving not too bad

14,400 for me at 59.95. Longer trips have started coming in at over 70mpg now. Was struggling to get over 62 to begin with. Engine seems to have settled down quite nicely now. Same thing happened in my last car, a 2007Jag 2.2d although only averaged 46mpg in that over 3 years.
No matter how I drive I can't quite seem to match the manufacturers recommend combined figure over time.

[flying_scotsman]

Anyone got past 900 miles on one tank yet and come close to the magic 1000 then??

[Lightsab3r]

Originally Posted by flying_scotsman

Anyone got past 900 miles on one tank yet and come close to the magic 1000 then??

Hiya,

Yup, I've squeezed out 925 miles in it until I was too scared not to fill up!

[flying_scotsman]

Still at 720miles to the tank , on my long journeys I get board and put the foot down!!

[Lightsab3r]

I managed to get my range + miles travelled on the tank = 1035 earlier this week Drove from Leeds to Stratford, Stratford to Oxford, Oxford to Chertsey and then back to Leeds

[kiforrest]

Originally Posted by kiforrest

Don't know yet. Final order only went in 15 minutes ago.

The moment I hear I will post up

Cheers

Well she's here. Got her on the 5th April at noon, the Passat CC was loaded on to a flat loader with nigh 97k on the clock, the most miles I have done in any car. Strangest thing but once on the flat loader you could see the scars of those 97k miles, stone scars everywhere and made the decision for me that I would never buy a new car with my own money again - seeing that is just too painful when you have parted with the folding yourself. It was a good car, but having stepped out of one new (ish) 2.0 turbo diesel with 168BHP and 258lb/ft torque, I thought I was in a good position to comment on the merits and inevitable bugbears of another with 163BHP and 280lb/ft torque - 2 more gears and a loss of weight.

Pics to follow as I should have taken pics when I got her and the sun was shining, its been drizzly since. I love the colour mineral white and with the Xenons am very pleased with the front end look .


I’ve been looking forward to getting behind the wheel of an F30 320d since the launch, when the motoring press were making their judgments on the new 3. I had been to a dealer and tried a 5 with/without the VDC and in the end changed the order and went with it - 50% of me telling me that I would regret not getting it.

Without pics the car I have is a F30 320d ED (16" alloys), in Mineral White with the standard cloth trim. Not to everyone’s taste, but personally as resale is not an issue and with the kids older I am not paying tax on leather to be cold in the winter and too hot in the summer - I have had 10 plus years of that. Other options are as previously stated but I added M Sport adaptive suspension too

Anyway on with the drive. The seat is a familiar place, in fact the seat feels a bit better to my butt, slightly more refined and comfy, but same support and adjustments for position, as the E90/1. Everything in the cabin feels right and well placed, the controversial screen is in my view spot on, where it should be, and inclined to the driver. Starting the engine and driving off was surprisingly noisy, not the gruff sound of the normal diesel, more a rattle like a poorly petrol. Outside the engine noise is lower, quieter and smoother than the Passat CC. In the car though it is noisier, like the engine is pressed too close to the bulkhead. One can only assume this is the engine placement, canted back as it is in a BMW compared to a VW for ideal weight distribution. The stereo (HK is ace) removes the noise and once the engine is warmed through it almost goes, but is an ever present around town. On the motorway it cannot be heard at all. The engine noise at cold/round town and low speed motoring is one small blot on the copy book, but I am beginning to like that too which is odd. Love this car....

The gearbox is much better than the DSG, sweet and near silent, the gearbox just blurring any feeling of changes. The steering was quite light, compared to my old BMW, but very precise, more precise in mid position than any car I have driven outside of dedicated sport cars. Brakes as you expect from BMW, powerful and well weighted, to the point you just don’t notice them, like most BMWs I’ve driven. Much more progressive than the VW stoppers!

As I got going on the way home from the office, it all felt so good I almost failed to give the driving feel any attention, as it felt so natural. The suspension on the 16” efficiency none RFTs was in a different league to any car I’ve recently driven. None of the niggles of the F10/11 cars I tried just after their launch. It took me back to the brand new 528i E39 my dad got in 98, yes nearly that good. Top marks for a good start.

Once on the motorway, a variety of conditions, hills, sweeping curves and different surfaces, all handled without fuss and drama, car holds a very precise line, no influences coming back from the road through the steering. No additional road noise from differing road surfaces could wither which has been an issue I have read from larger wheeled F30's. The only real negative about the car for me, at this point was that the steering had lost some of the magic of the E90. I can't quite put my finger on it, when driving 'normally' the F30 is perfect, but start to press on and the E90/E87 have a 'feel' about them which the newer car does not quite have.

I got home after a 42 mile trip (with 42mpg on the OBC) which was impressive since the car had now only done 49 miles in total. The economy is already bettering the Passat CC. I decided to then take her out over the backroads near home which I know like the back of my hand. Roads with all sorts of contours, poor surfaces and a lot of patching, plus some pretty poor repairs through some of the villages. Very impressed with the car and how it copes, better than the VW, the best BMW I’ve ever driven along this section of road for a mixture of handling and poise. At first I thought it was a tad bouncy but flicking it into sport sorted that out. In fact that in itself was a revelation! The car starts in Eco Pro mode as standard and felt about the same pace wise as the VW, but with a ride that was 1000 times better. The handling was also far more superior with a balance that the nose heavy tugger that was the VW could only dream of. In Eco Pro mode the car did not have the extra urge I was expecting but felt soft everywhere, but on the plus side the car was telling me I was averaging 84mpg with cruise on a steady 75mpg on the motorway (constant for 8 miles).

The flick to sport transformed the car, the throttle response became sharper with slabs of torque appearing with a flex of the toes, the 'bounciness' in the ride disappeared and was replaced with a control I expect in a Boxster S (another previous steer), but with the ride comfort (at this pace) hardly lessened. The car kept wanting to pull over 3.5k RPM (which I am sticking too for the running in), so I flicked the up lever beside the wheel instinctively. No moving the gear stick into manual mode, the paddles just take over, again it just felt right. So here I am moving at some pace down a favourite road, the car feels shrink wrapped round me showing a balance and poise I would have never expected in a 4 door eco family saloon. It feels on its tippy toes in the same way the E46 M3 did on this road, but without reacting to the pot holes and tram lines with crashing and violent tugs at the wheel. The 16" wheels also start to move about on the road without having to reach speeds that would kill you as you would on the massive rubber that is the norm today The car really is very very good!

So I up the pace and ante further still (staying within running in limits) as there are some interesting bends and twisty sections of road ahead. The car's balance and precision on its line is amazing! The suspension is set perfectly to blend the comfort with an edge of sportiness. This car’s balance and agility - the dynamics are excellent.

Inside the car, what can I say, the heater/air con is miles better than the VW, the sat nav is far more responsive (speed) than the touch screen in the VW (although not quite as intuitive. One bug bear that niggles is the inability to fast forward and rewind through audio books (on the iPhone) plugged in to the media snap in. Press and hold fast forward and it just jumps forward to the next chapter . Sad I know but one has to fill the hours in on the motorway. The integration with the iPhone is excellent with pre conditioning, telling you how may miles you have done and how much fuel is left in the car. You can also find your car, open it, close it and flash lights/sound horn if its lost in a multi storey car park


I took the car home again to try some speed bumps. The car goes over the speed bumps in the strangest way, hard to describe, but seems far too bouncy for the ride and control you get out on the road. I’m sure this is the ‘odd ball’ from how BMW have tuned the suspension in such a fine way, for a blend of comfort and decent control. Sport makes it too hard for this work, comfort is too bouncy. Only for speed bumps - rest of the time it is nigh on a perfect compromise

My conclusion. This car is a march forward for BMW. I know the 328i in M Sport trim with the adaptive suspension (if I did less than 15k miles per year) would be the nigh on perfect car for me, coupled with the sport auto to get the paddles and sharper gear change option. VDC to get the firmer control for the faster point to point driving, but with the comfort mode when just driving around, with the flow. The 328i according to some test drives is more economic than a 335d - food for thought

BMW have moved the F30 on with such a ‘leap’ from the E90. I never seen such a transformation in any model change. The F10 5-series was a decent move forward, but the 3-series even more so.

Great car. Pics to follow together with further thoughts as the miles roll by and she is run in. I have found a replacement to the E39

[RWD]

Nice write up kiforrest and perfectly timed as I am currently thinking about replacing my e90 320d ed model with the equivalent f30.

I am currently test driving the Merc C Class 220 cdi as a potential replacement, and what can I say, poor engine, poor handling, poor brakes and less frugal. It just cant keep the power down and on paper has more horse power - explains. The only plus point being the soft suspension that absorbs the bumps (even in sport spec). Just goes to show how far off the benchmark Mercedes really are when comparing these 2 models.

I think an Audi A4 would give the C class a run for its money.

I look forward to seeing the pics.

[jawivana]

so i just purchased a 2010 320ED with 99K miles on the clock and I reading about timing chain failures on the N47 engine. From what i understand my car has the same engine , is the 320ED variant part of the affected cars with the timing chain issue??
Thanks!

[jawivana]

so i just purchased a 2010 320ED with 99K miles on the clock and I reading about timing chain failures on the N47 engine. From what i understand my car has the same engine , is the 320ED variant part of the affected cars with the timing chain issue??
Thanks!

[jawivana]

any insight on this issue ?