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M135i real world fuel economy

30K views 93 replies 34 participants last post by  MattParker 
#1 ·
What MPG and miles per tank are M135i owners achieving?

Anywhere near BMW's claims?
 
#52 ·
Right, lets clear some things up.

Ron is resistance to pre-ignition (commonly referred to as knocking or pinking), it has nothing to do with energy content or 'quality'. Shell 95 and 98 (for example) both meet the same British Standard quality.

If your car is mapped for 95 Ron, you will get no performance benefit by putting 98 in it. None.

If your car is mapped for 98 Ron and you fill it with 95, the engine may produce less power than it could, if it starts to pink (which is likely). The ECU (via knock sensor) will retard the ignition until the pinking stops. This obviously costs you performance. Once your car has become accustomed to 95, it will take a few tanks to re-adjust to 98 again.

Pinking can damage your engine, and is more likely to occur in higher ambient temperatures. I would run any turbo car mapped for 98 exclusively on 98, especially in the warmer summer months.
 
#53 ·
It's not just about the power the posh fuel gives you, it's generally supposed to be better for your engine, Audi FSIs particularly are supposed to get quite clogged with crap using regular, I obviously don't know the extent of the truth in it, but if you're happy using V power then to me it's not wasting your money!
 
#54 ·
marco_polo said:
Right, lets clear some things up.

Ron is resistance to pre-ignition (commonly referred to as knocking or pinking), it has nothing to do with energy content or 'quality'. Shell 95 and 98 (for example) both meet the same British Standard quality.

If your car is mapped for 95 Ron, you will get no performance benefit by putting 98 in it. None.

If your car is mapped for 98 Ron and you fill it with 95, the engine may produce less power than it could, if it starts to pink (which is likely). The ECU (via knock sensor) will retard the ignition until the pinking stops. This obviously costs you performance. Once your car has become accustomed to 95, it will take a few tanks to re-adjust to 98 again.

Pinking can damage your engine, and is more likely to occur in higher ambient temperatures. I would run any turbo car mapped for 98 exclusively on 98, especially in the warmer summer months.
So the orignal question was is the M135i mapped for 98 Ron?

but

i thought a modern engine detected and mapped for the RON currently in i.e.. it would stop pinking before it happened at the cost of performance.
 
#56 ·
Have to admit now I have got used to the way eco-pro works as much as i dislike driving in that mode it is incredible the fuel you can save! On my boring little commute, i will from now just use this. I'll save the Sport/ Sport+ now for spirited drives, feels like you can appreciate it more. When i first picked up the car I thought id never use Eco mode to be honest but it will save a few pennies so would be silly not to exploit it i think. On a normal journey to work in sport, but not driving hard at all (infact as softly as possible) because its such a short journey havent the time to warm it up, I was achieving 21mpg. Now the same journey in EcoPro im getting 31mpg, this is just a 7 mile trip though and at the weekends i tend to drive it a bit harder but this weekend im taking a long trip up to Lincs so will be interesting to see the best i can achieve in boring 60mph cruise all the way :)

Whats the best anyone has got yet in a longish run in the M135i? Im going for it! :D
 
#57 ·
Best I've achieved is 40.2 going south on M6/M56 from Carlisle to Chester (@ 70mph). That was boring to say the least. However, did same trip last weekend with nearly 2k on the clock now averaging 75 with occasional sprints up over 80 - my average was 37. EcoPro is worthwhile if all you're doing is cruising on the M-way in my opinion but is is dull :|
 
#59 ·
I agree Nick, EcoPro is very dull but can help.

However the other day I was tearing home in sport model and manual gearbox. Overtook 2 cars abd having a great time ! Until i came across a long line if traffic with a slow truck upfront. Decided to stay in sport mode as I wanted to still feel like I could have fun, even if I wasn't ;)

Upshot is, Sport can be as economical as EcoPro if you can drive carefully....



You can see on the graph how well Sport was doing! Also shows its stop / start traffic that really hurts consumption, as this was a nice steady speed
 
#60 ·
Does anybody know if v power will improve the performance and economy of my relatively low powered 116i turbo engine?
 
#62 ·
TMP said:
You can see on the graph how well Sport was doing! Also shows its stop / start traffic that really hurts consumption, as this was a nice steady speed
Oh my god that graph is BRILLIANT!!! I am literally going to bore my missus to death with that. :D
 
#63 ·
Jack_is_Back said:
TMP said:
You can see on the graph how well Sport was doing! Also shows its stop / start traffic that really hurts consumption, as this was a nice steady speed
Oh my god that graph is BRILLIANT!!! I am literally going to bore my missus to death with that. :D
Thats does look good! Sadly I wont be boring anyone with graphs because firstly my friends and family really couldn't give a toss and secondly I haven't got the pro nav!

On a more important note; TMP how has your car become so dusty?! :lol2:

PS, i use Vpower because its 99ron and found with previous cars you will get a better mpg and performance from it so the extra £5 a tank is a no brainer for me.
 
#65 ·
nickb said:
Jack_is_Back said:
TMP said:
You can see on the graph how well Sport was doing! Also shows its stop / start traffic that really hurts consumption, as this was a nice steady speed
Oh my god that graph is BRILLIANT!!! I am literally going to bore my missus to death with that. :D
Thats does look good! Sadly I wont be boring anyone with graphs because firstly my friends and family really couldn't give a toss and secondly I haven't got the pro nav!

On a more important note; TMP how has your car become so dusty?! :lol2:

PS, i use Vpower because its 99ron and found with previous cars you will get a better mpg and performance from it so the extra £5 a tank is a no brainer for me.
Yep, havent even bothered showing wifey....

And yes, my car only runs on V Power too :thumbs:

No idea why it looks so dusty int he shot.....dont think its that bad!
 
#66 ·
Took my M135i on its first decent run since getting it (I know, but work has been horrendous), up to Suffolk for the w/end and was quite gratified when I stopped to refuel near Colchester that, once brimmed (got 51 litres in so was clearly running on fumes!), the range indicator suggested 415 miles. And by the time I arrived 40 miles later, was still reading 380 miles. Impressive.

I am really liking this car. I love that it offers so much performance and fun in such an unassuming and practical (yet luxuriously well-equipped) body. The grey wheels are also a very cunning idea - they don't show the dirt nearly as much as normal silver ones!
 
#67 ·
I'm really tempted by one of these while the finance deal lasts, however I'm not sure how this would cope with my commute mpg wise. I spend about 20-30 mins in nose to tail motorway traffic, and the other half along back roads with little to no traffic. My current Mini Cooper S (turbo not s.charged) is getting 36mpg and roughly £70 for 8 days of driving which is a mix if weekend and commute. Any ideas on how the 135i would fair on this type of journey? And what it would be like fuel wise compared to my MCS?
 
#68 ·
nickb said:
Jack_is_Back said:
TMP said:
You can see on the graph how well Sport was doing! Also shows its stop / start traffic that really hurts consumption, as this was a nice steady speed
Oh my god that graph is BRILLIANT!!! I am literally going to bore my missus to death with that. :D
Thats does look good! Sadly I wont be boring anyone with graphs because firstly my friends and family really couldn't give a toss and secondly I haven't got the pro nav!

On a more important note; TMP how has your car become so dusty?! :lol2:

PS, i use Vpower because its 99ron and found with previous cars you will get a better mpg and performance from it so the extra £5 a tank is a no brainer for me.
You don't need pro nav for the graphs it's there on the standard I drive you just need to look in settings :thumbs:
 
#69 ·
paulkerdot said:
Does anybody know if v power will improve the performance and economy of my relatively low powered 116i turbo engine?
All BMW twin scroll petrols are tested and mapped for 98 RON including the 116i. Lower rated fuels will cause the engine to retard the ignition and adjust the fueling depending on the amount of knock detected.

You can run as low as 91 RON but BMW recommend 95RON.

So yes you should see an improvement on 98RON but whether it's a big enough difference to justify the extra cost will depend on your own driving style and how you feel the car reacts.

The 116i has been dyno'd by a few owners on the f20 forums and all have comfortably exceeded BMW's claimed output.
What Car publish their own figures for economy and performance when they have tested a car. They haven't tested the economy yet but the 116i they tested did 0-60 in 8 seconds flat. Most cars don't match the manufactures figures, infact the 118d which should only be 0.2 seconds slower was tested at 9.8 seconds.
So no need to talk your 116i down. :)

Some of the M135i economy figures are looking really good, I used to run an Impreza Series McRae and I struggled to break into the 20's mpg. To be able to get into the 40's and easily achieve mid 30's is astonishing for a 320bhp+ Turbo Petrol

Cheers
Lee
 
#70 ·
JohnM said:
You don't need pro nav for the graphs it's there on the standard I drive you just need to look in settings :thumbs:
You don't need Pro Nav but you do need the Full Black Panel display.

Standard idrive and standard dash display = no graphs.

Cheers
Lee
 
#73 ·
ridz90 said:
Anyone find themselves sitting in traffic quite a lot? Keen to know what the mpg is like
if the conditions are ok, you can reduce your fuel usage with the start/stop (which works pretty well actually). You will lose fuel from the constant acceleration. I find even moving off with a light throttle shows the real time MPG at around 15MPG (curse of the big engine!).
 
#75 ·
ridz90,

I use mine as my daily driver with an average 60-80 miles a day. About 50 miles of that is motorway, the rest of congested local roads / routes.

I filled up to the brim on Tuesday this week. I am currently averaged a reported (note that reported rather than necessarily accurate) combined MPG of 38.7.

So if you consider that a good average for my mixed driving, you will be fine.

Bare in mind, when I say congested I mean crawling + stop + start + crawl as the route from the motorway to the part of Wigan I work in is always always congested.
 
#76 ·
DRP said:
ridz90,

I use mine as my daily driver with an average 60-80 miles a day. About 50 miles of that is motorway, the rest of congested local roads / routes.

I filled up to the brim on Tuesday this week. I am currently averaged a reported (note that reported rather than necessarily accurate) combined MPG of 38.7.

So if you consider that a good average for my mixed driving, you will be fine.

Bare in mind, when I say congested I mean crawling + stop + start + crawl as the route from the motorway to the part of Wigan I work in is always always congested.
My commute is slightly less, say about 25 miles there and the same back. About 10 miles is bypass, crawling stop start stop start etc, and then on to country type roads where traffic is minimal and you can cruise along quite happily.

My dealer seems pretty keep to get me into a new motor, but the whole fuel economy thing is dictating what I buy as I dont want a nasty shock that I'm stuck with for 4 years!
 
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