‘Freude am tanken’
Admittedly, the BMW 3-series seems an odd duck in this section. Who is going to closely monitor the consumption of their car based on driving pleasure? The answer will surprise you. No fewer than 84 drivers of a BMW 3-series F30 and F31 provide insight into their fuel consumption via the AutoWeek Consumption Monitor. How economical is the 3 Series?
In addition to its popularity in the Consumption Monitor, the BMW 3 Series is invariably high on the list of the most sought-after used cars. In this article we focus on the 320i and 320d versions. They are not the entry-level engines, but they are the most common variants in our list.
The time when a BMW 320i had a six-cylinder is long gone. No, under the hood of a 320i usually snorts a 184 hp 2.0-liter four-cylinder turbo engine. We say ‘usually’ on purpose, because in addition to the regular 320i, a 320i EfficientDynamics was delivered for some time. The 2.0 has been replaced by a 1.6-liter petrol engine with 170 hp.
Consumption BMW 320i
Owners of a BMW 320i consume an average of one liter of petrol every 13.3 kilometres, the equivalent of 7.6 l/100 km. You can also be more economical. The absolute king of savings kept track of fuel consumption for almost a year and noted a consumption of 1 in 19. Based on the data entered, this consumption was achieved within built-up areas and with an economical driving style, but we suspect that this 320i has seen a lot of 80 and 100 roads in particular. An additional advantage: this driver occasionally achieved a range of more than 1,000 kilometers.
The 1 in 19 turns out to be unique, as witnessed by the consumption of 1 in 15.5, which shows that the second most economical driver can travel a maximum of about 800 kilometers per refueling. The title of ‘most economical 320i driver’ goes to this driver and his 2017 320i Touring Corporate Lease Edition. This shows that consumption increases to 1 in 11.1 with a heavier right foot and the range shrinks to about 600 kilometers.
Significantly less data is available for the 320i EfficientDynamics, but with an average fuel consumption of 1:15.1, it seems drivers actually drive slightly more economically with this engine.
How economical is the 320d?
As with the 320i, there is no single 320d, although the differences between the regular 320d and 320d EfficientDynamics are much smaller. In both cases it is a 2.0 four-cylinder diesel, of which the EfficientDynamics delivers 163 instead of 184 hp. The maximum torque is 400 Nm in both cases.
Drivers of a 320d EfficientDynamics jointly note a consumption of 5.2 l/100 km, 1 in 19.6. The most economical driver managed to drive an average of 1 in 22.5 for more than 32,000 km, compared to 1 in 16.8 for the least efficient EfficientDynamics. How the non-EfficientDynamics 320d fares? We don’t have enough data for a really solid comparison, but the four owners drive an average of 1 in 17.9. It seems to us a good balance between ‘fahren’ and ‘refuelling’.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl