Hello from near Chicago!

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My first car was a really low mileage family hand me down we had for a total of 17 years (I drove it those last four years): 1997 Honda Accord EX with the 2.2l VTEC. I got it in 2010 with about 48k miles AFAIR and sold it with 68k miles (about 4k a year). I do a lot of 'city' driving with a decent amount of stop and go traffic and often took short trips. I first used fuelly with that car just to see how it was running compared to modern cars. It consistently got MPGs in the low 20s with that type of driving and there was no live readout either, but still not bad compared to my next car



Earlier I saw two documentaries on the German Autobahn on youtube and I was seriously impressed with the engineering of the cars and roads and I was hooked on German/Euro cars and wishing to drive the Autobahn ever since. I had to get a German or Swedish car, I figured.

Next car turned out to be an e90 BMW 328i xDrive (xDrive is BMW's AWD system that has a 40/60 F/R variable torque split full time at speeds less than highway speeds). Love at first sight after I randomly found it sitting at a showroom. 83k miles, 1 owner, heated seats and heated steering wheel. Sweet! But it's limited to 130 mph because it lacks the tires rated at 155 mph (whatever rating you call them) that comes standard on the sport package. Oh well! Won't be going that fast anyway.

I've always had the impression that older cars get much worse mileage than newer cars and so I figured I would get roughly the same mileage as my old Honda. When I first drove it, I had a summer school commute with easy suburban roads and I averaged around 20-22 MPG, not bad. Then in the fall university was back in session so that means more 'city' driving and short trips. 15 MPG! WTF!?? Well, I'm not that surprised considering my mom averaged 13 MPG in her V6 Lexus due to her inner city commutes. But still. Now being mindful of my driving I average around 17 MPG for the same commute and I added this car to fuelly after a bit. Can't wait for a commute that's not almost all city!

That's my story

Sometimes I really do miss my old Honda, but Honda cancer (rust) in its beginning stages is not a good sign and this car totally makes up for it and more.

[Draigflag]

Hey nice story. What engine is in the Beemer? That's pretty scary MPG. In Europe, that model comes with a variety of engines to suit peoples needs. The diesels are most popular.

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Originally Posted by Draigflag

Hey nice story. What engine is in the Beemer? That's pretty scary MPG. In Europe, that model comes with a variety of engines to suit peoples needs. The diesels are most popular.

Thanks! Glad you asked!

It's a 3.0l I6 port-injected petrol (engine code N52B30) with 171.5 kW/230 hp/233 PS (SAE net) and 271 Nm/200 lb-ft of torque. Combine that with full time AWD (sort of like Subaru and Audi) and it's quite thirsty around town. But it wasn't anything out of the ordinary when compared to its competition (2009 BMW 328i). Yeah, I've read up on the models offered across the pond. Taxes make quite the difference. It seems like the 318d or 320d is the most common over there, as the 328i was the standard one here (not that we had much of a choice in the matter; 325i/330i for '06, 328i/335i for '07-'11, Canada got their own 323i in addition).

[Draigflag]

I was looking at the new models earlier, my choice would be the 3.0 litre diesel, X Drive with 313 BHP, pretty acceptable MPG 40-50 but 0-60 in 4.8 seconds, what a monster!

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Yeah, those are pretty amazing. I forgot to mention that we did get the 335d sedan for '09-'11, but they are either high mileage or very expensive on the used car market.