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BMW 3-Series and 4-Series Forum (F30 / F32) | F30POST > Technical Forums > N47 and N57 Turbodiesel Engine / Drivetrain / Exhaust Modifications > Does a diesel get much better MPG than a gas engine in heavy traffic?
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      08-04-2015, 07:47 PM   #1
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Does a diesel get much better MPG than a gas engine in heavy traffic?

I know diesels are great on the highway, but how about in somewhat heavy stop and go traffic?
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      08-04-2015, 08:52 PM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aolsux00 View Post
I know diesels are great on the highway, but how about in somewhat heavy stop and go traffic?
My wife's 328d is sitting at 39 mpg. She drives it about 50/50, runs in comfort with ASS turned on. It gets far better - 45 mpg or better - in a pure highway mode.

My 335d is sitting at around 31 mpg. My son's 335i gets no more than 26 mpg with a similar regime of driving, recently more like 23 in a more traffic/urban regime. My 335d would probably be getting 28-29 mpg if he was driving it.
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      08-06-2015, 04:30 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aolsux00 View Post
I know diesels are great on the highway, but how about in somewhat heavy stop and go traffic?
Diesel's have a ton of torque and it comes in low, torque is what moves your car from a stop. So a diesel will use less energy to start the vehicle from a stop than a gas engine. Even without ASS turned on.

I can get 27-28MPG around town in my 4000lb AWD wagon without ASS, that's the same as a tiny FWD Corolla. And I can get that same mileage without crawling away from stoplights at idle to save gas. LMAO

With ASS on it goes up into the mid 30s. And like floydarogers, 45+ is common on the highway.

Diesels are better in almost everyway, and can be tuned for the same type of performance gas engines give. Look at the 5 series diesel, Top Gear tested it head to head against it's gas brother and they were inseparable on the track. Mazda is even running diesel powered race cars in the IMSA prototype class and not doing too shabbily either.

The future of performance isn't electric cars that go 100 miles if you drive them hard, with expensive and complex systems to break. It's in tuned and built diesels built for power and efficiency that can deliver 4 second and lower 0-60s and still go 600 miles on a tank before spending 5 minutes filling up....and doing it again.
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      08-06-2015, 05:27 PM   #4
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I believe the 328d is the same engine as my 320d?

I get about 550 miles out of one tank of diesel, based on 50/50 city & motorway driving. On my last drive from UK to Austria. I only had to fill up just outside Stuttgart (thats about 580 miles), inc some high speed fun on the Autobahn.
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      08-06-2015, 06:41 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kitster View Post
I believe the 328d is the same engine as my 320d?
Yes. Not sure if yours is a BluePerformance; all ours are.
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      08-06-2015, 07:17 PM   #6
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Blue Performance is an option. As like most UK drivers, I never went for it as it was a £1000 option and it did nothing for me except meet the latest EU6 standard.
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      08-07-2015, 08:40 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Thumper333 View Post

Diesels are better in almost everyway
Except that there's only so much diesel that comes out of a barrel of crude.
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      08-09-2015, 09:12 AM   #8
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If the 335d was still available would have been a no brainer, now BMW only has it available for the F10 535d & F15 (35d), they gave the 328d and x3 28d. who wants a 180hp 4cyl ? NOT ME
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      08-11-2015, 10:47 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JamesNoBrakes View Post
Except that there's only so much diesel that comes out of a barrel of crude.

And there's an infinite amount of unleaded that can be wrung from a barrel?



Quote:
Originally Posted by ROBNYC View Post
If the 335d was still available would have been a no brainer, now BMW only has it available for the F10 535d & F15 (35d), they gave the 328d and x3 28d. who wants a 180hp 4cyl ? NOT ME
If you understood diesel and engine dynamics and functions of power you would know that referring to the HP of a diesel is an incorrect, and wrong headed direction.

What you should be saying is who WOULDN'T want a 280ft/lb torque 4 cyl? LOL

Although I agree I wish we got the bigger diesel here in the States the hippie lobby is just too good at politics and pushing the poisonous hybrids on us. Although I only want the bigger engine because I like more power, the 4cyl diesel has more than enough power for what it needs and it's purpose.
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      08-11-2015, 11:38 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Thumper333 View Post
And there's an infinite amount of unleaded that can be wrung from a barrel?
Well, once you extract the diesel and jet fuel for jets, big-rig trucking, industrial equipment, trains and whatever else, you don't have much diesel left over, or at the very least you realize why there's a premium on it. It's not that there's free or an excess of gasoline, it's that there' a pretty large infrastructure that runs on diesel, so it's not like everyone can have a diesel car, if we did, diesel might be around $10/gallon.
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      08-14-2015, 09:32 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JamesNoBrakes View Post
Well, once you extract the diesel and jet fuel for jets, big-rig trucking, industrial equipment, trains and whatever else, you don't have much diesel left over, or at the very least you realize why there's a premium on it. It's not that there's free or an excess of gasoline, it's that there' a pretty large infrastructure that runs on diesel, so it's not like everyone can have a diesel car, if we did, diesel might be around $10/gallon.
Ooooookkkkkkkk,

FYI

Premium 91 is $3.29/gallon here.......diesel is $2.59/gallon....there's no premium on it. Even the last several years we were supporting a war in pretty much every country diesel only really got up to the same price as Premium Unleaded.

I know what you are trying to say, in a way, it's basic suppl/demand economics.....however the point is kind of lost in the fact that it is way more complicated than you want it to be.

It's also lost in the fact that no one is saying "everyone" should have a diesel car. I am saying the SMART people (and people who actually care about the planet) have a diesel car and not a hybrid. Obviously smart people are NOT at a premium over here LMAO


BTW, you're not really extracting diesel, or jet fuel from the barrel. In point of fact, technically, diesel, propane, etc are all just BYPRODUCTS of the method of making jet fuel and unleaded. The process of making those fuels requires the compounds that make up diesel to be removed. You're not MAKING diesel.......you're purifying jet fuel, and finding a good use for the waste byproduct. I have no doubt that if diesel become that much more popular they would find a new process that maximized the production.
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      07-24-2016, 03:49 PM   #12
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My 328xd I can put it sports mode run the heck out of it all day and still get above 35mpg.
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      07-25-2016, 05:53 AM   #13
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Yep they are just economical pretty much all the time.. (atleast BMWs ones). I remember my 318d E90 never ever had to change it's mileage or distance to empty figure drastically... it just stayed there while my 28i's now is quite moody when you enter traffic it drops down so fast Goes up when driving normal just the same luckily... still get pretty great mileage considering the extra power and sound though (35i muffler)
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      07-26-2016, 09:14 PM   #14
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I coded mine so I have SPORT+ too. :P

And btw is 184hp. :P

Can do 240Km/h (~150mph) w/o any problem.
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