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check out my mpg gauge reading (the one under the tach) 50mpg indicated. this was on a flat highway, light throttle, 'normal' highway speeds

to be fair, the car's highway mpg average is 30mpg.. but that's driving like a normal person, not going 55mph in the slow lane

IMHO pretty big argument against buying a car just due to MPG. why sacrifice everything at the altar of EPA mileage estimate

naz,May 27 2008, 09:20 PM Wrote:

check out my mpg gauge reading (the one under the tach)  50mpg indicated.  this was on a flat highway, light throttle, 'normal' highway speeds

to be fair, the car's highway mpg average is 30mpg.. but that's driving like a normal person, not going 55mph in the slow lane

IMHO pretty big argument against buying a car just due to MPG.  why sacrifice everything at the altar of EPA mileage estimate
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I'll trade you cars...please. Man you must get a lot of booty with that car. B)

isnt that just a fancy vacuum gauge so if you took your foot off teh gas that the gauge would give you a false instant reading???

DD1,May 27 2008, 08:37 PM Wrote:isnt that just a fancy vacuum gauge so if you took your foot off teh gas that the gauge would give you a false instant reading???
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Probably not. Part of the OBD II standard is for the ECU to calculate MPG (and few other pieces of economy related data) and supply it in real time. This is what makes it fairly easy for the manufacturers to provide this feature on their trip computers these days.

DD1,May 28 2008, 01:37 AM Wrote:isnt that just a fancy vacuum gauge so if you took your foot off teh gas that the gauge would give you a false instant reading???
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i can't find any BMW tech articles that explain how the gauge works but i understand from other internet forums the mpg gauge reading is based on the injector timing compared against the vehicle speed..

you are right though, that if i lifted the throttle i would get a very high mpg reading.. however i didn't do that when i took the picture just to show a high reading... i was on a level highway in 6th gear and maintaining my speed. i didn't do anything different to get that 50mpg.. just driving normally

like i said in my OP my overall average on the highway is 30mpg.. just thought i would show this because i feel like this is how ppl are sold on hybrid cars.. the EPA estimate is just like that picture.. super high MPGs.. then in real life its way less mileage (just like how my real overall highway mileage is much less than in that pic..)

It's probably half injector timing and half vacuum reading. My Escape has the digital equivalent to that but it reads in "amounts" of fuel as represented by a declining bar graph, not numbers.

Is there a resettable average fuel economy gauge as well? Reset it when you're getting that reading and cruise for 5-10 minutes at that speed if possible. That will give you a much better idea if it's real or if it's just a vacuum gauge. I did that with mine and averaged 9L/100KMs.

I know you're averaging 30MPG but that "instant" average reading would tell you whether the gauge is just fluff or not.

Pic of the fuel economy meter:

kinda funny u guys post this today yesturday I always reset the average eco in my jeep when i fill up gas but i forgot to do it when i was at the gas station so i did it when i was back on the road heading down his and i was just coasting 4 a bit aand it got down to 6.8 L per 100 km wo bad it wouldn't stay like that as soon as i got on the gas it went back up to 12.8 and now city driving 14.2

NOS2Go4Me,May 28 2008, 12:22 PM Wrote:That will give you a much better idea if it's real or if it's just a vacuum gauge.

I know you're averaging 30MPG but that "instant" average reading would tell you whether the gauge is just fluff or not.

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yes there is an avg fuel economy too. the needle gauge i showed the pic of, plus the avg fuel computer, and my own hand calc of distance / gallons used for each full tank all match up to within rounding error

i wish it was oil temp (335 styles) but i guess bmw rightly figured out that most ppl who get the base model care more about fuel econ

i still semi surprised that with 3L plus shorter gears this car is getting much better fuel econ than my WRX and equivalent fuel econ that what i used to get in my '00 zx3

EDIT: canadian ST hahaha i'm engaged so i haven't been able to test whether i'm more pimpin after i changed cars ha