MPG

[idooct]

its a given that most of us dont care about the fuel cost to fun ratio, still i was wondering why there is no vaccum gauge in the instrument cluster ( or is there?). I know that in my 2004 X5 using that gauge is the only way you can get the 22 MPG highway. It required a lot of easing off the throttle when cruising speed is attained, constantly varying pedal pressure with different grades of the road.. not really fun.. youd think the smart BMW people could have a program for it....cant use the tach readings.. certainly not cruise control....any ideas on winning the most MPG contest?

[Wolverine]

I thank the BMW gods every day that I have an oil temperature gage instead of that idiotic vacuum gage. I use the oil temperature (not the tach) almost every time I get in the car to let me know when it's OK to rev the engine. It's also nice to know if the oil is running hot.


I had the vaccum gage on my 545i. I used to imagine how many BMW drivers run into things while watching their glorified 'mileage' gage instead of the road.

[Vossen10]

I agree, oil temp is much more important/useful. To be honest, I dont care about my mpg. The way I look at it is that it's a small price to pay for the smile the car puts on my face each time I get behind the wheel.

[idooct]

oil temp gauge gives you one information, important for sure but it does not give you info on whether you are operating at some kind of peak engine efficiency...( for cruising only) i think the high revving engines design makes this particular gizmo ( vacuum indicaor) not applicable since it has individual throttles constantly adjusted by the computer to deliver a ceratin performance curve... me thinks that the key to best fuel milage is still the right foot, using the cars engine sounds, the drivers vision and assesment of the grade of the road and synapse this to the " slight lift of the foot within the shoe" like the SMG technique. Truely boring and funless compared to relative abandon. Still it would be nice to know how the engineers at BMW arrived at the upper end of their MPG statistics...maybe the road was going downhill...