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The Diesel Driver reviews the 2011 BMW 335d made for the German market. BMW has sold 8,217 335d sedans in America for the past three years alone, and to know the reasons behind its success, they take it for a final drive in Germany. Here is an excerpt of the review:
We reached our destination in Stuttgart, the hotel Zauberlehrling (sorcerer’s apprentice) after a drive of 232 km (144 miles).
The overall fuel economy of 9.2 l/100 km (25.6 mpg) with an average speed of 87 km/h (54 mph) came nowhere close to our expectations although a good part of this can be accounted for by the fact that our driving was either in traffic with lots of braking or at very high speeds.
The final leg of the trip, Stuttgart Munich, was two days later, and we returned just in time for the first day of Oktoberfest. The 268 km (166 mile) trip took three and one-half hours with an average speed of 80.8 km/h (50 mph). The 335d used 7.9 l/100 km (29.77 mpg) and this trip also consisted of a mixture of traffic with braking or high-speed driving.
By contrast, while our 2010 BMW 335d averaged 6.5 l/100 km (36.2 mpg) across all of its highway trips, it averaged 7.5 l/100 km (31.4 mpg) on its first 500 km (310 mile) trip and fuel economy improved as the engine became more broken in. Since our 2011 335d was not even past the break-in period during these drives, it is likely that its fuel economy will greatly improve as well.
