5 Series Bmw Better Mpg Than Toyota Prius

[simon k]

Wait. There must be some mistake. How can an autobahn-inspired performance machine beat one of the most fuel-efficient cars ever made?

It looks like that is exactly what happened on a 545-mile London-Geneva run, when a diesel-powered BMW 5-series posted better MPG stats than a petrol-based Toyota Prius hybrid. The BMW 520d with a 2.0-liter diesel engine and regenerative braking posted an impressive 41.9 mpg - about 0.9 mpg better than a full hybrid Prius. The difference may not seem huge. But given that the Prius weighs about 500 lb less, BMW's fuel economy lead was significant enough to raise new questions about which drivetrain technologies are more environmentally viable and should become the future mainstream of sustainable transport.

According to Technoride, the 5-series' triumph over Prius can be attributed to "a series of energy-saving features BMW calls EfficientDynamics: Battery recharge when braking, good aerodynamics, low rolling resistance, a continuous fuel consumption gauge on the dashboard, and a six-speed manual transmission that is rated as improving fuel economy by about 10%."

[maneesh]

Wait. There must be some mistake. How can an autobahn-inspired performance machine beat one of the most fuel-efficient cars ever made?

It looks like that is exactly what happened on a 545-mile London-Geneva run, when a diesel-powered BMW 5-series posted better MPG stats than a petrol-based Toyota Prius hybrid. The BMW 520d with a 2.0-liter diesel engine and regenerative braking posted an impressive 41.9 mpg - about 0.9 mpg better than a full hybrid Prius. The difference may not seem huge. But given that the Prius weighs about 500 lb less, BMW's fuel economy lead was significant enough to raise new questions about which drivetrain technologies are more environmentally viable and should become the future mainstream of sustainable transport.

According to Technoride, the 5-series' triumph over Prius can be attributed to "a series of energy-saving features BMW calls EfficientDynamics: battery recharge when braking, good aerodynamics, low rolling resistance, a continuous fuel consumption gauge on the dashboard, and a six-speed manual transmission that is rated as improving fuel economy by about 10%."

Interesting comparison, but what would be more interesting is to see whether the BMW beat the Prius in STOP START traffic in a majorly congested city like London at rush hour!

I suspect a Prius owner spends a lot of time in gridlocked traffic than driving 500+ miles at a time.

[MeOfLeeds]

Yes, I read this in the Sunday Times as well.

http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_...icle3552994.ece

[simon k]

when stuck in traffic it averaged 40 mpg not bad when compared to my 220d

[MeOfLeeds]

when stuck in traffic it averaged 40 mpg not bad when compared to my 220d

Oh no... you've opened up a very large can of worms with that comment

[Noel]

I thought the Prius was up in the 60+mpg range?

[adrian71]

yeah i was reading an article about the prius at work last night and im sure the figure quoted for fuel consumption was in excess of 60mpg?????

[Parthiban]

I've gotta say I'm getting slightly tired of people comparing diesels to hybrids - they are two completely different technologies that excel in different environments............

Diesels are much better when cruising at constant revs for long periods of time, hybrids are better when there is a lot of stopping and starting, e.g. in traffic as Maneesh said above.

If you do the majority of your driving on the motorway, you'd be a fool to buy a hybrid as they're going to spend most of their time running on their engines, which is not going to be very economical. Similarly if you drive mostly in busy towns in heavy traffic, you're much better off with a hybrid as most of the time it's engine will be off and it will be running on batteries.

We have a Prius and I've got to say their quoted economy figures are pretty hard to achieve, but when driven around town (which is what it's for) we regularly get over 50 mpg, which is very respectable for a car like that.

Sorry to be so aggressive but I wish people (mainly journalists) would be a little bit more intelligent about a concept that really isn't that hard to understand.............

[maneesh]

haha, how funny, they can't even compare like with like..they compare a SIX SPEED MANUAL (probably with a very long 6th gear) to a Hybrid that has an automatic transmission! What a biased article..little more than Headline news..

[Parthiban]

haha, how funny, they can't even compare like with like..they compare a SIX SPEED MANUAL (probably with a very long 6th gear) to a Hybrid that has an automatic transmission! What a biased article..little more than Headline news..

It's even worse than that mate, the Prius is a CVT not an auto, and the gearing is not set up for high speed motorway cruising, it's to provide quicker acceleration in town scenarios so cruising at 75mph as they've mentioned is not what it's designed to do............journalists are complete morons sometimes.......

[dgman]

breaking news,star ship enterprise proven to be more economical than 520d.test carried out at warp factor 6.

[Steve_D]

LOL

[maneesh]

breaking news,star ship enterprise proven to be more economical than 520d.test carried out at warp factor 6.

i like ur sense of humour

[Scarlet Pimpernell]

I read this test too, and as stated above, they test spec was a bit flawed

[lfoggy]

Also worth noting that you can't use mpg figures to meaningfully compare diesel and petrol powered cars. Diesel fuel is denser and therefore has about 15% more chemical energy per unit volume than petrol. If you burn a gallon of diesel you are burning more fuel than a gallon of petrol. Similarly if you were to burn a gallon volume of coal you would burning more fuel than a gallon of diesel. The only way to compare them is to determin the miles travelled per unit of energy expended which is not that easy. There is a lot of info on this in the literature but this site has a good explanation...

http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/ecotech/pin6.htm

[caspian sky]

Also worth noting that you can't use mpg figures to meaningfully compare diesel and petrol powered cars. Diesel fuel is denser and therefore has about 15% more chemical energy per unit volume than petrol. If you burn a gallon of diesel you are burning more fuel than a gallon of petrol. Similarly if you were to burn a gallon volume of coal you would burning more fuel than a gallon of diesel. The only way to compare them is to determin the miles travelled per unit of energy expended which is not that easy. There is a lot of info on this in the literature but this site has a good explanation...

http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/ecotech/pin6.htm

but we buy fuel in gallons/litres, not "per unit of energy"

[pobrown]

I've had my Prius for about 3 weeks now and I'd rather drive it than the BMW. The Prius isn't just about the MPG. It's also about what comes out of the exhaust pipe. Diesels can be very economical and powerful - I know, as I used to own a 2.2 Accord, but a diesel engine also produces other emmisions on top of the CO2.

If you were looking at a Hybrid vs Diesel just on MPG, the Diesel would have to be a few MPG better to allow for the fact that Diesel is about 7p/litre more than petrol.

I'm not an eco-friendly obsessive, but decided to try out the Prius to see what it was like. No car that I've ever owned has ever given MPG figures close to the published ones on the brochure, and the Prius is no difference. But it drives well, is very smooth and quiet and I'm getting about 50MPG in normal use. I haven't been on a long motorway run in it yet, but cruising at 60MPH the other day in heavy traffic for about 10 minutes and the computer display reported about 60MPG.

I also like the fact that my road tax renewal next Feb will be £15, and £0 in 2010. My insurance is also the cheapest it has been for the last 4 cars I've owned (IS200 Auto, IS200 Sport, Accord 2.2 Diesel, IS300 Auto). It is quite strange driving without any engine noise at low speeds too.

Some of my friends questioned my choice of a Prius when I first got it, saying that they thought it was a slow car. It is not slow at all - with the brochure specs for 0 - 60 MPH of 10.9 seconds, actually being quicker than my old IS200 Auto (just). The electric motos are able to deliver 400Nm of tourque so it has plenty of pulling power up hills too.

The Prius is never going to be to everyones tastes, and the comparisons to big Diesel cars are always going to be made. I have made my choice and I'm not regretting it at all.

Cheers

Phil

[Boxbrownie]

I've gotta say I'm getting slightly tired of people comparing diesels to hybrids - they are two completely different technologies that excel in different environments............

Diesels are much better when cruising at constant revs for long periods of time, hybrids are better when there is a lot of stopping and starting, e.g. in traffic as Maneesh said above.

If you do the majority of your driving on the motorway, you'd be a fool to buy a hybrid as they're going to spend most of their time running on their engines, which is not going to be very economical. Similarly if you drive mostly in busy towns in heavy traffic, you're much better off with a hybrid as most of the time it's engine will be off and it will be running on batteries.

We have a Prius and I've got to say their quoted economy figures are pretty hard to achieve, but when driven around town (which is what it's for) we regularly get over 50 mpg, which is very respectable for a car like that.

Sorry to be so aggressive but I wish people (mainly journalists) would be a little bit more intelligent about a concept that really isn't that hard to understand.............

Hear, hear......quite frankly this should be an end to it!

It really is a ridiculus comparison on a trek from London to Geneva (if I understand correctly?) to pit a BMW520D against a Prius

[Scarlet Pimpernell]

I've had my Prius for about 3 weeks now and I'd rather drive it than the BMW. The Prius isn't just about the MPG. It's also about what comes out of the exhaust pipe. Diesels can be very economical and powerful - I know, as I used to own a 2.2 Accord, but a diesel engine also produces other emmisions on top of the CO2.

If you were looking at a Hybrid vs Diesel just on MPG, the Diesel would have to be a few MPG better to allow for the fact that Diesel is about 7p/litre more than petrol.

I'm not an eco-friendly obsessive, but decided to try out the Prius to see what it was like. No car that I've ever owned has ever given MPG figures close to the published ones on the brochure, and the Prius is no difference. But it drives well, is very smooth and quiet and I'm getting about 50MPG in normal use. I haven't been on a long motorway run in it yet, but cruising at 60MPH the other day in heavy traffic for about 10 minutes and the computer display reported about 60MPG.

I also like the fact that my road tax renewal next Feb will be £15, and £0 in 2010. My insurance is also the cheapest it has been for the last 4 cars I've owned (IS200 Auto, IS200 Sport, Accord 2.2 Diesel, IS300 Auto). It is quite strange driving without any engine noise at low speeds too.

Some of my friends questioned my choice of a Prius when I first got it, saying that they thought it was a slow car. It is not slow at all - with the brochure specs for 0 - 60 MPH of 10.9 seconds, actually being quicker than my old IS200 Auto (just). The electric motos are able to deliver 400Nm of tourque so it has plenty of pulling power up hills too.

The Prius is never going to be to everyones tastes, and the comparisons to big Diesel cars are always going to be made. I have made my choice and I'm not regretting it at all.

Cheers

Phil

Nice one Phil - lovely report!!

[pobrown]

Just thought I'd bump this thread with some new data.

Have driven down to Cardiff from Sheffield today. 193 miles on Motorway and fast A-roads. I had the cruise control set to about 65 for most of the journey due to traffic but did go faster at times. Average for the journey was 65.9mpg which I'm extremely pleased with. In my old IS300 the Sheffield-Cardiff run (which I do about 4-5 times a year) used to use well over half a tank (one way) whereas the Prius still has 9 of the ten lights on the fuel display lit.

I do miss the power of the IS300, but I did find that cruising at a slower speed today made the journey less stressful, and although it took about 30 minutes longer than before, I wasn't knackered when I reached my destination. The ride was comfortable - I wasn't in a situation where I couldn't wait to get out of the car.

I'll now wait and see what the return journey brings tomorrow evening during rush-hour!

Cheers

Phil

[VrmmVrmm]

Thought this was a Lexus IS250/220D forum