[Scott in Houston]

What is wrong with me!? Seriously?
I've had a history of cars that I won't list, but it includes 997 Turbo, 996 Turbo, E60 M5, and several more comparable.
My toy car today is a Lotus Elise SC. I had an SUV but replaced it with the M550 and LOVE it, but...

I find that my normal driving is about economy! LOL! I love seeing what kind of mileage I can get. Is it because I'm 52 year old Gen-X (not a boomer!)?

Don't get me wrong, I use the power at times, but for routine drives, it's like a game to see how efficient I can run it.
I guess I'm just blown away by its efficiency when not pushing it. My wife has a 2 door little car with a 4 cylinder and my M550 gets better economy if I try.

Am I alone? Do I need therapy?

The irony is... I truly believe had I bought a car designed to be efficient, I wouldn't do this.

[NGT2]

Originally Posted by Scott in Houston

What is wrong with me!? Seriously?
I've had a history of cars that I won't list, but it includes 997 Turbo, 996 Turbo, E60 M5, and several more comparable.
My toy car today is a Lotus Elise SC. I had an SUV but replaced it with the M550 and LOVE it, but...

I find that my normal driving is about economy! LOL! I love seeing what kind of mileage I can get. Is it because I'm 52 year old Gen-X (not a boomer!)?

Don't get me wrong, I use the power at times, but for routine drives, it's like a game to see how efficient I can run it.
I guess I'm just blown away by its efficiency when not pushing it. My wife has a 2 door little car with a 4 cylinder and my M550 gets better economy if I try.

Am I alone? Do I need therapy?

The irony is... I truly believe had I bought a car designed to be efficient, I wouldn't do this.

Maybe it’s a phase?? Hahaha

It’s the power that makes it so efficient, I think. Which is kind of ironic. But it just doesn’t take much to move the car. You could drive all day and never touch 3k RPM without really trying that hard.

[AP]

You are not alone!
Before I bought my m550 I was expecting worse economic that the 540 it was replacing. I wasn’t bothered as I’m not a high mileage driver. When I eventually got the car, as it was being run in, I intentially avoided motorways to ensure it was run in with varying loads.
Despite that , I was surprised how good the mpg was despite deliberately choosing roads where I was stopping and starting , accelerating and decelerating.
So one run in and I started to use motorways, I was gonsmacked at how good it was. Only a little worse than the 540.
So Ona couple of runs , I tried to see how good it can be and my best has been 41.8mpg (U.K.)
Even know I regularly get high 30s without much effort.

Don’t get me wrong I like to give it the beans when I can but living where I do with average speed cameras, and speed cameras, those opportunities are limited

The character of the car is versatile
It can promote a very relaxed style of driving to the effortless power it has. Other times put it into sport mode and it just takes off, more power than I can use here in the U.K.

I read an article somewhere on the inter web about what was the most efficient v8 in the us and the 750 won it, so same engine

You mention a v8 to someone who perhaps isn’t a petrolhead and they often think it’s a gas guzzler, but this car really isn’t.

A very impressive engine which I think has a tainted reputation due to the issues seen on the previous versions of it, this version appears to good so far as I’ve not read any horror stories about it (yet)

[MelbourneFinn]

Ha, you guys are all in the need of therapy… Who buys a next down from a super saloon for this purpose…? Just insane, get a 530i!!!

And I belong to the exactly same category 😂😎😜

My favourite is not necessarily to stare at the consumption in the onboard computer, but see whether I can get past 800 km on one tank… Yes, doable… And I used to do exactly the same with an M6, just that the benchmark was 1,000 km because of the bigger 80 litre tank (really, my almost only gripe with the 550 is the fuel tank size only 68 litres)… Funny that…Oh, and the M6 used to do 1,000… But it also knew how to do only 350 km 🤣

[AP]

The largest projected range I’ve seen is 567 miles!

I’ve been having more fun in it if late but even then I’ve still been getting high 20s

It’s a very impressive engine which ever way you look at it and just show how much progress has been made in recent years. Also real world it shows that a big engine doesn’t have to be a gas guzzler compared to a smaller engines car. You could argue real world a less powerful car has to work harder compared to a large engine one that it’s just ticking over so to speak.

[silverydragon72]

For me the biggest reason to use the eco mode is just so I am not right up on other vehicles in my commute home. It does impressive mileage all things considered and is still great performance when you want it. I get on par mileage if not better in some situations to my previous car which had a v6. I typically am in the 21-24 mpg range when commuting. So far with the way I drive never seen it go below 20 even when im sticking in sport mode more often. Today I managed almost 26 mpg with my most recent fill up.

[NVRfollo]

Winters are getting too cold so you need to burn more fossil fuels to keep us warmer. Put the damn thing in sports+ and drive it like it wants to be driven. I have a PHEV and drive it in sports+ to charge the battery just to boost the torque and HP . From your userid, you live in the region with the lowest gas price also. When I get home after driving my car, the fans run full blast for 30 minutes to cool things off.

[NGT2]

Originally Posted by NVRfollo

Winters are getting too cold so you need to burn more fossil fuels to keep us warmer. Put the damn thing in sports+ and drive it like it wants to be driven. I have a PHEV and drive it in sports+ to charge the battery just to boost the torque and HP . From your userid, you live in the region with the lowest gas price also. When I get home after driving my car, the fans run full blast for 30 minutes to cool things off.

I’m with you. My fan has a work out every day. My wife was in the car today and she chuckled in a snarky way and said “these tires won’t last a year, you drive like a banshee”.

I told her it’s a pain in the ass to drive that car slow.

[adhrp]

Originally Posted by NGT2

I’m with you. My fan has a work out every day. My wife was in the car today and she chuckled in a snarky way and said “these tires won’t last a year, you drive like a banshee”.

I told her it’s a pain in the ass to drive that car slow.

Looks like you are now driving it like an M550i should be driven In previous posts you mentioned that you drive moderately.

[NGT2]

Originally Posted by adhrp

Looks like you are now driving it like an M550i should be driven In previous posts you mentioned that you drive moderately.

Haha I think I probably do drive moderately… relative to this car. The car is still capable of far more than I ask. Relative to the rest of the population, I would put myself in the “aggressive but not a dumbass” category.

[Joe-BMW33]

I need therapy but not because I drive my M550 like a Prius😂😂😂.

Nah, I don’t even look at the gas gauge or mileage until it tells me to fill’er up. I’ve used ECO mode once and that was for like 5 minutes. I don’t beat on it, but I drive it and step on it whenever I can. 90% of the time my shifter is to the left no matter what the mode. My lifetime miles per gallon is 20 and that’s good enough for me.

[jcal65]

I didn’t get an M550 because I was concerned about gas mileage. I also didn’t expect much but I am pleasantly surprised how efficient the 523hp V8 is, especially on highway trips.

This is data from my most recent trip which I find remarkable. A combination of heavy traffic and cruise set at 75 the rest of the trip.

[NGT2]

Originally Posted by jcal65

I didn’t get an M550 because I was concerned about gas mileage. I also didn’t expect much but I am pleasantly surprised how efficient the 523hp V8 is, especially on highway trips.

This is data from my most recent trip which I find remarkable. A combination of heavy traffic and cruise set at 75 the rest of the trip.

I was trying to figure out how you did that and then I saw “set cruise at 75” haha

[Rocket455]

I've averaged about 21 mpg in the ~8k miles since I got the car last September, and that's with regular spirited driving in Sport/Sport plus. I still can't wrap my brain around how a 4.4L V8 with twin turbos can achieve those numbers....!

[Drifttime85]

Originally Posted by Rocket455

I've averaged about 21 mpg in the ~8k miles since I got the car last September, and that's with regular spirited driving in Sport/Sport plus. I still can't wrap my brain around how a 4.4L V8 with twin turbos can achieve those numbers....!

One of the main reasons I bought this car. My levante S was a v6 twin turbo and got me an avg 15-16 mph with very little spirited driving. This cars mpg is so much better !

[Scott in Houston]

Agreed. My last 5 Series was an E60 M5 and the best I ever saw was maybe 16mpg on the highway. Averaged just over 10-11 mpg most of the time.

[Volasko]

Trade that out for a 530e and really scratch that hyper-mile itch. I now obsess about trying to park near a charging station to really stretch each tank of dino-juice out of that car. Its also suited perfectly for my driving profile as each way to work is no more than 25 kms, with a charging port at the office.