[Debaser]

Hi everyone

Just wanted to introduce myself. I'm from Toronto who have had the good fortune of acquiring a used '08 328i Coupe last week - sport, premium and Logic 7 packages included - at a decent price.

This is my first BMW, my first manual transmission vehicle, and in fact, my first car. Prior to this I had been driving my parents' Hondas and Acuras.

A few very minor quips aside - some fairly harsh treble in the sound system and a semi-obnoxious startup procedure, etc. - I really love the car. While my stick-shifting remains subpar, I'm advancing fairly quickly and have grown to appreciate the exceptional handling, ample power, and overall refined driving/cabin experience.

I'm sure I'll have many more questions in the near future, and have been enjoying searching through some of the old threads around here. For now, I'd just like to ask the community about a couple of things:

1. Firstly, my current fuel consumption is about 12.7 l/100km, or roughly 18mpg. This is 95% city driving, with some stop and go and fairly short-spaced lights in downtown T.O. At roughly $60 a tank, I'm finding 18mpg to be a bit on the gas-hungry side. Perhaps this will even out as I learn to drive stick more efficiently, but is this normal for an e92? It's a bit depressing watching the fuel meter drop visibly from short trips.

2. Second, I'm just wondering where I can find information on the optimum shift points for the car's transmission. I wasn't able to locate them in the operating manual, and would like to get a rough idea of when BMW recommends switching gears. I'd also like to know what RPMs people find generally agreeable for a moderate launch from idle. As a beginner I've been throttling to about 1000-1500 RPMs, but find this a bit weak.

Thanks, everyone. Looking forward to soaking in more knowledge over the coming months/years.

[stressdoc]

You should be getting 20 mpg+. See what you get on the highway, that should be 30+. If you fiddle with the display you can get either a momentary or long term mpg readout. Read the manual, it's your friend. Shift points are your prerogative -- that's one of the joys of a manual tranny.

[HermesRider]

Originally Posted by Ziggy99

Shifting points are easily determined by: speed you are driving, speed u wanna go to, distance to the next car in front of u, distance to a stoplight, how much time u wanna spend in the selected gear, how much time u wanna spend getting at the speed u want to travel, monitoring the behaviour of the car at the different gears and rpms.

Don't forget girls around u that u want to impress with exhaust tone.

Welcome Debaser... enjoy your ride!