Your fleet running reports

[DeskJockey]

Finally got around to ordering a replacement NS mirror housing for the Galaxy. Housing was cracked when we bought the car, but I made it worse by whacking it on a metal object (not another vehicle).

£55 delivered from eBay. Seems good value compared to what else is listed. Turns out the most difficult but was finding one with the puddle light.

[Sundayjumper]

What economy are you achieving? Was it a 530d you had previously - how does it compare?

My new job involves a 130 miles/day commute for three days a week, so looking at a new car. The usual suspects are on my list (Superb, 5 series, Jag XF), but noticed the G01 7 series are pretty good value and you seem to be enjoying yours so far.

G01 is the X3 ! Mine's an F01. The replacement 7 is G11.

Yep, I've gone from 2011 530d to 2012 740d. Both are pre-LCI. Basically the same engine but the '40 has twin turbos vs the single turbo of the '30.

My journey is almost completely motorway and although I'm not quite hypermiling it I do tend to set the cruise control at 65mph most of the time so this is probably about the best possible case. I've no idea how bad it would be if every day you cane it down the motorway at 90 and then sit in a traffic jam for half an hour

Anyway, absolute best, it'll do just over 45mpg on a single run. A normal day comes to about 42mpg for the round trip and over a whole tank once I've done a couple of local trips it's down to 39mpg.

That's based on the last month / 2000 miles and running on Tesco diesel. It'll improve by a couple of mpg once the weather perks up and we're back onto summer diesel.

The 5 was only a couple of mpg better. In the summer it'd just about top 50mpg on a similar journey. I'll expect the the 7 to get to 47-48.

The big difference for me is that I never found the 5 entirely comfortable. The sports seats don't suit my head & neck and the sport suspension is a bit on the "sporty" side when what I really needed for commuting was comfort. Although my 7 is also a Sport, the sport pack on these is purely cosmetic, the suspension is exactly the same as the non-sport, with adaptive shocks & active roll bars as standard. Comfort seats (which I now regard as essential) are far more common on the 7. Lots of other odds & ends were standard too. Basically, it's much easier to find a high spec on a 7.

The car is bigger overall but I've only really noticed it when parking, it's about 6" longer so noticeably sticks out from normal parking bays !


Summary - the F10 530d M Sport is awesome, buy my one

[mikeyb]

What economy are you achieving? Was it a 530d you had previously - how does it compare?

My new job involves a 130 miles/day commute for three days a week, so looking at a new car. The usual suspects are on my list (Superb, 5 series, Jag XF), but noticed the G01 7 series are pretty good value and you seem to be enjoying yours so far.

G01 is the X3 ! Mine's an F01. The replacement 7 is G11.

Yep, I've gone from 2011 530d to 2012 740d. Both are pre-LCI. Basically the same engine but the '40 has twin turbos vs the single turbo of the '30.

My journey is almost completely motorway and although I'm not quite hypermiling it I do tend to set the cruise control at 65mph most of the time so this is probably about the best possible case. I've no idea how bad it would be if every day you cane it down the motorway at 90 and then sit in a traffic jam for half an hour

Anyway, absolute best, it'll do just over 45mpg on a single run. A normal day comes to about 42mpg for the round trip and over a whole tank once I've done a couple of local trips it's down to 39mpg.

That's based on the last month / 2000 miles and running on Tesco diesel. It'll improve by a couple of mpg once the weather perks up and we're back onto summer diesel.

The 5 was only a couple of mpg better. In the summer it'd just about top 50mpg on a similar journey. I'll expect the the 7 to get to 47-48.

The big difference for me is that I never found the 5 entirely comfortable. The sports seats don't suit my head & neck and the sport suspension is a bit on the "sporty" side when what I really needed for commuting was comfort. Although my 7 is also a Sport, the sport pack on these is purely cosmetic, the suspension is exactly the same as the non-sport, with adaptive shocks & active roll bars as standard. Comfort seats (which I now regard as essential) are far more common on the 7. Lots of other odds & ends were standard too. Basically, it's much easier to find a high spec on a 7.

The car is bigger overall but I've only really noticed it when parking, it's about 6" longer so noticeably sticks out from normal parking bays !


Summary - the F10 530d M Sport is awesome, buy my one

Ah yes, F01, not G01

Thanks for the write-up, very useful

[Jobbo]

Steve, the Tesla Model S has a massive hatchback so is about as close to an estate as I’d need; the Patrol is not going to be pleasant or cheap on a 140 mile round trip, so it has to be one do-it-all car plus a plaything. Anyway, I like estates

[nuttinnew]

I got a chance to have a rough look at the A2 earlier; the road wasn't the most level but the ride height seemed the same side to side, however the wheelbase on the passenger side was about 2 cm less than the driver's Nothing is blatantly bent, will need it on a lift to check properly and see if the subframe's moved. Happiness and joy.

[Sundayjumper]

Anyway, I like estates

And large hatchbacks.

[JonMad]

I’m impressed you get anything north of 35mpg in the 740. I just did 3 days (270 miles) of motorway commuting in the Megane, some stop start but not too much, and not going over 80... 32mpg

[Sundayjumper]

44.3 on my drive home !

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[Rich B]

I’m impressed you get anything north of 35mpg in the 740. I just did 3 days (270 miles) of motorway commuting in the Megane, some stop start but not too much, and not going over 80... 32mpg

My Golf would do 40+ in those conditions - which is a fairer comparison than a diesel barge (assuming you’re meg is a 2.0T petrol?)

[Jobbo]

Anyway, I like estates

And large hatchbacks.

Not particularly, but there’s no estate Tesla

[Shlergen]

Superb Exec 190 update: 2k in and appreciating the waftyness. 47-48 av on last 2 tanks with a lot of traffic entering the joy that is Reading.

Been an expensive week, 1 new rear tyre post puncture (flint), then balancing and alignment after series
of decent crater size pot hole encounters. I’ve put a claim in with local council but not holding out much luck.

Getting used to the dsg box, 90% it’s awesome, does sometimes get confused in lower gears. It’s only on 27k but will get dsg recalibrated when oil is done (40k).

[jamcg]

Anyway, I like estates

And large hatchbacks.

Not particularly, but there’s no estate Tesla

There is, but it’s no looker and costs 70k to convert



https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new- ... -completed

[Jobbo]

I like that.

[Sundayjumper]

On the way to work yesterday the car pinged up a message to check the nsr tyre pressure. I ignored it of course.

Finally checked it this morning. 23psi (should be 36). Oh. I guess the car was right. I couldn’t feel it at all while driving.

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I’ve left it with the tyre place, he wasn’t sure if it’s repairable as it’s at a bit of an angle. I’ll find out later. £150 for a new one and this one’s only a month old

Meanwhile I need to drag the Porsche out for an MOT this afternoon. It’s not moved since the summer. I hope it’s OK.

[Sundayjumper]

Apparently I worry too much. Clean sheet for the Porsche and puncture fixed for a tenner

Impressively long nail removed from the tyre:

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[nuttinnew]

Impressively long nail removed from the tyre:

[V8Granite]

Drove back from Birmingham today, from the bullring doing a cold start and a 1.5 hour break for dinner we averaged 44mph and 27.2 mpg overc99 miles, a new record and I wasn’t aiming to do an economy run. I just set cruise to 65 where I could. Not bad for a big lump. Must try to break 30mpg and then I can call it a frugal family bus.

Dave!

[Sundayjumper]

New thermostat on The 7 today. The gauge was sitting dead centre no problem but I was cranking the heater up to 25 degrees to be comfortable when in The 5 I'd rarely go much over 20. And even though warm air came out of the heater quite quickly the gauge seemed to take a long time to get up to dead centre. I hooked up a code reader for a day and the engine was (correctly) running at 90 ± a degree depending on load. So no real signs of a fault.

I always like to put new thermostats in cars though, I've never had one where a new thermostat *didn't* make a noticeable difference so I went ahead and ordered one. BMW, being very sensible German engineers, use the same thermostat on pretty much all of their diesel cars from MINI up to 7-Series, so they're easy to get hold of and relatively cheap - £32 for a decent Mahle one. And it's pretty easy to fit too. Undo thirteen bolts to remove some cross braces (a snap with an impact driver but a bit of a pain by hand), unplug & lift out the fan pack, then there's very easy access with a 10mm socket to remove the thermostat housing. Old one out, new one in, put everything back. I'm a bit of a pikey so I just let the coolant leak out and then topped it up after. It was a couple of litres. I'll do a proper flush one day.

Before I put it in though, I did a quick comparison of old vs. new. Cosmetically almost identical apart from the old one looking a bit darker. The spring however was noticeably softer on the old one. I put them in a pan of water on the stove with a thermometer and the old one did open at the right temperature, but opened very slowly compared to the new one, and didn't open as far even with the water properly boiling. So I feel vindicated

I'll have to wait until tomorrow to do a proper cold start. On a quick run tonight all was fine until I noticed a rattling noise. Eventually traced to the nsf brake shield. Aluminium shield held on by four bolts, the shield had totally rotted out around all four bolts leaving a ~20mm hole at each mounting point ! New ones ordered.

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And it occurred to me, maybe the reason I'm bonding with this car so much more than the 5 is because I'm doing jobs like this on it. The 5, apart from a new screen wash pump early on, NEVER needed any work. A very good thing by normal standards. Just not my style !

[Broccers]

That's a decent sized nail.

[dinny_g]

but one down side is that when you adjust the instrument lighting down to it's lowest setting (my preferred option), it dims the screen on the left (Sat Nav, Car Play, Radio etc) but not the main part of the screen behind the wheel. (Speedo, Rev Counter, G-Meter )

Older analogue displays would dim this part too.

Had a bit of a poke around the manual at the weekend and found that there is still a little jog wheel down by the lights to dim the main display. So the left screen is buried in the in car adjustment settings and the main display is an analogue wheel control. Bit Odd really. The whole display should be off the wheel. You're unlikely to want to dim the speedo but leave the sat nav or Car Play light up like a search light...