Start-Stop-System!

[Alchem]

Why not have cylinder deactivation? If your have cruise control on while on the highway...there would be significant fuel savings to shut off four cylinders.
Although most m3 drivers will never cruise control lol.

[smmmurf]

Originally Posted by Alchem

Why not have cylinder deactivation? If your have cruise control on while on the highway...there would be significant fuel savings to shut off four cylinders.
Although most m3 drivers will never cruise control lol.

Lies! I have probably used cruise control for probably 60-70% of the miles on my M3.

[meevo]

i'd rather not have this.. i'm okay with the extra less mpg...
i'm sure something will go wrong with at least 1%

[King Tut]

I also use cruise control often, but I don't think cylinder deactivation will help much. The problem is that the 6MT cars are geared so aggressively that we are taching very high when cruising at 55 or 65 mph. What we need is a 7th gear that would drop the RPMs down and is only for cruising.

[smmmurf]

Originally Posted by King Tut

I also use cruise control often, but I don't think cylinder deactivation will help much. The problem is that the 6MT cars are geared so aggressively that we are taching very high when cruising at 55 or 65 mph. What we need is a 7th gear that would drop the RPMs down and is only for cruising.

IIRC, I hit the speed limiter in 5th on the A9 outside of Munich.

I would personally sacrifice 6th for an overdrive gear to turn 1800rpm at 65. BMW's have traditionally never had a significantly higher gear for the last ratio. It's always pretty close to 4th/5th.

[Finnegan]

I really don't think it's that big a deal. Our other car is an 07 Escape Hybrid with 50K miles and 2.5 years on it. It starts/stops all the time and it's instant on and go and there have been zero issues. It's easy to get used to the start/stop thing, and it only goes into the start/stop mode once the car is warmed up for emissions reasons.

If Ford, Toyota, and Honda can make it work reliably (I don't hear complaints about this feature failing from the greenies) I see no reason why BMW can't make it work reliably. There are plenty of 2-3 minute lights in my area so I could see this savings some fuel.

BTW, I totally agree on the final gear ratio. A real overdrive 6th (or 7th) gear would be a big plus. It's easy to downshift to the next lower gear if you need power (most of us do that anyway....).

Those two things would edge up the mileage a bit and if that dropped the guzzler tax (and cut my fuel costs) I'd see that as a good thing. But that's just me....

Let me put it this way--of all the "green" things to do to this car (turbos, 6 cylinder, lower power) it's a pretty painless way to green it up a bit. (Of course, dropping about 400-500 pounds wouldn't hurt either and would be pretty "green" too! )

[smmmurf]

Well, at least the next M3 should be geared much higher than this one. The extra torque from the turbos will allow BMW to run it at lower RPM's.

[Robert]

There's a big environment change towards green and BMW now as a mass volume car maker don't want to lose to the competition on that front. This is not the same BMW, niche market company, who pushed out 2002 for the enthusiast. They are competing against Lexus, Mercedes and Audis who are making cars for everyone. I don't think BMW is willing to sacrifice high revenue and margin for niche market drivers at this point. They will no doubt try to strike a balance.


I will always try to avoid first generation technology on big investment like a car. Give it a few years and things will work themselves out.

[Finnegan]

Originally Posted by Robert

There's a big environment change towards green and BMW now as a mass volume car maker don't want to lose to the competition on that front. This is not the same BMW, niche market company, who pushed out 2002 for the enthusiast. They are competing against Lexus, Mercedes and Audis who are making cars for everyone. I don't think BMW is willing to sacrifice high revenue and margin for niche market drivers at this point. They will no doubt try to strike a balance.


I will always try to avoid first generation technology on big investment like a car. Give it a few years and things will work themselves out.

Good assessment and I agree.

Regarding first generation, sound advice IMO, albeit in this case the tech has been around for about 9+ years. Unless BMW really screws up they should be able to pull in off. And I seem to recall reading somewhere that the start/stop was already a feature (like regenerative braking) on Euro models.

[JCtx]

The M3 would greatly benefit from a taller 6th; don't know if enough to overcome the gas guzzler tax, but pretty close.

And a start/stop system on a regular car is stupid IMO. It only makes sense on a hybrid, where the car can crawl in heavy traffic with battery power. The only thing I know is if I can't deactivate that feature myself, I would never buy such a car. Rather drive a sporty NA I4 6MT fuel efficient car than a larger one with all that $hit . But to each his own.

[moog55]

start-stop system is completely retarded on an m3. do not want.

[MachineDriver]

I think start/stop is killer. Too bad it'll be another 5 years before we get it in the US.