Gas Mileage

[asif163]

"I dont know M guys, we have not see the worse of the gas prices yet, I wonder if prices of M3s next year will drop as soon gas per gallon reaches 5.00+

Honestly, raise you hand guys. Who among you guys will reconsider unloading the car when it reaches $5+/gallon

be honest"




For every dollar that gas prices go up a driver with roughly a 16 gallon tank which fills up his/her car every week will have an increased fuel cost of $16/wk. That comes to $64/mo or $768/yr extra. If that hurts all that much then the owner of the M3 should never have purchased/leased an approx. $65-70k car in the first place. Obviously there comes a point where too much is too much but, for an owner of a $70k car it's not at $5/gallon. My .02.

[ihyln]

It's in OPECs best interest to NOT go $200 a barrel because then everyone suddenly stops and says "fuck opec, let's use something other than oil". Then OPEC is screwed. Seriously folks, OPEC is smart and they will not let that happen. They will not price themselves out of what approximately 99% of the world uses daily.

[Ajax-Prime]

Originally Posted by ihyln

It's in OPECs best interest to NOT go $200 a barrel because then everyone suddenly stops and says "fuck opec, let's use something other than oil". Then OPEC is screwed. Seriously folks, OPEC is smart and they will not let that happen. They will not price themselves out of what approximately 99% of the world uses daily.

+1

[ihyln]

Originally Posted by Laszlo

If it hits $200 a barrel, which it will, because Opec wants it to, then you're paying upwards of $10 bucks a gallon. The UK is paying $8 bucks right now. If you get an average of 15 mpg and travel only 16,000 miles a year, you're talking about $10,660 dollars a year, just for gas! Over a four-year period that's over $42,640. That's paying off a brand new e92 335i (base model).

And if you can believe this... a gallon of gas in Venezuela is only $0.12 cents per gallon. And in the Middle East, it's $0.24 cents a gallon. Can you say, fukc OPEC!

The most expensive, I forgot what country, is $18.50 per gallon.

Also, gas in the UK is the way it is because of the ridiculous taxes. I think in the US the average tax is about 18 cents a gallon. I don't want to say there will be doom and gloom when gas hits $10 in the US but simply our economy cannot support that unless wages go up accordingly, which they wont. Like I said in my previous post, OPEC is smart and they will push the most tolerable price.

[ihyln]

OPEC has absolutely NOTHING to do with what happens to the oil after it is bought. All the stupendous prices you see now are due to speculators literally profiteering off energy commodities. It's basically creating a false demand. If you compare this month to the same month last year we only use 1.4% more gas. Not exactly an insane amount of demand.

If the US Gov't decided to stop the speculation of oil commodities then the price would stabilize or perhaps go down a bit but with Buch/Cheney in office I highly doubt that, especially since they are on the outs.

[erock841]

[/QUOTE]
If the US dropped gas-tax our roads would just get worse. Have you seen or noticed how bad our infrastructure is? It's on par with Mexico. Actually, Mexico roads might be better.[/QUOTE]

I agree the US taxes our gas for many reasons: pollution, traffic, car accidents. So I don't see them reducing the tax anytime soon... In fact some economists think the tax should be increased in order to move us away from our dependence on foreign oil so gas prices are definitely going up

[ihyln]

Funny you bring up Hillary's gas tax statement. Personally, I didn't care if Barack or Hillary got into the Oval Office as long as it's not a Republican. But her statement was just beyond short sighted - it was dumb. I might have actually switched to her if she said she would put a stop to speculative practices for commodity goods such as oil and food.

[ihyln]

Without getting long winded the system is "fine" for lack of better words. Everything will reach an equillibrium. Look at the housing market, completely nuts, right? Right now it's still not BETTER but it's a lot more sensible. I expect the same to happen to oil. Unfortunately, it won't happen soon enough.

The worst part of capitalism is if its a good idea once, its a good idea a million times over. We're somewhere in the 837,999 range.

[farbarg]

Originally Posted by Laszlo

If you have studied the Great Depression, you'll see how closely we are following the timeline. What led to the Great Depression was the massive construction and credit boom (hmmmm?, sound familair.). There were also several stock market crashes prior to the big one of 1929.

When the equity market crashed in 1929 it gained back its losses by summer 1930. During that stretch though, the commodity market exploded and then came crashing down just when the equity market was pulling out.

People think the Great Depression happened overnight, but that's not correct. It actually took about two-years to really start hitting home.

The consumer, in the end, is what put the final nail in the coffin mid-1930. Unemployment was at 15%. But it wasn't until 1933 when unemployment reached 25% and the Great Depression was here to stay another 9-years.

where's the "unsubscribe" button?

[TheBry]

Originally Posted by asif163

"I dont know M guys, we have not see the worse of the gas prices yet, I wonder if prices of M3s next year will drop as soon gas per gallon reaches 5.00+

Honestly, raise you hand guys. Who among you guys will reconsider unloading the car when it reaches $5+/gallon

be honest"




For every dollar that gas prices go up a driver with roughly a 16 gallon tank which fills up his/her car every week will have an increased fuel cost of $16/wk. That comes to $64/mo or $768/yr extra. If that hurts all that much then the owner of the M3 should never have purchased/leased an approx. $65-70k car in the first place. Obviously there comes a point where too much is too much but, for an owner of a $70k car it's not at $5/gallon. My .02.

Incredibly well said. I completely agree.

[swamp2]

80%+ freeway thus far (new and long commute). I do shift around quite a lot between 5-7 (M-DCT) and even leave it in 6 for extended periods. As well I vary the throttle and speed in gear. So in other words not an efficiency driving style, a break in one. First two tanks have been at 17.6 and 17.8. Not so hot.

[asaulo1]

Coming from bimmerfest this weekend, I got 18.6 mpg... not bad... getting better.... only 450+ miles to go before break in is over so expect that number to drop dramatically

[e36jakeo]

When the dollar begins to strengthen against the Euro again and the high prices begin to reduce demand, oil prices to US buyers will start to fall. I think it will happen before it hits $5. Notice traffic reducing already -folks are pulling back on driving and soon it will have the natural supply/demand effect.

[M3Kevin]

Just ran the BMW on a 90 minute freeway drive and reset the mileage computer so I could get a solid read on 6th gear cruising at about 80-85mph.

22.3 or so mpg at that speed.


Kevin

[asif163]

Originally Posted by TheBry

Incredibly well said. I completely agree.

Thank you sir. Also- the problem of Light Crude trading at $200/barrel is not just based upon OPEC's whim. There are so many variables at work that it is virtually impossible to predict what will happen. Oil being at $200 would put the standard deviation at a point where it is baffling to the best of economists. It just isn't sustainable although, a well known Wall Street analyst did predict it would be at that level by the end of the summer.

There's a good article about that here: http://economics.about.com/od/theoil...c_2007_oil.htm.

That being said, with the economies of the emerging markets growing at the paces we have seen, the world-wide consumption of raw materials and energy will be exponentially increasing over time.

The oil run up is also due to the weakening dollar. Now, as the economy picks up, which it eventually will, the dollar will strengthen. The Saudi Oil Minister also predicted that if the dollar rallied by 10% then the price of oil would go down to $65. He did say that if the dollar keeps weakening and demand remains robust then it will trade up to $200!

Personally, I don't think the price of oil now is sustainable. This is evidenced by the marginally increased sales of hybrids and the already diminishing demand of US consumers on oil (albeit a very slight decline for now).

In the end, who knows. Just enjoy your cars!

[asaulo1]

i just need it to stay at around $4 a gallon until I get to through the damn break in....

[nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn]

After this upcoming election, gas prices are going to see a dramatic drop. The US dollar will get stronger, and the oil rich countries will not have to inflate the price. If oil was traded in euros, gas would be a helluva lot cheaper. But it isn't, so we all have to just bite the bullet and ride out this some what rough time.

[nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn]

Originally Posted by Laszlo

Did you hear about that millionaire (believe he was worth 40 million or something) who recently bet that the market would tumble (future trading)... and when it did, overnight earned 3.5 billion dollars! Now, there's something wrong here.

I don't think you would say there is something wrong if the guy lost all of his money. The guy made a gutsy call, and it paid off.

[nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn]

What we need to do is come up with a way to disenfranchise China and India.

Perhaps nuking them back into the stone age would work...

[SGBlade]

Originally Posted by ferrari355fi

What we need to do is come up with a way to disenfranchise China and India.

Perhaps nuking them back into the stone age would work...

But what about all the beautiful women that come from those countries? Wouldn't be to fair imo

[PocketRocket]

Originally Posted by PocketRocket

yeah! but why the heck buy a M3



you must have been really gently driving it, or under breakin period

I heard 14mpg ave

... and saw it as low as 11.4mpg, that guy must have been really burning rubber

gee! the new M guys will not honestly say what they get for it at $3.69 a gallon now... WTF is wrong with this picture

a M3 guy at 14mpg driving 50 miles a day cost $13.17/day to drve

a 325i guy at 23mpg driving 50 miles a day cost $8.02/day to drve

a honda civic guy at 31mpg driving miles a day cost $5.95/day to drve

did I really actually say that?

... thats 3.69/gal (Apr 11) gas was a was close to 2 months ago, todays Premium is $4.35/gal (Jun 1)

Anyone change their minds yets and maybe considering a 335i intead?

[ruff]

Originally Posted by PocketRocket

did I really actually say that?

... thats 3.69/gal (Apr 11) gas was a was close to 2 months ago, todays Premium is $4.35/gal (Jun 1)

Anyone change their minds yets and maybe considering a 335i intead?

PR,

I am having more and more trouble convincing myself, living close to 5500 feet that the M3 is the way to go as much as I love everything about the M3. I know some see DCT as the most important option on the M3. I always considered DFI, with it's substantial increase in power and efficiency, as easily the most important feature the M3 could have. This is especially coming to fruition with what seems to be the skies the limit petrol prices. Four problems I have with the 335 are the differential oil is "lifetime" the engine runs too hot, run flats and of course lack of a LSD.