Having owned both 530d E39 & 525d E60 Sport I have to say the 530d was the better of the two on fuel. On average the 530 was returning 39 miles per gallon whereas the 525 is around 34 miles per gallon. This is a combination of motorway and short journeys.
The 3 litre d engine was smoother and didn’t change down gear as often as the 2.5 hence the later is working harder. If I could turn the clock back a few months I would definitely have gone for another 530d, but I opted for a few more creature comforts such as Sat Nav and Bluetooth to name a couple.
On the present car I am getting about 450 miles to the tank, I checked this only yesterday when I filled up, having said that I am doing short journeys at present.
If a remember correctly 500 miles from a tank full was about right if I didn't gun it too much and did less shorter journeys i.e 12 miles every day each way to and from the office.
My E39 was on a 51 plate, I had it from new and kept it for just over 3 years. I think it had done about 95k miles when it went and the turbo unit was re-newed at about 70k, one to watch and ask about if you're looking at one with that sort of mileage
So comparing the engine like to an Audi A4 2.5 TDI, i would get much better milage from an Audi... by the looks of things.... but the BMW is in it's own league.
Col, when you mean "turbo unit was re-newed". Did you need a get a new turbo installed... how much did this cost?
I had an A4 1.9 TDi SE Saloon for a while that would return about 50mpg, a colleague had a 2.5 TDi Avant Sport at the same time, the difference between the two was about 5/7 mpg. Although the Audi was a good car I also felt and still do that the 5 series is a better more luxurious car all round, although if we were comparing apples with apples we should look no further than the Audi A6. In my opinion the new 5 series is a better all round car than the new Audi A6.
Yes the whole turbo unit was replaced but I have no idea of the cost as it was under warranty at the time.
I have a 2002 530d sport with 66k miles on it. It is in a different class to previous audis that I have owned. I get 35mpg from mixed (largely around town) driving. The sat nav reader was replaced under warranty about six months ago - other than that it has been flawless. I previously had an E39 523i and kept it until it was 7 years old - in the end I had electrical problems that were expensive. That is the biggest issue with running these cars outside warranty - mine has nav/tv etc. and if they go wrong they will be expensive! (Nav is handy but I never use the TV!) That said, I do not believe that there is a better car on the road today than my E39 530d sport - particulalrly when you consider what you can pick them up for now. Find a good independent BMW garage and get it serviced regularly and it will go for years.
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