2013 BMW 650i Gran Coupe Long-Term Update 5 - MotorTrend Magazine
As is done with all of our long-term fleet vehicles, I've been religiously recording every drop of fuel that enters the Gran Coupe's 18-gallon-or-so stomach. The vast majority of the more than 17,000 miles on the Gran Coupe have been spent around the Los Angeles area in the usual city traffic. The worst single-tank fuel average recorded was a paltry 10 mpg, and I'll go ahead and assume that an editor's heavy foot was to blame. (While our long-term vehicles have individual chaperones, each car sees plenty of driving with other staffers when its chaperone is away on a press junket or reviewing a different vehicle for a few days. ) The best single-tank average was 24. 1 mpg, achieved by the Gran Coupe's previous caretaker, Angus MacKenzie, on a freeway cruise to Arizona. As the car was driven more and more, the average started to climb -- through 16. 6 mpg through 10,000 miles, to 17. 1 mpg at 12,000 and on to our current 17. 4 figure. The fuel efficiency continues to climb despite the fact that I had the BMW's irritating start/stop engine function modified by the dealer to not default to automatically on. Now that the car remembers my preference as off, it hasn't been. Source: www.motortrend.com
