2011 BMW 335d Review and Final Drive: The Road to Stuttgart and Munich – The Diesel Driver – The Joy of Diesel Driving

THE DRIVE TO STUTTGART AND MUNICH

We continued our drive from Speyer towards Stuttgart and entered the Autobahn A6 at the interchange near Hockenheim, which we followed for 78 km (48 miles). At the interchange near Weinsberg, where the A6 intersects the A81, we switched onto the A81 in the direction of Stuttgart for the last 51 km (31 miles).

A month before, we had driven on the A81 with our new Mercedes-Benz E350 BlueTec en route to Maastricht, where we experienced a 15 km (9.3 mile) traffic jam. Overtaking slower traffic and trucks was this time easy, thanks to the powerful diesel engine of the BMW 335d and the light traffic. Our average cruising speed on the A81 was 140 km/h (87 mph).

We reached our destination in Stuttgart, the hotel Zauberlehrling (sorcerer’s apprentice) after a drive of 232 km (144 miles). The overall fuel economy of 9.2 l/100 km (25.6 mpg) with an average speed of 87 km/h (54 mph) came nowhere close to our expectations although a good part of this can be accounted for by the fact that our driving was either in traffic with lots of braking or at very high speeds.

The final leg of the trip, Stuttgart Munich, was two days later, and we returned just in time for the first day of Oktoberfest. The 268 km (166 mile) trip took three and one-half hours with an average speed of 80.8 km/h (50 mph).  The 335d used 7.9 l/100 km (29.77 mpg) and this trip also consisted of a mixture of traffic with braking or high-speed driving.

By contrast, while our 2010 BMW 335d averaged 6.5 l/100 km (36.2 mpg) across all of its highway trips, it averaged 7.5 l/100 km (31.4 mpg) on its first 500 km (310 mile) trip and fuel economy improved as the engine became more broken in.  Since our 2011 335d was not even past the break-in period during these drives, it is likely that its fuel economy will greatly improve as well.

As we noted in our 18-month report on the 335d, everyone who drives the car has found it fun and entertaining to drive – and that this Freude am Fahren (Joy of Driving, BMW’s longtime tagline) comes with greatly improved fuel economy without impacting performance figures (that include 0-60 mph in just six seconds) is a distinct and welcome bonus.

Jonathan Spira contributed to this article.

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VIRTUAL DRIVES

THE DRIVE FROM FRANKFURT TO STUTTGART

 

THE DRIVE FROM STUTTGART TO MUNICH – PART I

 

THE DRIVE FROM STUTTGART TO MUNICH – PART II

 

THE 2011 BMW 335d

 

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