The Road to Bratislava – Driving the BMW 535d Sedan – The Diesel Driver

CROSSING THE BORDER WITH THE BMW 535d

We crossed the border into Austria near Walserberg shortly after 3 p.m. and continued on the Austrian Autobahn A1 (the German Autobahn A8 terminates at the border) in the direction of Vienna. The A1 is the oldest and most important Autobahn in Austria, connecting the capital city of Vienna on a east-west axis with the cities of Linz and Salzburg. Once in Austria, we took a short detour to enjoy the marvelous scenery of the Mondsee (Moon Lake) area. We also noted the 535d’s fuel consumption. After 174 km (108 miles), the 535d used 8.4 l/100 km (27 mpg). Our average driving speed was 102.6 km/h (63.7 mp/h).

We rejoined the A1 at the interchange near Mondsee and headed towards Vienna. After 100 km (62 miles), we passed Linz, the third-largest city of Austria and the capital of the state of Upper Austria (Oberösterreich), where Sunday afternoon traffic was light on the expanded six-lane Autobahn. The speed limit in Austria on most highways is 130 km/h (80 mph), although one can drive a bit faster without setting off the photo radar. We used the cruise control extensively here so we wouldn’t go faster than 150 km/h (93 mph), but we also noticed a problem with the Speed Limit information that the car was displaying. Despite a speed limit of 130 km/h, the car displayed an incorrect maximum speed of 80 km/h (50 mph). It seems that the system’s camera recognized the maximum speed limit for trucks (80 km/h) and thought that it would also be applicable for cars.

Near the Knoten (interchange) Steinhäusl, after having followed the A1 for more than 270 km (167 miles), we switched onto the A21 (the A1 leads directly into the city of Vienna). Via the A21, also called “Wiener Außenring Autobahn” (Vienna outer ring highway), we passed Vienna to the south and changed onto the S1 at the Knoten Vösendorf. The S1 (Schnellstraße 1) connects the southern part of Vienna with the eastern part, including Vienna InternationalAirport in Schwechat and the Autobahn A4 (Ost-Autobahn).

At the Knoten (interchange) Schwechat, we joined the A4 in the direction Bratislava and Budapest, and continued there for the next 53 km (33 miles) before leaving the Autobahn near the Slovak border. In view of the fact that we had only a Vignette (highway toll sticker) for the Austrian Autobahns, we decided to drive the last 13 km (8 miles) on Slovakian country roads so we would not have to purchase a separate Vignette for the Slovakian highways. Approximately 15 minutes after crossing the border, we reached our destination, the Kempinski Hotel River Park along the Danube River.

Exactly 4 hours and 52 minutes had passed since we left the Maximiliansstraße in Munich and pulled up at the hotel in Bratislava. We found that the 535d’s fuel economy had improved significantly once we were no longer stuck in traffic as compared to fuel usage for the first portion of the trip, prior to crossing the border. We drove a total of 528 km (328 miles), mostly on German and Austrian Autobahns, and our fuel consumption was an incredible 7.1 l/100 km (34 mpg) – with an average speed of 111 km/h (68.9 mp/h).