It is usual to find a massive disparity between what a car manufacturer says a car’s fuel consumption will be and what it actually is, and not just because we tend to drive cars harder than most.
With the 3 Series, however, BMW’s claims turn out to be more honest than most. Once more taking the 320d as our example, BMW says it will do 61.4mpg; our own tests driving the car in a gentle but hardly saintly style yielded 56.8mpg.
More to the point, perhaps, equivalent testing of other cars has shown a marked reluctance to better 50mpg, giving the BMW not only a longer range but dramatically lower long-term running costs.
Continue to VerdictBMW 3 Series 2014-2018 review | page 6 of 8
