Prius out-smugged by BMW 520d
by Simon Handby in Your car on 02.04.08
We love Toyota’s Prius hybrid, and anyone who’s had a go in one will probably have enjoyed the challenge of seeing just how high they can get the mpg figure to go. Still, Toyota says that its parsimonious eco-car will do nearly 66 miles on a gallon of petrol, a figure that not everyone can match in real life.
With that in mind, The Times has come up with the interesting wheeze of driving a Prius to Geneva, meandering around in towns for 100 miles on the way to give its electric motor – which alone can power the car in slower urban traffic – a chance to save some fuel. The twist is that they paired it with a BMW 520d; an executive car much less celebrated for its green credentials, and less favoured by various driving taxes such as London’s congestion charge.
We’ll confess to a little cynicism at the paper’s slightly unscientific approach – the Prius, with a piddly 45-litre fuel tank was almost bound to run out of fuel before the BMW, which has a 70-litre bath of diesel strapped under the back seats. All the same, the results are a disappointment for the Prius, and a propaganda coup for BMW.
Toyota’s wunderkind made the 545-mile continental jaunt on a piffling 51.55 litres of fuel – just over 48 mpg. BMW’s executive saloon covered the same journey on just 49.26 litres – 50.3 mpg.
The BMW is a big car with, for its size, a small engine. Although The Times says that it isn’t “startlingly quick”, we’d say that an 8.3-second time for the 0-60 mph dash is pretty impressive, especially as you’d eventually reach 144mph if you forgot to stop accelerating.
So, you win this battle, BMW, but Prius owners can console themselves with one thought – if their hybrid does run out of petrol, its stored battery power gives them a chance to whirr along to the nearest garage and add more.
IMAGE by Flickr user Georgieporge
I’m just about to order a 520d for this reason, it beats all other reasonable sized cars hands down in the Co2 race. It’s by far the cheapest on company car tax, will still tow my 1800kg trailer/race car combo, and its certainly alot more refined/comfortable then the Prius.
24.04.2008 at 9:08 amHowever, one comment I cant get around…. “if their hybrid does run out of petrol, its stored battery power gives them a chance to whirr along to the nearest garage”… this implies that Prius drivers dont concentrate, and thus maybe they shouldn’t be on the road at all if they can’t fill up before running out of fuel !
I have to put my hand up and say that I ran out of fuel once on the A3 in Surrey. In my defense, I was 400 metres from the petrol station I’d been planning to stop at, and my fuel gauge was broken so I was going on guesswork.
It was my car’s way of telling me to guess again I suppose.
BMW do seem to be doing consistently well at reducing emissions across their model range - let us know how you get on with the 520d.
24.04.2008 at 10:51 amSimon, I had a 48hr test drive of a 520d last week…. I tend to drive smoothly but brisk, and it averaged 52.3 mpg on my 45 mile commute home, at 4:30pm (rush hour). Journey is about 30miles M25, 10 miles B-roads and 5 miles dual carrigeway. This compares to about 45mpg on a similar journey in my current 55-reg 320d Auto.
25.04.2008 at 11:34 amOut of interest, I did get some figures for other models i tested over 2 - 5 days on the same route.
Passat 2.0 TDi 170 DSG - 48mpg
Audi A6 2.0 TDi Estate - 52mpg (clear traffic)
Audi A6 2.7 TDi Estate - 47mpg
Mercedes C220 CDi Estate - 48mpg
All these figures were for a single journey home.
Hi Neil, thanks for the extra details. That sounds pretty impressive to me, especially for such a good-sized car.
07.05.2008 at 11:05 am