MyE28.com

Time flys. This guy is already over a decade old and this is my newer BMW.
 

 

Time to bump this thing up again.

Anybody else own an electric car in here?  We have a couple of Leafs and they save so much money on fuel I hardly know what to do with it.
 

turbodan wrote: Jul 11, 2025 8:49 PM ... they save so much money on fuel I hardly know what to do with it.
 

I'm sure you can find something turbo related to spend it on.

Not quite me or pure electric, but my stepson bought a Hyundai Hybrid a few years back, just before Covid IIRC. Stupid low financing, 1% or 0 or the like. He says the gas savings from the Tahoe he traded in more than pay for the car payment, so he feels like it's free. Plus it's been 10X more reliable. It did do weird things to the car display when he had a Fast trac transponder mounted in a particular place, the the dealer knew about that quirk and repositioned it for free.

turbodan wrote: Jul 11, 2025 8:49 PM Time to bump this thing up again.

Anybody else own an electric car in here?  We have a couple of Leafs and they save so much money on fuel I hardly know what to do with it. 

Seems like a lot of people do less than 40-50 miles a day. The early electric offerings were marginal for this kind of round trip but the newer stuff can do it daily on one or two charges a week. They really excel for short trips where a gas engine never really gets warmed up. Taking the kids to the bus stop with gas would average about 10 mpg for me, electric gets 4 miles/kwh regardless of the length of the trip.

What I really dig is the regenerative braking. I use the friction brakes so little that I think it's likely they will never wear out. The newer leaf can do up to 35kw which slows the car down quite effectively. It is exceptionally efficient. 

gwb72tii wrote: Jul 12, 2025 12:16 AM Her last tank of gas lasted 2146 miles.

Wow.

Mike W." wrote: Jan 10, 2025 10:53 PM

turbodan wrote: Jan 10, 2025 10:32 PM E46s are just about as old now as e28s were when they came out.

I hope to feel better about that after a few drinks.

 

The earliest US spec E28s were about 20 when Mye28 came about.  Earliest US spec E46s are from '98 model year.  That's 27.  Earliest E90 are from '25 model year.  That's 20.  How does that make you feel?  Drink up my man.

My M535i is 40 years old.  I bought my first car when I was in college in 1976, it was a '61 Pontiac which I thought was pretty old at the time.  If I had bought a 40 year old car then instead, it would have been from 1926.

^ I'm reminded of that every morning when I get up and look in the bathroom mirror, and there's an old man staring back at me.  

stuartinmn wrote: Jul 14, 2025 7:26 AM ^ I'm reminded of that every morning when I get up and look in the bathroom mirror, and there's an old man staring back at me.  

turbodan wrote: Jul 12, 2025 1:00 AM Seems like a lot of people do less than 40-50 miles a day. The early electric offerings were marginal for this kind of round trip but the newer stuff can do it daily on one or two charges a week. They really excel for short trips where a gas engine never really gets warmed up. Taking the kids to the bus stop with gas would average about 10 mpg for me, electric gets 4 miles/kwh regardless of the length of the trip.

This is what has got me looking at replacing the E39 with either a hybrid or super efficient modern gas 'appliance'. Other than the E39 getting to be 'that age', it can't really break 22mpg with my driving demands (and that's on a good tank, typically it's under 20mpg). The Honda CR-V isn't any better.

I'm actually the perfect candidate for an all-electric car:
-Work from home every day
-Very few car trips/week
-Average trip distance is less than 20 miles
-Mostly surface street trips (which optimizes the Hybrid and Regen braking technology)
The only hold back is not wanting to spend the money to put in the electrical infrastructure at the house (I would opt to try to implement a PV solar collection system to either meet the recharge needs or offset the grid needs. Again, I have the optimal house orientation and roof set-up for it).

I've been looking at the older A3 e-tron wagon/hatches, older Lexus CT's and new Kia/Hyundai/Honda's.
Anyone have any experience with the A3's or CT's?

Charging may require some alterations. I was fortunate to have a 220v circuit available, originally for an electric dryer.  I have a gas dryer so I was able to relocate the plug and utilize it for level 2 charging. It can support 6kW which is about 10% state of charge per hour in the newer leaf.

If you drive infrequently enough and for a short enough distance you can utilize a standard will outlet for level 1 charging for vehicles like the LEAF. Its a lot less juice though, takes a lot longer to charge. May be no problem at all for a lot of people though.

vinceg101 wrote: Jul 14, 2025 1:22 PM

turbodan wrote: Jul 12, 2025 1:00 AM Seems like a lot of people do less than 40-50 miles a day. The early electric offerings were marginal for this kind of round trip but the newer stuff can do it daily on one or two charges a week. They really excel for short trips where a gas engine never really gets warmed up. Taking the kids to the bus stop with gas would average about 10 mpg for me, electric gets 4 miles/kwh regardless of the length of the trip.

This is what has got me looking at replacing the E39 with either a hybrid or super efficient modern gas 'appliance'. Other than the E39 getting to be 'that age', it can't really break 22mpg with my driving demands (and that's on a good tank, typically it's under 20mpg). The Honda CR-V isn't any better.

I'm actually the perfect candidate for an all-electric car:
-Work from home every day
-Very few car trips/week
-Average trip distance is less than 20 miles
-Mostly surface street trips (which optimizes the Hybrid and Regen braking technology)
The only hold back is not wanting to spend the money to put in the electrical infrastructure at the house (I would opt to try to implement a PV solar collection system to either meet the recharge needs or offset the grid needs. Again, I have the optimal house orientation and roof set-up for it).

I've been looking at the older A3 e-tron wagon/hatches, older Lexus CT's and new Kia/Hyundai/Honda's.
Anyone have any experience with the A3's or CT's?

I'm getting 26-27 daily out of my 530/5M E39 and 30 ish on the highway, but I have a very soft driving pattern. You are the poster child for either full E or even Hybrid. Hybrids do really well on short trips/stop and go, but still have the option of a quick fillup for a long trip. I see a lot of wisdom in that.

Mike W. wrote: Jul 15, 2025 1:05 AMI'm getting 26-27 daily out of my 530/5M E39 and 30 ish on the highway, but I have a very soft driving pattern.

I can't understand how you can get that kind of MPG with the M54B30 in as heavy a car as the E39, even with the standard transmission. I am not speed driver by any means, especially around town. But that car has never gotten more than I'm getting even since I bought it 13 years/100K miles ago. In fact, my mileage has been extremely consistent for this whole time as I have tracked it since purchasing. The best I ever managed on the freeway was 29-30mpg under the most optimal conditions, and I haven't been able to replicate that since. I still have the dealer window sticker and it doesn't even state the mpg like yours, and those are usually extremely & unrealistically optimistic.

A good friend of mine bought an E39 528iT auto on the information that he could replicate the same mpg as you state. But since he bought it, he's lucky to get 15-18mpg around town and not a whole lot more on the freeway. He was better off to keep driving his E24 as it gets slightly better mpg.

turbodan wrote: Jul 15, 2025 12:55 AM Charging may require some alterations. I was fortunate to have a 220v circuit available, originally for an electric dryer.  I have a gas dryer so I was able to relocate the plug and utilize it for level 2 charging. It can support 6kW which is about 10% state of charge per hour in the newer leaf.

If you drive infrequently enough and for a short enough distance you can utilize a standard will outlet for level 1 charging for vehicles like the LEAF. Its a lot less juice though, takes a lot longer to charge. May be no problem at all for a lot of people though.

Indeed, our cars will sometimes not move from our driveway for days on end, so a slow charge would not be a burden to manage.
We likely have the extra circuit in the house's 200A panel, but it would take a bit of shuffling and maybe sharing with W/D (better yet would be sharing the Garage Shop subpanel circuit since that one is not in use very much).
I have been looking at the plug-in hybrids but it's very hard to find them in anything but SUV's these days; more and more automakers are dropping most of their passenger cars each year.

I've never been big on hybrids. If you can only have one vehicle I suppose a case could be made for it. If you can accommodate two vehicles, the best option is one gas one electric. The complete lack of maintenance with a car like the leaf is awesome.

As far as charging goes, if you have a standard 120v wall outlet available on a 15 amp breaker, you could charge at 1.4kW. Would take about 28 hours for what we consider a full charge at that rate.  We don't run it down to zero and usually only charge up to 85-90% to extend battery life. With this ~15% buffer at each end of the range, a full charge amounts to about 40kWh.  At 240v and 25 amps, the same amount of juice only takes about 7 hours.

Im not sure if this buffer is necessary, but keeping it within the 15-85 percent state of charge is more than enough to cover normal usage for us. It certainly couldn't hurt.

vinceg101 wrote: Jul 15, 2025 11:50 AM

Mike W. wrote: Jul 15, 2025 1:05 AMI'm getting 26-27 daily out of my 530/5M E39 and 30 ish on the highway, but I have a very soft driving pattern.

I can't understand how you can get that kind of MPG with the M54B30 in as heavy a car as the E39, even with the standard transmission. I am not speed driver by any means, especially around town. But that car has never gotten more than I'm getting even since I bought it 13 years/100K miles ago. In fact, my mileage has been extremely consistent for this whole time as I have tracked it since purchasing. The best I ever managed on the freeway was 29-30mpg under the most optimal conditions, and I haven't been able to replicate that since. I still have the dealer window sticker and it doesn't even state the mpg like yours, and those are usually extremely & unrealistically optimistic.

As I said, that's what I get. And that's calculated MPG not OBC which is a bit higher, typically 1-1.5 higher. It is an oddity that in US spec, the 530s get the best MPG for the E39 chassis. But I've long found EPA numbers for BMWs are just crazy low, I guess they don't know how to game the system like GM did for so long with impossibly high numbers.

My E28, US spec 535, would dip below 20, barely, in the winter on a ~7 mile commute. Northern Calif, so not cold, but not warm either, typically 40's in the AM. It got around 23.5 on vacation which was mostly highway, but plenty of low speed National Parks miles too. And a fair amount of 85+ speeds too. EPA says 14/20. I put 155K on that car and 17 was the lowest I ever saw and that was in Vegas, including a trip or two on strip in summer. Stop and go with the A/C working overtime.

The E36. 26-28, again in a soft commute. ~30 on the highway. EPA says 17/26. I put 120k on it and I don't think I ever saw below 23.

A good friend of mine bought an E39 528iT auto on the information that he could replicate the same mpg as you state. But since he bought it, he's lucky to get 15-18mpg around town and not a whole lot more on the freeway. He was better off to keep driving his E24 as it gets slightly better mpg.

Funny you should mention this one. We had a 2000 528ita. 25ish, again, soft but not highway. A little better on long road trips, but not much. One huge thing about it though was the VANOS seals went around 125K. MPG was down around 19, it drove just doggy unless you absolutely romped on it. Rebuilt it, $100 in parts and an afternoon, and bam, MPG up to the mid 20s and lots more power. Completely transformed it. Still not a rocket ship, but almost enough power instead of not nearly enough. I did have one highway tank that was in the low 20s. Across the ET highway in Nevada. At one point my wife said step on it, we're crawling! I bumped it up from 90 to 120 before she said to slow down. That was a good car, I liked it far more than the 525ita that replaced it.

I know on some cars EPA numbers are pure fantasy, but in my experience with them and BMWs it's the other way around. Much better than projected.

Mike W. wrote: Jul 16, 2025 2:28 AM
Funny you should mention this one. We had a 2000 528ita. 25ish, again, soft but not highway. A little better on long road trips, but not much. One huge thing about it though was the VANOS seals went around 125K. MPG was down around 19, it drove just doggy unless you absolutely romped on it. Rebuilt it, $100 in parts and an afternoon, and bam, MPG up to the mid 20s and lots more power. Completely transformed it. Still not a rocket ship, but almost enough power instead of not nearly enough. I did have one highway tank that was in the low 20s. Across the ET highway in Nevada. At one point my wife said step on it, we're crawling! I bumped it up from 90 to 120 before she said to slow down. That was a good car, I liked it far more than the 525ita that replaced it.

I know on some cars EPA numbers are pure fantasy, but in my experience with them and BMWs it's the other way around. Much better than projected.

The M52TUB28 really was a sweet engine. I liked the torque curve better than the M54's for daily driving. The M54 looks good on paper, more peak power, but the 2.8 had a smooth and strong low-mid pull that was well suited to daily driving.

turbodan wrote: Jul 17, 2025 11:02 PM

The M52TUB28 really was a sweet engine. I liked the torque curve better than the M54's for daily driving. The M54 looks good on paper, more peak power, but the 2.8 had a smooth and strong low-mid pull that was well suited to daily driving.

I liked the M52B28, we had a very early E39 with it and I put ~125K on an E36 with it. Nice, good power, good curve. Had an E39 528It with the M52TU engine. Nice, but not quite enough for the heavy touring. I very much dislike the M54B25. Absolutely no balls at all, they should never have put that engine in heavy E39 US spec cars. The emasculated engine. However I do like the M54B30. I've got an E39 with it and it's fun to drive. It's a sweet engine. A year in I still struggle to compare it to the E36 that preceded it as my DD, power wise, or torque for that matter. On paper it's got a better HP/pound ratio than the E36, but a worse Torque/Pound ratio. Maybe the E36 had more immediacy, but the E39 pulls harder?