The Diesel Driver » Diesel Grand Touring

Mercedes-Benz E350 BlueTec Test Drive and Report: The Road to Kennebunkport

Christian Stampfer — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 02:42:02 +0000

Situated along the Kennebunk River, the city of Kennebunkport is a small town just one mile away from the Atlantic Ocean. Although the city is home to only 3,474 inhabitants, it is particularly well known because of one resident, former president George H. W. Bush, who had chosen Kennebunkport for his primary summer residence. Many tourists choose Kennebunkport as a place to spend their vacation and to relax on the beach.

For the first U.S. road trip with the Diesel Driver’s new long-term test auto, the 2011 Mercedes-Benz E350 BlueTec, TDD Editor Jonathan Spira and I planned a trip to all states in New England, except for Rhode Island. Our first destination was Kennebunkport, where we stayed at the Hidden Pond Resort.

After several drives in Europe, the Mercedes already had 1585 km (985 miles) on the clock. The overall fuel economy after our drive to Maastricht was 7.4 l/100 km (31.78 mpg). Since the break-in period of the car was over, we expected slightly better fuel economy for this trip than we had seen in the past.

Our drive to Kennebunkport started the day after I arrived from Munich in New York. The weather forecast sounded great and we were able to enjoy the famous and beautiful fall foliage of the region.

We crossed the East River and left New York via the Throgs Neck Bridge, a suspension bridge connecting the mainland with Long Island and started our drive towards Maine on the New England Thruway, better known as Interstate 95. Near Port Chester we crossed the state border into Connecticut. After a drive of 66 miles (106 km) where we experienced quite a lot of traffic, we followed I-91 in New Haven in a northerly direction towards Hartford. (Had we continued on I-95 we would not have avoided passing through Rhode Island and the overall drive would have taken more time.) We exited the Interstate at Exit 16 because it was time for a break and a driver change, so I switched seats with Jonathan, who had driven the first leg of our journey.

For the next part of the drive to Kennebunkport, I got to know a bit about the American way of driving and found many drivers passing cars and trucks on the right (something which is strictly prohibited on the German Autobahn). The six-cylinder diesel engine of our E350 with its massive 400 pound-feet of torque made it very easy to pass slower traffic regardless of lane.

We continued on I-95, connecting to Interstate 84 and Interstate 90, entered Massachusetts and switched onto the I-290 near Worcester and I-495 near Marlborough. After a short drive through New Hampshire, we reached Maine and stopped at the Visitor Center in Kittery.

Click here to continue to Page 2 – The Drive Along US-1 and Virtual Drives

2011 BMW 335d Review and Final Drive: The Road to Stuttgart and Munich

Christian Stampfer — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 18:30:53 +0000

Our fascination with the BMW 335d started almost two years ago, when Jonathan Spira took delivery of our 2010 BMW 335d at the BMW Welt. The successor to the E90 BMW 3 Series has just been unveiled and production of the current (E90) 3 Series has ended. The 335d introduced Americans to the concept of a diesel-powered sports sedan and readers of The Diesel Driver named it the 2011 Diesel Car of the Year.

Since its launch in December 2008, BMW has sold 8,217 335d sedans in the U.S. In the same time period, BMW sold 14,532 335i sedans, which means that one out of every three buyers (36% to be exact) chose the diesel variant.

To celebrate the 335d’s successful run, we wanted to drive it in its native habitat, Germany. Since it wasn’t practical to ship our 335d back to Europe for one last trip, we drove a 2011 335d sedan made for the German market.

The trip would take the 335d from Munich to Frankfurt to Stuttgart and back to Munich. (See the Virtual Drives on page 2 for a first-hand look at where we drove the 335d.)

Stuttgart is home to 5.3 million inhabitants and a wide range of automotive suppliers and industrial companies, such as Bosch, have based their headquarters in the capital of the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.

When an auto enthusiast thinks of the city of Stuttgart, two automobile manufacturers come to mind, namely Mercedes-Benz, the inventor of the automobile, with its production facilities based in Sindelfingen, 20 km (12.4 miles) to the south-west of Stuttgart, and Porsche, located in the Zuffenhausen section of Stuttgart. Both automakers recently built new museums (which are really more temples to the automobile than just museums) in Stuttgart. Mercedes-Benz opened its museum in 2006 while Porsche opened theirs to the public in January

After Jonathan and I attended the 64th Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA), where we saw numerous announcements from BMW, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche, among others, we planned a visit to Stuttgart to visit the Mercedes-Benz Museum and take a factory tour at the Mercedes plant in Sindelfingen.

We started the next-to-final leg of the BMW 335d’s voyage from our hotel, the Westin Grand Frankfurt, at noon. Since the navigation system reported a traffic jam on the city Autobahn A648, we decided to cross the river Main via the ”Alte Brücke” (old bridge) and headed directly towards the Autobahn A5 in the direction of Basel (Switzerland) and Karlsruhe. We entered the A5 at the interchange Frankfurt-Niederrad, drove past the Frankfurt International Airport and continued for the next 75 km (46 miles).

The first section of the A5, built between Frankfurt and Darmstadt, was used for propaganda purposes by the National Socialist regime in the 1930s and was incorrectly called “Germany’s First Autobahn,” even though the Cologne-Bonn Autobahn had been opened a year earlier.

We exited the A5 at the interchange near Weinheim, changed onto the A659 for a few kilometers and continued the drive via the A6 towards Speyer. After we passed the Hockenheimring, a famous German Formula 1 Grand Prix course, we left the A6 at the interchange Schwetzingen / Hockenheim and reached Speyer a few minutes later.

The city of Speyer (latin, “Spira”) was directly on our way to Stuttgart and would be our first stop. Speyer has one of the oldest and biggest cathedrals in Germany, a technology museum [the Technik Museum, which has a large collection of historic airplanes, trains and cars including a Lufthansa 747 that is 20 m (65 feet) in the air and visitors can not only climb up a set of stairs to visit the interior of the plane but can also step out onto the wing], and a Jewish museum, dedicated to the former Jewish community.

Fuel economy for the first leg was somewhat disappointing. After 115 km (71 miles) and an average speed of 102.3 km/h (63.5 mph), we used 10.0 l/100 km (23.5 mpg).

Click here to continue to Page 2 – The Drive to Stuttgart and Munich and Virtual Drives

The Road to Maastricht – Driving the Mercedes-Benz E350 BlueTec Diesel Sedan

Christian Stampfer — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 14:30:24 +0000

Maastricht, the capital of the province Limburg, is located in the southern part of the Netherlands. It was also our first destination after taking delivery of The Diesel Driver’s new long-term test car, a Mercedes-Benz E350 BlueTec diesel sedan.

TDD Editor Jonathan Spira and I started out from the Mercedes-Benz Kundencenter (customer center) in Sindelfingen (near Stuttgart) on August 5 after taking delivery of our newest oilburner as part of Mercedes-Benz’ European Delivery program.

The Kundencenter is directly integrated in the heart of Mercedes’ biggest production and test facility. Since the plant facilities are only a stone´s throw away from the Autobahn, we followed the Rudolf-Diesel-Straße (what an appropriate street name for the start of our journey) for less than five minutes and entered the Autobahn A81 in the direction Stuttgart / München / Karlsruhe.

In the first few minutes of driving our new long-term test car, I got to experience several features of the E350. Since I am used to drive with extra tight side bolster support, I tried to adjust my multicontour driver seat while driving. I realized that I must have pressed the wrong button, as the massage function immediately started to work. At first, I was a bit confused and didn’t realize what I had turned on but, after a while, I not only got used to it, but I used the massage function rather extensively on the way to Maastricht.

At Kreuz (interchange) Stuttgart, where the A81 meets the A8, we followed the A81 in the direction of Würzburg / Heilbronn. We were not driving very fast, however, as there was a tremendous amount of traffic on the three lane Autobahn. As we drove towards Heilbronn, we passed Zuffenhausen and Ludwigsburg, where Porsche’s production and distribution center is located.

We continued our drive via the A6 and switched onto the A61 near Hockenheim, where the Hockenheim-Ring (a German Formula 1 racing circuit) is situated.

For the next 258 km (160.3 miles) we followed the A61, a two lane Autobahn which connects the city of Venlo in Holland with Hockenheim. Since I already knew the A61 from my recent trip to Venlo in December 2010 with the BMW 318d Sedan, it was time to switch drivers and Jonathan got behind the wheel.

Thanks to 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) of traffic, we were able to enjoy the another safety feature of the E350. The Distronic Plus with Pre-Safe Breaking is an option that is included in the Driver Assistance Package. It is similar to BMWs Active Cruise Control or Audi’s Adaptive Cruise Control and utilizes a radar sensor in the front grill of the car. The system maintains a pre-set following distance behind the car ahead. It initiates braking and acceleration on its own, based on traffic conditions. We found the Distronic Plus quite useful in stop-and-go driving. Along with the massage function of our multicontour driver seat, the Distronic Plus was the best way to leave the traffic jam behind us.

For the last stretch of our drive to Maastricht, we switched at the Kreuz (interchange) Kerpen (Kerpen is the city where the former Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher was born) onto the A4 and headed towards the German border near Aachen, which we past about 30 minutes later. After we entered the Netherlands, I programmed the Distronic Plus to a maximum speed of 125 km/h (77.6 mph), since the speed limit is 120 km/h (74.5 mph) in the Netherlands.

We reached our destination of Maastricht shortly after crossing the border after a drive of 30 km (18.6 miles) via the A76 and A79, on which we experienced only light evening traffic.

In total we drove 472 km (293 miles) in 6 hours and 33 minutes and our fuel economy was 7.4 l/100 km (31.78 mpg). Our average speed was 72 km/h (44.7 mp/h). Taking into account that this was the first road trip with the new E350 BlueTec, the numbers met our expectations given that the EPA highway rating is 33 mpg (7.1 l/100 km). After the first few thousand kilometers or miles, we expect to see even better fuel economy. Indeed, last fall Jonathan drove an E350 BlueTec from New York to Boston and averaged 6.8 l/100 km (34.5 mpg) at an average speed of 109 km/h (67.7 mph).

Click here to continue to Page 2 – The Road to Maastricht: A Virtual Drive

The Road to Sélestat – Driving the BMW 520d Sedan – Review and Test Drive

Christian Stampfer — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 01:23:54 +0000

Sélestat, also known as the city of Schlettstadt, is a small town located in north-eastern France, in the province of Alsace-Lorraine (Elsaß-Lothringen). The cities of Freiburg (Germany) and Strasbourg (France) are only a drive of 40 km (24.8 miles) away.

Sélestat is home to nearly 20.000 inhabitants and offers its visitors a number of cultural sightseeing opportunities. Sélestat’s most important cultural treasure is the Humanist Library (Bibliothèque Humaniste), which dates back to the year 1441. It contains a collection of books and prints, ranging from the 15th to the 18th century.

In the course of its eventful history, Sélestat, as well as the entire Alsace-Lorraine area, was ruled multiple times by France as well as by the Holy Roman Empire.. My drive to Sélestat, along with TDD Editor Jonathan Spira, was also my first visit to France.

My journey with the BMW 520d sedan had started in Munich. I had driven to Frankfurt to pick up Jonathan and we first stopped in Eltville, where we stayed for two nights at the Kempinski Schloß Reinhartshausen. From Eltville, the drive to Sélestat was 266 km (165.2 miles).

The interchange of the Rhein-Main-Schnellweg (another name for the Autobahn A66) was very close to Eltville, so we were almost immediately on the Autobahn. Jonathan was driving and enjoying the light traffic and absence of a speed limit. We soon switched onto the A643 and the A60. We only stayed on these three sections for a few minutes and then continued our drive at the Kreuz Mainz-Süd (Mainz South interchange) via the A63 towards Sélestat, heading in a south-westerly direction.

The A63 is practically brand new. The last section, connecting the Saarland with France, was finished in October 2004. After a drive of 32 km (20 miles) on the A63, we changed to the A61. Via the A61 we passed Mannheim to the east and at Kreuz Mutterstadt we reached our last route section. The A65 would take us on a drive of 60 km (37.2 miles) towards the Bundesstraße 9. The B9 dates back to roman times and was used as one of the main roads in the western part of Germany in Roman Empire times.

The last 10 km (6.2 miles) of the B9 took us to the French border near Lauterbourg mid afternoon. At that point, the BMW 520d was using 7.7 l/100 km (30.55 mpg) after a drive of 152 km (94.4 miles). Since, except for the very beginning, our maximum speed was limited most of the time to 120 km/h (every Autobahn had two lanes + emergency lane), we only achieved an average speed of 127.2 km/h (79 mph).

Click here to continue to Page 2 – Driving the Alsace Highway and Virtual Drives

From Argentina to Alaska in a Volkswagen TDI

Ben Rossi — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 01:20:03 +0000

Known for his long-distance drives in Volkswagen alternative-fuel cars, German off-road driver Rainer Zietlow, along with his team, plan to take a Volkswagen Touareg TDI on a two week, 16,000 mile (25,750 km) drive from the southern tip of Argentina to Alaska.

Timed to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Pan-American Highway, Zietlow’s expedition will follow the highway through 14 countries and miles of punishing terrain, including the Atacama Desert, a 4,145 m (13,600 foot) Andean pass, and frigid Arctic tundra. Setting off on June 29, three drivers will take five-hour shifts, driving non-stop, expecting to reach Deadhorse, Alaska by July 13.

Fans can follow the expedition’s progress on the TDI Panamericana Web site, which will feature an interactive map, live streaming video and blog posts from members of the team. As with his previous expeditions, for every kilometer his team travels, Zietlow will donate 10 cents to two Latin American villages (the funds are managed by international charity organization Plan International).

“We want to celebrate the important role the Pan-American Highway has played in bringing commerce and unity to countries along the route, while demonstrating the power and durability of a clean diesel vehicle,” said Zietlow.

The Volkswagen Touareg TDI’s turbocharged, 3.0-liter V-6 engine is designed for rough terrain and mixed road surfaces, delivering 225 horsepower and 406 lb-ft of torque. The four-wheel drive TDI gets 19 mpg (12.38 l/100 km) city and 25 mpg (9.4 mpg) highway. The car uses an AdBlue system to reduce its emissions, injecting a solution that removes nitrogen oxide from the exhaust. The solution in the 4.5-liter tank needs to be replaced roughly every 10,000 miles (16,000 km) , so Zietlow’s team will have to refill the tank at least once during the trip.

Zietlow’s expeditions have taken him and his team around the globe in a variety of Volkswagen vehicles. Last year he followed a somewhat similar route in a Volkswagen Caddy EcoFuel, which is powered by compressed natural gas, from Rio Grande, Argentina to Barrow, Alaska. In 2006, he circumnavigated the globe in a natural gas car , and he set a Guinness World Record for highest altitude achieved by a stock vehicle when a took a gas powered Volkswagen Touareg to a height of 19,947 feet (6,080 m).

Driving the BMW 520d – The Road to Frankfurt – Review

Christian Stampfer — Sun, 01 May 2011 15:18:21 +0000

Frankfurt am Main, Europe’s largest and most important financial center, is situated along the Main River in the south-western part of the German state Hessen (Hesse). Germany’s fifth largest city is home to over 672.000 people and was named one of the 10 most liveable cities in the world by Mercer. In addition to a large number of commercial banks, the European Central Bank and the German Federal Bank have based their headquarters here. Frankfurt is also well known to car enthusiasts as the location of the International Automobil Ausstellung (IAA), which takes place every two years

For the drive to Frankfurt, I had an elegant deep sea blue metallic BMW 520d sedan with an interior of dark wood trim and oyster leather. The car was relatively new with only 1.968 km (1.222 miles) on the odometer and it came fully equipped with all the latest innovations we saw in the BMW 535d sedan that we drove to Bratislava six weeks earlier.

Important safety features such as the Lane Departure Warning and the Active Blind Spot Detection were included. It also came equipped with Dynamic Damper Control, a Head-Up Display, and the new 8-speed sport automatic gear box.

Over the past year, I’ve had the opportunity to experience several versions of BMW’s 2.0-liter diesel engine (BMW 320d Edition EfficientDynamics and BMW 120d convertible), so this engine is well known to me. The first time I got to try out the reworked 2.0-liter diesel engine with its 184 hp and 280 pound-feet of torque was on the all-new X3 xDrive20d last December on my tour of Berchtesgaden and Austria.

Fuel economy for all of these cars was exemplary. Indeed, because of these experiences, I was looking forward to seeing the performance and fuel economy of the BMW 520d first hand. According to the official data, the BMW 520d can go from 0 to 100 km/h (0-62 mph) in 8.1 seconds. It has a maximum top speed of 225 km/h (139.8 mph) with the 8-speed sport automatic gearbox.

The 520d’s fuel economy ranges from 6.4 l/100 km (36.75 mpg) in city driving to 4.5 l/100 km (52.3 mpg) on the highway. Combined fuel economy of the EU test cycle is 5.2 l/100 km (45.23 mpg). In contrast, the 535d is rated at 7.9 l/100 km (29.7 mpg) in the city and 6.1 l/100 km (38.5 mpg) on the highway.

For my drive to Frankfurt I had a choice of several different routes and I opted to take the Autobahn A8 (direction Stuttgart / Karlsruhe) and A5 (direction Frankfurt). According to Google Maps, this would be a four hour drive with a total distance of 433 km (269 miles).

Click here to continue to Page 2 -Driving the BMW 520d to Frankfurt

The Road to Bratislava – Driving the BMW 535d Sedan

Christian Stampfer — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 21:18:51 +0000

Bratislava, known in many regions by its German name, Preßburg, is the capital of Slovakia. It was the destination for a long distance road trip with the all new BMW 535d sedan. The drive from Munich to Bratislava would be more than 500 km (310 miles) , so TDD editor Jonathan Spira and I decided to take the drive together.

Our dark graphite metallic (sophistograu) 535d sedan, which we picked up a few days prior to our drive, was fully loaded with virtually all of the latest innovations the new 5er Series has to offer. This includes safety features such as the Lane Departure Warning and Active Blind Spot Detection, and the Speed Limit Info, which show up directly on the Head-Up Display. We were also looking forward to seeing the effects of the Dynamic Damper Control and exercising the 8-speed sport automatic gearbox, which, because of its enormous torque, is standard on the 535d.

The straight six-cylinder diesel engine of the 535d is engineered with BMWs latest TwinPower Turbo technology including direct fuel injection and twin-scroll turbo technology. This combination provides the driver with 300 hp (220 kW) and a powerful 425 pound-feet of torque. This brings the 535d from 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) in 5.7 seconds, making it faster than the 335d, which takes 6.0 seconds to cover the same distance. To say it accelerates is an understatement. We found, to quote a BMW advert in the U.S. from the 1960s, it “goes like schnell.”

On a sunny Sunday morning, after a wonderful brunch at the Vier Jahreszeiten Kempinski Hotel in Munich, we started our journey to Bratislava. While I stored our baggage in the large trunk (520 liter volume) of the 535d sedan, Jonathan programmed the Navi Professional with our destination and we started via the famous Maximiliansstraße towards the Autobahn A8, in the direction of Salzburg. This was to be the slowest portion of our trip. Thanks to the extra tight security during the Münchner Sicherheitskonferenz 2011 (Munich Security Conference), it was quite a challenge for us to leave the inner city due to multiple street closures. As a result, we had to take the Rosenheimer Straße and we passed by the Deutsches Museum on our way to the Autobahn A8, which we reached a few minutes later.

We then continued on the A8 in the direction of Salzburg for the next 130 km (81 miles) and enjoyed a beautiful mountain panorama of the Bavarian and Austrian Alps before we reached the Austrian border. It was not, however, a fast trip. Perhaps thanks to the unusually sunny and warm weather conditions (for February), there was heavy Sunday afternoon traffic and, and the Autobahn had a maximum speed limit of 120 km/h (74 mp/h) until Irschenberg. We also passed through several construction areas on a two lane stretch of the A8, where our speed was limited to 80 km/h (50 mp/h).

Click here to continue to Page 2 – Crossing the border with the BMW 535d

BMW 318d Review and Road Test – The Road to Venlo

Christian Stampfer — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 04:45:45 +0000

In Roman times, the Netherlands city of Venlo (then known as Blariacum) was a major trading post. Today, thanks to the city’s location directly on the German border, Venlo attracts shoppers from Germany thanks to low prices on a variety of merchandise, and many companies have a large presence, there including Océ, a global leader in digital document management. Filling up one’s car is also much less expensive thanks to lower taxes there.

Recently, I had to visit Océ on short notice and it was the perfect opportunity to take a BMW 318d for a 680 km (422) mile drive.

THe 318d was well equipped. It had a navigation system (professional version), xenon headlights and an USB interface on board. Despite the 1.8 designation, the 318d has a 2-liter four cylinder diesel engine that develops 143 hp (105 kW) and 236 pound feet (320 Nm) of torque. It takes 9.1 seconds reach 100 km/h (62 mph) and can go up to 210 km/h (130 mph). It only used 4.5 l/100 km (52 mpg) and emited 119 g/km in the combined EU test cycle. On our drive to Venlo we will see how well the 318d performs in real life.

The BMW 318d comes with numerous EfficientDynamics features to help lower fuel consumption including brake energy regeneration, electric power steering, auto start/stop, and on-demand management of ancillary units.

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For the drive to Venlo, I decided to take the route with the shortest distance, and a few minutes after noon we started out on the A99, a ring road that encircles Munich connecting multiple Autobahnen. We then entered the A8 in the direction of Stuttgart. Thanks to the light Sunday afternoon traffic, a completely rebuilt Autobahn (this section of the A8 was upgraded to three lanes in each direction in 2009), and no speed limit, I was able to reach Augsburg within 17 minutes. (Augsburg is 50 km / 31 miles away from Munich.)

After passing Augsburg to the west, I continued on the old, two-lane A8, which had been built in the mid 1930s, for the next 220 km (137 miles). During this portion of the drive, the BMW 318d and I experienced several types of weather conditions, ranging from light rain in the area near Stuttgart to heavy snowfall in the Schwäbische Alb (Swabian Alps). As a result, for much of the drive, our maximum speed was limited to 80 km/h (50 mph). Despite the inclement weather, I always felt that I had complete control of the car, even when passing slower traffic in the left lane.

Click here to continue to Page 2 – No Speed Limit

The Road to Munich – Driving the BMW 320d EfficientDynamics Edition Review

Christian Stampfer — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 04:01:28 +0000

Would it be possible to drive from Munich to Hamburg and back using only one tank of diesel fuel? With fuel consumption of 4,1 l/100 km (57 mpg) in the combined EU test cycle and highway fuel consumption of 3.6 l/100 km (65 mpg), the distance to be covered seemed reasonable. Still, there were naysayers. Reading of our plans on The Diesel Driver’s Facebook page, Alfred G. commented “Impossible!”.

For the drive from Munich to Hamburg, the BMW 320d EfficientDynamics Edition only used 4.2 l/100 km (56 mpg). As we reached our final destination in Hamburg, the tank of the BMW 320d was half full. All in all, we drove 797 km (495 miles) and still had a possible range of 780 kilometres (484.6 miles) to go.

On a sunny Sunday afternoon, it was time for our return journey to Munich. During our visit in Hamburg, we drove about 70 kilometres in city traffic . Via the famous Reeperbahn, we took our BMW 320d to the old landing bridges in St. Pauli and visited the Speicherstadt in the new “Hafencity-Hamburg”. The Speicherstadt was built during the first years of the Deutsche Kaiserreich (ca. 1870) and is designed in a classical neo-gothic style. In the nineteenth century, it was used to storage several types of goods in a toll-free zone.

Before I reset the trip computer for our drive to Munich, the BMW 320d reported an increase in fuel usage to 4.4 l/100 km (54 mpg). The fuel gauge showed that the tank was less than half full. Heavy traffic plus a lot of stop-and-go driving during rush-hour were the main reasons why we saw this change. With the current figures of fuel consumption, the trip computer calculated a range of 480 km. With this range, we would not even be able to reach the border of the Free State of Bavaria (Freistaat Bayern) near Schweinfurt.

At a quarter past one, I reset the trip computer and we left our hotel at Gottschedstraße 8. Via the B75 and the B4 we continued towards the A255.We crossed the Elbe River over the Nordelbbrücke (Nothern-Elb-Bridge) and reached the A255, leaving On Hamburg the same way we entered it a few days ago. This time we had light traffic on the road and we only got stuck in a small construction site for a few minutes.

A small improvement of the calculated range was already noticeable after we entered the A255. As we had to switch to the A7 (the longest Autobahn in Germany) at the Maschener Kreuz (Maschen interchange), the BMW 320d reported a new remaining range of 580 kilometres. Before we approached Hannover, the navigation system showed traffic ahead and suggested that we take the A37 plus the B3. I know the A37 and B3 (also called “Messeschnellweg”) very well because I drive this route every year in March, when I visit the CeBIT show. We followed the A37 and B3 for about 22 kilometres and then switched back to the A7 near Laatzen.

Back on the A7 again we passed Hildesheim to the east and headed towards Göttingen. Heavy traffic on a two-lane section of the A7 and the first construction site slowed us down to the maximum speed limit of 80 km/h (50 mph). Before we reached Kassel, our trip computer showed an average speed of exactly 100,0 km/h (62 mph). Again we had used 4.2 l/100 km (56 mpg) for 302 km (187 miles), but still had to cover a distance of 473 km (294 miles) before we would reach Munich in the late evening.

At this point it became clear to me, that Alfred was right! With the remaining fuel in our tank we would not be able to reach Munich. The operating range was about 310 km (193 miles), but there were far more than 400 km to go!

Click here to continue to page 2

Driving the BMW 320d EfficientDynamics Edition – The Road to Hamburg – Review

Christian Stampfer — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 05:01:00 +0000

With a population of more than 1.8 million people, the Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg (Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg) is the second-largest city in Germany. Only Berlin, Germany’s capital, has more inhabitants. Similar to Berlin and Bremen, Hamburg is a German city state with its own government (Hamburger Senat).

Hamburg was named the European Green Capital for 2011 so it was the perfect destination for our trip with BMW’s most efficient passenger car, the BMW 320d EfficientDynamics Edition.

My trip to Hamburg started at the Ostbahnhof, a train station in the east of Munich, where I picked up a friend of mine who would accompany me on the trip. It was a grey and hazy Thursday morning as I reset the trip computer of my BMW 320d and most people were on their way to work as we left the Ostbahnhof at 8:13.

We started via the Richard-Strauss-Straße, named after the famous German musician of the twentieth century, and continued towards the Autobahn A9, in the direction of Nürnberg. Unfortunately, we drove directly into a traffic jam on the Mittlerer Ring B2R, a ring road in Munich. But this stop-and-go traffic gave the BMW 320d the opportunity to show its fuel saving ability with the Auto Start Stop feature, that automatically switches off the engine when the car is standing still (such as in traffic). It restarts the engine automatically as soon as the driver touches the clutch pedal.

About ten minutes later, we reached the A9, which was the first of four Autobahnen we would take on the drive to Hamburg. The A9 (known as the A3 until a new Autobahn numbering scheme was implemented in 1974) is one of the oldest highways in Germany and connects Munich to Berlin, with a total length of 524 km (326 miles).

After 160 km on the A9, we reached the Autobahnkreuz (interchange) Nürnberg Ost. For the next 100 km, we continued on the Autobahn A3. The 778-km (483-mile) A3 links Germany’s border with the Netherlands near Wesel to its Austrian border with Passau. The A3 was part of the original Autobahn plans dating back to the 1920s and construction between Oberhausen and Wiesbaden began in 1936.

Because of traffic and the fact that this section of the A3 had only two lanes, our maximum speed was limited to 100 km/h (62 mph). As a result, the drive from Kreuz Nürnberg Ost to Würzburg took more than an hour.

Before passing Würzburg to the west, we switched to the A7. We would continue on the A7 for the next 511 km (317.5 miles).

Click here to continue on Page 2.