BMW 1 Series

Mileage 3967 List price £28,580 Target Price £26,448 Price as tested £37,500

Test economy 32.1mpg

WHEN YOU COMMIT to a workout routine at the gym, you expect the results to speak for themselves. In much the same way, you’d hope that using BMW’S Driving Style Analysis function would reward you with signi cant gains in your fuel economy. In my experience, however, the results are mixed at best.

As I said in my rst report,a family car must be a jack of all trades. At this price point, and in such a competitive class, buyers will expect a workhorse – a mile-muncher and a city commuter, the latter of which has particular importance to me as an urban traveller.

Driving Style Analysis is supposed to help you reach the car’s maximum fuel ef ciency potential.the system advises on when to lift off and rewards you for gentle acceleration.your effort is then rated out of ve in a nice clear diagram and converted into mileage, which is displayed as a bonus range. It’s a clever tool, and before long you’ll be lifting and coasting like a Formula 1 driver in order to conserve fuel.

But what of the gains? On a single tank of fuel, I’ve been able to save more than 30 miles of range, which isn’t insigni cant. But no matter how hard I try, I rarely get better than 31-32mpg on a longer journey. I dread to think what I might be achieving if I wasn’t following the analysis function’s advice.

In the battle for better economy, you start to notice the little details that seemingly hinder your efforts. Take, for example, the automatic engine start-stop system.you come to a halt in gridlocked traf c, only for the car in front to inch forward. Naturally, you see no reason to move until at least a couple of car lengths have opened up, but instead the car senses the motion and starts the engine.

You can re-engage the start-stop with a rm press of the brake pedal – a neat feature – but if the car in front moves again, the same thing occurs.the start-stop system is so sensitive, in fact, that I’ve had a pedestrian re-engage the engine simply by walking in front of the car.