EPA Downgrades BMW 328I Mph

Earlier this week, the EPA decided to lower the fuel-economy miles per gallon rating for the 2012 BMW 328i eight-speed automatic. BMW is not very pleased that the regulator decreased the grade after conducting its own battery of tests..

Decreased both highway and city

According to a BMW spokesman, the car maker has been ordered by the EPA to lower the miles per gallon numbers for the 2012 BMW 328i automatic. Only last week, the sedan commanded 24 mpg in the city and 36 mpg on the highway. Today, it can only achieve 23 and 33.

EPA tests show different results

The BMW gas mileage decrease happened after the EPA did its own tests on the car. Every car maker does a variety of tests and reports the findings to the EPA. Occasionally, the EPA will just accept the results while other times it runs its own test to figure out if the numbers are really accurate.

Only a few get analyzed

Only about 15 percent of all United States vehicle models actually get a special test done by the EPA, according to Car and Driver magazine.

Very minor changes typically

BMW said it was "surprised" at how low the rating was after the EPA did its own test. Normally, the EPA will only drop a rating just a little bit. It is not typically as severe as BMW's drop was.

Information about BMW 328i

A 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder 240 horsepower engine can be found in the 2012 BMW 328i with 260 lb-ft of torque. There are paddle shifters on the steering wheel to operate the eight speed transmission.

EPA testing standards

BMW did the first test in Munich. An official EPA fuel-economy test has to be done with controlled conditions on an indoor track. It goes through five cycles including city, hot city, cold city, highway and aggressive highway. All extra variables are kept constant such as the type of gasoline put to the car for the test.

Keeping the lower rating

The six-speed manual shift version of the 328i kept its 23/24 rating despite the change for the automatic version. BMW cannot ever change this since it will not be able to retest until it has the 2013 model to use.