The ultimate luxury during cross-country motoring is not having to go the gas station. Sure, you want to take a break during a long drive, but trying to fight your way to the pumps through a horde of minivans on a Thanksgiving weekend is not for those who value the structural integrity of their sheetmetal.
Say what you will about the relative merits of its fuel efficiency, but the 21.7-gallon fuel tank of the BMW 750i took me 459.3 miles before the reserve light finally forced me to the gas station. And for that I'm thankful. It was desperate enough just to be out amongst the civilians on the Interstate during my trip to Phoenix and back.
Sometimes it's all about cruising range, and that's what a big car does best.
Of course, if every gas station looked as good as this 1958 design for Shell by Meusburger and Ramersdorfer that you can still see in Goetzis, Austria, I might be going there more often.
Michael Jordan, Executive Editor @ 22,396 miles.
rayainsw says:
07:58 AM, 11/30/09
"Sometimes it's all about cruising range, and that's what a big car does best"
Well - my 2007 Corvette [ not a 'big car' ]
did 467 miles on a tank, with my Daughter
and a long weekend+ of luggage...
@ 29.04 MPG.
- Ray
Range IS important, sometimes....
gtrb3nz says:
08:16 AM, 11/30/09
@rayainsw
thats pretty good, but then u have to consider that the Beamer can seat 4 full size adults and give more comfort than any sports car can provide, to each one of them
but still getting 467 on an 18 mile tank in a corvette is still impressive nontheless
joefrompa says:
08:53 AM, 11/30/09
I was pretty happy when my 2006 Civic SI got over 420 miles on a tank and I wasn't pushing it. I could've probably gotten 450. This was pure highway.
I think 400 miles is the minimum I'd want a car to get when doing pure highway. I'd be annoyed with less than that, since that's about 6-7 hours of true cruising and I'm still young enough to push that far without a stop :)
alex4515 says:
02:03 PM, 11/30/09
505 miles on a tank in our '09 Accord (4 cylinder) during our trip last week...can anyone beat that?
ptcdawg says:
02:52 PM, 11/30/09
The last Suburban I owned would easily go 600+ miles on a tank on the highway.
42 gallons helps that to happen. :)
bumpy says:
03:01 PM, 11/30/09
One wonders how far that 21.7 gallons would have gone in a 730d.
drburke says:
03:09 PM, 11/30/09
Dear Michael Jordan,
How are you? What are you doing these days? I'm sorry to hear about the passing of your old associate Abe Pollin.
Just one thing. If you're to be successful in the field of automotive journalism, you may want to consider actually photographing the vehicle about which you're writing.
wrinklebump says:
04:31 PM, 11/30/09
hahahha
Abe was a proud man.
surfwagon56 says:
06:33 PM, 11/30/09
Drove back from Brian Head Utah to south Orange County about a month ago in my CC 2.0T, 500 miles and still had a quarter tank left. Trip computer (not a good source of accurate info, I know) stated almost 36 mpg. 18 gallon tank. Much better than the Tundra DCab we took last time (had to stop twice).
cwc1 says:
07:49 PM, 11/30/09
May not necessarily be apples to apples, or gasoline to gasoline, but how about 750 miles in a Jetta TDI, using about 13.5 - 14 gallons?
fadetoblackii says:
07:38 AM, 12/ 1/09
My two best tanks in my 2004 Mazda 6i (2.3L 4 cyl) are 541 and 537.
This is thanks to Mazda designing one 18 gallon gas tank because of the thirstier 3.0L V6 in the 6s.