Quote:
Originally Posted by swamp2
Is it really this bad? How/against what can a manufacturers figure be checked?
All BMW numbers on the US web site now appear to be "Unladen", however, I'm sure I've seen them use other specifications in the past.
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It's not that bad but since inconsistency do exist it's very hard to know which numbers are what without doing some research. The european reporting seems to be much more consistent and reliable by the European brands. The "checking" I refer to is to lookup the European numbers. I usually start with the official German web sites for the manufacturer and in some cases verify with other European countries web sites. Hopefully we will see more consistency in the future of US weight reporting.
If we take the new X5 X-drive 35i for example these are the reported weights:
bmwusa.com: 4680 lbs Curb weight
bmw.de: 2030kg / 4475 lbs Leergewicht DIN
bmw.de 2105kg / 4640 lbs Leergewicht EG
So for the X5 it looks similar to the E92 M3 where driver + luggage is included in the curb weight to get to a 40 lbs above Leergewicht EG.
Now for comparison let's take the Porsche Cayenne.
porsche.com/usa 4398 lbs Curb weight
porsche.de 1995kg/ 4398 lbs Leergewicht DIN
porsche.de 2070kg/ 4564 lbs Leergewicht EG
So if you just used the US curb weight you would get that the Cayenne is 4680 - 4398 = 282 lbs ligther.
But look closer and you can see that the Cayenne's curb weight reported is that of it's Leergewicht DIN ( without driver and luggage ) while the X5 is (Leergewicht EG + 40 lbs) which inlcudes driver and luggage.
When comparing apples to apples the real difference is 4475 - 4398 = 77 lbs.
I.e US reported curb weight is not consistent but Leergewicht EG and DIN are consistent between these two German brands.