Consumer Reports Magazine Singles Out Audi, BMW And Subaru For Excessive Oil Consumption

But BMW gives you free maintenance ....does it includes the oil?

My E90 M3 (4.0L V8) uses 10W-60 and depending on the season and driving style seems to burn about 1 QT every 1200-1500 miles. Free oil is included with maintenance but that's only for formal oil changes when the car says it needs it (about every 10-12K miles). Adding a quart here and there is your own responsibility and costs about double the standard price for synthetic 5W-30.

This is quite scandalous. While I'm sure the "M" engines use lots of oil - the biggest culprit here is the V8 in the 750iL, the X5 5.0, the 650i, and the 550i - basically the "old codger" BMW's.

If you have a BMW, next time its in for service, ask the service guy how many blown engines s/he sees on 750's (driving by seniors, mostly) and it will blow your mind.

Add VW to that list, too. (Essentially Audi engines are VW engines)

However - I have had "oil burners" that lasted until the frame rusted out - and ones that did not use a drop of oil seize up. People who do not have their oil checked or check it themselves at least once a month - do not deserve to be driving a car. And a car can run a quart low and survive nicely if you top it off every month.

I am sure this oil burning stems from mostly from two places - one is the thinner oil they are using to get better gas mileage - and the other is ring clearance that reduced friction by not being as tight. And I suspect it will get worse before it gets better.

@TomM You are probably right on the oil/ring explanation. The better question is why these engines were not better engineered in the first place. If the oil change interval is 7500 miles (which I think is crazy), the owner has a right to expect that the oil level will be OK for that duration. I don't care if it's a Spark, a Veyron, or anything in between, in this day and time, excessive oil consumption in new cars is not OK.

To M.Darringer
1 - Oil Technology has progressed as well as engines running cleaner. I recently changed the oil on my new Chrysler Minivan - and after about 5000 miles the oil was clear amber - looked like it was new out of the bottle. Manufacturers would not recommend longer oil change intervals - unless they could show that the oil still met requirements after those miles - and they actually do. My company Fusion Hybrid regularly gets over 8000 miles between changes - I have had the oil tested and it was still good for more - and it has over 120,000 miles as of yesterday.
2 - However - since they have been introduced - all internal combustion engines - because of various clearances between parts -can use oil - and some were better than others and the amount they used. When I was younger - the idea that car existed that did not use oil simply did not exist - and a quart per thousand miles was considered "normal". They checked oil at gas stations REGULARLY - because that was a normal situation. I would expect a normal running engine to use a least a little oil between changes - and I would not object to a quart or so between changes - and I only use Synthetic Oil. Again - checking oil is simply one of the costs of owning a vehicle - and like adding air into tires - is something that a owner is responsible for.

Article: "...Audi, BMW and Subaru all say their engines’ consumption is normal..."

"Normal" for the affected engines, but very abnormal when looking at all manufacturers' engines as a whole :-(

This was one of the factors that kept me from getting an Audi with an inline 4! When you factor in a half quart of oil (@$10/quart) at every fuel fill-up, your cost per mile goes up appreciably (it's not just MPG that matters, it's also consumables such as oil). Some fans might chime in and report they have an affected engine and it doesn't consume any oil, and that might be true, but if you check the owners' forums, such as those for Audi, you'll notice brand new cars owners with affected engines still reporting these excessive oil consumption issues (AKA manufacturer's claimed "normal" consumption).

The fanboys are always fun. I once knocked Subaru for their oil use and the vegan, macrame owners flipped out.

And at least in Audi's case, when owners report excessive oil consumption, the manufacturer digs in their heels with "that's 'normal'", and the unfortunate owner has to fight them, tooth and nail, until they finally give in and repair the problem, which is faulty rings.

One would HOPE that when the problem is so widespread, the manufacturer would tend to the faulty process to ensure it doesn't happen again. Unfortunately, it appears the manufacturer doesn't care, so long as they're making a solid profit. Consumer Reports might be one way to give this serious problem some visibility, influence consumers' purchasing decisions, and thereby force the manufacturers to clean up their act.

@TheSteve one reason I want nothing to do with a VW/Audi franchise is that even under warranty--but especially after--the mantra is blame the customer for the faults of the car. That's the corporate line. If you VW/Audi dealer takes care of you like a king, they are also doing repairs out of THEIR pocket because VWAG is antagonistic as hell to its customers.

I applaud CR for collecting this information with their surveys. This puts facts behind the reports you may read about in forums and class actions. It points out which engines have a design issue which if it occurs will be too expense to fix and will be a major nuisance to live with.

But I thought the people here say CR has no credibility when it comes to car, that CR should stick to toasters and ovens.

nguyenvuminh: Some people believe Consumer Reports (CR) has no credibility in reviewing cars, therefore, you should discount everything they say in their car reviews.

*MY* belief is that CR might be instrumental in revealing something I didn't know. If CR raises a red flag, I don't receive that as gospel truth. I receive that as an indication that I should research the matter further to see if I agree with them.

This information is widely available from MULTIPLE sources, so CR hasn't published anything that wasn't already known. Subarus are notorious for burning oil, developing valvetrain clatter well under 100K miles, and leaving nasty leaks on the driveway. The VWAG 2.0T is known for numerous issues. Excessive oil consumption is the least of its problems.

This is the headline of the article: "CONSUNMER Reports Magazine"

There are so many typos, misspellings and bad choices of grammar all the time on this site... It's time the writer starts thinking about another line of work.

This really isn't his calling.

I'm a grammar and syntax NAZI...how did I miss that?