True, the engines are pretty strong. A common issue is that for some reason certain ones will consume oil like Oliver Reid consumed alcohol. I burn off about 1lt every 300 - 350 miles which is way outside the quoted spec of 1lt per 1000 miles but there is no power loss or exhaust issues. I have a 330ci M-Sport manual and was getting 29 - 31mpg (manually calculated as the OBC records a little more). I changed jobs and my commute was mainly dual carriage way and fast A roads. Now on a more twist and turn (read slip and slide) commute, I've dropped down to 28 - 29. I don't hang around but do drive as far as I can see so don't race up to a red light or slow traffic (I had some advanced tuition a while back). As for tips, I used the golf tee trick to permenantly open both exhaus pipes as I prefer the more bass roar around 2 - 3000rpm. Enjoy it!