Anyone else hate car hunting?

Scottland · 13 Jun 2008 at 15:04

rG-tom said:
Where would you guys look? I'm trying pistonheads, autotrader, BMWLand and ive also signed up for BCA, but having not much luck at all!
Tom.

You missed the bay of e?

Either keep looking and be patient or lose the scruples

I know what you mean though, I had the choice of 5 to pick from before I sold my car. By the time I had, they'd all sold and I had to wait a month before anything else decent came up, and I still had to make a small sacrifice in terms of 'spec'.

Toker · 13 Jun 2008 at 15:11

mondeo tbh...oh wait

the aftermarket hu does look utter gash with that interior, the carpc on the other hand looks pretty sweet

if that works out cheaper than retrofitting sat nav go for that

[TW]Fox · 13 Jun 2008 at 15:17

rG-tom said:
Basically, despite you thinking the none nav dash looks "ok", i personally can't stand it. To the point where i dont actually want a 330i without nav

Wow... all over a small part of the dashboard.

Just.. lol.

Good luck finding a mint fully loaded 04 330i Sport with nav, Xenons and leather for less than £9k. You'll need it. It's no co-incidence that every car you've viewed for that amount or less so far has been, shall we say, not to your requirements.

A large proportion of the 3 Series out there are ex company cars and, condition wise at least, you'll find many of them have not been looked after as you'd expect simply becuase the car didnt belong to them. There were very few private first owners of cars like this especially fully loaded ones. Not many people want to spend £35-40k on a BMW 3 Series and thats exactly how much the cars you are trying to find cost 4 years ago.

Increase your budget, compromise, buy a tatty one or spend a long time searching. Those are the 4 options you have.

rG-tom · 13 Jun 2008 at 15:23

[TW]Fox;11882201 said:
Wow... all over a small part of the dashboard.

Just.. lol.

Good luck finding a mint fully loaded 04 330i Sport with nav, Xenons and leather for less than £9k. You'll need it. It's no co-incidence that every car you've viewed for that amount or less so far has been, shall we say, not to your requirements.

A large proportion of the 3 Series out there are ex company cars and, condition wise at least, you'll find many of them have not been looked after as you'd expect simply becuase the car didnt belong to them. There were very few private first owners of cars like this especially fully loaded ones. Not many people want to spend £35-40k on a BMW 3 Series and thats exactly how much the cars you are trying to find cost 4 years ago.

Increase your budget, compromise, buy a tatty one or spend a long time searching. Those are the 4 options you have.

A) where did i say 04? i'll go back to any facelift saloon, ie 2001 onwards

B) i've looked at a grand total of....1 car.....so way to exaggerate the truth

and

C) I've never said anything other than i'm going to spend a long time searching, i havnt said anythnig else....so patronisingly telling me I have to wait longer is a little silly

[TW]Fox · 13 Jun 2008 at 15:27

rG-tom said:
A) where did i say 04? i'll go back to any facelift saloon, ie 2001 onwards

You've got even less chance of a 2001 with nav - it was a £4000 option on the 3 and 5 Series in 2001. In 2001, satnav was absolutely not a popular choice.

rG-tom · 13 Jun 2008 at 15:30

Scottland said:
You missed the bay of e?

Either keep looking and be patient or lose the scruples

I know what you mean though, I had the choice of 5 to pick from before I sold my car. By the time I had, they'd all sold and I had to wait a month before anything else decent came up, and I still had to make a small sacrifice in terms of 'spec'.

yea checked ebay too, all getting checked at least 3 or 4 times a day atm!

rG-tom · 13 Jun 2008 at 15:30

[TW]Fox;11882254 said:
You've got even less chance of a 2001 with nav - it was a £4000 option on the 3 and 5 Series in 2001. In 2001, satnav was absolutely not a popular choice.

They do exist though and they are definitely within budget when the show up, the 04s are the ones that push the boat a little bit.

olv · 13 Jun 2008 at 15:31

I doubt i'd be able to wait 6+ months to find the right car, i'd have got bored and changed my mind 5 times in that time

what are you going to do when the mondeo goes and you are still left hunting for the right car Tom, don't you really need a car?

How long did it take to find your 5 Series fox?

[TW]Fox · 13 Jun 2008 at 15:33

Look what your fussyness is letting you miss out on:

http://search.autotrader.co.uk/es-u...+SERIES&min_pr=5000&max_pr=10000&max_mileage=

Nice looking 330Ci Sport there for £8500.

http://search.autotrader.co.uk/es-u...+SERIES&min_pr=5000&max_pr=10000&max_mileage=

That black 330i Sport looks in excellent condition, check out that leather.

http://search.autotrader.co.uk/es-u...+SERIES&min_pr=5000&max_pr=10000&max_mileage=

From a franchised dealer, with an excellent interior colour combo

Another tidy one..

http://search.autotrader.co.uk/es-u...+SERIES&min_pr=5000&max_pr=10000&max_mileage=

I've search through the whole of Autotrader up to about 9k and these are the best manuals on there. Yet you'll ignore all of them becuase they dont contain a navigation system designed back in 2000...

[TW]Fox · 13 Jun 2008 at 15:36

olv said:
How long did it take to find your 5 Series fox?

Absolutely ages, 4-6 months? and I wasn't even as fussy as rg - I just wanted leather and a manual box. Which is my point, good manual 3 litre BMW's are rare enough as it is without reducing your choice still further by being really fussy. The less choice you have the less likely you are to find a minter.

I was lucky as I had my Mondeo still, but rg is selling his and will soon be without a car.

In an ideal world I too would have had the nav system, its even more important in the 5 Series as the non-nav stereo is TERRIBLE, but guess what we dont live a non ideal world, I'd probably still be searching now had I been THAT fussy!

When you are trying to buy a sub 5 year old BMW for a quarter of its brand new price you just cannot afford to be this fussy - you must pick one or two BASIC requirements, ie leather, gearbox, and then buy the best example you can out there.

If you want your dream spec pop to the dealer and spec up a new one.

You've compromised big time with this car anyway - only a month ago you were making posts about how your next car would be an E90 - so a little more wont hurt.

OllyM · 13 Jun 2008 at 16:07

Fox you're not exactly going to change his mind, and he isn't being daft in my opinion. I wouldn't buy another BMW without navigation regardless.

rG-tom · 13 Jun 2008 at 16:14

[TW]Fox;11882288 said:
Look what your fussyness is letting you miss out on:

http://search.autotrader.co.uk/es-u...+SERIES&min_pr=5000&max_pr=10000&max_mileage=

Nice looking 330Ci Sport there for £8500.

http://search.autotrader.co.uk/es-u...+SERIES&min_pr=5000&max_pr=10000&max_mileage=

That black 330i Sport looks in excellent condition, check out that leather.

http://search.autotrader.co.uk/es-u...+SERIES&min_pr=5000&max_pr=10000&max_mileage=

From a franchised dealer, with an excellent interior colour combo

Another tidy one..

http://search.autotrader.co.uk/es-u...+SERIES&min_pr=5000&max_pr=10000&max_mileage=

I've search through the whole of Autotrader up to about 9k and these are the best manuals on there. Yet you'll ignore all of them becuase they dont contain a navigation system designed back in 2000...

I'm possibly willing to forgoe nav if it's got xenons, but none of the ones you link even have xenons or bluetooth, by the time ive added all that on my budget has been destroyed. It has to have at least ONE redeeming feature, especially considering that retrofitting xenons to these is the worlds hardest mod including having to change lenses and looms.

And like i've said before, I dont want nav for nav, i want it for the aestethics(SP) and the control the screen gives you (for phonebook etc on bluetooth and for ipod control using an intravee)

oh yea and well thought out with the first car....it's a prefacelift coupe, and i said it had to be a) facelift b) saloon

jamoor · 13 Jun 2008 at 16:15

Said this before and I will say it again, get a 330d sport touring with all the options!

Anyway, seriously,

Try manheim, as well, in fact look on Honest Johns website, he has a list of auctions around the UK that may help you out.

gareth.e · 13 Jun 2008 at 16:18

I must say I do kind of agree with [tw]fox for a change...

[TW]Fox · 13 Jun 2008 at 16:20

rG-tom said:
I'm possibly willing to forgoe nav if it's got xenons, but none of the ones you link even have xenons or bluetooth, by the time ive added all that on my budget has been destroyed.

Bluetooth retrofit is like 60 quid for a decent enough Nokia one :confused:

oh yea and well thought out with the first car....it's a prefacelift coupe, and i said it had to be a) facelift b) saloon

I assumed you didnt want a Coupe as you didnt think you could afford one?

OllyM · 13 Jun 2008 at 16:21

[TW]Fox;11882626 said:
Bluetooth retrofit is like 60 quid for a decent enough Nokia one

Not if you want proper BMW bluetooth, which is a much better system than an aftermarket car kit.

I assumed you didnt want a Coupe as you didnt think you could afford one?

He can't insure one.

[TW]Fox · 13 Jun 2008 at 16:30

OllyM said:
Not if you want proper BMW bluetooth, which is a much better system than an aftermarket car kit.

That would depend what you use it for - for receiving incoming calls and voice dialling, it works perfectly. Proper BMW Bluetooth is crap anyway as it only works with a select number of phones unless you shell out £300 - yes £300 - to update the bluetooth module for more recent phones. Something which will almost certainly be a requirement with a 2002-2004 car.

OllyM · 13 Jun 2008 at 16:35

[TW]Fox;11882702 said:
That would depend what you use it for - for receiving incoming calls and voice dialling, it works perfectly. Proper BMW Bluetooth is crap anyway as it only works with a select number of phones unless you shell out £300 - yes £300 - to update the bluetooth module for more recent phones. Something which will almost certainly be a requirement with a 2002-2004 car.

Except it puts nothing on your dashboard (only the eject box under the armrest on the E46), the sound quality (especially on the outgoing sound) is far better than a Nokia car kit, and if you have navigation it integrates very nicely. It also gives you voice control which is just cool.

You can sell your old ULF to upgrade which cost Pete about £150 all in to do.

rG-tom · 13 Jun 2008 at 16:58

[TW]Fox;11882626 said:
Bluetooth retrofit is like 60 quid for a decent enough Nokia one

I assumed you didnt want a Coupe as you didnt think you could afford one?

if i get a car w/o bluetooth, ill be fitting a proper bmw one anyway....not an issue if it is otherwise well specced, but when it doesnt even have xenons you're getting into serious money. I want this car to be completely oem, nothing aftermarket except maybe some eibachs if the springs go, and a decent SS exhaust and gruppe m after a while

Nokia hands free kits on a car that can have an excellent oem one is so *****

and i cant insure a 330i coupe for another year, and facelift coupes ARE out of my price range....i cant stand the prefacelift front end

[TW]Fox · 13 Jun 2008 at 17:08

You are going to need to buy a new bluetooth unit even if the car has bluetooth Tom.

Nokia hands free kits on a car that can have an excellent oem one is so *****

It's bluetooth so it's a hidden control box inside the dash of the car not an enormous ugly looking cradle off the side of the dash as per the hardwired kits.