Hey guys,
Ticked over 15k miles from picking my car up this week (in ~9 months), thought I'd do a quick review of my thoughts so far, and how its held up.
The spec: 02 plate 330i Sport, silver with black leather, heated seats, bixenons and harman kardon stereo upgrade.
First off, a few pictures after a quick wash today (not clayed it or put any fresh wax on it, the weather was too intermittant so that's being saved for another days labour, could realy do with another clay though!)
The wheels could do with a refurb (nothing new, been kerbed since i bought it but not enough to notice in day to day life)
Well, moving from a 2.5l V6 mondeo Ghia X, it was a car practically with the same idea: be comfortable, but have a decent turn of speed and, after id finished with it, handle the twisties alright to.
The BMW takes everything the mondeo did and moves the bar higher, it's notably quicker, handles better and has much better steering feel (but as it's on stock suspension rolls a bit more) and is far more comfortable to boot.
Over 15k miles, the running costs of this car have been FAR lower than I'd imagined, considerably less than what i had to spend on the mondeo!
As i'm sure most of you remember it had a bit of trouble drinking oil at the start, which has subsided a fair bit but is still not perfect, using a litre every 1k miles. 4 garages including bmw have looked at it and cant find anything wrong with it, and at that rate, it's cost me ~£125 in oil over 15k miles, so less than a penny a mile. Not worth bothering with trying to fix as long as it doesnt get worse, and it's not.
The only other fault ive had was a rear wheel speed sensor dying on me, which cost £165 inc labour and parts to fix from bmw.
1x sets of rears @ £300, and 1x set of all four tyres @ £430, an oil service @ £100 from bmw, and that's literally all my costs bar fuel and insurance.
I've averaged ~24mpg over the entirety of ownership (which is about 4mpg higher than the same treatment in the mondeo) and a lot of my journeys are either on twisty backroads where throttle is encouraged, or sat in traffic on the way to work through calder valley, so lets work that out @ 93p a litre as that's about the average of the prices I've paid: £2640.
So:
Tyres: £730
Service: £100
Repairs inc oil: £290
Grand total of running costs for 15k miles: £1120 (7.5p per mile) in running costs + £2642 (17.5p a mile) in fuel, 25p a mile pretty much bang on, and that's with very very little motorway mileage! If I sat down and worked out exactly how much the mondeo worked out per mile with all those breakages, I think i'd cry.
The only niggles ive got in general is that I need to take the passenger door panel off and tighten the speaker up as it has a rattle, and also every now and then my drivers seat squeaks on cornering (has appeared since i bought the car, and I think it MIGHT be something to do with me weighing 18 stone
) but the actually leather as you can see from the photos has held up very very well. The car is sat on 125,500 miles exactly in these photos.
So all in all? I'm glad i made the purchase, and despite getting the obligatory hankering for something different that you always get at this time of year, I can't see it going anywhere for a while!
Sorry for all the text, probably completely boring to most of you but even if it's remotely interesting to one person then it's all good.
Tom.
Ticked over 15k miles from picking my car up this week (in ~9 months), thought I'd do a quick review of my thoughts so far, and how its held up.
The spec: 02 plate 330i Sport, silver with black leather, heated seats, bixenons and harman kardon stereo upgrade.
First off, a few pictures after a quick wash today (not clayed it or put any fresh wax on it, the weather was too intermittant so that's being saved for another days labour, could realy do with another clay though!)
The wheels could do with a refurb (nothing new, been kerbed since i bought it but not enough to notice in day to day life)
Well, moving from a 2.5l V6 mondeo Ghia X, it was a car practically with the same idea: be comfortable, but have a decent turn of speed and, after id finished with it, handle the twisties alright to.
The BMW takes everything the mondeo did and moves the bar higher, it's notably quicker, handles better and has much better steering feel (but as it's on stock suspension rolls a bit more) and is far more comfortable to boot.
Over 15k miles, the running costs of this car have been FAR lower than I'd imagined, considerably less than what i had to spend on the mondeo!
As i'm sure most of you remember it had a bit of trouble drinking oil at the start, which has subsided a fair bit but is still not perfect, using a litre every 1k miles. 4 garages including bmw have looked at it and cant find anything wrong with it, and at that rate, it's cost me ~£125 in oil over 15k miles, so less than a penny a mile. Not worth bothering with trying to fix as long as it doesnt get worse, and it's not.
The only other fault ive had was a rear wheel speed sensor dying on me, which cost £165 inc labour and parts to fix from bmw.
1x sets of rears @ £300, and 1x set of all four tyres @ £430, an oil service @ £100 from bmw, and that's literally all my costs bar fuel and insurance.
I've averaged ~24mpg over the entirety of ownership (which is about 4mpg higher than the same treatment in the mondeo) and a lot of my journeys are either on twisty backroads where throttle is encouraged, or sat in traffic on the way to work through calder valley, so lets work that out @ 93p a litre as that's about the average of the prices I've paid: £2640.
So:
Tyres: £730
Service: £100
Repairs inc oil: £290
Grand total of running costs for 15k miles: £1120 (7.5p per mile) in running costs + £2642 (17.5p a mile) in fuel, 25p a mile pretty much bang on, and that's with very very little motorway mileage! If I sat down and worked out exactly how much the mondeo worked out per mile with all those breakages, I think i'd cry.
The only niggles ive got in general is that I need to take the passenger door panel off and tighten the speaker up as it has a rattle, and also every now and then my drivers seat squeaks on cornering (has appeared since i bought the car, and I think it MIGHT be something to do with me weighing 18 stone
) but the actually leather as you can see from the photos has held up very very well. The car is sat on 125,500 miles exactly in these photos.So all in all? I'm glad i made the purchase, and despite getting the obligatory hankering for something different that you always get at this time of year, I can't see it going anywhere for a while!
Sorry for all the text, probably completely boring to most of you but even if it's remotely interesting to one person then it's all good.
Tom.
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