How Expensive Can It Get for A BMW

[bum]

As the title says.

Recently I have moved back to London after securing a job here, and I am looking to get my first car in the UK.

I have never owned a car in UK before and got my driving license whilst working in China (this will need to get replaced to a UK license, of course).

I wanted to get myself a BMW 5 series - a decent one from 05/06 seems to go around £5000 to £7000, which is very nice. However a friend of mine mentioned the cost for service/MOT for the BMW would be higher than average car as well as the insurance.

Be it my first car in the UK with little experience with the system here, I have no idea what it's like. Knowing there are quite few BMW owners here on the forum, can anyone enlighten me? - assume I have to pay at least a grand for car insurance.

 

[[TW]Fox]

MOT's cost the same regardless of the make/model of car so this is one of the areas where you wont be paying more.

Servicing is between £150 and £400ish depending on what needs doing and when (If you are unlucky and get a pile of stuff due at once you can be in with quite a big bill but then discs/pads all round and a service on any car is not going to be cheap). So, servicing isnt exactly what you'd call cheap but actually compared with other comparable cars - ie Mercedes - it's really rather reasonable.

Tyres are an area of expensive - if you get an SE you can get decent tyres for £100-£120ish each but if you go for a Sport or an M Sport with staggered wheels you will find rear tyres cost about £200 each.

The issue with running a car like this isn't so much the everyday costs more the costs when things go wrong. There are a lot of things to go wrong, some cheap, some very expensive and its a bit of a myth that German cars are super reliable because they are, well, not.

An 05/06 5 Series will be an E60, one of the more shoddy cars to come out of Munich in recent years, cheap and nasty interiors etc. I'd not want a £5k one either, they'll be tatty, so you'll need to spend closer to your £7k. I wouldn't describe an 05/06 E60 as 'very nice' but I appreciate thats very subjective.

I bought a 4 year old 5 Series 6 years ago and have been thoroughly happy with it ever since. I'm the same age as you. I have kept a log of costs and they are detailed here:

http://pistonheads.com/members/showcar.asp?carId=55454

The cost of an 05ish E60 will be broadly similar but do bear in mind that mine is a manual not an auto like most and the autos carry an additional liability with the fact that most will be on the verge of needing a rebuild by the time they are 7 years old and sub 7 grand.

 

[AndrewNR]

As the title says.

Recently I have moved back to London after securing a job here, and I am looking to get my first car in the UK.

I have never owned a car in UK before and got my driving license whilst working in China (this will need to get replaced to a UK license, of course).

I wanted to get myself a BMW 5 series - a decent one from 05/06 seems to go around £5000 to £7000, which is very nice. However a friend of mine mentioned the cost for service/MOT for the BMW would be higher than average car as well as the insurance.

Be it my first car in the UK with little experience with the system here, I have no idea what it's like. Knowing there are quite few BMW owners here on the forum, can anyone enlighten me? - assume I have to pay at least a grand for car insurance.

Depends on the engine really, a 540i will potentially ruin you where as a 520d (or the 18d/20d) engine is driven by every salesman in town for a reason; it offers a mix of economy and performance at a sensible price.

Sure a 520d will cost more to run than a equivalent Honda or what not but not hugely.

Only thing that seems to be a problem with BMW is that when something does go bang it rapes a lot more than some competitors.

In short: running costs, not a lot in it, but perhaps the potential of an "oh ****" bill.

 

[[TW]Fox]

Depends on the engine really, a 540i will potentially ruin you where as a 520d (or the 18d/20d) engine is driven by every salesman in town for a reason; it offers a mix of economy and performance at a sensible price.

Sure a 520d will cost more to run than a equivalent Honda or what not but not hugely.

At this end of the market the 520d is a massive liability - it delivers reasonable fuel economy but thats about the only plus point as they are a reliability nightmare. Infact in this scenario fuel aside the big petrol would probably be kinder on the wallet

They are driven by every salesman because of the low BIK rating due to its CO2 emissions - ie for totally irrelevent reasons to somebody buying a 7 year old one for £6k..

Before my 5 Series, I had a Mondeo. It was a massively cheaper car to own. And the 5 was worth every penny of the extra

 

[AndrewNR]

At this end of the market the 520d is a massive liability - it delivers reasonable fuel economy but thats about the only plus point as they are a reliability nightmare. Infact in this scenario fuel aside the big petrol would probably be kinder on the wallet

They are driven by every salesman because of the ow BIK rating due to its CO2 emissions - ie for totally irrelevent reasons to somebody buying a 7 year old one for £6k..

Before my 5 Series, I had a Mondeo. It was a massively cheaper car to own. And the 5 was worth every penny of the extra

That's the thing I'd take a 520d over the same age/engine size mondeo everytime, only if I was doing 20k+ a year or so would I then start to worry about the extra servicing etc costs of the BMW.

When did the 5 series get the efficient dynamics engine? The 1 series got it around 07 I think.

Not sure the op can stretch to that era?

 

[[TW]Fox]

That's the thing I'd take a 520d over the same age/engine size mondeo everytime

Yea, and I'd take a holiday to America over Butlins every time too but you'll find a 2006 520d costs a hell of a lot more money than a 2006 Mondeo TDCi!

When did the 5 series get the efficient dynamics engine? The 1 series got it around 07 I think.

ED isn't an engine its a bunch of complementing technologies, they appeared on the 520d shortly after the LCI in 2007. It's still the same N47 4 cylinder engine, just slightly revised and with the addition of shift lights, etc etc.

You can hear a £7k LCI 520d barking from here

If you want to buy a 7ish year old BMW then you must realise that doing so is not an economical purchase. It's not something you do to save money, therefore bin the crappy 4 cylinder diesels that are more trouble than they are worth. If you are bothered about MPGZ, road tax and cheap servicing and you have £5-7k to spend on a car then do not buy a 7 year old 5 Series as you'll likely get very fed up with it very fast. However if, by contrast, you have £7k to spend, are not hugely concerned about ongoing running costs and want a 5 Series then go for it.

The 4 pot diesels are for people ordering brand new warranted company cars. Not for people buying older used stuff, IMHO. They make no sense at this age. Plus you are buying a big executive saloon. It needs a big executive saloon engine to go with it.

 

[AndrewNR]

Maybe he should consider an e39 if he wants a BMW. If the e60 has interior like the pre-facelift interior in the 1 series he isn't missing out on much.

He is struggling at his budget to buy an e60 anyway, I wouldn't stretch myself for an "a to b" car, which a 520d is, if he was after a 530/540 or an m5 perhaps my response would be different.

 

[bum]

Yea, and I'd take a holiday to America over Butlins every time too but you'll find a 2006 520d costs a hell of a lot more money than a 2006 Mondeo TDCi!



ED isn't an engine its a bunch of complementing technologies, they appeared on the 520d shortly after the LCI in 2007. It's still the same N47 4 cylinder engine, just slightly revised and with the addition of shift lights, etc etc.

You can hear a £7k LCI 520d barking from here

If you want to buy a 7ish year old BMW then you must realise that doing so is not an economical purchase. It's not something you do to save money, therefore bin the crappy 4 cylinder diesels that are more trouble than they are worth. If you are bothered about MPGZ, road tax and cheap servicing and you have £5-7k to spend on a car then do not buy a 7 year old 5 Series as you'll likely get very fed up with it very fast. However if, by contrast, you have £7k to spend, are not hugely concerned about ongoing running costs and want a 5 Series then go for it.

The 4 pot diesels are for people ordering brand new warranted company cars. Not for people buying older used stuff, IMHO. They make no sense at this age. Plus you are buying a big executive saloon. It needs a big executive saloon engine to go with it.

5k to 7k is sort of my budget, and I am in fact looking at BMW and Audi.

I was thinking BMW 3s, 5s and Audi A4, A6, but only looked at few websites for information recently, such as auto trader or the like. So I am actually open for suggestions. I'm not sure there are any other good ones that's worth noting, with recent "decent" cars goes around 8k it is out of the budget range.

 

[AndrewNR]

5k to 7k is sort of my budget, and I am in fact looking at BMW and Audi.

I was thinking BMW 3s, 5s and Audi A4, A6, but only looked at few websites for information recently, such as auto trader or the like. So I am actually open for suggestions. I'm not sure there are any other good ones that's worth noting, with recent "decent" cars goes around 8k it is out of the budget range.

Why just them two "premium" brands?

What about VW Passat, Honda Accord etc?

 

[bum]

Why just them two "premium" brands?

What about VW Passat, Honda Accord etc?

Guess it's more of a personal preference.

I really like Passat CC, but a short search over the net says they would cost 8k - 9k.

And for Honda, a decent one would be 5k anyway.

 

[AndrewNR]

Guess it's more of a personal preference.

I really like Passat CC, but a short search over the net says they would cost 8k - 9k.

And for Honda, a decent one would be 5k anyway.

That's the point, a decent, cheap to run Honda which is a good car vs a raggy e60 beemer.

It's your money, just thought I'd ask and suggest.

 

[bum]

I also like Vauxhall Insignia, but a short search showed them also goes around 9k.

I have to say compared to some of my mates, I've got into the whole car thing really late, sort of came with my drivers license. Now I am pretty interested and looking forward to get my own car - but this also means lack of experience/knowledge with it. So for any ignorant remarks I made, please do bear with me.

It's very expensive to get cars in China with import tax and all, and the 'premium' brand cars there are really for the wealthy kind of people. And it's near impossible for me to get one while working back there. I have always loved BMW M5, and in China a brand new M5 would set you back somewhere around £180k, and a M3 would set you back for £130k. Then I saw this:

2003 M3

 

[Berger]

I bought a 4 year old 5 Series 6 years ago and have been thoroughly happy with it ever since. I'm the same age as you. I have kept a log of costs and they are detailed here:

http://pistonheads.com/members/showcar.asp?carId=55454

Not as high a cost as I had expected when it is broken down monthly, provided that you can budget for the repair bills then the running costs are pretty reasonable.

As you said, only if you end up needing service/tyres/brakes all at once will it get expensive, but then you should be big bill free for a while....

 

[GinG]

How about an A4? Just bought one and love it, mine was over your budget but I went for an s-line with multitronic. I would think for 7k you could get a manual? I have had mine a couple of days and love it!

 

[[TW]Fox]

I have always loved BMW M5, and in China a brand new M5 would set you back somewhere around £180k, and a M3 would set you back for £130k. Then I saw this:

2003 M3

But thats not a new M3 cosing £130k in China. It's an 8 year old M3 with chavvy wheels being flogged by a dealer trying hard to look like a big dealer but just punting cars on from auction from his drive or something. Look, no address given and all the cars he sells are photographed in random places. Not where you should go if you have a £5-7k budget and just want 'a bmw' as the costs of an M3 are massively higher.

 

[Dave]

I have never owned a car in UK before and got my driving license whilst working in China (this will need to get replaced to a UK license, of course).

May need to just think about this - I don't think you can directly convert from a Chinese licence to a UK one, assuming this was mainland China. You'll probably have to do a long-winded conversion of China -> Hong Kong -> UK or convert to some international licence before switching to a UK one. (I don't think that Chinese licences are recognised on the international one though - I believe that China don't recognise them either)

 

[Rambaud]

I would suggest you drive the relevant cars within your budget. You might find that a BMW/Mercedes/Audi does not make your short list.

 

[Housey]

Id pay money to see fox at Butlins.

 

[bum]

All the replies are appreciated guys.

Is there a website where one could check for the history of the car?

 

[Janesy B]

Id pay money to see fox at Butlins.

It's like going on safari but you replace the animals with poor people.