Talk to me about E90/91 BMWs...

[sovietspybob]

Modern cars are so SO much more complex than those of 20 years ago, just youtube how common rail diesel injection works and after you'll be amazed any diesel cars work at all after a few years with how complicated it all is!

 

[DarrenM343]

Modern cars are so SO much more complex than those of 20 years ago, just youtube how common rail diesel injection works and after you'll be amazed any diesel cars work at all after a few years with how complicated it all is!

The same was probably said about cars 20 years ago. Fuel inject vs carbs, central locking etc.
Technology doesn't get into cars until it's proven.

if it is the case then it's a step back? Make cars bigger and heavier and also more complicated but be warned, a car that used to be for 10-20 years now falls to bits after 6. How are we going to ever master space travel if bigger, newer and more complex fails more quickly
I do believe they don't make 'em like they used to' but not to an extent that I would warn people off a premium brand 6 year old car or a car with > 60k miles.
There is of course always a trade off. Buy more expensive/newer and you have few issues but you get depreciation. BUy an older car and you are more likely to get issues to fix but less depreciation.

 

[[TW]Fox]

I happily run a 10 year old 200k mile 5 Series with no warranty. When I replace it with a lower mileage 3 year old 5 Series I won't touch one without a BMW warranty. They are far more complex now and the fantasy that newer cars are reliable is just that, a fantasy. Everything is considerably more complex now, often due to ever more annoying emissions regulations.

An N52 powered 3 is about as new as I would go without one but when the comprehensive policy from BMW is so cheap for the 3 series why wouldn't you get one?

 

[DarrenM343]

An N52 powered 3 is about as new as I would go without one but when the comprehensive policy from BMW is so cheap for the 3 series why wouldn't you get one?

If the warranty is cheap that means that it's a solid reliable car most likely. The complexity of modern cars and the likely repairs are all factored into the cost of the warranty.

It's all down to luck, if unlucky and the engine blows the warranty will pay for itself many times over. But such failures are rare, or if not, the price of the warranty will reflect it .

I have monitored the costs of warranty vs no warranty on a few cars including an expensive sports car. Despite driving 70k miles in 3 years in that car, and having to do a few repairs, I was still better off without the £1000+ warranty. Other owners of the same model of car used them as weekend toys and had the warranty, doing 3-5k miles a year - madness. On the other car I had to pay £750 for repairs soon after the warranty ran out. But over the next 3 years nothing else needed doing. £750 one off cost or three years * £540 a year (assuming BMW wouldn't have also increased the cost of the warranty as the milage increased). Interestingly both cars were about 50% savings by not taking out the warranty.

 

[[TW]Fox]

If the warranty is cheap that means that it's a solid reliable car most likely. The complexity of modern cars and the likely repairs are all factored into the cost of the warranty.

No, it doesn't - there is no logic like that in the cost of a BMW warranty, IMHO. Something like a 320d with it's catastrophic timing chain issue is a big warranty risk, yet it'll cost the same to buy a warranty for as an N52 engined 325i with no satnav, probably the lowest warranty risk in the E90 range.

It is priced based on the series of car.

Which is why a warranty on a 335i M Sport DCT convertible, one of the more complex cars in the range, is much cheaper than any 5 Series model, even a base spec example with no spec. Take a 520d for example - mechnically fundamentally identical to a 320d, yet the warranty is significantly more expensive. This continues up the range, a 730d is massively more to warranty than a 530d...

I guess nobody but BMW knows how its priced but I would imagine its market based pricing, ie, they charge what they perceive the market for each car to consider reasonable, and a solid manufacturer backed warranty scheme is important for used car desireability and hence residual values, so it probably makes commercial sense for some of the packages to make a loss and be subsidised by other packages.

 

[timbob]

So, I've been out actively looking over this first part of the Easter holidays, and found myself a car. After 3 duds (not really so much duff cars, just didn't quite get the feeling they were loved previously), I found myself a lovely looking one owner, 50k miles, E91 325i SE on an 06 plate (N52 engine) in dark grey with black leather sports seats for £8k.

After driving a few (including one near Birmingham with a hilariously dangerous pull to the left) this drove the best of all I'd tried, leaving me with the feeling that probably not have much chance of finding a better car, so I left a deposit for it, and pick it up on Monday

 

[Spartacus]

Congrats, Sparkling Graphite (the dark Grey) is a great colour on the e90/91

 

[timbob]

So, the new car is mine! Picked it up this afternoon, and very pleased with it. Lovely ride (SE on 17" wheels and non-run flats), engine sounds great, got a day set aside for a proper clean and going over inside.

Slightly less pleased with the massive idiot who's put a small but hugely annoying dent and crease in my front wing directly behind by front wheel and taken the paint off the leading edge of the drivers door swinging past it in the supermarket car park less than 6 hours into my ownership... I shall be visiting a local bodywork specialist to get a quote for repair in the morning