£20k - BMW 330e MSport Pro - Suitable?

[monkey_boy]

Hi All,

My brother in law is on the lookout for a new car and wondering if the 330e fits the bill or if it would be better to look at something else.

They do about 10k miles per year. 4k of that is his wife's commute to a single office where cheap/free charging is available. They don't have off-road parking, so can't have their own charger at home, which has written off full-electric for them.

The other 6k is made up of semi regular trips to the Netherlands, Plymouth, and Portsmouth.

The non-negotiables from his chain-of-command are:
Premium badge
Rear privacy glass
4/5 doors
Final veto on the looks/colour

His list of wants:
Quick but comfortable
Fun when wanted
Somewhat sport looking
decent space for luggage
Not old-man-looking
Premium feeling interior
Premium audio

They've been told by salespeople that they'd be better off with a 320d or 320i. They're thinking that the free/cheap charging for commuting and the power boost makes the 330e a better call. They like the idea of the M Sport Pro for the adaptive suspension and shadowline bits.

The budget is £20k but can be stretched by £2-3k but they want to leave wiggle room for manufacturer backed warranty and service plan. Less than 5 years old and 50k miles is their filter point at the moment and a few decent ones with HK audio have come and gone at that price.

Thoughts and input appreciated!

Thanks,

 

[mjt]

What's the price difference between a 330i and a 330e? Fuel costs at 10k pa aren't massive, but if they can get free/cheap charging at work then a 330e might make sense.
Wouldn't touch one without a BMW AUC warranty and would probably move it on as soon as the warranty is out.

320i is slow - look at 330i if they don't go for the hybrid


-edit boot is significantly smaller in the 330e over an ICE so perhaps worth having a look as "decent space for luggage" is on their list of requirements

 

[GravyMonster]

There has been a few threads about people looking at these. The most recent of which is here: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/bmw-330e-owners-thoughts.18993811/. May be worth having a search, but from what I've seen general opinion is good, aside from the points about boot space and a good warranty mentioned above.

 

[MrRockliffe]

I didn’t want to take on the risk of a 330e second hand. I test drove one with 60k miles and it had about 12 miles of range on a full charge - the battery had seemingly degraded quite a bit.

I don’t think the adaptive dampers are needed on a non hybrid with 18s and non runflat. The standard suspension is really good and a step up from the F30 which is already fine.


I’d personally have the tech and visibility pack on the list. And 320d over a 320i, but I’d rather have a 330i over both.

 

[mjt]

I didn’t want to take on the risk of a 330e second hand. I test drove one with 60k miles and it had about 12 miles of range on a full charge - the battery had seemingly degraded quite a bit.

I don’t think the adaptive dampers are needed on a non hybrid with 18s and non runflat. The standard suspension is really good and a step up from the F30 which is already fine.


I’d personally have the tech and visibility pack on the list. And 320d over a 320i, but I’d rather have a 330i over both.

Good point about the battery.. I suspect most of these will have been company cars driven on empty all the time without a care in the world for the actual battery..
Can confirm passive dampers are fine on 18s, albeit on a lighter 330i

 

[jpaul]

if you want a phev then xc40 with 8 year warranty maybe a better deal - tick audio/space/premium X too-big?/smiles?

 

[whitecrook]

i thought the point of the 330e was to run it through a business at cheaper tax cost. If you aren't doing that just stick to a normal car, especially if it's 10K mile a year, and you aren't even achieving 50% of that on electric (the commute).

 

[Journey]

They do about 10k miles per year. 4k of that is his wife's commute to a single office where cheap/free charging is available. They don't have off-road parking, so can't have their own charger at home, which has written off full-electric for them.

I'm confused by that statement. They have written off full BEV, but can charge for free at an office that is commuted to regularly, so why do they need to charge at home? With only ~80 miles of commuting per week, that's about 23kWh of electricity, or ~3.5hrs plugged in at 7kW, the rest of the time they could have an almost full car for free.

If the other 6,000 miles was done at 3.5mpkWh on average, at 70ppkWh (unlikely) they'd be spending £1,200 on charging, where as the 330e fuel economy on petrol alone is going to be below 40mpg, so ~£900 in fuel. It all likelihood they'd be getting the first 200+ miles of every longer trip at the 'free' office rate, and you'd probably use Electroverse or another charging app, brining the cost below the petrol by quite a margin.

 

[monkey_boy]

i thought the point of the 330e was to run it through a business at cheaper tax cost. If you aren't doing that just stick to a normal car, especially if it's 10K mile a year, and you aren't even achieving 50% of that on electric (the commute).

From new, absolutely it’s a tax thing. And in general I’m not a fan of hybrid, but think it fits their use case quite nicely. Probably the biggest benefit is that because of the tax thing they were a really popular company car and there’s loads of FBMWSH examples around to be picky with.

What's the price difference between a 330i and a 330e? Fuel costs at 10k pa aren't massive, but if they can get free/cheap charging at work then a 330e might make sense.
Wouldn't touch one without a BMW AUC warranty and would probably move it on as soon as the warranty is out.

320i is slow - look at 330i if they don't go for the hybrid


-edit boot is significantly smaller in the 330e over an ICE so perhaps worth having a look as "decent space for luggage" is on their list of requirements

The boot has been tested and will be fine for what they want. The warranty is a dealbreaker - if it’s not eligible for the BMW extended warranty @£68 per month, they won’t have it.

There are far fewer 330i available and the ones that are don’t have the pro pack or hk sound, or they have aftermarket chav tack on them.

I didn’t want to take on the risk of a 330e second hand. I test drove one with 60k miles and it had about 12 miles of range on a full charge - the battery had seemingly degraded quite a bit.

I don’t think the adaptive dampers are needed on a non hybrid with 18s and non runflat. The standard suspension is really good and a step up from the F30 which is already fine.


I’d personally have the tech and visibility pack on the list. And 320d over a 320i, but I’d rather have a 330i over both.

Was that the one with the 7kwh battery or the later one with the 12kwh battery?

if you want a phev then xc40 with 8 year warranty maybe a better deal - tick audio/space/premium X too-big?/smiles?

Volvo has been judged as ‘not premium’

 

[monkey_boy]

I'm confused by that statement. They have written off full BEV, but can charge for free at an office that is commuted to regularly, so why do they need to charge at home? With only ~80 miles of commuting per week, that's about 23kWh of electricity, or ~3.5hrs plugged in at 7kW, the rest of the time they could have an almost full car for free.

If the other 6,000 miles was done at 3.5mpkWh on average, at 70ppkWh (unlikely) they'd be spending £1,200 on charging, where as the 330e fuel economy on petrol alone is going to be below 40mpg, so ~£900 in fuel. It all likelihood they'd be getting the first 200+ miles of every longer trip at the 'free' office rate, and you'd probably use Electroverse or another charging app, brining the cost below the petrol by quite a margin.

They are slow chargers at work so can easily get a full charge on that but not reliably so with an iPace or Model 3.

They could also put a charge lead under a mat on the pavement from the door to the car, but the council would have a fit if they stuck a permanent wall charger there.

I agree these are minor things and could be worked around but are logistical complications they don’t want to faff around with.

 

[mjt]

The boot has been tested and will be fine for what they want. The warranty is a dealbreaker - if it’s not eligible for the BMW extended warranty @£68 per month, they won’t have it.

There are far fewer 330i available and the ones that are don’t have the pro pack or hk sound, or they have aftermarket chav tack on them.

HK sound wasn't available during COVID times, but there are hundreds of 330e around, so they'll probably be able to find one eligible for the warranty?

 

[MrRockliffe]

Was that the one with the 7kwh battery or the later one with the 12kwh battery?

I think the G20 only came with a 12kW battery.

 

[Journey]

They are slow chargers at work so can easily get a full charge on that but not reliably so with an iPace or Model 3.

Slow = 3.6kW? That would cover a whole day's commute in 1 hour. Also comparing an Ipace which is an inefficient power hungry monster, and a Model 3, one of the most efficient cars on the road is an odd choice. You only need to add back what you use so it being 'slow' is irrelevant, sicne it would never be putting more than a few kWh back in per commute.
In the £22-23k bracket, they could get a 71/72 plate Mercedes EQC 400 4Matic (comfy. blacked out rear windows, premium, 0-62 5.1 secs, good audio, old man looking???) or you could look at the very nice Genesis GV60 72-plate still have plenty of manufactures warranty, and they are very nice inside and out. Lots of other options as well.

I agree these are minor things and could be worked around but are logistical complications they don’t want to faff around with.

Sounds more like lack of knowledge, so they think a half way house of a PHEV is going to save them money, when they'd likely be better off with just a pure petrol car, faffing is plugging the damn car in every day to fill up the tiny battery and it being empty the next day on the return to work. What a waste of time.

 

[monkey_boy]

commute is 13 miles each way, 3 days a week. 3.6kw charge absolutely would not cover that in one hour. Adding 27 miles each day at 3kwh (because no chargers or cars sustain their peak charging capacity) would take a full work day without much trouble.

I think it’s less about trying to save money and more about seeing this particular phev as a bonus. Cheaper commuting in fully electric, and the odd blasts of power when it’s running in hybrid sport x mode.

EQC is a good shout if they look at electric but lower range than both the iPace and the Model 3.

 

[lordrobs]

I didn’t want to take on the risk of a 330e second hand. I test drove one with 60k miles and it had about 12 miles of range on a full charge - the battery had seemingly degraded quite a bit.

All that figure tells you is how it's most recently been driven. Lots of faffing about on a forecourt, left on with the heaters on while shuffling cars about could result in that. Or a 'spirited' test drive in full electric mode before you got your hands on it.

Good point about the battery.. I suspect most of these will have been company cars driven on empty all the time without a care in the world for the actual battery..
Can confirm passive dampers are fine on 18s, albeit on a lighter 330i

Thing is that 0% displayed to the driver doesn't represent a 0% state of charge. It merely means there is 0% of all electric range remaining.

Even if it never sees a charger the SoC will yo-yo within the regular hybrid running range and that before you consider the available Vs actual capacity of the battery.

In short, I wouldn't be massively concerned about it not being charged.

 

[MrRockliffe]

All that figure tells you is how it's most recently been driven. Lots of faffing about on a forecourt, left on with the heaters on while shuffling cars about could result in that. Or a 'spirited' test drive in full electric mode before you got your hands on it.

It went down to 0 during my test drive though

 

[lordrobs]

It went down to 0 during my test drive though

Fair enough, I assumed you meant it was displaying 12 miles of range, not that you only got that from driving it.

 

[Journey]

commute is 13 miles each way, 3 days a week. 3.6kw charge absolutely would not cover that in one hour. Adding 27 miles each day at 3kwh (because no chargers or cars sustain their peak charging capacity) would take a full work day without much trouble.

I'm not sure what you are trying to say here? Are you saying that a 3.6kW charger cannot sustain 3.6kW? Or that the cars OBC can't take 3.6kW.

Also I took the weekly as 5 days commuting but if it is only 3 then the PHEV is even more pointless, since the 330e in the price range they are looking at has a 10.4kWh useable battery (12kWh), so 27 miles is not gonna happen for at least half of the year, and more realistically they get a maximum of 18 miles even in decent weather. So that 27 miles is never going to be covered using the Electric only, the battery will almost be dead by the time they get home at night, and the next time they go in it is either empty from being used locally/for something else, or they'll get 5 miles max, so using fuel.

I think it’s less about trying to save money and more about seeing this particular phev as a bonus. Cheaper commuting in fully electric, and the odd blasts of power when it’s running in hybrid sport x mode.

The cheaper commuting isn't really going to offset the higher costs when not in PHEV mode on longer runs though, as above they'll be lucky to get 2500 or the 4000 miles in electric mode. If they want blasts of power just get a faster/higher BHP electric car. It honestly seem like they are over complicating it, especially if they have free charging that they can plug in all day at for 3 days a week.

EQC is a good shout if they look at electric but lower range than both the iPace and the Model 3.

Why are you mentioning those two cars specifically, as highlighted they are nothing like each other, one is a minimalist saloon with mega efficiency and the other is a performance (luxury?) SUV/crossover. I mentioned the EQC since it ticks some of the boxes, you forgot about the Genesis, assume you are unfamiliar?

 

[Tinders]

Ran one for 4 years, loved the car, but it was a company car so for me the tax savings were pretty decent. Range is poor (17-19 in winter and 26 in summer months), lovely car inside, had mine with HK audio,comfort pack and 360 cams. Boot is shockingly tiny, but its a lovely car to drive with bags of power and great handling, and economy is really good for the power on tap. Software and tech is spot on aswell.

I'd have another but it would need to be an estate, pre FL is a still a nice looking car in the right colours, mine was orange and looked great imo, but so does the blue.

Have a look at the Volvo and Merc Phevs aswell if it must be a PHEV, theres so many of these coming of lease into the used market, there must be decent deals out the there.

 

[lordrobs]

Shame about the premium badge requirement. Cupra Leon an Octavia vRS are both pretty decent PHEVs and £20k buys a very nice example of either.