BMW and M Power Owners

Robbo said:
For what, the build quality? Most reviews praise it… there isn’t another car in this class that’s better.
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Edit: The car had worse vibrations than our F30 (build quality is also bad in this car), doubt it's the tyres as it has a new set front and back. I CBA to go under to see what state the Guibo was in, or if the diff has leaky seals... Very common faults from what I've seen on forums.
 
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Cars vary a lot, perhaps it’s had a hard life - perhaps someone’s had the dash out? Either way - maybe look at something else if you’ve seen several now and don’t like them.

Edit: I will just add that I am extremely fussy about things like this, and at 50k miles my LCI model was rock solid. I’m sure if you went around pressing on all the trim it might have made a slight noise, but show me a car that doesn’t.
 
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IC3 said:

Edit: The car had worse vibrations than our F30 (build quality is also bad in this car), doubt it's the tyres as it has a new set front and back. I CBA to go under to see what state the Guibo was in, or if the diff has leaky seals... Very common faults from what I've seen on forums.
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That's odd. The 530e that I test drove was so good that I actually contemplated buying it to replace my F30.

Not sure that I agree with pressing down on trim as a valid way to demonstrate build quality. If it doesn't rattle or creak when the car is driven, the trim is good. You're placing the trim under stress in manners it's just not designed for. You could make any car of any build quality squeak and creak by doing this.

Mechanisms being smooth, quiet, and effortlessly repeatable.
Good feedback and usability. The glovebox release handle feeling solid, the glovebox opening without loud bangs, for example.
Trim being highly resistant to scratches or damage.
Trim not falling off randomly during a journey.
Longevity and persisting quality of the component over time.
Not having ******* screens everywhere. This is a huge pet peeve of mine.

These are things that better represent build quality in my opinion.
 
It rattled and creaked during the test drive, I recorded the video for my mate who didn't believe me. We were also trying to locate where it's coming from by pressing gently on different parts of trim, but the whole interior was creaking. :cry:

My 20 year old Chaser had it's dash out 4 times, no creaks or noises. I like BMW's, but let's be honest, the quality just isn't there... I wrenched on different gen BMW's and some parts on modern BMW's feel like they are made of playdoh.
 
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A quick test drive in a poor example doesn’t really mean much. I’d say your comments put you in a minority, their quality as a whole seems fine to me - that’s not to say it’s perfect.
 
Robbo said:
A quick test drive in a poor example doesn’t really mean much. I’d say your comments put you in a minority, their quality as a whole seems fine to me - that’s not to say it’s perfect.
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We've seen 9 examples, maybe the cars aren't aging that well? But this one wasn't even 5 years old, I mean come on...
 
IC3 said:
We've seen 9 examples, maybe the cars aren't aging that well? But this one wasn't even 5 years old, I mean come on...
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Why are you still looking then? Obviously they aren’t to your standards.

If I was wanting to buy a ‘premium’ car and looked at 9 examples that were all creaky and worn out, I’d probably just forget the idea and look elsewhere.
 
Might have a look at a 24 plate M135 xDrive, would like something a bit more practical. Anyone had one of these? Not keen on the 4 exhausts pipes on it though.

M135 xDrive
 
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Mikey said:
Might have a look at a 24 plate M135 xDrive, would like something a bit more practical. Anyone had one of these? Not keen on the 4 exhausts pipes on it though.

M135 xDrive
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That's the first of the new 1 series, if you don't like the exhausts then the 2023 version is a very similar car really but doesn't have the same looks. They are also usefully cheaper.
 
Mikey said:
Might have a look at a 24 plate M135 xDrive, would like something a bit more practical
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Not sure what you've currently got, but the 1 series is only practical in the sense that it has 5 seats. The boot space is pretty small (although similar to others in its class).

Also, I found the F70 interior quality has dropped a lot from the F40. Yes it has the wide screens on the dash, but it's almost as if everything else was sacrificed because of it.
 
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Mikey said:
Might have a look at a 24 plate M135 xDrive, would like something a bit more practical. Anyone had one of these? Not keen on the 4 exhausts pipes on it though.

M135 xDrive
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Had an F40 M135 and loved it, had to change it when we got a dog as it boot wasn't big enough for our luggage when going away but it was practical enough to take 4 big adults to Hull for the a weekend on the beer easy enough, depends on what practical uses you need
 
Robbo said:
Why are you still looking then? Obviously they aren’t to your standards.

If I was wanting to buy a ‘premium’ car and looked at 9 examples that were all creaky and worn out, I’d probably just forget the idea and look elsewhere.
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aaronyuri said:
I agree with Robbo. By car 3 or 4, I would've called it a day.
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The cars you two had, were they new? Could it be that they're just not durable..
 
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IC3 said:
When I compare it to a Mazda CX5 2020 I picked up with my mate over the weekend, the Mazda has better finish inside, the leather stitched dash felt more premium tbh.

It's a shame Japs don't make interesting/exciting cars anymore...90/00's really was the golden era.
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There's no way a CX5 has a higher quality interior than a 5 series, sorry. We rented a CX5 the other month in Japan and ok it's screwed together properly, but the doors are tinny and the plastics are cheap. Better than an F30? Maybe. G30? No chance.
 
IC3 said:
The cars you two had, were they new? Could it be that they're just not durable..
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My Dad has a 6 Series (it's basically a 5 series hatchback ) he's had since it was almost new. It's a 2018 car and the interior is largely as it was when it was new. There are no rattles or visible signs of wear.

Is it possible that you're looking in a price bracket where you're mostly finding the less nicely looked after cars?
 
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mjt said:
There's no way a CX5 has a higher quality interior than a 5 series, sorry. We rented a CX5 the other month in Japan and ok it's screwed together properly, but the doors are tinny and the plastics are cheap. Better than an F30? Maybe. G30? No chance.
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I mainly mean the materials and lack of creaks/plastic noises, when it comes to entertainment system etc. The BMW is miles ahead.
[TW]Fox said:
My Dad has a 6 Series (it's basically a 5 series hatchback ) he's had since it was almost new. It's a 2018 car and the interior is largely as it was when it was new. There are no rattles or visible signs of wear.

Is it possible that you're looking in a price bracket where you're mostly finding the less nicely looked after cars?
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£24-27k for a 2018-2020 530d G30, 31-34k for M340i 2019-2020 Non MHT. I always look at cars that are on the expensive side and cheaper to have a comparison, even a 540i 2020 from BMW listed for £32.5k with 22k miles had vibrations, a car of this class should glide on the motorway at 70mph. Price has dropped after several months to 27k...

We're going to look at a Porsche Macan, Audi A6, Skoda Superb and Lexus ES300H tomorrow, just to mix it up a little.
 
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I’ve got an F30 and had an F31. The rattles and creaks are intense.


I’ve had a G20 and it was perfect with 50k miles.


Been in some G30s and also perfectly solid.



Had a B9 S5 and stripped the interior to bits to remove rattles and upgrade the audio.


IMO buy the right car and fix the rattles yourself if there are any.



My dad’s Cayenne is full of rattles, I can’t even drive it.
 
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over 26 years my e36 had one rattle the glove-box door but that's a classic (kinda like the vw girls earing) so I left it, sorted squeaky steering wheel though.
Audi B9 so far nothing to note, but, not even a teenager.
 
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Has anyone here got a G80/G81 M3? If so (and you have them) how are you finding the carbon bucket seats?

About to pull the trigger on a G81 M3 Touring to replace my G21 M340i Touring and looking at whats currently available for sale, I'm keen on getting an example with the carbon buckets. They seem to be quite rare to find on LCI examples too, I believe the 'Ultimate' pack no longer includes these compared to how it was with the pre-LCI, so LCI's with carbon buckets appear to be a rare thing. I may plump for a 2023/24 car as the spec's seem much more generous than the LCI's.
 
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