BMW and M Power Owners

Caporegime
Joined
25 Nov 2004
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On the road....
https://usedcars.bmw.co.uk/vehicle/201809110385376?location=Peebles Rd, Silverdale, Newcastle ST5 6QY, UK&quoteref=e4925af1-d35b-43ee-b936-25feb8d73990
My partner has seen this and is thinking of changing her 118d Sport for it (65 plate, 13k Miles, has balance of AUC warranty - 4 months - and another year or so on the service pack which will cover its next major service)

Blue Bell BMW are quoting her car plus £9k to change...

But, on looking on BMW’s site I’ve found this which seems a better deal...

https://usedcars.bmw.co.uk/vehicle/201810291932629?location=Peebles Rd, Silverdale, Newcastle ST5 6QY, UK&quoteref=b776d9df-b9a4-4d7a-8960-6775daffaf3b

Am I missing something?

My view is for her to keep the 1 Series, she likes it and it’s perfect for her and her son on the school run etc that it does predominantly.

But, she wants something bigger because her elderly parents struggle to get into the 1 Series which I can’t personally see a 3 being a huge improvement upon....

Despite not liking the M Sport suspension when we tried - and nearly bought - a 320d a few weeks back she’s driven this 318 today and likes it (to be fair it was not as “crashy” as the last example we tried)

Basically she regrets buying the 1 in the first place so I suspect she won’t be happy until she’s changed for something bigger albeit by not much.

I’ve tried suggesting the obvious solution is for her to use my 7 for the 8 weeks or so her parents are visiting from Cyprus where they live, but she doesn’t like my cars mpg (but hey, £9k to change what you have now to something marginally bigger makes sense?)

I thought man maths was bonkers, nothing on woman maths it appears! :D

Anyway, am I missing something between the 318d and the 320d I’ve quoted above? A bit puzzled as to why two cars from the same group would appear so closely matched price wise given the 320 would - you’d think - be the better bet?
 
Caporegime
Joined
25 Nov 2004
Posts
25,812
Location
On the road....
Definitely find one with the proper nav. That smaller screen version looks dreadful.
I hear you although to be honest - compared to the same size screen in her 118, the graphics etc are very much better on this one, it’s had some kind of visual update it appears, the main point (bar screen size) of pro nav from what I can tell is the hard drive for storing music, “torque gauges” and full 3D map display can’t see her using the storage tbh, she just streams music from her phone or uses DAB, the gauges are just silly and she’s not had any gripes with the older map display on her 1, this one looks much better in that regard anyway.

Going to go back in a bit and see if there’s any movement on price given the similar priced 320d I found.

Pro nav is nice but it’s not - to her - a big deal nor a deal breaker.
 
Caporegime
Joined
25 Nov 2004
Posts
25,812
Location
On the road....
Just got back from Blue Bell, tried 3 different 320d’s, one was a shadowline with 19’s which went really well - noticeably quicker than the other two - but was very noisy inside and the ride quality was awful, two other 320d M Sports on 18’s which both rode better and tbh neither felt as quick as the shadowline which was odd, the shadowline has done 2700miles the other two were 5000 and 28 miles respectively.

As an alternative given she always liked her old Focus and regrets changing it we tried a new shape one at the Ford dealer around the corner, what a let down! I thought she’d have changed to wanting one but now is dead against the idea.
We said we wanted a diesel but the salesman insisting we tried a 3pot 125 BHP Ecobang didn’t help matters at all.

To be fair to Blue Bell, no pressure to make a deal there and then, and he even suggested waiting until the new model launches in March because it will have an effect on values of F30’s which I thought fair of him, a very different experience to Knights BMW (given they are the same Lookers group) who couldn’t have pushed more to make us place a deposit etc, a very refreshing change.

I’m thinking she’ll wait and see - I still don’t think changing her 1 Series makes any real sense, in the meantime I’m going to see what other crappy spec examples I can find! :D
 
Associate
Joined
26 Nov 2017
Posts
234
In that case get an SE bmw? I also agree Alpinas are generally overpriced, especially if you don't care about the fancy leather then it seems like a bad choice. Better to get a normal car and just get suspension that suits you.... A 6cyl is a much nicer 'gain' than a d3 setup imho. Then again maybe you drive a d3 and love it and well maybe they're great and worth the premium.

Never driven a d3, did briefly look into them, have sat in one.

Sensible advice. I had a LCI 335i SE E90 saloon, and it was by far one of the best 'all round' cars I have ever owned, at a slight expense of initial turn in 'feel' compared to the M Sports. Very comfy on 17s with non RFT. I'd had two M Sports previously, a coupe on 19s (non RFT) and a saloon on 18s (RFT) and both were uncomfortable. The N55 was very economical, often returning 460-480 miles between fill ups (I had a long motorway commute).

I'd look to a LCI 330d SE with sport seats if I wanted a diesel or, if you can put up with the ride quality and really have to have the slightly different bumpers, go for an M Sport.

As arfoll suggests, you'll be much better off fitting some aftermarket dampers (Koni FSD are supposed to be a good choice for comfort and handling) than either the SE or M Sport dampers.
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Soldato
Joined
8 Jun 2006
Posts
12,638
Location
Hertfordshire
Hi Guys

My 5 series 2014 is showing "No Parking Assistance, please park unaided.
Have the problem checked by the Service"

This was intermittent and is now constant (over the past 2 weeks) when I go to park, before I take it to the local dealer is there anything I can check before hand, I'v not bumper the front of back bumpers at all

Trying to see where the fuse box is located so I can check the fuses

Thanks
 
Caporegime
Joined
21 Oct 2002
Posts
26,251
Location
Here
Fixed the M3 after one of the throttle actuators have up and gave me a Christmas tree of lights and errors over Christmas. The plastic gears wear and they tend to go out of sync and not operate properly. One actuator operates a bank of 4 throttles

Got 2 refurbed/ improved ones on from rebuild.org for £470 rather than the £800 each one From BMw which still fail due to crap plastic gears. Rebuild offer lifetime warranty on the gears too inYcxjN.jpg Whilst the plenum was off I did spark plugs and thermostat too (finally) and my mate hoovered all the leaves out of the V lol

KCyR5HC.jpg

Took 4h which isn’t too bad as I haven’t worked under the bonnet of this before. Hardest part was getting coil 4 back on and getting the old stat out of the housing as it didn’t want to leave. Spark plugs not as bad as I thought considering this is number 7 and cylinder 8 is further back. Lj0pRPW.jpg

8 throttle bodies simply jubilee clip onto the plenum ( which is huge). Bit of engine porn under that big plastic plenum. The actuators are under the wires in the middle. You can see the linkage arm of the right bank below
ATrTk6B.jpg
Warmed up just as I got near home (mate’s garage) hitting 90C under normal driving for first time since we’ve had sub 10C ambients) and it felt ‘clean’, smoother and pulled harder thanks to the throttles working properly.

All back to its former glory and a quick wipe down. Airbox is also massive as it goes all the way down to meet the bottom bumper grill

FBNCksB.jpg
 
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Caporegime
Joined
21 Oct 2002
Posts
26,251
Location
Here
Nice work.

It took Ben from Rebuild 45 minutes to do mine - just goes to show what a difference an experienced mechanic makes over an amateur!
Actuators were easy to be fair . The spark plugs took the time and sucking 2.5l of coolant out with a syringe for the stat.
 
Soldato
Joined
8 Jun 2006
Posts
12,638
Location
Hertfordshire
Hi Guys

My 5 series 2014 is showing "No Parking Assistance, please park unaided.
Have the problem checked by the Service"

This was intermittent and is now constant (over the past 2 weeks) when I go to park, before I take it to the local dealer is there anything I can check before hand, I'v not bumper the front of back bumpers at all

Trying to see where the fuse box is located so I can check the fuses

Thanks
Any help on this gents before I go and pay a chunk of cash at the dealer :(
 
Caporegime
Joined
25 Nov 2004
Posts
25,812
Location
On the road....
Any help on this gents before I go and pay a chunk of cash at the dealer :(
I don’t have an f10 but know someone who keeps getting this error.

Check the fuse first, its somewhere in the rear iirc.

If you turn the wheel lock to lock a few times it should recalibrate and so long as there’s no other issue it should behave itself.
 
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