BMW and M Power Owners

Soldato
Joined
27 Jul 2007
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6,085
Not at all - I'm just surprised you landed yourself in a BMW E60 loan car as many times that you can say that you've driven them plenty.

Such an odd thing to say. I was given an A4 loaner for 5 weeks back in 2016. Just because I only had it once, does that mean I didn't "drive it plenty"?
 
Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
159,534
Not at all - I'm just surprised you landed yourself in a BMW E60 loan car as many times that you can say that you've driven them plenty.

I've driven them enough that I've sampled every model in the range save for the V8s or the M5. Really not sure what the issue is. Heck we even had one in the family that I drove.

It'd blow your mind if I counted the F30 hire cars I've had :p
 
Associate
Joined
19 Dec 2005
Posts
1,429
Just picked up a 340i after making the mistake of leasing a 17 plate A4 for two years trying to be sensible, won't go into details but safe to say I hated everything with the A4 and was glad to see the back of it!
 
Soldato
Joined
27 Jul 2007
Posts
6,085
Eh?

"I've driven plenty of them" reads totally different to "I've driven one for a long time".

Most E60s are the same. The same crap interior, and weird exterior styling.

Just picked up a 340i after making the mistake of leasing a 17 plate A4 for two years trying to be sensible, won't go into details but safe to say I hated everything with the A4 and was glad to see the back of it!

Which A4 did you have?
 
Soldato
Joined
27 Dec 2011
Posts
5,682
I've driven them enough that I've sampled every model in the range save for the V8s or the M5. Really not sure what the issue is. Heck we even had one in the family that I drove.

It'd blow your mind if I counted the F30 hire cars I've had :p

What issue? Hey, look, there's no issue, and I'm not sure why it's come across that way. Clearly I was a touch tongue-in-cheek with my comment, so much so that I even put a smiley in there to elaborate on that point.

I was just genuinely curious how anyone manages to land themselves in a slew of loan cars to the point where they're driving plenty of the exact same model that they don't even like, that's all. No issue, just genuine curiosity - you're not obliged to answer, but saying things like having a load of F30's as hire cars only reinforces my original question! :)

For what it's worth I've driven BMW's since I was 21 (now almost 30), have used BMW main dealers for plenty of servicing, MoT's, issues with cars etc. and I've only had two F20's and one F30 as hire cars in that time. Similarly my brother in law had an F10 for two years as a company car and again, had a few issues, but was only ever in a couple of different cars.

Most E60s are the same. The same crap interior, and weird exterior styling.

That may be so, but it still doesn't make your earlier point any clearer, or indeed has any relevance to my question (which was how can someone keep getting into the same hire/loan cars that they don't like, to the point they've driven plenty of them).
 
Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
159,534
From memory, and it was a very long time ago (The E60 ended production more than 9 years ago!):

1x 530d M Sport for the day as some sort of dealer event back in 2006

1x 525i SE owned by my Dad about 10 years back

1x 530i 272PS and 530d 231bhp as test drives when I looked to replace the E39 in 2011

1x 535d belonging to a friend

Various 520d/525d as loan cars from my local BMW dealer when my E39 was in for bodyshop* and service work

*It went back a number of times before it was right each time a different loan car

F30 wise..

A couple of courtesy vehicles but mostly paid rental cars – we go on quite a few trips and I usually one-way a car to the airport and back again and book the Premium Auto class as for Heathrow it works out cheaper than parking. These are invariably 3 Series of some description up to and including 330d. Also had a German 320d once for a trip to Switzerland. I tend to get less these days as I actively avoid them, my last couple of ‘3 Series or similar’ rentals were a C300 Mercedes and an A5.

I believe this classifies as ‘plenty’ and means that my dislike of the E60 is not because I’ve never seen one. I’ve never liked it despite being a 5 Series fan – the looks are challenging though I concede looks are subjective – but the interior is poor and doesn’t meet class expectations, it doesn’t feel particularly well built, I could just never get on with them. The E39 was a better car in its day and the F10 a return to form. Such was my level of dislike I bought a 335i instead (Which didn’t go well either!) despite being far more of a 5 Series kinda guy :p
 
Associate
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21 Jun 2004
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1,603
Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
159,534
These are big money for F11's but that 530d is a very nice spec. I honestly don't think there is much between 535d and 530d - I test drove both and was satisfied enough that the first nice example would do me fine irrespective of which engine it was, in the event i ended up with the 530d.
 
Soldato
Joined
13 Dec 2004
Posts
5,398
Location
Stoke-on-Trent
My 63 plate F10 520d just hit 105,000 miles. I'm doing 20k per year but all of that is a weekly chilled oit 400 mile commute to Dartford.

The car is amazing (albeit not a 530d :() but I'm concerned that other than brake pads, discs and tyres nothing has been replaced on the car.

Always serviced at BMW bar my last one (cragos BMW specialist in Dartford)

Are there any preventative check ups/replacements I should looking into? Always assumed things get checked at services. Decided I'm going to keep this car for the foreseeable so imagine it will 'die' in the next 4-5 years at this mileage, just want to prolong that as much as possible.
 
Soldato
Joined
27 Dec 2011
Posts
5,682

Appreciate that write up, thanks!

What I take from that, though, is that it's not necessarily that the E60 is a bad car - but rather a bad 5 Series? Would that be fair to say?

I was tempted by the sunroof, but I feel i would end up leaving it closed 98% of the time.

To me a sunroof is supposed to be left closed - the benefit is the light that floods into the cabin.
 
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