BMW 3 series Touring

ISTR the Business Edition had the crappy Business nav as standard and not the proper Professional Navigation.

It's only technically the latest shape - its production life is ending now and the new saloon has already been launched.
 
[TW]Fox;20966221 said:
ISTR the Business Edition had the crappy Business nav as standard and not the proper Professionall Navigation.
Click to expand...

You could upgrade it to Professional navigation for £300 or so though - some people did. I'm also pretty sure that Business editions came with Bluetooth as standard?
 
Any thoughts on the engine? I won't be going for a 6 cylinder so out of the 4's is this best?

With regards to the latest shape, any estimates as to how long the Touring will be out and in your opinions would it be worth waiting even longer until they are out to take advantage of the presumed price drops on the E93's?
 
Hi Fox,

Thanks, I was hoping you would be online! This is the car I am thinking of going for, last thoughts if you wouldn't mind?
 
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It is a 320i, this engine is (Like it would seem most now!) not without its issues.

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=136258

Not an issue if you maintain the BMW warranty but do be aware that the BMW warranty gets very expensive above 60k miles. Provided you'll do under 18k in the first year when your AUC warranty runs out you'll be able to put it onto a monthly policy at the lower rate.

It has Xenons, which is good but sadly it has Business Navigation which is a shame.

I'd much rather a 325i or a 330i Touring as these are hardly any more uneconomical but a quick check reveals the cheapest nice one to be another £5k so not practical.
 
Cheers. Yes mileage is around 7/8k a year, so I think my initial desires for a diesel were a bit misconceived!

I have been looking for ages and this one stands out for one, its new shape (first M-Sport under £17/18k I have seen) and its being sold by BMW. This should give me a whole load of peace of mind , plus saves me around £500 in my first year as I wont need to go and purchase the warranty.

Shame about the Sat Nav, but all the other factors considered I think this could be the one!
 
Hi,

I would still like to hear some more opinions on the 320i engine. Browsing the net seems to bring some negative remarks regarding power and consumption.

I would very much like to hear from any 320i owners if we have any!

Thanks
 
[TW]Fox;20966221 said:
ISTR the Business Edition had the crappy Business nav as standard and not the proper Professional Navigation.
Click to expand...

The Pro Nav has a Hard Drive so you can store your music on it - it's incredibly slow to upload the music to, and has an odd file structure which isn't intuitive. (You'd be better off using the 6FL USB in armrest option for music playback)

The other things are the Pro has a bigger screen, that also splits so you get the map on one side and arrow style directions on the other

For me it wouldn't be a deal breaker, it's really not that much better IMO
 
coopersim said:
The Pro Nav has a Hard Drive so you can store your music on it - it's incredibly slow to upload the music to, and has an odd file structure which isn't intuitive. (You'd be better off using the 6FL USB in armrest option for music playback)

The other things are the Pro has a bigger screen, that also splits so you get the map on one side and arrow style directions on the other

For me it wouldn't be a deal breaker, it's really not that much better IMO
Click to expand...

The Pro is much better, I had Pro CIC nav in my 335i and it was one of the best things about the car. Never had issues with the hard drive file structure or the speed of uploading music.
 
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The one with the "god awful interior" has a gorgeous interior, thank god it had an owner that wasn't scared to order the black on black with highlights of black.

However, it has no iDrive, so would instantly be a "no" for me.
 
Thats a lovely interior, and it's an LCI car as well.

Sadly though no iDrive, No Xenons (So horribly crappy reflector lenses) and the mileage is 9k over the limit for the cheaper BMW warranty.
 
I keep searching and cant seem to find one that I want to go look at, but the one with the red leather is still on the market.

Im honestly wondering if I should just go for a 320i which might give me more of a selection with idrive and extras where the 325i's aren't.

Im getting fed up with looking, plus it doesn't help now that I am feeling like I have to do something about it soon rather than later now that someone has tried to kill of my old corsa by driving into the side of it. :( Even though its a crap car, I secretly love it.
 
So that would have to be the 08 and onwards ones then.

Are these timing chain jobbies? I guess the main issue to look out for is the coil & injector problem that you linked to earlier?
 
Hi,

Well I did finally get my Touring back in January, so apologies for the late update of my post!

The one we went for a was 59 plate (LCI) 320i M-Sport Business Edition with 42k miles, in Space Grey from BMW. Cost was £15k after trading in our rather well worn 90k mile X reg Ford Focus.

Spec wise (I don't have the official descriptions to hand so I'll list them as I know them):

Black Dakota leather, with heated, electric front seats.
Adaptive Zenons.
Business Sat Nav.
Bluetooth Phone.
iPod connectivity.
Electric folding mirrors.
Extended light package (funky blue LEDs that light down from the door handles as well as extra lighting in the rear)
Rear sun blinds.

I love the cars looks, the interior and all the gadgets. Apart from those listed above, its also got what I presume are the usuals; auto-dimming mirrors, auto full beam lights, headlight washers, rain sensor wipers, shift indicator and a luggage net that retracts up from the rear seats.

I have realised I am pretty crap at trying to write up the cars drive, so I'll keep it short. It handles very nicely, steering feels well weighted and precise and going across roundabouts at speed is nearly as much fun as in my MX5!

The 320i engine seems to go well with 170bhp and we're averaging 28mpg when doing the daily school and Tesco runs. We haven't been anywhere far in it yet, so still waiting to see what it will return on a long motorway run.

As for the 320i 'engine issues', it did have some! A few weeks after I got the car I was a bit concerned that the engine wasn't performing as it should and the mpg wasn't great. These worries were probably fuelled by the problems I had read on the net, so I decided to book it in at the local BMW dealer. They ran a diagnostic and found some error codes, and ended up replacing the plugs, coil packs, 2 sensors and one injector - so I was very glad we had the BMW warranty! The car instantly felt much more responsive, quicker and had better fuel consumption. I was a bit miffed that the BMW dealer that sold us the car hadn't seen this in there '130 point check' and the local dealer didn't seem too bothered about it either!

Apart from that the only other issue has been the headlight washer caps falling off in the cold snap when the supplied washer fluids froze! Thankfully they fell off on our driveway and were refitted by BMW, but they could easily have fallen of on the road, where I am not sure if BMW would have paid for replacements?

Some pictures:

Thanks again for all the advice received.
 
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