BMW 330e owners thoughts?

SwedishChef · Wednesday at 20:54

I'm probably about to buy a BMW 330e M Sport Touring (9 months old BMW approved used). I'm changing from a very old 525d, which I love, but the 330e is quite a different beast.

If you drive one I was just wondering what you think of it, how you get on with the hybrid electric arrangement, etc?

[TW]Fox · Wednesday at 21:05

I think they are quite good, although the smaller fuel tank is annoying. Even without a fully charged battery it works well as a conventional hybrid and still has limited electric drive at low speeds.

mjt · Wednesday at 21:18

What Fox said, plus the fact the boot is noticeably smaller due to the batteries. Do you need a hybrid? A 330i is also rather good and extremely frugal if you want to be.

Tinders · Wednesday at 21:37

I ran a G20 330e for nearly 4 years and 94k miles. Great car, lots of power, great handling, build quality, seating position and cracking economy. 55mpg on a run if you start with a full charge. Tech on even the earlier ones is rock solid, the 23/24 models had the newer I-drive, which i think is brilliant, but they shrunk the auto gearlever, It was nice to have somewhere to put my hand on

You get 26-30 miles on a full charge in the summer and 17-20 in the colder months. Bad bits are the tiny boot and tiny 40l fuel tank. To be fair the tiny fuel tank prepared me for the full EV quite well

I had zero problems with mine, was the most reliable car i owned, and ive had A4,Accord,Volvo diesels etc.

But i wouldn't buy one right now, the proper face-lift is due to be out very soon, and its got a bigger battery and 7kw charging, so much more usable as an EV if thats your thing.

[TW]Fox · Wednesday at 21:59

mjt said:
What Fox said, plus the fact the boot is noticeably smaller due to the batteries. Do you need a hybrid? A 330i is also rather good and extremely frugal if you want to be.

If he's buying a nearly new one then a 330i unfortunately won't be an option.

[TW]Fox · Wednesday at 21:59

Tinders said:
But i wouldn't buy one right now, the proper face-lift is due to be out very soon, and its got a bigger battery and 7kw charging, so much more usable as an EV if thats your thing

The last facelift was released only a few months ago. The new 3 series isn't due for several years.

jpaul · Wednesday at 22:14

thought the bigger battery 330e was now available new

Have previously discussed get a 3 year old 330e/290bhp to replace my current touring , they seem to depreciate greater than 320i, and are numerous from the company car bik 'deal';
some of that depreciation is the limited 6yr/60K battery warranty (or thereabouts)
I'm not sure that risk offsets the reduced running cost, for me.

Tinders · Wednesday at 22:36

[TW]Fox said:
The last facelift was released only a few months ago. The new 3 series isn't due for several years.

Yes that’s the one. Has the bigger battery, I didn’t think was out yet though. This is the 2nd FL with the G20. 1st FL was 2022 if memory serves me well.

mjt · Thursday at 08:46

[TW]Fox said:
If he's buying a nearly new one then a 330i unfortunately won't be an option.

Oh wow they've really narrowed down the choice in the UK. No 330i, 320e or diesels...

M340i it is then

Tinders · Thursday at 09:01

We never got the 320e here thankfully

[TW]Fox · Thursday at 09:10

The UK BMW engine range is now very poor, generally only one normal petrol offering in each range.

New 5 series is great, unless you want a plug in hybrid you can only have a 520i.

Malt_Vinegar · Friday at 09:36

Tinders said:
I ran a G20 330e for nearly 4 years and 94k miles. Great car, lots of power, great handling, build quality, seating position and cracking economy. 55mpg on a run if you start with a full charge. Tech on even the earlier ones is rock solid, the 23/24 models had the newer I-drive, which i think is brilliant, but they shrunk the auto gearlever, It was nice to have somewhere to put my hand on

You get 26-30 miles on a full charge in the summer and 17-20 in the colder months. Bad bits are the tiny boot and tiny 40l fuel tank. To be fair the tiny fuel tank prepared me for the full EV quite well

I had zero problems with mine, was the most reliable car i owned, and ive had A4,Accord,Volvo diesels etc.

But i wouldn't buy one right now, the proper face-lift is due to be out very soon, and its got a bigger battery and 7kw charging, so much more usable as an EV if thats your thing.

As above, basically spot on, but the small boot is not really an issue for the touring models. Had 4 suitcases in there for a trip to the airport, with room to spare.

This is mine (click to enlarge):

And the boot space:

Had it nearly 4 months now, on a 70 plate. Just went through its MOT last week, nothing reported.

Changed from my brilliant old 750i as am now doing a short school runs in the AM, and doing it on all electric rather than the V8

I do longer runs to airports and down south every now and again, and its been really great so far

I came back from East Midlands airport last night, 62 miles, and had 18miles of range at the start, drove on battery for most of that 18miles, switched over to battery charge mode whilst on the boring motorway bits, and put the battery back up to 100%, so I could hoon it a bit on the last section of the journey.

Overall, reported 46.7mpg for that trip, and I was not being gently with the throttle for the last 30 miles!

Despite the smaller tank, I am mostly only filling it up once a month, and its made a huge saving as I plug it in every time I park, and drive around mostly on electric locally.

[TW]Fox · Friday at 10:14

It's worth remembering though that none of the 3 series are particularly bad on fuel, that 46 might sound impressive in isolation but my last motorway journey in my M340i also returned 46.

I am not convinced that the fuel economy makes sense on its own as a reason to buy one, but I did like the way they drive and the electric power at low speed was nice even without a fully charged battery.

Realistically though if you're buying an almost new one you have no choice anyway as they don't do the 330i anymore so you're left with the less powerful 320i if you want a petrol one.

But for people buying older ones it's worth thinking about the 330i as well.

dirtychinchilla · Friday at 14:15

I bought one a couple of months ago and I'm loving it. It's a great car, driving lovely, and if you use the battery, it's extremely economical.

You have to charge it though.

I basically drive mine on electricity only, but as an example - yesterday I drove 110 miles each way to Southampton. I charged the battery, put it on Hybrid mode (standard, not super eco mode or whatever) and set the battery target to 50%.

When I got home (220 total), I had used less than a quarter of the tank of petrol. It's great - that's about £10 to go to Southampton and back.

So I would go for it, but you really have to remember the electric.

[TW]Fox · Friday at 14:31

That's well over 100mpg which even with a full battery at the start on a journey of that length is surely not possible.

The car will tell you exactly what fuel economy it has done so trying to guess how far it went on £10 isn't really worth doing

Malt_Vinegar · Friday at 14:53

The problem is that it's skewed when you use mainly electric for a trip.
I get over 1000mpg on some trips from the computer!

fastwunz · Friday at 15:09

I’ve got a 23 plate 330e Msport Pro Touring in Brooklyn grey and the 19” alloys.

It’s the best car I’ve ever driven. It’s also a hoot when you gun it in xtraboost mode.

Interior is wonderful, the infotainment superb and the boot just about enough for a family of 4.

Looks lovely too.

[TW]Fox · Friday at 16:07

Malt_Vinegar said:
The problem is that it's skewed when you use mainly electric for a trip.
I get over 1000mpg on some trips from the computer!

Yes but not on 220 mile trips - you can get those sort of figures from short trips where the battery does almost all the work for you. Your example is 15 miles. This is the ideal use case for such a car - because you start each day charged and shorter trips like that will get a lot of assistance from the battery.

But on a 220 mile round trip it's not going to do 100mpg. The best I've managed on longer trips is 50-60 or so, which is still good, but its half what he was claiming.

Tinders · Friday at 16:20

dirtychinchilla said:
I bought one a couple of months ago and I'm loving it. It's a great car, driving lovely, and if you use the battery, it's extremely economical.

You have to charge it though.

I basically drive mine on electricity only, but as an example - yesterday I drove 110 miles each way to Southampton. I charged the battery, put it on Hybrid mode (standard, not super eco mode or whatever) and set the battery target to 50%.

When I got home (220 total), I had used less than a quarter of the tank of petrol. It's great - that's about £10 to go to Southampton and back.

So I would go for it, but you really have to remember the electric.

Were you using battery save mode? That’s very inefficient way to charge the battery.

When ever I used the car to maintain a battery charge, the economy wasn’t great. Granted at that time the fuel was 1.50/l.

dirtychinchilla · Friday at 17:31

Tinders said:
Were you using battery save mode? That’s very inefficient way to charge the battery.

When ever I used the car to maintain a battery charge, the economy wasn’t great. Granted at that time the fuel was 1.50/l.

I didn't charge it like that, I just didn't want it to drop past 50% knowing I had a long drive home. I know that's not very logical, but it makes me happy.

I've been averaging 65 mpg.

BMW 330e owners thoughts?

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