BMW and M Power Owners

tamzzy · 19 Jun 2020 at 00:46

Fusion said:
Which would you go for on the used market- a 428/430i, or 430d (auto for all options)? They seem to be similar prices. 435/440i is about £2.5k more expensive than either (and there aren't many about relatively), whereas the others are around the same price. Petrols are lighter and more rev happy I guess, but not great on fuel for the performance and number of cylinders- just over 30mpg real world seems typical.

I've got an N20 428i. Nice engine, although in hindsight I should've driven both engines before buying
Suggest you drive both the 28i/30i and 35i/40i before making any decisions

when i was looking, most of them were base specced...
if you want adaptive suspension + headlights +/- cc...have to look for a while

mpg-wise
city driving = mid 20s with a heavy-ish right foot
motorway driving = low-mid 30s

ps i drive <3000m/yr and basically only city driving 90%+ of the time, so a 28i was more than sufficient to deal with the scrotes in their poverty spec debadged 114i/a3 lol
as always ymmv

jamoor · 19 Jun 2020 at 01:11

DRZ said:
Budget £1500 for rod bearing change. £600 for TAs. That's the minimum maintenance stuff you will need to do on almost all cars for sale if there's not solid evidence they've been done. The other things that regularly break are the front undertray which costs a bomb for the OEM part or you can get aftermarket items for about £2-300 and the DCT oil pan which will crack sooner or later - that's another £600 or so.

Fuel - expect 20mpg unless you hoof it about and then it'll be lower. Tax is £580/year.

I totally loved mine except for the rather enormous bills it generated despite my money-no-object approach to preventative maintenance.

Oh and brake discs are ridiculously expensive

theone8181 · 19 Jun 2020 at 07:25

jamoor said:
Oh and brake discs are ridiculously expensive

But think they last quite a long time, (and I think it's was mentioned a few pages back) they're smaller than a current 320d

.

Simon · 19 Jun 2020 at 08:23

£330 for front disks isn’t that bad?

jamoor · 19 Jun 2020 at 09:19

Simon said:
£330 for front disks isn’t that bad?

It's not bad but it's hardly a good deal. There's a lot of M tax on them.

Scottland · 19 Jun 2020 at 09:57

DRZ said:
Budget £1500 for rod bearing change. £600 for TAs. That's the minimum maintenance stuff you will need to do on almost all cars for sale if there's not solid evidence they've been done. The other things that regularly break are the front undertray which costs a bomb for the OEM part or you can get aftermarket items for about £2-300 and the DCT oil pan which will crack sooner or later - that's another £600 or so.

Fuel - expect 20mpg unless you hoof it about and then it'll be lower. Tax is £580/year.

I totally loved mine except for the rather enormous bills it generated despite my money-no-object approach to preventative maintenance.

Simon said:
£330 for front disks isn’t that bad?

Thanks, that doesn't seem too bad. For reference (with respect to running costs) I'm also looking at 987.1 Caymans. I'm having a hard time deciding what I want, and what I'll enjoy/use the most.

Is there any reason I shouldn't go for a manual over the DCT?

[TW]Fox · 19 Jun 2020 at 10:03

Scottland said:
Is there any reason I shouldn't go for a manual over the DCT?

Yes, manual gearboxes suck.

Simon · 19 Jun 2020 at 10:11

Its a heated topic about involvement etc and always causes discussions. However the BMW manual gearbox is a bit crap, the DCT suits the high revving nature of the engine and makes it feel much more modern. Its much quicker and 7sp is always better than 6. No reliability issues either and great in traffic, I love the DCT box.

jamoor · 19 Jun 2020 at 10:16

The DCT isn't good at all at slow speeds however and is actually quite cumbersome to drive.

Scottland · 19 Jun 2020 at 10:18

[TW]Fox said:
Yes, manual gearboxes suck.

Simon said:
Its a heated topic about involvement etc and always causes discussions. However the BMW manual gearbox is a bit crap, the DCT suits the high revving nature of the engine and makes it feel much more modern. Its much quicker and 7sp is always better than 6. No reliability issues either and great in traffic, I love the DCT box.

jamoor said:
The DCT isn't good at all at slow speeds however and is actually quite cumbersome to drive.

hmm, the problem I've had with 'flappy paddle' boxes before is that I never really feel engaged with them and tend to just leave it in auto all the time.

Don't get me wrong, for daily driving they're great. But for fun I can just never be bothered with changing

Simon · 19 Jun 2020 at 11:26

Best off trying one but dont compare to a normal auto. A DCT is basically two manual gearboxes working together with the computer controlling the clutches rather than you having two clutch pedals. The software does all the work and with several setings, D for auto and S for manual each having 5 modes with an additional 11th mode, S6 active when traction control is turned off.

You can just use auto and flick between the 5 settings from D1 to D5. D5 is probably the fastest anyway, the manual mode has some engineered in shunt which feels faster but isn't (its an odd feeling when you accelerate harder after a gearchange) . D5 will change at the redline, hold the gear / revs for longer when lifting off and do 40-50ms gearchanges without really upsetting the back end.

jamoor said:
The DCT isn't good at all at slow speeds however and is actually quite cumbersome to drive.

Did you have an early one? Not sure how its cumbersome?

I'm on the later DCT software but still need to get around to the M3 GTS DCT software which removes the delay when going from reverse to drive.

jamoor · 19 Jun 2020 at 11:47

Simon said:
Best off trying one but dont compare to a normal auto. A DCT is basically two manual gearboxes working together with the computer controlling the clutches rather than you having two clutch pedals. The software does all the work and with several setings, D for auto and S for manual each having 5 modes with an additional 11th mode, S6 active when traction control is turned off.

You can just use auto and flick between the 5 settings from D1 to D5. D5 is probably the fastest anyway, the manual mode has some engineered in shunt which feels faster but isn't (its an odd feeling when you accelerate harder after a gearchange) . D5 will change at the redline, hold the gear / revs for longer when lifting off and do 40-50ms gearchanges without really upsetting the back end.

Did you have an early one? Not sure how its cumbersome?

I'm on the later DCT software but still need to get around to the M3 GTS DCT software which removes the delay when going from reverse to drive.

I had a 2009 E92 M3 and a 2012 F10 M5.

Cumbersome - Jerky and unresponsive. A normal gearbox with a torque converter was much better (I actually had an ISF at the same time as the M3 and the box in that was fantastic)

Will Gill · 19 Jun 2020 at 11:57

Have to agree, when you are rolling the DCT is awesome, when you are farting around at low speed it's quite horrible (I applied all the maps too, GTS, CS and custom)

Scottland · 19 Jun 2020 at 12:31

Maybe I'm just a luddite, but it's actual gear selecting itself I find a bit dull (i.e. paddles). I've used up/down on the gear selector itself as well but just feels a bit too much like a computer game and not like I'm driving it.

Will Gill · 19 Jun 2020 at 13:35

I'm even further removed. I don't touch the paddles of the gear lever unless I'm reversing/parking etc.. just plant my right foot and let computers do their stuff :cool:

[TW]Fox · 19 Jun 2020 at 13:52

I spent ages making sure my car came with the Sport automatic transmission. I refused to buy one without on a number of occasions, as the regular auto has no paddles.

I have used them about 4 times in 4 years since buying the car

Will Gill · 19 Jun 2020 at 13:56

[TW]Fox said:
I spent ages making sure my car came with the Sport automatic transmission. I refused to buy one without on a number of occasions, as the regular auto has no paddles.

I have used them about 4 times in 4 years since buying the car

I used mine the other day, I went to let someone out into the BMW lane, went to flash them and changed down a gear instead

ChrisD. · 19 Jun 2020 at 14:05

tamzzy said:
I've got an N20 428i. Nice engine, although in hindsight I should've driven both engines before buying
Suggest you drive both the 28i/30i and 35i/40i before making any decisions

when i was looking, most of them were base specced...
if you want adaptive suspension + headlights +/- cc...have to look for a while

mpg-wise
city driving = mid 20s with a heavy-ish right foot
motorway driving = low-mid 30s

That's worse than my M140i!

Dis86 · 19 Jun 2020 at 14:07

tamzzy said:
I've got an N20 428i. Nice engine, although in hindsight I should've driven both engines before buying
Suggest you drive both the 28i/30i and 35i/40i before making any decisions

when i was looking, most of them were base specced...
if you want adaptive suspension + headlights +/- cc...have to look for a while

mpg-wise
city driving = mid 20s with a heavy-ish right foot
motorway driving = low-mid 30s

ps i drive <3000m/yr and basically only city driving 90%+ of the time, so a 28i was more than sufficient to deal with the scrotes in their poverty spec debadged 114i/a3 lol
as always ymmv

I think your car is broken. My overall average in my 328i was 32.5mpg. Motorway was comfortably mid 40s at 70 cruise.

jamoor · 19 Jun 2020 at 14:10

[TW]Fox said:
I spent ages making sure my car came with the Sport automatic transmission. I refused to buy one without on a number of occasions, as the regular auto has no paddles.

I have used them about 4 times in 4 years since buying the car

You can't compare that to the M3 with a DCT box though.

The DCT has a few different configurations that make it worth using the paddles regularly compared to an automatic box on a diesel 5 series. I'd use them every time I drove it.