BMW and M Power Owners

Thanks for all the advice, I'm going to try the non RFT's this time, not purely on money, just to see what difference they make.

So to be fair I'm sticking with the Michelin Primacy 3, they do BMW specific nonRFT's so should be a good comparison, they are £29 cheaper per tyre and higher rated for fuel consumption.

There are some good deals on as well and managed the find the following:
Topcashback for my local Protyre gives me 11.5% back (£36 or so)
Michelin are doing a promo where you get £40 back if you buy 2 x 19" or larger tyres
That brings down the price to £288 or £144 a tyre.. Quite reasonable for the size (245/45/19).

As for punctures, that is always the risk I guess, when we picked up the car it had a slow puncture (some workshop debris) but this did not manifest itself on the move, it was just the next morning, and pumped it up and made it to the garage OK.

However, I have this for the E46 M3 as that does not have a spare or RFT's..
cstFRFVh.jpg


£30 for the kit and £15 per refill.. if you have a compressor you only need the refill as you connect the sealant in line and hold it upside down yourself.
 
[TW]Fox said:
Is that really anything other than a rare occurrence? Most punctures are such that you can drive home after reinflation.

You'd need an actual blowout to be stranded and you won't be driving on a blown out runflat either.
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When my daughter was 8 weeks old I've been given a 330d Touring as a courtesy car because an old lady had driven into my M3 and it was in the bodyshop. I was doing 70mph on the M4 and ran over some kind of metal object that ripped into the tire. Having the runflats allowed me to drive to an open tire shop and get it replaced, otherwise I'd have had to limp onto the hard shoulder, faff about with sealant, which probably wouldn't have worked as the hole in the tire was huge, wait for a tow truck, get towed to the shop etc all whilst having a newborn in the car. I was skeptical about runflats before that but since I have been happy to fit them to my car.
 
Needing some advice here...

I've almost narrowed down my choice to a 3 Series Estate or an A4 Estate. However, I've just discovered the 4 Series Gran Coupe is also now a contender.

I've got a dog (Golden Retriever), which is why I'm looking at the estate rather than the saloon but the back seat space doesn't matter at all. I'd also probably be looking at M Sport spec. The 4 series is roughly £10 a month more.

I'm thinking 3 Series as I understand it's the newer version, and the estate may come in useful... However, the 4 certainly looks a lot nicer in my opinion and I think the boot would work with the dog. Plus, it's more expensive and an older generation? Am I missing something?

The diesel (320d vs. 320i) is around £25 a month more. I envisage doing around 10-15k miles (post Covid) and I claim business mileage back. I'm leaning more towards petrol here as well. The 330i is an option, but I'm coming from a 110 hp Kia so I think the 20 will be plenty!

So, any advice? Obviously I need to go and drive them but thought I'd best start my research online.
 
I don't think you can fit (sensibly) any medium/large dog in the gran coupe.

How does he fit in your Kia?

personally our Cocker is fine on the backseat (using a proper dog seat cover) and small seatbelt to harness lead to secure him. This even works in the M3 (secures around the headrest, take 20 seconds to fit and he just lies down on it/across the seats, no damage done and doesn't affect the car (compared to a dog guard above the rear seats, or a dog cage taking up the entire boot).
 
If you are buying new the answer has to be a G21. The F36 is about at the end of its life and whilst its a decent motor (I have one) they are showing their age now. The new 3 series estate is very nice indeed, first time I've seriously considered an estate car.
 
arfoll said:
Boot space between a G21 and F36 isn't all that different but yes the G21 is a much newer car and unless there was an amazing deal on an F36 I wouldn't really consider it.
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Oh I totally agree. I had a G21 320i for a weekend thanks to BMW Assistance and it was quite nice. Seats were horrible and the 4-pot sounded terrible, but other than that, a very nice place to be (tiny boot notwithstanding!)
 
Oh I totally agree. I had a G21 320i for a weekend thanks to BMW Assistance and it was quite nice.
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subsequently scanned this https://www.driving.co.uk/car-revie...ded-test-2019-bmw-3series-touring-g21-review/
The 330d’s six cylinder diesel might not be the most frugal option for my commute through central London, where it returns around 31mpg, but it was made for long-distance motorway cruises like this. In the long top gear it purrs comfortably for mile after mile, sipping its fuel to achieve more than 40mpg. At Folkestone it was reading 39.6mpg but on a recent family run to north Devon it had managed 43.6mpg over 190 miles, so I was interested to find out what the average would be on this trip — especially with the winter tyres fitted.
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I get the town bit, but the 40mpg, would be a bit disappointing, I thought we'd be seeing 50 [Power output 261bhp @ 4,000rpm]

edit: afterthought missed something
Model 2019 BMW G21 330d xDrive M Sport Plus Edition Touring B57O 3.0d
 
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Will Gill said:
Convertible drain holes, which clog up, it's an optional extra which is invaluable :D
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When I picked up my M3 within a few weeks I noticed a couple of water drips on the boot carpet, nothing crazy but on investigation found a small pool around the convertible mechanism!

I used hot water, some 'safe' drain cleaner and a bent bit of solid wire to find and clean the drain out, after flushing that through a few times it's been fine ever since! It looked to be leaf matter that had built up which is odd because I couldn't figure out how they get in there, its' only exposed when the clam shell lifts up raise/lower the hood, when the clamshell is closed it's sealed..
 
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