BMW and M Power Owners

ZeeWrath said:
I have a 2010 525d F11 on 130k miles so probably worth 4-5k that is starting to feel its age. A 5 series with 6cylinders is pretty much the only car I want just can't quite stomach the cost to change to an LCI where I'll essentially be getting an updated versions of the car and engine.
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I actually did just this - I had a 2010 530d and I changed it for a year old LCI in 2016. It might have seemed like an odd move but I went from a 6 year old car to a 1 year old car and the little LCI improvements made all the difference for me. I'm much happier with this car than I was with my first one. It also helped that I moved to an M Sport at the same time, my 2010 was an SE with Dynamic Pack as the M Sport wasn't available until later in 2010.

It was even the same colour :D
 
[TW]Fox said:
I actually did just this - I had a 2010 530d and I changed it for a year old LCI in 2016. It might have seemed like an odd move but I went from a 6 year old car to a 1 year old car and the little LCI improvements made all the difference for me. I'm much happier with this car than I was with my first one. It also helped that I moved to an M Sport at the same time, my 2010 was an SE with Dynamic Pack as the M Sport wasn't available until later in 2010.

It was even the same colour :D
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I might go test drive an LCI to see how different it feels, similar to you mine is an early car so SE with sport seats and pro nav
 
ZeeWrath said:
I have a 2010 525d F11 on 130k miles so probably worth 4-5k that is starting to feel its age. A 5 series with 6cylinders is pretty much the only car I want just can't quite stomach the cost to change to an LCI where I'll essentially be getting an updated versions of the car and engine. Or an extra £20k to get into a G30
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What about it is feeling it's age?
 
My first one was an SE with the Sport seats, 19 inch wheels, etc - but non M Sport suspension as the M Sport model didn't come out until September 2010 and mine was a March 2010 launch car. I thought the 'sporty' bits of the Dynamic Pack would be enough, but I was never happy with it and traded it in after just over 2 years.

By contrast, I am very happy with my LCI M Sport. It's certainly worth a drive at least to see what you think. Probably one of my favourite things is the crap plastic squeaky seat base has been redesigned on the LCI :D

The engine is slightly different too - fundamentally it's the same but the LCI is the more powerful, Euro 6 compliant version of the N57 which I also prefer, too. The 530d moved to 258bhp from 245bhp. Your 525d will be the 204bhp version of the same earlier engine, so an LCI 530d will feel really quite good coming from that.

My F10 LCI still feels modern and nice enough that I've no issues waiting out the ridiculous car market at present and hopefully moving to the next-gen 5 Series after the G30. I often drive other newer BMW's and never feel like I'm stepping down when I'm back in mine.
 
ShivP said:
What about it is feeling it's age?
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Suspension - it passed an MOT last month so i'm assuming there is nothing obvioulsly wrong with it but it definetly has a general loose feeling, particularly the rear. I've had it for 4yrs and other than tyres brakes and servicing its only needed track rod ends and a replacement suspension airbag so most of it is still from factory with 130k of wear on it.

The other thing has always been a bugbear of mine, it has halogen lights. I assumed when I bought it that headlight washers + a premium car = HID but not so for this. Wife has a new Kodiaq with matrix led's which are making these even worse by comparison as they are leagues ahead.
 
I always felt the handling on the SE was 'ok' rather than great, so you'll have a combination there of aging suspension and also the fact it isn't M Sport suspension. By contrast I think on my current one the balance between comfort and handling is absolutely spot on.

It's also worth noting that all LCI have Xenon as standard.
 
ZeeWrath said:
Suspension - it passed an MOT last month so i'm assuming there is nothing obvioulsly wrong with it but it definetly has a general loose feeling, particularly the rear. I've had it for 4yrs and other than tyres brakes and servicing its only needed track rod ends and a replacement suspension airbag so most of it is still from factory with 130k of wear on it.

The other thing has always been a bugbear of mine, it has halogen lights. I assumed when I bought it that headlight washers + a premium car = HID but not so for this. Wife has a new Kodiaq with matrix led's which are making these even worse by comparison as they are leagues ahead.
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If you sell it let me know, could do with something for a few months
 
I found the M Sport suspension pretty poor and didn’t like how poor the standard damping was. My E Class was smoother most the time but it too suffered from bad tramping on a particular part of road just like my 530D did. Active 535D I drove was significantly better. Never felt it was that dynamic either, numb steering but better than my E class and really much better lights too on the 5
 
Housey said:
I found the M Sport suspension pretty poor and didn’t like how poor the standard damping was
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Perhaps this is something they worked on for the LCI because I find mine to be absolutely ideal and I like a comfortable car. Mine is on 19 inch Pilot Sport 4.

I agree that Adaptive Drive cars are wonderful but very rare and I wouldn't fancy the bill replacing bits of it now they are wearing...
 
I removed the runshats fairly early in and replaced with normal tyres, think PS and it made almost no difference to the damping. It showed itself most on big bumps that would set off TC and launch the car. There is an island close to home, it has a bad repair and will find a bad set up really easily. My 530d fell apart on it, so did the E Class to an even greater extent. It is damping as my R8 and GTR have no issue dealing with it and both are very stiff cars. It was so bad I came close to selling the car early in and think I mentioned it here too back when.

I got used to it and maybe it’s improved but I recall many road tests mentioned it, Autocar even saying pay for active as the normal sport suspension lets it down hugely so not alone on thinking that on my car at the time. I bought it unseen so was a bit annoyed as the one I road tested was the release SE model you had!
 
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