BMW and M Power Owners

One thing you can do on the F30 now is spec a leather dash which covers most of the plastic bits in soft leather which goes a long way to making the cabin feel nicer.

Not sure the lights are better than a 6 though, doesn't the 3 still use regular filement bulbs for the rear lights? I would imagine BMW will do that tediously annoying thing of putting LED's on it for the facelift, no idea why they keep doing that, they should have made every single car LED once they introduced it 14 years ago on the E39..

Front lights are nice, mind.
 
Fortunately its my money and I don't feel that way about it...

If you stepped back from this and stopped financing your way into all of these new middle of the road cars you could end up with something genuinely decent. Its a shame to see what is a complete car crash of a car history. Sometimes you should take advice from people who know better than you, now is probably one of those times. This forum is a wealth of knowledge.
 
It's £400.00 for me on a 330Ci at 24 with 7 years no claims.

£420 for an M3 at 33 seems about right!

Depends entirely upon where you live.

I paid under £250 for my old e38 728i, moved house and paid about £150 more for a Mondeo diesel worth less than the e38, moved again and insured an e36 328i for roughly slap inthe middle of the two.

At my current address, an e39 M5 - for example - would cost me ballpark £600 to insure, were I to move again, I've checked the prospective address, the figure is £350!

I'm 43, 10+years NCB and am a professional driver by trade.
 
[TW]Fox;27059833 said:
One thing you can do on the F30 now is spec a leather dash which covers most of the plastic bits in soft leather which goes a long way to making the cabin feel nicer.

Not sure the lights are better than a 6 though, doesn't the 3 still use regular filement bulbs for the rear lights? I would imagine BMW will do that tediously annoying thing of putting LED's on it for the facelift, no idea why they keep doing that, they should have made every single car LED once they introduced it 14 years ago on the E39..

Front lights are nice, mind.

I've not interest in speed 1k on a leather dash, it just doesn't bother me that much. I agree they should stop messing around with the rear lights but it's the headlights that I'm more interested in and the visibility pack gives me them.
 
If you stepped back from this and stopped financing your way into all of these new middle of the road cars you could end up with something genuinely decent. Its a shame to see what is a complete car crash of a car history. Sometimes you should take advice from people who know better than you, now is probably one of those times. This forum is a wealth of knowledge.


And when you get off your high horse and maybe had some, if any, understanding of my circumstances and the cars I've owned in the last 23 years you'd be worth listening to. But as you clearly don't have that undestanding and I have some mediocum of an understanding of my requirements, what I can afford, and maybe much to your surprise, some knowledge about the various aspects of cars that appeal to me, I'll just keep doing what I want to thanks all the same...
 
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Did you have the vis pack on your M235i?

I only wanted the vis pack to get Xenons (They were available separately but hardly ever specified like that) and didn't think I was that bothered about the extra stuff but since having it the high beam assistant particularly is really, really good if you drive a lot at night.
 
Cheaper for bulb lamps. Then LED for the facelift with the fresh pot of money as hopefully the job 1 stuff has paid for itself. 3 series land is ruthless in terms of the margin on the cars.
 
[TW]Fox;27060030 said:
Did you have the vis pack on your M235i?

I only wanted the vis pack to get Xenons (They were available separately but hardly ever specified like that) and didn't think I was that bothered about the extra stuff but since having it the high beam assistant particularly is really, really good if you drive a lot at night.

Yes, it's got the full active anti dazzle system which is brilliant and was the reason for spec'ing it again.
 
How come you're going for the x335d and not the 335i considering you had the M235i before? Mileage/economy related?
 
And when you get off your high horse and maybe had some, if any, understanding of my circumstances and the cars I've owned in the last 23 years you'd be worth listening to. But as you clearly don't have that undestanding and I have some mediocum of an understanding of my requirements, what I can afford, and maybe much to your surprise, some knowledge about the various aspects of cars that appeal to me, I'll just keep doing what I want to thanks all the same...

While i dont mean it as harshly as that post probably sounded, i think with respect you actually do not know what you want at all - hence the suggestion of stepping back a bit.

You change cars every 5 minutes, often changes styles, no doubt taking a bath each time. Its a seriously expensive business which is resulting in a lot of money being spent needlessly with no real result. You could be in a seriously nice car for the budget which is clearly available, but is instead being pointlessly wasted over and over again :)
 
How come you're going for the x335d and not the 335i considering you had the M235i before? Mileage/economy related?

I spent a few days in the 640d and liked the engine and its power delivery, so test drove the 335d xdrive and liked that as well. The 335i engine feels similar but not quite as brisk as the M235i one, where the 335d feels different so as I'm changing the car thought why not get the diesel with its AWD as well for a total change.
 
I spent a few days in the 640d and liked the engine and its power delivery, so test drove the 335d xdrive and liked that as well. The 335i engine feels similar but not quite as brisk as the M235i one, where the 335d feels different so as I'm changing the car thought why not get the diesel with its AWD as well for a total change.

Because it's a diesel.

The N57 engine *is* impressive - I really like it. It's smooth, its refined, its powerful, it even sounds quite good. But it's still a diesel, it's still not as smooth as a petrol and therefore if the option exists I'd always opt for the petrol six in favour. You have that choice - you are ordering a new one - I didn't, so had to buy what was available.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with and enjoy this engine. But it's not as good as 35i engine for reasons which you can't really quantify on paper.
 
The lights and a few of the other components are of a newer and higher spec design than the 6...ok some of the materials aren't as good, but then its a car that is lower down the range so thats to be expected.

That's not quite true. A lot depends on how you spec the cars. A highly specced 3 might have some better components than a poverty specced 6 but certainly not if specified to the same relative level.

You obviously want to justify your decision to yourself but the 3 isn't in the same league as the 6.
 
While i dont mean it as harshly as that post probably sounded, i think with respect you actually do not know what you want at all - hence the suggestion of stepping back a bit.

You change cars every 5 minutes, often changes styles, no doubt taking a bath each time. Its a seriously expensive business which is resulting in a lot of money being spent needlessly with no real result. You could be in a seriously nice car for the budget which is clearly available, but is instead being pointlessly wasted over and over again :)

This change is an "enforced" change, as with my XFR, the car has enough faults for me to lose confidence in it and at that point I need to maximise what I can get from the dealer and manufacturer to put me in the best position going forward. Given the restrictions this puts on me, limiting choices in used cars for example and given the options open I believe I've reached a favourable outcome.

If the car hadn't suffered from the range of faults and their continued re-occurrence I wouldn't be changing, particularly so soon after buying this one.
I think you should buy my M5 off me instead, cheaper and much better :D

No thanks ;) can't get a seating position in a 5 that works for me, and I've tried since the E60 to do it.

[TW]Fox;27060508 said:
Because it's a diesel.

The N57 engine *is* impressive - I really like it. It's smooth, its refined, its powerful, it even sounds quite good. But it's still a diesel, it's still not as smooth as a petrol and therefore if the option exists I'd always opt for the petrol six in favour. You have that choice - you are ordering a new one - I didn't, so had to buy what was available.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with and enjoy this engine. But it's not as good as 35i engine for reasons which you can't really quantify on paper.

I like both the x35 i and d engines. In the 3/4 the 35i engine is not in the same state of tune as the M235i and when driven back to back I can tell. I could cure this with the MPPK, but thats another £1500 on top, which I don't want to spend and if I was doing that I'd also want the MPE as well.

Having driven back to back the M235i and 335d last weekend they obviously have quite different characteristics but are both great engines and are capable of propelling the car at a fair rate of knots.

As I've said as I'm changing the car/model I decided that I might as well go for the whole hog, and fancied something with AWD again as well, so have decided on the 335d.

That's not quite true. A lot depends on how you spec the cars. A highly specced 3 might have some better components than a poverty specced 6 but certainly not if specified to the same relative level.

You obviously want to justify your decision to yourself but the 3 isn't in the same league as the 6.

Where have I said that its in the same league, I was specifically comparing certain components and stating that there is commonality across the BMW range, hence the bit of my statement which you didn't quote.

I was also referring to the lights on the 3 series with the visibility pack which are of a better specification than those of the adaptive/HBA on the 6 series, the 3 has the anti-dazzle system, the 6 does not without specifying the full LED system.

If I wanted a 6 I'd get one, but having looked at the costs involved, available space for carrying my kids around and the overall size, I'd decided against it.
 
That's the worst excuse I've ever heard ;)

I had a sales man tell me when I couldn't see over my right shoulder because of the door pillars I'd get used to it...not being able to see stuff on a motorway from a slip road or when overtaking is not something I'd get used to. Same problem for me in the E60 and the F10.
 
The thing with the lights is a bit irritating - basically it's because you only get the cool stuff with a Visibility pack. Seems logical, but the problem arises with cars where Xenons are standard.

On a 3 Series or a pre LCI 5 Series, many people spec'd or would spec a vis pack because it added Xenons.

However with cars where Xenons are standard fit (5 LCI, 6) the takeup of the visibility pack was considerably lower as the 'must have' Xenon light was already fitted and I guess people saw little point to continue to pay a grand for the vis pack, which then contained LED instead of Xenon.
 
I had a sales man tell me when I couldn't see over my right shoulder because of the door pillars I'd get used to it...not being able to see stuff on a motorway from a slip road or when overtaking is not something I'd get used to. Same problem for me in the E60 and the F10.

LMAO, best thing I've read on here in quite a while.

It worries me that you have a license!
 
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