BMW and M Power Owners

agnes said:
12k is too much for a diesel.
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It isn't, not at all.

The vehicles at work have oil changes every 120,000km (74.5k miles), all diesel but with long-drain oils used - something like Mobil Delvac http://www.mobil.co.uk/UK-English-L...engine-oils_mobil-delvac-xhp-extra-10w40.aspx - the quality of the engine oil is key, use a crap oil and reduced intervals won't help.

I know a few cabbies that use this type of oil to extend their service intervals, one with a 450k mile - from new - Passat which he services every 25k using long drain oil.
 
I've not had a great 24 hrs with my M3. The car totally died last night, no power at all (not even interior lights). Called BMW Assist and the recovery couldn't jump start it or get any power at all. They suspected fuse board or internal battery sensor. Left the car overnight and miraculously this morning it was OK, so I drove it to my local BMW dealer. It's done this twice now in 3 days. The recovery guy doesn't think it's the battery.

Anyhow, the BMW dealer said no courtesy cars available at all and there's a 5 week wait, so I am now without a car. Not happy. They said they may be able to rent me a car from enterprise if they need it for long however 'It will not be a BMW and will not be equivalent to yours'. I'm not very happy about this as when I had issues with my previous 335i I was given a terrible Chevrolet Matiz for 2 weeks and had to use that to do motorway mileage, visit clients and often drive clients and business partners around in. I expect better from BMW when I've just shelled out a large amount of money on a car with them. It is under the BMW used approved warranty.

Does anyone know if they are required to provide me with an equivalent car? I'm not expecting an equivalent car to an M3, or even a BMW, but I'm also not expecting an absolute **** box that I was given last time. I'll be checking the term of my warranty shortly.
 
Jonny ///M said:
Looks like I'll be joining in BMW ownership but not with a 330ci as I thought.

My dentist/customer will give me his 525i sport saloon when he finally finds a 535i that he wants. It looks like it hasn't had a wash in years and has rust on the rear boot lid and a bit rough round the edges. Should be fun to mess about with.
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e39? - Wonder why not the 540...?
 
GSDog said:
Does anyone know if they are required to provide me with an equivalent car? I'm not expecting an equivalent car to an M3, or even a BMW, but I'm also not expecting an absolute **** box that I was given last time. I'll be checking the term of my warranty shortly.
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Under BMW Warranty?

My F11 had failed air spring a few weeks ago, and the lead time to replace this was 2-3 weeks (was 3 weeks in the end) I was supplied a hire car by BMW via Enterprise. At first I had an i40 for a week, and this was then changed to a F10 with approx 800 miles on clock. I was told by Enterprise part of the deal was they would look to put me in a similar car, when they had one available. I had to chase a few times for the upgrade.

Ended up with a cracked windscreen in the end so had to pay £250, which isn't great, but the 520d wasn't bad.
 
lee1101 said:
Booked in to a local German 'Specialist' next week for them to take a look. Not tried them before so fingers crossed they can diagnose the problem. I will gently nudge them towards the shocks!
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Bet you any money they'll look at the shocks and say "Nah, there's no oil coming from them so they'll be fine" and then they'll push down on each corner of the car (a method that works mostly on cars from the 1980s) and say "They seem to be fine". I know this because when I took mine to a mechanic for it, they said exactly the same thing, although mine was weeping a very small amount of fluid, so small that the MOT guy said that he wouldn't even give it an advisory on an MOT, let alone fail it. I changed it because I was convinced it was the shocks, and you can see from the video, I was right in that the shock had completely failed and was literally doing nothing.

I reckon they'll say bushes and then say that "Yeah...*insert bush* has got a bit of movement in it - want me to price that up for you?". Let us know how you get on!

BTW buycarspares.co.uk has the best prices for BMW shocks! £60ish each including delivery! :) You're welcome!!
 
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Gaygle I never thought of it that way and reminds me of a pot hole I hit at low speed on the A51 last night which felt like my bones shattered!

Will stick to the standard with flex for that very reason then. I do need an alignment though, done 10k miles and the alignment is slightly out.

Edit, also yes, fed up with the random post editing issues with non mobile friendly forum :S
 
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Gaygle said:
Bet you any money they'll look at the shocks and say "Nah, there's no oil coming from them so they'll be fine" and then they'll push down on each corner of the car (a method that works mostly on cars from the 1980s) and say "They seem to be fine". I know this because when I took mine to a mechanic for it, they said exactly the same thing, although mine was weeping a very small amount of fluid, so small that the MOT guy said that he wouldn't even give it an advisory on an MOT, let alone fail it. I changed it because I was convinced it was the shocks, and you can see from the video, I was right in that the shock had completely failed and was literally doing nothing.

I reckon they'll say bushes and then say that "Yeah...*insert bush* has got a bit of movement in it - want me to price that up for you?". Let us know how you get on!

BTW buycarspares.co.uk has the best prices for BMW shocks! £60ish each including delivery! :) You're welcome!!
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Thanks, I'm fully expecting them to say something like that!

Fancy fitting a pair of shocks for me!? :)
 
We're looking at a new car, and considering a 3 series tourer (320d maybe, 5series is obv a lot more expensive), any for/against and things to look out for? Also not sure about an automatic but there seem to be an awful lot of these about, is it worth the move from manual?
 
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platypus said:
We're looking at a new car, and considering a 3 series tourer (320d maybe, 5series is obv a lot more expensive), any for/against and things to look out for? Also not sure about an automatic but there seem to be an awful lot of these about, is it worth the move from manual?
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I'm not really sure where you are getting a lot more expensive from? According to Broadspeed, there is only about £3k difference between the 320d and 520d in MSport specs. Not a HUGE amount, and the residual value on a 5 should be slightly stronger too, so TOC shouldn't really be hugely different in all honesty. Both appear to come with xenon lights and basic nav, which I would personally upgrade to LED lights and Pro Nav, but if the budget doesn't allow, then it's no huge deal.

As for the Auto option, I do really like my sports auto in my 530d, and wouldn't have a manual over it for sure.
 
platypus said:
We're looking at a new car, and considering a 3 series tourer (320d maybe, 5series is obv a lot more expensive), any for/against and things to look out for? Also not sure about an automatic but there seem to be an awful lot of these about, is it worth the move from manual?
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F31 or E91? Generally I'd always go for an automatic, why would you want a manual 320d, there isn't a lot of driver enjoyment to be had with a manual diesel imo.
 
xs2man said:
I'm not really sure where you are getting a lot more expensive from? According to Broadspeed, there is only about £3k difference between the 320d and 520d in MSport specs. Not a HUGE amount, and the residual value on a 5 should be slightly stronger too, so TOC shouldn't really be hugely different in all honesty. Both appear to come with xenon lights and basic nav, which I would personally upgrade to LED lights and Pro Nav, but if the budget doesn't allow, then it's no huge deal.

As for the Auto option, I do really like my sports auto in my 530d, and wouldn't have a manual over it for sure.
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More expensive purely from looking on a few sites (autotrader, pistonheads). Sorry perhaps I should have said we're looking for second hand with a max budget of 15k.

SS-89 said:
F31 or E91? Generally I'd always go for an automatic, why would you want a manual 320d, there isn't a lot of driver enjoyment to be had with a manual diesel imo.
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Not really sure about particular model to be quite honest, it's more that we've narrowed it down to a few types of car for what we need (we definitely want an estate) and that the bmw is one of them (I really like the look of the bmw tourer's though hence I'm more interested).

The manual/automatic thing was purely because I've never driven an automatic before, and I've no idea if I'd like it - probably easy to get used too though.

Also actually on another note are we actually best off going for a 3series-d, rather than a 3series-i? We'll be doing a lot more short journeys than usual, and fewer (but still a fair amount) of long journeys.
 
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Thats a pretty sweet car...is the M really worth the extra ££? I know they're a lot more fun to drive..

For example there are quite a lot of 320/520d SE's well under £10k. Is that a model to avoid? Or would it still be reasonable, just not as fun/good to drive?

xs2man said:
Ah right. In that case, I wouldn't bother then. The auto box in cars of this era, while ok for what they are, they are sluggish, and cost you fuel economy (which is presumably the reason you are going for a 320d).
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Aye one of the key factors really.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...ode=dd114tw&model=5_series&make=bmw&logcode=p looks good for example...there are a hell of a lot of numbers when it comes to shopping BMWs :p.

^Ah, quite a high tax bracket though and quite old.
 
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platypus said:
Thats a pretty sweet car...is the M really worth the extra ££? I know they're a lot more fun to drive..

For example there are quite a lot of 320/520d SE's well under £10k. Is that a model to avoid? Or would it still be reasonable, just not as fun/good to drive?

Aye one of the key factors really.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...ode=dd114tw&model=5_series&make=bmw&logcode=p looks good for example...there are a hell of a lot of numbers when it comes to shopping BMWs :p.

^Ah, quite a high tax bracket though and quite old.
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The m sport model is just a trim model and not to be confused with the m division products. Occasionally will come with firmer suspension but the rest is usually cosmetic in terms of front and rear bumpers side skirts and interior items (steering wheel etc.). They'll largely be the same to drive.
 
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