BMW and M Power Owners

rodenal said:
Just keep in mind that they tend to be considerably more expensive than the equivalent e46 - not many (any?) petrol manuals about either if that's an issue for you.

Not a car I've got a lot of love for if I'm honest, not because it was bad....more because it just wasn't that good at anything
Click to expand...

I've got a manual, petrol X3, there were loads about when I got mine to be fair.

As a daily car, that can be used to fit loads of things in it especially with the back seats down, and get me around the highlands in bad snow, but been more capable on road than many of the same price bracket full on 4x4's - it's been absolutely fine. I'm not saying it's amazing, it's not, but it did what I wanted it to and certainly miles ahead of the nissan xtrail etc (which I owned before it and is the same class / price / age etc)



panthro said:
True. If I find a nice 330d Sport Touring with xenons and heated seats I'll jump on it.
Click to expand...

yup these are obv great :)
 
Have seen a 55 plate 130i M sport (pre LCI) with 58,000 miles for £7k. A quick valuation tells me that this is about the market price.

However it does not have FSH. Salesman tells me that it was serviced on mileage rather than age hence the missing services. Am I right in thinking that this won't matter on the bulletproof n52 engine, and the lack of FSH gives me room to negotiate?
 
instafisha said:
Have seen a 55 plate 130i M sport (pre LCI) with 58,000 miles for £7k. A quick valuation tells me that this is about the market price.

However it does not have FSH. Salesman tells me that it was serviced on mileage rather than age hence the missing services. Am I right in thinking that this won't matter on the bulletproof n52 engine, and the lack of FSH gives me room to negotiate?
Click to expand...

When you say it has missing services - are you expecting to see a service every year or have you been through the book and checked what it should have had when?

I wouldn't touch anything that had been serviced outside of the manufacturers schedule for £7k of my own money. I automatically assume a car has been clocked if the owner can't provide decent history.

Where is the car out of interest? I looked at one that I'm sure was a 55 or an 06 that I went to great length to track the missing history on with BMW (as it was missing its last stamp) and failed. The seller wasn't remotely helpful
 
It's meant to be serviced on mileage rather than age? The only time age becomes an issue is if the car hasn't done sufficient mileage to reach it's next service interval in which case it should be serviced every 2 years.
 
The impression I was given by the post was that it went 3+ years without a service then another popped up, or it's been several years since the last documented one. Both highly suspicious
 
So after clearing the blocked cat there's been a substantial difference to the power, torque and mpg, whilst I've not put this on a rolling road I can just tell the difference, it's night and day.
I was getting 140 miles from a tank of LPG (plus the petrol required to start the car), my last tank got me 175 miles which is a 20% improvement.
It also means that, relative to the amount of money I spend to get that 175 miles I'm getting 22 miles per equivalent petrol gallon. Bearing in mind the weight of the vehicle and how much stop start I do I am extremely pleased.
 
A full tank is ~£37-£39 depending on temperature and how empty it actually is. I've been paying 64.7p per litre for quite some time now.

I put about £7 of petrol in at the same time. Overall I spend about £45 to fill the gas and keep a little petrol as required for the miles.
 
Me again, I know I keep cropping up all over the place in the search for a car. This looks nice, but I'm reluctant to buy from an independant dealer; fortunately it's not too far away. Could need some maintenance but for less than 3k it has a nice spec and full BMW service history according to the advert.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201407115730668/sort/default/model/5_series/radius/1500/postcode/rg13dp/body-type/estate/price-to/5500/page/1/engine-size-cars/3l_to_3-9l/make/bmw/usedcars/advert-type/Classified/onesearchad/used%2Cnearlynew%2Cnew/fuel-type/diesel?logcode=p
 
at 180k treat it as end of life (even if it may/probably will run for years) and therefore worth a lot, lot less than £3k.

Keep in mind the trader probably paid about £500 for it from some poor sod
 
Why would anyone buy a £3k 530d anyway? Totally pointless cars at this pricepoint - not economical with the autobox, potential minefield of engine trouble and people pay stupid money for them.

The 530i is just a better car.
 
[TW]Fox;26816574 said:
Why would anyone buy a £3k 530d anyway? Totally pointless cars at this pricepoint - not economical with the autobox, potential minefield of engine trouble and people pay stupid money for them.

The 530i is just a better car.
Click to expand...

Would you recommend buying a 530i as a car to commute 80 miles per day in, bearing in mind I have to pay for fuel myself. Surely I'd struggle to get more than 30mpg out of a tank? Then again I suppose this can offset how much more a 530d costs over a 530i?
 
I wouldn't recommend relying on an old BMW for that sort of mileage whatever the engine fitted but ignoring that, I see no credible benefit of the 530d really. It's only about 6-7mpg more efficient than a 530i - you are not going to be seeing 40mpg tank averages from an auto 530d touring.
 
Ok thanks for that. I am struggling; I don't want to spend big money on a car to do 30k a year in, but at the same time I don't want to buy something like a Focus/Astra/Mondeo/Vectra etc. Some luxury would be nice, and I like BMW's.
 
The above is true - the only diesel e39 my dad managed to average 40ish mpg on was his manual 530d, the auto was closer to 35mpg from memory.

That's when they were relatively new

I can't help but feel there may be a sweeter age/price spot for you if you really want a BMW diseasel than down in the couple of grand bracket. I don't know what you'd consider big money but I would think even £8-10k would probably bring a more sensible purchase into the mix. You're never going to escape the wear 30k is going to do to any "premium" car in that kind of price bracket though
 
I'd spend up to £10k, but that would be E60 money and everyone keeps telling me the E60 is crap. If I spent £15k I'd want an F11, which isn't going to happen. I'm not interested in an E93 because the build quality on my E92 was not up to scratch.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom