E93 325i SE Vs. M Sport

[Dr House]

I am confused.

Why are you constantly posting links to 335i's that cost more than his budget when he has quite clearly stated he wants a 325i instead? The 335 is a step up in terms of costs which he has presumably already decided he doesnt want to make. The 325i is much more economical and easier to buy at his budget.

Posting £25-30k 335i's to somebody asking about a sub £20k 325i seems a bit silly.

You are normally a little harder to confuse, let me walk you through my chain of thought.

The OP said he has a budget of 20k which was getting him a E93 325i SE, he indicated he was willing to spend an extra 3k to bump up to the 325i M-Sport bringing him to a total spend of 23k.
I came across a good spec (except its missing nav) low mileage 335i M-sport for 24k and remembered this thread so I thought I would try and help out and posting a link to it. The asking price of 24k can probably be pushed down by 1 to 1.5k brining it within his maximum budget.

If the OP is not interested there is no real harm done except a few extra MB's of bandwidth used loading the page. The OP may have just assumed that he can’t get a E93 335i or even 330i in his budget so I don’t think I did any harm making him aware that it may be a possible option within his budget if he shops around.

The running cost on a 335i is not that much higher than a 325i, I sold my wife’s E90 318 and bought her a E93 335i when we got married, the insurance was only around 150 pounds a year more, tax is again a extra couple of hundred quid and as to petrol the combined figures from BMW suggest a 325i would give you around 39 MPG and the 335i 33.6 MPG so that around 20% difference so that’s what 5 or 600 quid extra a year in Petrol for the average person?

http://www.carpages.co.uk/guide/bmw/bmw-3-series-coupe-335i-se.asp

Admittedly the one at 27k was way over budget and it was probably a waste of time posting it, even the OP has said in his last post that he would want a 335i and can afford to run if he could afford to buy one in his 20 to 23 k budget which as per my post he clearly can.

 

[[TW]Fox]

The 335i E93 does not do anything like 33.6mpg combined at the age of car he's looking at. For the low 20's cars he is looking at early 2007 cars which are pre efficient dynamics and have a combined figure of under 30mpg and are even in the £440 a year tax band.

57 plate onwards are ED, and the even newer ones are even more economical, but he wont be finding M Sport variants of these cars for near £20k at the moment.

Plus, a 325i would be newer and thus an ED variant.

 

[Bipolar Kittens]

I put the 335i idea on the back burner quite some time ago, if I do end up with a BMW it will most likely be a 325i

So, on that note, are there any options that are considered as a 'must have' that I should be looking out for?

 

[mjt]

In 2007, the 325i gained another 500cc and 20Nm to make it 3,000cc.
What are the other differences and are they worth bothering about?

 

[[TW]Fox]

In 2007, the 325i gained another 500cc and 20Nm to make it 3,000cc.
What are the other differences and are they worth bothering about?

This was when the newer N53B30 engine was introduced. It features direct injection instead of the Valvetronic featured in the N52B25 in older 325i's, and is more economical.

Around the same time, the iDrive had a mild refresh - the biggest change being programmable shortcut buttons.

In late 2008 the iDrive underwent major revisions and includes HDD based satnav, etc.

 

[Bipolar Kittens]

I have another question and I fear it's a bit of stupid one, so please forgive me

Looking on Autotrader, a lot of adverts don't specify iDrive, but they do say it has sat nav and looking at the pictures I can see the screen on the dash and the wheely button thing on the on the centre console between the seats. Can I assume that this is iDrive or is iDrive something else in addition to this?

 

[Peerzy]

I have another question and I fear it's a bit of stupid one, so please forgive me

Looking on Autotrader, a lot of adverts don't specify iDrive, but they do say it has sat nav and looking at the pictures I can see the screen on the dash and the wheely button thing on the on the centre console between the seats. Can I assume that this is iDrive or is iDrive something else in addition to this?

If you've got the SatNav screen and wheel you've got iDrive I think.

 

[mjt]

This was when the newer N53B30 engine was introduced. It features direct injection instead of the Valvetronic featured in the N52B25 in older 325i's, and is more economical.

Around the same time, the iDrive had a mild refresh - the biggest change being programmable shortcut buttons.

In late 2008 the iDrive underwent major revisions and includes HDD based satnav, etc.

You sure the programmable shortcut buttons didn't come in with the HDD-based satnav? I can't see any differences in the iDrive between 2007 and 2008 models..

I have another question and I fear it's a bit of stupid one, so please forgive me

Looking on Autotrader, a lot of adverts don't specify iDrive, but they do say it has sat nav and looking at the pictures I can see the screen on the dash and the wheely button thing on the on the centre console between the seats. Can I assume that this is iDrive or is iDrive something else in addition to this?

Nav = iDrive.
However, you want Professional (16:9) Sat Nav. The 4:3 one looks (and therefore is) pap.

 

[[TW]Fox]

Of course I'm sure, thats why I posted it. The HDD upgrade came at the time of the E90 LCI. Prior to this, in March 07, there were minor revisions which included the shortcut buttons.

The 4:3 isn't 'pap', either. The 16:9 is of course the best, but that doesn't mean the 4:3 is 'pap'.

 

[mjt]

Of course I'm sure, thats why I posted it. The HDD upgrade came at the time of the E90 LCI. Prior to this, in March 07, there were minor revisions which included the shortcut buttons.

-edit

After some research it transpires that they're the ones numbered 1-6 on the dash. I just assumed those were for the radio.

 

[[TW]Fox]

Where are the shortcut buttons? Around the iDrive wheel?
Because even on 2008 ones, there's only a menu button underneath..

No, they are on the main dash below the CD/DVD Drives.

But you clearly don't beleive what I am telling you, so feel free to disregard what I am saying.

 

[mjt]

Yeah, you missed the edit there.

You could have been more specific, and less of a ****.
How you're to know buttons numbered 1-6 (where one normally finds a radio) are for the iDrive is anyone's guess..

 

[[TW]Fox]

You didnt ask for a detailed description of the buttons location, visual form, plastic content and production cycle. You asked what the differences were and then disputed the answer based on looking at photos on google!

 

[Wicksta]

Yeah, you missed the edit there.

You could have been more specific, and less of a ****.
How you're to know buttons numbered 1-6 (where one normally finds a radio) are for the iDrive is anyone's guess..

Sorry to say this but if you don't have a clue then why bother posting and disputing what someone else says?

 

[mjt]

Sorry to say this but if you don't have a clue then why bother posting and disputing what someone else says?

I posted because I wanted to know what the difference was. I thought that the extra buttons Fox was referring to were the ones that were placed around the iDrive wheel which were introduced in the LCI E9x, along with the HDD sat nav, etc.

I didn't realise that the buttons on the dash were the programmable ones that he was referring to. Perhaps "are you sure" wasn't the best choice of words.
I should have asked, "where are the buttons?" rather than questioning his answer. It appears to have come across the wrong way, for which I apologise.

Seriously though, if you see 8 buttons in the same unit as the CD slot and right next to the radio knob, it's only fair to assume it's for radio/CD selection..