Looking at BMW 318 touring, what to look out for
- Thread starter Juggy1985
- Start date
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
A few thoughts:
- You mention needing space. The E91 really isn't that spacious. Sure, the estate rear means that it has the practicality of a hatchback, but it's not really what you'd called cavernous
- With a mountain bike, get yourself a decent Thule rack, either towball or roof mounted
- If you really are doing just 6k/yr mileage, why worry about fuel consumption on a £13k car. Get yourself a 325i or 330i. The fuel consumption will be worse, but at least you'll enjoy yourself along the way
- If you do go the E91 route, do try the sport and SE variants. Personally I found suspension in the sport just too uncompromising for day to day ownership and bought an SE. IMO the SE is a much better compromise to live with
- I have a 2006 E91 with the sat nav. It's ****e because of it's lack of postcode entry. Fox will be able to confirm when that was resolved. Probably not on cars within your price range. Additionally, I see little value being added by the Idrive system. If anything, Idrive is a negative, as I've seen no sensible way to replace the stereo system in the Idrive model. Buy a non-Idrive model and there are guides online on how to replace the "OK" stereo with say a new Alpine model that will have full Ipod and bluetooth connectivity. So if you find a non-Idrive/satnav version that's a good deal cheaper, do consider it, but then factor in say £500 to get a bang up to date stereo unit fitted
- You mention needing space. The E91 really isn't that spacious. Sure, the estate rear means that it has the practicality of a hatchback, but it's not really what you'd called cavernous
- With a mountain bike, get yourself a decent Thule rack, either towball or roof mounted
- If you really are doing just 6k/yr mileage, why worry about fuel consumption on a £13k car. Get yourself a 325i or 330i. The fuel consumption will be worse, but at least you'll enjoy yourself along the way
- If you do go the E91 route, do try the sport and SE variants. Personally I found suspension in the sport just too uncompromising for day to day ownership and bought an SE. IMO the SE is a much better compromise to live with
- I have a 2006 E91 with the sat nav. It's ****e because of it's lack of postcode entry. Fox will be able to confirm when that was resolved. Probably not on cars within your price range. Additionally, I see little value being added by the Idrive system. If anything, Idrive is a negative, as I've seen no sensible way to replace the stereo system in the Idrive model. Buy a non-Idrive model and there are guides online on how to replace the "OK" stereo with say a new Alpine model that will have full Ipod and bluetooth connectivity. So if you find a non-Idrive/satnav version that's a good deal cheaper, do consider it, but then factor in say £500 to get a bang up to date stereo unit fitted
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Hi Juggy1985,
We recently picked up a 2009 LCI E91 320i Business Edition M-Sport - see my post here. (Pictures of the car we bought are on page 3).
I can't comment about the 318, but this release of the 320i does have cheap tax (£130) if that's what you are looking for. MPG wise, it all depends on what sort of usage the car gets. Our car see's mostly short journeys around town; school runs, Tesco's etc. With these we see an average of 26/27mpg. On a trip up north we were seeing 50+mpg at 77mph on the flats, but still averaged out at 36mpg for the whole trip.
Size wise, the car isn't that big. In fact I am not sure the boot space is really any more generous than our old Focus. If this is your main requirement, I would look at another car!
If you have any questions feel free to ask.
Cheers
Mark
We recently picked up a 2009 LCI E91 320i Business Edition M-Sport - see my post here. (Pictures of the car we bought are on page 3).
I can't comment about the 318, but this release of the 320i does have cheap tax (£130) if that's what you are looking for. MPG wise, it all depends on what sort of usage the car gets. Our car see's mostly short journeys around town; school runs, Tesco's etc. With these we see an average of 26/27mpg. On a trip up north we were seeing 50+mpg at 77mph on the flats, but still averaged out at 36mpg for the whole trip.
Size wise, the car isn't that big. In fact I am not sure the boot space is really any more generous than our old Focus. If this is your main requirement, I would look at another car!
If you have any questions feel free to ask.
Cheers
Mark
Cheers, most helpful post yet! Thats not great mpg really for a 2 ltr, well not what i would expect anyway. I spoke to my uncle who's a BMW sytner mechanic and he said the boot's are terrible for an estate. Sounds like abit of a pointless car to me so far, but yet to experience for myself.
Well looked at a 318 M and SE and was let down thoroughly, the interior on both were pretty poor compared to me lex. The only one I remotely liked was the big boy 335d tourer, but the insurance would be silly on that no doubt. I think I'll stuggle with the lex for now till something pops up. Cheers anyway peeps.
Sounds perfectly reasonable for a 2.0L petrol to me; no car is going to be efficient doing short journeys or driving in city traffic.
Soldato
The interior isn't different because of engine size - what didn't you like about the 318s that you looked at and what was better on the 335d?
It's the same interior - exactly the same. I suspect you tried a 318 M Sport with no real spec and a 335d M Sport with Navigation? Nav changes the look of the interior.
Soldato
[TW]Fox;21741417 said:
I already said that.
