Me Again...I Can't Decide on a Car..

panthro said:
Cheers. Well the guy phoned and get get down today as his bank cant authorise the payment due to it being bank hol weekend. I've still got his deposit though and he said he'll collect it as soon as the bank authorise it.

Just test drove the 335d. I know in the past people have managed to get 2 years warranty thrown in but the salesman said that they cant do it because of regulations with the FSA :confused:
I'm not sure its worth spending that much though, a 325d or 330d would do the job just as well.

http://forums.m3cutters.co.uk/showthread.php?t=50544

Just found that, expensive for an E46 but a very nice example. From my experience the E46 is better built than the E9x.
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The salesman was wrong.
 
[TW]Fox;21634588 said:
Yes? The values are depressed by the fact most people think like you that the only cost of running a car is fuel economy. I run a 3 litre petrol as a daily and its great.

No less valid than your choice to spend more in depreciation on a 26k 118 surely? Just a different way of managing the tco.
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I get that but comparing depreciation on new vs old is apples and oranges.
If I was doing significant miles per year and was buying new or used I would get something that made sense given the current/future fuel prices.

In my view there is little point in selling an M3 and then replacing it with a car that is almost as thirsty. Seems like a far amount of hassle for little benefit.
 
I think the M3 is significantly more thirsty personally.

Yesterday I filled up and then drove up to Bristol. Then I did a bit of driving around locally and its showing 36.2 mpg. Admittedly that's from obeying the speed limit not using the cars performance as such but its the ability to do that sort of trip with respectable economy figures that makes it so easy to justify keeping hold of a car with such an engine.

Last full tank was 29 which was 30% town 65% A roads with plenty of overtaking and 5% motorway and included enjoying the car at the Hampshire meet last Sunday.

A V8 M3 can't do that, neither should it be expected to given the massive performance on offer.
 
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SDK^ said:
I get that but comparing depreciation on new vs old is apples and oranges.
If I was doing significant miles per year and was buying new or used I would get something that made sense given the current/future fuel prices.

In my view there is little point in selling an M3 and then replacing it with a car that is almost as thirsty. Seems like a far amount of hassle for little benefit.
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But it's just moving an expense from the fuel economy column into the depreciation column?
 
Kingy said:
But it's just moving an expense from the fuel economy column into the depreciation column?
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I'm buying new because I don't want a used car. With that decision made, I then move onto spec and engine options.

If I was buying used then the same spec and engine options are still available ;)
 
That's fine but its part of the same decision process. We buy used so we can use the saving to fund more interesting engine options etc. Both are equally valid depending on what you want from a car.
 
[TW]Fox;21635055 said:
That's fine but its part of the same decision process. We buy used so we can use the saving to fund more interesting engine options etc. Both are equally valid depending on what you want from a car.
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Completely agree, wasn't saying it was wrong, just wrong for me...

I'd rather spend less money buying something older with a more involving drive, and then spend more on running the damn thing! :D
 
[TW]Fox;21635055 said:
That's fine but its part of the same decision process. We buy used so we can use the saving to fund more interesting engine options etc. Both are equally valid depending on what you want from a car.
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Sure, but the OP just sold his interesting car because it was too expensive to run(?).
The petrol options suggested just seem more of the same.
 
SDK^ said:
Sure, but the OP just sold his interesting car because it was too expensive to run(?).
The petrol options suggested just seem more of the same.
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I forget the precise combined figure of the M3, but I'd say it's a fair bet that you'll see a real world 10-12mpg more out of the N53 330i than the V8 M3. In this context that amounts to ~50% more miles per tank, which is a significant difference...
 
SDK^ said:
Sure, but the OP just sold his interesting car because it was too expensive to run(?).
The petrol options suggested just seem more of the same.
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No I didnt sell it because it was too expensive to run. I can comfortably afford to run it, but it makes no sense when I'm not using it for what its intended for and what I originally had intended to use it for (social use only, sunday drives, weekends away etc). Its not a car to drive on the M3/M25 everyday.

Fox, I knew he was talking bull because I remember you got 2 years warranty on your deal.

I went to the Jag garage today. I could get an XF 3.0D Premium Luxury S on an 09 plate for the same price as the 335d, and its loaded with literally every single option. Very tempting.
Also took the 159 Ti for a drive and it was a lot nicer than I expected it to be, I actually enjoyed driving it because I set my expectations low and they were exceeded.

For reference, I cant get more than 25mpg from a full tank (calculated using FuelLog) and thats 85% motorway driving at 70mph.
Combined driving I average 21mpg to a tank.
 
panthro said:
I went to the Jag garage today. I could get an XF 3.0D Premium Luxury S on an 09 plate for the same price as the 335d, and its loaded with literally every single option. Very tempting.
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I'm not up to speed on the Jag trim levels, but I thought the Portfolio was the one to have?
 
panthro said:
They are, but are not as readily available, but the Premium Luxury has pretty much everything you can think of. I dont know what else the Portfolio adds on top.
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Ah ok, when I was searching for my old man I just filtered by the top spec trim, so didn't get to see the comparative prevalence...
 
[TW]Fox;21635180 said:
The XF is a better car than the 335d.
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This.

If you're going to dampen the drive by speccing a derv and autobox, you might as well plump for the additional luxury in the class above...

The XF S is a handsome looking car...
 
panthro said:
..For reference, I cant get more than 25mpg from a full tank (calculated using FuelLog) and thats 85% motorway driving at 70mph.
Combined driving I average 21mpg to a tank.
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Not sure what year or miles yours had on it, but my 2011 DCT does considerably better than 21mpg. If I was doing those miles at that speed I would expect to return around 28/30mpg.

I average between 25/27 per tank on a 60 mile daily commute of mainly A/B roads with mixed 40 and NSL. A friend used to do the same trip in his 56 330i SE and used to get around 33/35 from what I recall.

With personal usage I still see 23mpg.

Jack

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/64/largenl.jpg/
 
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