Out with the old, in with the new

Mr_Sukebe

Mr_Sukebe

Mr_Sukebe

Man of Honour
Man of Honour
Joined
23 Dec 2002
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10,318
Location
London
After nearly 11 years with our 330i touring (E91), it's been replaced.
Have to say, that it was frankly brilliant. Sure, the fuel economy was a bit pants, but it had very little go wrong with it during the 65k miles that we did. Along the way it was comfortable, well specced, made a great noise, had decent "whoosh", and was very family friendly.

With a LOT of consideration of options, the replacement is an F46 BMW Gran Tourer, 220i, DCT, petrol M-sport (what a gobfull). As such, it has similarly very comfortable sports leather seats, plenty of toys, Sat-Nav. Ours is blue. Most of the other colours make it look even more like it's been beaten to death with the ugly stick. It's definitely NOT a looker.

To drive, it's definitely quieter. The turbo 2ltr is seemingly being tuned for low end torque over outright power (189hp), it's clearly slower. However, driven in a more relaxed manner and it feels utterly effortless. The DCT works really well. Being a Gran, it's really 4+3 seats. At the rear it has a pair of jump seats and the middle in the rear wouldn't be genuinely comfortable for a longer journey. When not using the jump seats, has a decent amount more boot space than the E91. The reviews complain about it's ride. Yes, it is a little firm, but I don't consider it genuinely bad. I find it better than say the E46 sport that we once had.
In short, a very pleasant family car. Looking forward to many miles in it.
 
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How's it's usability compared with the estate as a family car? Does it seem more or less practical? Any interesting little tricks or gadgets it's got hidden?
 
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how long did you look/travel ? did you try dct & automatic versions - or, nailed in from the year/mileage you wanted.

what's the mpg in comparison then.
 
NVP said:
How's it's usability compared with the estate as a family car? Does it seem more or less practical? Any interesting little tricks or gadgets it's got hidden?
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It's definitely more practical. More boot space and the hole in the back is almost a square for posting things in.
I doubt we'll see much use from the jump seats, but the option is nice and they fold flat for an increased load space.

One thing that I was a little surprised at is that the tailgate doesn't have a separate folding glass section, as per the 3 series. I really liked that.

jpaul said:
how long did you look/travel ? did you try dct & automatic versions - or, nailed in from the year/mileage you wanted.

what's the mpg in comparison then.
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We don't do a lot of miles. Maybe 6-7k/year on average.
Ref the DCT/auto. As I understand it, the automatic was an Aisin 6 or 8 speed slushbox. The DCT is a 7 speed from Getrag and replaced the slushbox version. I believe the changeover was around 2018. I've no idea which will be more reliable, I'm guessing the Aisin as the technology is now decades old.

It's rather early to be too conclusive on the MPG, but my guess is that it'll be around 50% better MPG than the 330i was in real world driving/ownership.


No, it's not good looking, but being fair, I hate the look of most SUVs and for that matter a lot of newer cars. Best way to consider it is an SUV, but without the offroad capabilities (not that many use it), but with far fewer of the compromises, ie. weight, centre of mavity, complexity of 4wd system etc.
 
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It is rather challenging on the looks front but i totally agree that i'd have something like that hands down on any SUV for the reasons you stated.
 
Rroff said:
Looks like a Touran that got all melty :s
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And that's you being generous, after drinking 8 pints and being under the influence.

@Mr_Sukebe I really hope they gave you an 80% discount on RRP, as these things are truly hideous and I only ever see random old biddies driving them :p
 
are there any pretty SUV's ... oxymoron ?
it's functional, BMW build quality (but maybe Merc & bmw trade on legacy now) & similar to threads on the less attractive 6 series GT , as a value alternative to a 5 series, might be overlooked by some.
 
Mr_Sukebe said:
It's definitely more practical. More boot space and the hole in the back is almost a square for posting things in.
I doubt we'll see much use from the jump seats, but the option is nice and they fold flat for an increased load space.

No, it's not good looking, but being fair, I hate the look of most SUVs and for that matter a lot of newer cars. Best way to consider it is an SUV, but without the offroad capabilities (not that many use it), but with far fewer of the compromises, ie. weight, centre of mavity, complexity of 4wd system etc.
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To be honest I'm going to push for an MPV (I assume that is still the correct term) as a replacement for my estate when it comes to company car replacement time. The estate is fine but limited tailgate size plus the sloped rear window and roof line limit the usability of the load space. I can't see the company not going for it, just the other week we had to swallow £700 of DHL costs because one of the estates couldn't house a delivery which we could easily have shoved in a more boxy cabin.

Loading our boy in would be easier too although he will be walking well before I get another car so not as much of an issue.
 
Is it really that car?

With the windscreen and bonnet almost in a straight line?

Doesn't even look like a BMW!
Looks like a big version of our 207
 
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413x said:
Is it really that car?

With the windscreen and bonnet almost in a straight line?

Doesn't even look like a BMW!
Looks like a big version of our 207
Click to expand...

I'll take that as a positive comment, i.e. that it DOESN'T look like most modern BMWs, which seem to be either hideous lard bucket SUVs, or have grilles suitable for a basking shark.
 
jpaul said:
are there any pretty SUV's ... oxymoron ?
it's functional, BMW build quality (but maybe Merc & bmw trade on legacy now) & similar to threads on the less attractive 6 series GT , as a value alternative to a 5 series, might be overlooked by some.
Click to expand...

The alfa suv is rather attractive.
 
jpaul said:
are there any pretty SUV's ... oxymoron ?
it's functional, BMW build quality (but maybe Merc & bmw trade on legacy now) & similar to threads on the less attractive 6 series GT , as a value alternative to a 5 series, might be overlooked by some.
Click to expand...

Pretty I dunno but some I don't hate the look of and the truck derived models like the older Pathfinder look the part.

Far too many crossovers these days though with limited or no 4WD, would not stand up to off-road or even more extreme on-road use, make poor use of the form factor and look ugly.
 
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jpaul said:
are there any pretty SUV's ... oxymoron ?
it's functional, BMW build quality (but maybe Merc & bmw trade on legacy now) & similar to threads on the less attractive 6 series GT , as a value alternative to a 5 series, might be overlooked by some.
Click to expand...
The OP car isn’t an SUV anyway.
 
Sounds like a good practical change, admire the honesty on the not a looker comment! I think though in fairness to this, pal has a VW Touran, difficult to make these style of cars attractive!

The mrs test drive a.... 2 series active tourer (smaller than this), she really liked it, I vetoed it though, was not paying £15k for something with ditchfinders on.

You certainly got your moneys worth out of the 330, i'm sure it will be the same with this!
 
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