Show Us Your Motors!

Jester* said:
Got Ohlins fitted today, here is a post test drive container shot.

52082909470_dd66384711_c.jpg
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I know that thing is mint and JDM Tyte y0, but I can't help but think it needs some bigger/fancier wheels..
 
mjt said:
I know that thing is mint and JDM Tyte y0, but I can't help but think it needs some bigger/fancier wheels..
Click to expand...

I have a shortlist of wheels in the back of my mind/written down that I may go too. These are 16's and would probably go to 17's. I don't want to go too big, I feel it ruins the 7. But I have a few other things to spend money on first before dropping a not inconiderable amount of money on wheels :D
 
@Raymond Lin
Looking at C30s. Want a T5, obviously, but incredibly hard to find a decent example, especially facelift and R-Design Lux. Might fall back to the 2.0.

Do you know anything major to be on the lookout for when purchasing?
 
Yaayuh! said:
@Raymond Lin
Looking at C30s. Want a T5, obviously, but incredibly hard to find a decent example, especially facelift and R-Design Lux. Might fall back to the 2.0.

Do you know anything major to be on the lookout for when purchasing?
Click to expand...

I was going to suggest joining a Facebook owners group but being an enthusiast group almost all of them have been modded since these are really cheap now, so a clean one is very hard to come by in these groups and the T5 rarity also applies here. I think mine is like the 1% in these groups who is totally stock.

In terms of the car, I don’t know much about the 2.0 Petrol model engine wise but these things should apply.

The windshield seal on the front is a known fault, it comes loose and you get a leak and the water is collected in the floor. It’s not an expensive fix to reseal the windscreen, or even get a new windscreen (£160 from Autoglass), but it’s the stripping out and drying and replacing the sound foam that cost money. So make sure the car doesn’t have this. Check for damp in the carpet, stick your hand in between down the gap in the back seat etc. Check for inside condensation. I had this myself winter before last.

Other potential water ingress spots are sunroof, the boot stop button seal and the seal in the rear light cluster. The parts itself isn’t that bad, I replaced one of the rear light cluster for £140 I recall. In fact when I did it, I had a new light, stripped down and dried, new underfloor sound insulation for £670 from the garage + £140 for windscreen seal, strangely £20 difference if have a new windscreen. So that’s a potential bill to give you an idea. Pre recent inflation mind.

Try get one with the hardcover boot, the tent thing is ugly and awkward as hell. The hardcover will set you back £300 if bought separately.

Check timing belt has been done now, even the last one off the line are over 9 years old so it’s right on the edge. (If it has a belt not a chain in the 2.0)

Apart from that…other things that I’ve replaced is the brake guard behind the brakes, I broke it with a pressure washer and bent it but it was rusty anyway. It’s not expensive to replace that. I also replace the front bushes and arm. They come in a pair. One of my front bulb went, the bulb for my rear number plate went. That's it really.

Some owners do the rear wipers delete, do not get those without…it might look neater but without the rear wipers this car’s rear window gets really dusty and you won’t be able to see a thing through it in the rain.

Get one with winter pack, so it has front heated seat, also don’t bother to look for one with the Satnav. It was awful when it came out, it’s just unusable now. I just use a Brodit phone mount for my phone, all car have Aux in the glove compartment so I just hide a Bluetooth dongle in there and pair my phone. p.s. the factory bluetooth it comes with, if it does have one, is only for calls, not for pairing. I think you can upgrade it??? Not 100% sure. p.s. don't bother looking for one with a modern media console, there are only one 3rd party one ever made and even that is like over 7 years old and it's a pain in the butt to install. The waterfall console don't allow normal double din units to be installed.

Try get an upgraded Dynaudio sound system if you can find one, it is meant to be really good, you can tell if it has a speak in the centre of the dash. I just have the basic one, it’s perfectly fine for podcast, in fact it’s okay for music but the Dynaudio if you love your music more. Although i must admit finding one of these is as rare as finding a T5.

I also have the driver’s pack which is rear parking sensors, turning headlights, auto-adjusting rearview mirror, electric driver’s seat (not passenger).

There is blind-spot monitoring pack too but that is rare as anything, only ever seen 2 cars with it on. Oh, black leather is infinitely easier to clean than the white one you see. It should come with 2 keys, a replacement key is over £300 for these.

My engine has been solid, the biggest bill has been the water leak for me. In 6 years it has never failed to start (touch wood). I would say please don't get the lower end Diesel models. I drove one for a day as a courtesy car, I think it was the D2. It is an entirely different experience. That was manual too. It went from a smooth quiet comfortable ride in my T5 (auto) to a loud in your face tractor. It felt like a different car.
 
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Raymond Lin said:
I was going to suggest joining a Facebook owners group but being an enthusiast group almost all of them have been modded since these are really cheap now, so a clean one is very hard to come by in these groups and the T5 rarity also applies here. I think mine is like the 1% in these groups who is totally stock.

In terms of the car, I don’t know much about the 2.0 Petrol model engine wise but these things should apply.

The windshield seal on the front is a known fault, it comes loose and you get a leak and the water is collected in the floor. It’s not an expensive fix to reseal the windscreen, or even get a new windscreen (£160 from Autoglass), but it’s the stripping out and drying and replacing the sound foam that cost money. So make sure the car doesn’t have this. Check for damp in the carpet, stick your hand in between down the gap in the back seat etc. Check for inside condensation. I had this myself winter before last.

Other potential water ingress spots are sunroof, the boot stop button seal and the seal in the rear light cluster. The parts itself isn’t that bad, I replaced one of the rear light cluster for £140 I recall. In fact when I did it, I had a new light, stripped down and dried, new underfloor sound insulation for £670 from the garage + £140 for windscreen seal, strangely £20 difference if have a new windscreen. So that’s a potential bill to give you an idea. Pre recent inflation mind.

Try get one with the hardcover boot, the tent thing is ugly and awkward as hell. The hardcover will set you back £300 if bought separately.

Check timing belt has been done now, even the last one off the line are over 9 years old so it’s right on the edge. (If it has a belt not a chain in the 2.0)

Apart from that…other things that I’ve replaced is the brake guard behind the brakes, I broke it with a pressure washer and bent it but it was rusty anyway. It’s not expensive to replace that. I also replace the front bushes and arm. They come in a pair. One of my front bulb went, the bulb for my rear number plate went. That's it really.

Some owners do the rear wipers delete, do not get those without…it might look neater but without the rear wipers this car’s rear window gets really dusty and you won’t be able to see a thing through it in the rain.

Get one with winter pack, so it has front heated seat, also don’t bother to look for one with the Satnav. It was awful when it came out, it’s just unusable now. I just use a Brodit phone mount for my phone, all car have Aux in the glove compartment so I just hide a Bluetooth dongle in there and pair my phone. p.s. the factory bluetooth it comes with, if it does have one, is only for calls, not for pairing. I think you can upgrade it??? Not 100% sure. p.s. don't bother looking for one with a modern media console, there are only one 3rd party one ever made and even that is like over 7 years old and it's a pain in the butt to install. The waterfall console don't allow normal double din units to be installed.

Try get an upgraded Dynaudio sound system if you can find one, it is meant to be really good, you can tell if it has a speak in the centre of the dash. I just have the basic one, it’s perfectly fine for podcast, in fact it’s okay for music but the Dynaudio if you love your music more. Although i must admit finding one of these is as rare as finding a T5.

I also have the driver’s pack which is rear parking sensors, turning headlights, auto-adjusting rearview mirror, electric driver’s seat (not passenger).

There is blind-spot monitoring pack too but that is rare as anything, only ever seen 2 cars with it on. Oh, black leather is infinitely easier to clean than the white one you see. It should come with 2 keys, a replacement key is over £300 for these.

My engine has been solid, the biggest bill has been the water leak for me. In 6 years it has never failed to start (touch wood). I would say please don't get the lower end Diesel models. I drove one for a day as a courtesy car, I think it was the D2. It is an entirely different experience. That was manual too. It went from a smooth quiet comfortable ride in my T5 (auto) to a loud in your face tractor. It felt like a different car.
Click to expand...
Excellent, thanks for the detailed response.

I will take my time with it, there’s no rush.

I heard the only diesel to get is the top end one, but I’m set on either the 2.0 or 2.5 T5.
The 2.0 is the Mazda/Ford Duratec still so pretty solid. But it’s all about that 5cyl Turbo (except mpg… lol). There seems to be a few stock R-Design Lux 2.0s with good mileage though.
 
Yaayuh! said:
Excellent, thanks for the detailed response.

I will take my time with it, there’s no rush.

I heard the only diesel to get is the top end one, but I’m set on either the 2.0 or 2.5 T5.
The 2.0 is the Mazda/Ford Duratec still so pretty solid. But it’s all about that 5cyl Turbo (except mpg… lol). There seems to be a few stock R-Design Lux 2.0s with good mileage though.
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Yeah, take your time, they do come up but not often.

I just checked, and currently no C30 at all on Autotrader.
 
Yaayuh! said:
There’s load of C30s, just few T5s.

There’s a 2011 T5, but has 125k miles.
Click to expand...

oops, had my search criteria wrong!

yeah, only one T5 R-Design facelift.

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No winter pack, front badge peeled off (common, it's literally a sticker/ I got my replacement free from Volvo), the R-design badge too has peeled, weirdly expensive, a replacement for one is like £40. Stock wheels and the dash is strangely scratched to hell on this one by the gear shift.

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This one looks quite well looked after, low mileage too. But lacks Winter Pack and also the driver's pack. Quite barebone tbh. Wheels you can change back.

Mine sits in between, facelift, 70kmiles. If a barebone pre-facelift goes for 10k...mine can't be that far off even in Auto...which now i prefer anyway as it's quite smooth. Amazing how the T5 held its value?! 6 years and I can sell it for the same I paid for it.
 
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Yaayuh! said:
Excellent, thanks for the detailed response.

I will take my time with it, there’s no rush.

I heard the only diesel to get is the top end one, but I’m set on either the 2.0 or 2.5 T5.
The 2.0 is the Mazda/Ford Duratec still so pretty solid. But it’s all about that 5cyl Turbo (except mpg… lol). There seems to be a few stock R-Design Lux 2.0s with good mileage though.
Click to expand...
oh, forgot to say. I am averaging 30mpg after about 55k miles.

I typically do short journeys (about 2 miles trips to and from work) Monday to Friday, then 25miles country lanes trips on the weekend and long distances 100-200miles for weddings.

If you only do short journeys, the mpg will be brutal, it's not too bad on long journeys. The engine barely gets stressed running at 60mph at 1800rpm at that speed.
 
adam cool dude said:
E46/E39 was definitely the golden age of BMW.
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Hmm I like the engine out the box on the E9X M3, sounds all V8-y :cool:

But, big but, The S54 just sounds much more of a sporty engine with the carbon airbox, and arguably a bit louder/more vocal - just without the v8 rumble of course. And it revs to 8000rpm (mine goes to 8300rpm because of the Evolve map).
 
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