w reg bwm £4k?

ste_bla · 24 Mar 2007 at 13:49

Friend at work is selling her W reg BMW, not sure on the model but it has climate control and electirc windows all round. Its about the size of a vectra and is a 4 door salon version, 1.8 auto engine and 35k mileage

Full service history for first 18k and then a local garage from there onwards. Just had cambelt (she thinks) and plugs/olil

She wants £4k or near that, doesnt seem to be any problems with it, good or bad price?

EDIT : New rubber all round and refurb alloys

Morba · 24 Mar 2007 at 13:55

price isnt that bad, most probably a 318 E46, wont be anything special but should be well built.

not sure how the autos were with the 4 pots, only driven 6 pot autos. economy will prolly be quite poor, especially in comparison with the manual.
go drive it.

ste_bla · 24 Mar 2007 at 13:56

Morba said:
price isnt that bad, most probably a 318 E46, wont be anything special but should be well built.

not sure how the autos were with the 4 pots, only driven 6 pot autos. economy will prolly be quite poor, especially in comparison with the manual.
go drive it.

I've driven it and seems good

Not too bothered about econ as i have to have auto (wife :rolleyes:

) and my vectra does 20-24mpg around town

Morba · 24 Mar 2007 at 13:59

ste_bla said:
I've driven it and seems good

Not too bothered about econ as i have to have auto (wife ) and my vectra does 20-24mpg around town

i know the wife auto factor all to well (we have autos because of it!!), quite annoying

is £4k your budget, or can you extend to more?

also, i notice you have kids, i hated my bmw saloon as the accessibility of the boot was pants, check that the rear seats fold down, mine had a solid back plate behind the rear seats :/

ste_bla · 24 Mar 2007 at 14:15

Morba said:
i know the wife auto factor all to well (we have autos because of it!!), quite annoying

is £4k your budget, or can you extend to more?

also, i notice you have kids, i hated my bmw saloon as the accessibility of the boot was pants, check that the rear seats fold down, mine had a solid back plate behind the rear seats :/

Well it seems okay with the baby seats will look at the solid seats though..

TBH been looking at mondeos and focus estate as well

£5-6 k would be the max tbh

wez130 · 24 Mar 2007 at 14:21

5-6k will easily get you a ghia/ghiaX 03/04 plate mondeo TDCi 130, good economy, good performance (though i dunno about auto performance - but they are available). so you choose between 2000 bottom spec BMW or 3- years newer top spec Mondeo. (heated elec seats in Ghia X , sony HU, Heated elec mirrors with puddle lights/ elec windows, climate, cruise etc etc and 40mpg easy - and thats with spirited driving.

ste_bla · 24 Mar 2007 at 14:40

wez130 said:
5-6k will easily get you a ghia/ghiaX 03/04 plate mondeo TDCi 130, good economy, good performance (though i dunno about auto performance - but they are available). so you choose between 2000 bottom spec BMW or 3- years newer top spec Mondeo. (heated elec seats in Ghia X , sony HU, Heated elec mirrors with puddle lights/ elec windows, climate, cruise etc etc and 40mpg easy - and thats with spirited driving.

I know but then where do i get one? I dont like doing private deals and then dealers charge a lot extra atleast with the bmw i really know its okay and not just covered up etc

Morba · 24 Mar 2007 at 14:41

ste_bla said:
Well it seems okay with the baby seats will look at the solid seats though..

TBH been looking at mondeos and focus estate as well

£5-6 k would be the max tbh

pretty much exactly what i was looking at recently, should be able to find a nice mondeo for that money, decent focus estates seem hard to find (atleast while i was looking). there wasnt many decent spec mondeos without starship mileage while i was looking either, was some nice 2.0l zetecs with added options though.

ste_bla · 24 Mar 2007 at 15:46

Well going to look at 2 mondeos and a zafira tomorrow see what they are like

Daveyboy · 24 Mar 2007 at 17:54

ste_bla said:
snip

Mate it looks like your son on the left of your sig is vomming whilst on a rollercoaster.

Sorry that's totally irellevant to the thread

paradigm · 24 Mar 2007 at 18:05

1.8 engine, automatic. Could be a 316

They suck.

wez130 · 24 Mar 2007 at 19:13

ste_bla said:
I know but then where do i get one? I dont like doing private deals and then dealers charge a lot extra atleast with the bmw i really know its okay and not just covered up etc

i see your point of view, but mondeo's, the only real things to look out for is make sure it's had a cambelt change after 60k miles, look for full service history and check the rear subframe for knocking, other than that, they are pretty bullet proof and if anything does go wrong, they are quite cheap to fix, services are only £120 every 13,500 miles.

With BMW, if anything goes wrong, it's likely to be expensive to fix, services are a bit more expensive overall, you get a cheap one and an expensive one, i'm not too sure how they work, i'm sure someone will clarify. I think performance of both will be about the same, but the mondeo using less fuel in the process, and being a turbo diesel, it will feel quicker than the BMW.

At the end of the day, it's your choice, but the mondeo will be cheaper overall than the BMW.