Whats wrong with this 325i?

Darryn

Darryn

Darryn

Soldato
Joined
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Colne.... Up Norf.
Ive been looking for a replacement for my 320d ES Touring and tbh, id be happy with another 320d Touring, but, due to my mileage being 12-15k i dont think diesel is a must and the petrols seem to have less major issues... Ive got £13k + the px value (£3000 maybe). Ive run insurance quotes on the 330i and its a little too expensive, thats when i came across this 57 - 325i M Sport @£11.6k seems to be quite cheap, so whats wrong with it?

All i can see is that its been 21k since its last service, which id imagine will exceed the recommended interval. :confused:
 
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Cheers, ~27k/year if my maths are correct does kind of indicate its spent most of its life as a motorway cruiser, imo not always a bad thing if its been serviced properly, but thats one of the problems with this one, im not sure it has.
 
not sure if there is a max, but its variable timing for the servicing depending on how it is driven.
its just been serviced, i'd imagine that any other service would be BMW dealer service rather than an indy, so you should be able to check if its been done more than the book says.

there are a lot of similar cars on their website for about the same sort of price, so it doesnt initially look too cheap
 
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Cheers Morba, unless some info comes to light putting me off, ill definately ask my local BMW garage if they can give me any info on its history... As for similar cars, my only real requirements are Touring and Leather, which make this the only example.
 
Darryn said:
Ive been looking for a replacement for my 320d ES Touring and tbh, id be happy with another 320d Touring, but, due to my mileage being 12-15k i dont think diesel is a must and the petrols seem to have less major issues...
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Sadly this is an N53 engined car. This is BMW's latest direct injection engine and seems to have inherited as many if not more issues as the diesel engined cars. There are numerous posts over on E90 Post about issues with these engines and before MikeHiow turns up to say 'yea but 90000000 people dont have a problem' there are almost zero posts about the earlier N52 engine which seems considerably more reliable.

They seem prone to failing injectors, coil packs and perhaps even more worryingly the DME. It is exactly the same engine as fitted to my parents E60, which at the end of last year, emerged from the BMW dealer with a bill for £1500 for rectifying these issues - and we got off fairly mildly without any injectors being replaced (Though all 6 had to be replaced under warranty before it was 3 years old!)

This is a shame as it is a fantastic engine, so really the best thing to do is to buy one with less than 50k miles on it and purchase the comprehensive BMW Warranty for £500 a year. This gives you complete cover against these problems.

I certianly wouldnt want a 90k miler as you wont get a warranty that will pay (The 'warranty' supplied with the E60 didnt pay, although I knew it was worthless so valued it at zero when we did the deal).

It's such a pity because these issues aside it's a smooth and very economical engine.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif.../radius/1501/page/1/postcode/pl11aa?logcode=p

This car is fitted with the indirect injection N52B25 engine which seems to have far less issues. The mileage is also such that the BMW warranty is available to you in its most comprehensive and lowest priced form.

This is another nice one, again, N52 fitted:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif.../radius/1501/page/1/postcode/pl11aa?logcode=p

I really do think the E46 was the last BMW you could buy a high mileage example of without many worries - the cars still take mileage brilliantly, but these issues can manifest themselves at any mileage and higher mileage stops warranties.

Now moving on from this we'll talk about the 325i itself. For reasons I cannot fully understand myself, there are many, many more 325i's around than 330i's in E90 guise. This gets even more noticeable in 2007-2009 and eventually leads to BMW binning the 330i in Saloon and Touring form in 2010.

Quite why so many people bought a 325i and nobody bothered with a 330i is a mystery to me because the usual identical running costs thing is true with the E90 as it was the E46 before it - the 330i delivers the same economy, same servicing costs yet more performance. Usually I advice to ignore the 325i but as they outnumber 330i's 5 to 1 with the E90 the 325i is a useful amount cheaper (You wont get a 57 plate 330i M Sport for £12k thats for sure!) and far easier to find, therefore you've got more choice.

And it's far from either a bad engine or a slow car - 214bhp and 0-60 in the mid 6's means it still packs a fairly healthy punch.
 
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Exactly what i hoped for, many thanks Mr Fox.

That first link is just down the road from me so i think ill go have a look this afternoon.
 
[TW]Fox;18646848 said:
Sadly this is an N53 engined car. This is BMW's latest direct injection engine and seems to have inherited as many if not more issues as the diesel engined cars. There are numerous posts over on E90 Post about issues with these engines and before MikeHiow turns up to say 'yea but 90000000 people dont have a problem' there are almost zero posts about the earlier N52 engine which seems considerably more reliable.

They seem prone to failing injectors, coil packs and perhaps even more worryingly the DME. It is exactly the same engine as fitted to my parents E60, which at the end of last year, emerged from the BMW dealer with a bill for £1500 for rectifying these issues - and we got off fairly mildly without any injectors being replaced (Though all 6 had to be replaced under warranty before it was 3 years old!)

This is a shame as it is a fantastic engine, so really the best thing to do is to buy one with less than 50k miles on it and purchase the comprehensive BMW Warranty for £500 a year. This gives you complete cover against these problems.

I certianly wouldnt want a 90k miler as you wont get a warranty that will pay (The 'warranty' supplied with the E60 didnt pay, although I knew it was worthless so valued it at zero when we did the deal).

It's such a pity because these issues aside it's a smooth and very economical engine.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif.../radius/1501/page/1/postcode/pl11aa?logcode=p

This car is fitted with the indirect injection N52B25 engine which seems to have far less issues. The mileage is also such that the BMW warranty is available to you in its most comprehensive and lowest priced form.

This is another nice one, again, N52 fitted:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif.../radius/1501/page/1/postcode/pl11aa?logcode=p

I really do think the E46 was the last BMW you could buy a high mileage example of without many worries - the cars still take mileage brilliantly, but these issues can manifest themselves at any mileage and higher mileage stops warranties.

Now moving on from this we'll talk about the 325i itself. For reasons I cannot fully understand myself, there are many, many more 325i's around than 330i's in E90 guise. This gets even more noticeable in 2007-2009 and eventually leads to BMW binning the 330i in Saloon and Touring form in 2010.

Quite why so many people bought a 325i and nobody bothered with a 330i is a mystery to me because the usual identical running costs thing is true with the E90 as it was the E46 before it - the 330i delivers the same economy, same servicing costs yet more performance. Usually I advice to ignore the 325i but as they outnumber 330i's 5 to 1 with the E90 the 325i is a useful amount cheaper (You wont get a 57 plate 330i M Sport for £12k thats for sure!) and far easier to find, therefore you've got more choice.

And it's far from either a bad engine or a slow car - 214bhp and 0-60 in the mid 6's means it still packs a fairly healthy punch.
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Hi folks. First post on this forum. I am planning to buy a 330i automatic E90 saloon, and was thinking of getting a late 2007 or early 2008 model, but I might get a more recent one if budget allows. However, it seems to me that my best bet might actually to stick with an earlier model, one which still has the older N52 engine in it. I could probably find, say, a March 2008 car that still has the N52.

Naturally I am cautious, having been badly burned with the lemon I had a few years back, a 318i which exhibited all the problems which are well-known.

I will be buying an AUC from BMW so will have (at least) a 12 month warranty, but naturally I don't want to spend half my time bringing the car in to have injectors replaced etc. Plus of course that warranty will run out after a year, leaving me with the choice between taking my chances, or paying out for an extended warranty.

In summary: should I go for an N52 or an N53?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Pay for an extended warranty and get the N53. It is the better engine - it's noticeably more economical - though, as it seems, it isnt without its reliability trouble. But if its got warranty it isnt your problem :)
 
Ill just update my position here, i went to view the 07 325i in your first link Fox, and it wasnt there, the garage owners business partner had borrowed it for the day and i had a wasted journey (70miles round trip). Ive since had quite a large and un-expected windfall so ill be going the same was as FieldingMellish, 330 M-Sport Touring ~08 and ill be getting it from BMW AUC along with a extended comp warranty.
 
330i M Sport Touring

Yea good luck with that. There were only 92 registered between 2007 and 2010. You are going to find it almost impossible to find one for sale I'm afraid - they are so rare that BMW simply stopped making them in 2010.

Also, an 08 is quite a bad year to get - very expensive yet almost all of them are prefacelift cars (The facelift wasn't until 58 plate). Therefore the money you need to spend to get a 2008 is hugely more than you should spend on a prefacelift E91.
 
Arhh bugger, there is only 1 currently in my price bracket on the BMW AUC not my preferred colour either, i obviously didn't realise they were so rare.
 
[TW]Fox;18646848 said:
Quite why so many people bought a 325i and nobody bothered with a 330i is a mystery to me
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It simple really - 214bhp is more than enough, its cheaper and lower insurance. Boy racers don't buy these cars and sub 7 secs is fast enough.
 
MarkDavis said:
It simple really - 214bhp is more than enough, its cheaper and lower insurance. Boy racers don't buy these cars and sub 7 secs is fast enough.
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The sort of person to buy these cars new is in a situation where there is no real difference on insurance between these cars.

There is 40 quid in it for me, in my 20's, so for Mr Average 40Something it isnt even a concern.

The 330i is a fantastic package.
 
[TW]Fox;18685183 said:
The sort of person to buy these cars new is in a situation where there is no real difference on insurance between these cars.

There is 40 quid in it for me, in my 20's, so for Mr Average 40Something it isnt even a concern.
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You'd be suprised. a lot of people who buy these cars buy them through company car schemes and have no interest or knowledge in cars.

At one well know drinks company I worked for in London, my boss earned c£60k with benefits. He bought a base spec 318 because of the low road tax and because it fell within his car allowance banding. He didn't even know (or care) what traction control, stop/start etc was. To him, a car's a car, and his perception is that Merc/BMW/Audi are the best cars whatever model it is.

Same at a well known financial services company I worked for - they just buy the car because of the allowance their given and perceptions about cars in general. a lot of women bought a base spec Merc with the smallest engine. To them its a prestigeous brand and they go for the smallest engine because they don't drive fast and thinks its good for fuel economy. The stuff that affects them financially is actually stuff like insurance, mpg and tax because all other costs are covered.

If you're wondering where the base spec £25k BMWs come from.....
 
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True, but the engine in the 325i is exactly the same size as that in the 330i and it is in exactly the same tax band.

I dont know why I am trying to argue with you though as you are right - and they dont sell a 330i anymore as a result. It's just such a shame they came up with such a masterpeice and most people were just too dim to realise :(
 
^ Hey, I'm not saying there's any logic to it - its just how some or even many people who buy these cars operate. Obviously, if it you or me, we'd be choosing much more selectively.
 
[TW]Fox;18646848 said:
I certianly wouldnt want a 90k miler as you wont get a warranty that will pay (The 'warranty' supplied with the E60 didnt pay, although I knew it was worthless so valued it at zero when we did .
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So why won't a warranty deal payout on a car of say over 50k? Seen this mentioned a few times but geniunly puzzled as to why.
 
divaboy said:
So why won't a warranty deal payout on a car of say over 50k? Seen this mentioned a few times but geniunly puzzled as to why.
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It will - but the BMW warranty product gets considerably more expensive once the car has passed 60k miles, and the range of cover reduces considerably once it hits 100k miles.

As for the aftermarket warranties - they are generally known for being more or less completely useless and having a myriad of pathetic clauses they use to not pay out. Sigh.
 
[TW]Fox;18684641 said:
330i M Sport Touring

Yea good luck with that. There were only 92 registered between 2007 and 2010. You are going to find it almost impossible to find one for sale I'm afraid - they are so rare that BMW simply stopped making them in 2010.
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I'm not disputing it at all, but where did you get that figure of 92 from? Do you know how many 330i saloons were registered during that period?

Currently the BMW AUC listings are showing a grand total of eight 330i auto saloons (up to 4 years old, up to 40K mileage). And only one of those is LCI. I assume that the number of 330i LCI auto saloons is very small indeed? When did they stop making the 330i saloon? I know they still make the 330i coupe.

FWIW, I have test driven both 330i and 325i and I have to say that while the 325i is not exactly sluggish, I was quite unimpressed with its responsiveness. But finding a 330i, particularly if you want a certain colour and/or spec, is not easy.
 
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