BMW used approved
Discussion
Gents, is it worth paying a little bit more than auto trader prices and buying from BMW used approved range?
What kind of warranty do they offer? Just a standard year one or can you extend it?
Is th timing chain still an issue? If so which engines does it affect, I know it's the n47 but are there any others? and what cars are they in.
Looking at a 3 series msport coupe, manual. Not really bothered about engine/performance much but don't want to get one with the n47/timing chain issue engines. The bigger 6 pot engines seem to be few and far between..
Lots of questions but I'm sure some of you guys have the answers.
Any help,appreciated.
What kind of warranty do they offer? Just a standard year one or can you extend it?
Is th timing chain still an issue? If so which engines does it affect, I know it's the n47 but are there any others? and what cars are they in.
Looking at a 3 series msport coupe, manual. Not really bothered about engine/performance much but don't want to get one with the n47/timing chain issue engines. The bigger 6 pot engines seem to be few and far between..
Lots of questions but I'm sure some of you guys have the answers.
Any help,appreciated.
http://usedcars.bmw.co.uk/bmw-approved-benefits.as...
So yes, 12 months warranty. Other 'benefits' would be any servicing deal you can swing with the supplying dealership and of course their generous insurance add-ons, if that's your thing. In fairness I have already used a bunch of my alloy wheel insurance slots for fixing kerbed wheels.
Really depends on the model's availability in the private/indy-dealer market I guess. I bought my 640i AUC and it was the lowest price of all the options - in fact there were only maybe 10 cars available when I first went looking and the AUC car was the best spec, lowest mileage and best price. Not sure if the same would apply for a 3 series coupe though. Can't help on the engine front I'm afraid.
So yes, 12 months warranty. Other 'benefits' would be any servicing deal you can swing with the supplying dealership and of course their generous insurance add-ons, if that's your thing. In fairness I have already used a bunch of my alloy wheel insurance slots for fixing kerbed wheels.
Really depends on the model's availability in the private/indy-dealer market I guess. I bought my 640i AUC and it was the lowest price of all the options - in fact there were only maybe 10 cars available when I first went looking and the AUC car was the best spec, lowest mileage and best price. Not sure if the same would apply for a 3 series coupe though. Can't help on the engine front I'm afraid.
I bought my E65 as an AUC. Wasn't impressed - work agreed at sale not done, car was pretty dirty inside too at handover and paid over the odds for the experience.
My F01 came from a small independent dealer who have been superb. Car spotless, found a nail in the tyre the next day and they just sent out blackcircles with a brand new runflat @£288. Can't see the BMW stealer doing that.
Bargain hard and don't believe any of the 'BMW approved' guff. The bottom line is that they're used car dealers.
My F01 came from a small independent dealer who have been superb. Car spotless, found a nail in the tyre the next day and they just sent out blackcircles with a brand new runflat @£288. Can't see the BMW stealer doing that.
Bargain hard and don't believe any of the 'BMW approved' guff. The bottom line is that they're used car dealers.
Mmm, The thing is BMW do not want to sell on any car to their customers that they do not believe is in pretty good nick! that's just common sense & good business...they want you to come back and also to say nice things to other potential customers. This then has to lessen your chances of buying something a bit crap ( not guaranteed though ). Just look at your local upmarket traders that sell on some very nice Beemers that BMW have traded over to them because they were not perhaps good enough for them to sell on to Joe public. Just my take on it of course.
They offer 1 year as standard, you can get them to bump that up to 2 years very easily. It's around a £300 cost (ish) to them, so an insignificant amount of money to all parties.
....and as has been said. When under their AUC warranty I found them to be very good at sorting out issues. I got a couple of grand's worth of work done, most of which was their recommendation due to ''excess wear'' - aka a quiet workshop?
edit: As for their BMW billion point quality premium check, it is little better then any other garage. - when i asked for them to touch up some marks on the bumper/bonnet etc, they used the wrong freaking colour touch up pen - and then only offered to go over the wrong colour with the right colour to make it better. I just got them to send me the stuff so I could do it myself.
....and as has been said. When under their AUC warranty I found them to be very good at sorting out issues. I got a couple of grand's worth of work done, most of which was their recommendation due to ''excess wear'' - aka a quiet workshop?
edit: As for their BMW billion point quality premium check, it is little better then any other garage. - when i asked for them to touch up some marks on the bumper/bonnet etc, they used the wrong freaking colour touch up pen - and then only offered to go over the wrong colour with the right colour to make it better. I just got them to send me the stuff so I could do it myself.
Edited by Andehh on Thursday 16th February 08:00
You could save some money and buy a car from another dealer as I did, I reckoned I saved about 3 grand buying from a non BMW dealer, and I put the mondial BMW warranty on the car as soon as I bought it, costing I think £790 for the year with a £250 excess, so all in all I saved about 2 grand buying an equivalent car elsewhere.
However I wouldn't run any modern car again without a manufacturer backed warranty
My 2012 523i at just over 50k miles has had around 10 grands worth of warranty work carried out since November and has been of the road for about 2 months in total having owned it since en of June last year.
It's cost me around £1000 in excess that I wouldn't of had to pay should I have bought from a franchise dealer , so although I'm about a grand better of all in, the hassle and agro and the sleepless nights worrying if certain items are going to be covered by the warranty are not worth the saving, I would push for 2 year warranty.
At the end of the day if one dealer won't do it I'm sure another one will unless your buying something that's not a run of the mill car.
However I wouldn't run any modern car again without a manufacturer backed warranty
My 2012 523i at just over 50k miles has had around 10 grands worth of warranty work carried out since November and has been of the road for about 2 months in total having owned it since en of June last year.
It's cost me around £1000 in excess that I wouldn't of had to pay should I have bought from a franchise dealer , so although I'm about a grand better of all in, the hassle and agro and the sleepless nights worrying if certain items are going to be covered by the warranty are not worth the saving, I would push for 2 year warranty.
At the end of the day if one dealer won't do it I'm sure another one will unless your buying something that's not a run of the mill car.
I have bought 3 AUCs from BMW over the years, between 3 and 12 months old, although with the recent level of BMW discounting I tend to buy new these days. I agree with the above that the idea that these cars are subjected to a thorough check is nonsense - in each of the three cases I could find obvious faults within a few minutes of seeing the car. Things like buttons not working, folding mirrors which don't fold, moisture inside lights, interior trim with the finish coming away, obvious scratches on a 6 month old car...
In my experience they just wash, vacuum and stick them on the forecourt. The quality control person is you, the buyer. That said, they have always been very willing to correct the faults, so as long as you are happy to have a few dealer visits to sort stuff out it isn't a problem.
For me the modest premium is worth paying to keep all responsibility for any problems within the BMW group.
In my experience they just wash, vacuum and stick them on the forecourt. The quality control person is you, the buyer. That said, they have always been very willing to correct the faults, so as long as you are happy to have a few dealer visits to sort stuff out it isn't a problem.
For me the modest premium is worth paying to keep all responsibility for any problems within the BMW group.
Krise said:
You could save some money and buy a car from another dealer as I did, I reckoned I saved about 3 grand buying from a non BMW dealer, and I put the mondial BMW warranty on the car as soon as I bought it, costing I think £790 for the year with a £250 excess, so all in all I saved about 2 grand buying an equivalent car elsewhere.
However I wouldn't run any modern car again without a manufacturer backed warranty
My 2012 523i at just over 50k miles has had around 10 grands worth of warranty work carried out since November and has been of the road for about 2 months in total having owned it since en of June last year.
It's cost me around £1000 in excess that I wouldn't of had to pay should I have bought from a franchise dealer , so although I'm about a grand better of all in, the hassle and agro and the sleepless nights worrying if certain items are going to be covered by the warranty are not worth the saving, I would push for 2 year warranty.
At the end of the day if one dealer won't do it I'm sure another one will unless your buying something that's not a run of the mill car.
Holy cow what needed doing to your car?However I wouldn't run any modern car again without a manufacturer backed warranty
My 2012 523i at just over 50k miles has had around 10 grands worth of warranty work carried out since November and has been of the road for about 2 months in total having owned it since en of June last year.
It's cost me around £1000 in excess that I wouldn't of had to pay should I have bought from a franchise dealer , so although I'm about a grand better of all in, the hassle and agro and the sleepless nights worrying if certain items are going to be covered by the warranty are not worth the saving, I would push for 2 year warranty.
At the end of the day if one dealer won't do it I'm sure another one will unless your buying something that's not a run of the mill car.
bmwmike said:
Krise said:
You could save some money and buy a car from another dealer as I did, I reckoned I saved about 3 grand buying from a non BMW dealer, and I put the mondial BMW warranty on the car as soon as I bought it, costing I think £790 for the year with a £250 excess, so all in all I saved about 2 grand buying an equivalent car elsewhere.
However I wouldn't run any modern car again without a manufacturer backed warranty
My 2012 523i at just over 50k miles has had around 10 grands worth of warranty work carried out since November and has been of the road for about 2 months in total having owned it since en of June last year.
It's cost me around £1000 in excess that I wouldn't of had to pay should I have bought from a franchise dealer , so although I'm about a grand better of all in, the hassle and agro and the sleepless nights worrying if certain items are going to be covered by the warranty are not worth the saving, I would push for 2 year warranty.
At the end of the day if one dealer won't do it I'm sure another one will unless your buying something that's not a run of the mill car.
Holy cow what needed doing to your car?However I wouldn't run any modern car again without a manufacturer backed warranty
My 2012 523i at just over 50k miles has had around 10 grands worth of warranty work carried out since November and has been of the road for about 2 months in total having owned it since en of June last year.
It's cost me around £1000 in excess that I wouldn't of had to pay should I have bought from a franchise dealer , so although I'm about a grand better of all in, the hassle and agro and the sleepless nights worrying if certain items are going to be covered by the warranty are not worth the saving, I would push for 2 year warranty.
At the end of the day if one dealer won't do it I'm sure another one will unless your buying something that's not a run of the mill car.
Window washy pump and assorted bits to do with that
Shocks all round
Fuel pressure sensor and some assorted bits and bobs to do with that
More fuel pump stuff
Gearbox - they replaced literally every single thing that has anything to do with the gearbox except the actual gearbox itself, ecu, control modules, sensors, you name it
The car has been pampered I'm the second owner literally everything has been done at a BMW dealers, even down to wiper blades, and to be honest the gearbox still isn't right. They can't find the fault
So it's going to be going back again for more work, it's not much fun when the car decides to stick in gear and won't move when your about 5 metres from a pride of lions in the lion enclosure at Woburn safari park !!!
Krise said:
6 coils and injectors
Window washy pump and assorted bits to do with that
Shocks all round
Fuel pressure sensor and some assorted bits and bobs to do with that
More fuel pump stuff
Gearbox - they replaced literally every single thing that has anything to do with the gearbox except the actual gearbox itself, ecu, control modules, sensors, you name it
The car has been pampered I'm the second owner literally everything has been done at a BMW dealers, even down to wiper blades, and to be honest the gearbox still isn't right. They can't find the fault
So it's going to be going back again for more work, it's not much fun when the car decides to stick in gear and won't move when your about 5 metres from a pride of lions in the lion enclosure at Woburn safari park !!!
Injectors etc is par for the course with the n53.Window washy pump and assorted bits to do with that
Shocks all round
Fuel pressure sensor and some assorted bits and bobs to do with that
More fuel pump stuff
Gearbox - they replaced literally every single thing that has anything to do with the gearbox except the actual gearbox itself, ecu, control modules, sensors, you name it
The car has been pampered I'm the second owner literally everything has been done at a BMW dealers, even down to wiper blades, and to be honest the gearbox still isn't right. They can't find the fault
So it's going to be going back again for more work, it's not much fun when the car decides to stick in gear and won't move when your about 5 metres from a pride of lions in the lion enclosure at Woburn safari park !!!
Gearbox is interesting as the hp8 is supposed to be pretty reliable.
Curious what led to you shocks being replaced though ? F10 is a heavy car but surely the suspension is engineered accordingly.
All good stuff for the OP to know about - AUC or mondial warranty (sub 60k) all the way IMO!
It's a bit of a myth that the Germans are super reliable,
The amount of cars that I had seen going in for things that really shouldn't need doing at low mileages, the amount of 4 / 5 year old cars in for warranty / problem work was actually quite shocking
I paid 20k for my car as I wanted a petrol 6cyl estate and quite hard to find unless you want the 535i variant, if I didn't have the warranty I certainly wouldn't have had the 10k to put right, even if I got some goodwill let's say 25% who has 7.5k lying around
Even when I have my brand new M135 that spent 3 months in total in the garage having various bits and bobs fixed, sadly now I'm going to move away from the brand as I just can't quite face having to spend a grand a year for the warranty then inevitably another grand on excess for when things go wrong, and I'm sure they will go wrong again
The amount of cars that I had seen going in for things that really shouldn't need doing at low mileages, the amount of 4 / 5 year old cars in for warranty / problem work was actually quite shocking
I paid 20k for my car as I wanted a petrol 6cyl estate and quite hard to find unless you want the 535i variant, if I didn't have the warranty I certainly wouldn't have had the 10k to put right, even if I got some goodwill let's say 25% who has 7.5k lying around
Even when I have my brand new M135 that spent 3 months in total in the garage having various bits and bobs fixed, sadly now I'm going to move away from the brand as I just can't quite face having to spend a grand a year for the warranty then inevitably another grand on excess for when things go wrong, and I'm sure they will go wrong again
SimboRS said:
Gents, is it worth paying a little bit more than auto trader prices and buying from BMW used approved range?
What kind of warranty do they offer? Just a standard year one or can you extend it?
Is th timing chain still an issue? If so which engines does it affect, I know it's the n47 but are there any others? and what cars are they in.
Looking at a 3 series msport coupe, manual. Not really bothered about engine/performance much but don't want to get one with the n47/timing chain issue engines. The bigger 6 pot engines seem to be few and far between..
Lots of questions but I'm sure some of you guys have the answers.
Any help,appreciated.
On no account buy a 320i - the N43 engine is absolute garbage. I would still have a 320d N47 but keep the warranty going.What kind of warranty do they offer? Just a standard year one or can you extend it?
Is th timing chain still an issue? If so which engines does it affect, I know it's the n47 but are there any others? and what cars are they in.
Looking at a 3 series msport coupe, manual. Not really bothered about engine/performance much but don't want to get one with the n47/timing chain issue engines. The bigger 6 pot engines seem to be few and far between..
Lots of questions but I'm sure some of you guys have the answers.
Any help,appreciated.
Haven't got time to read but in short, yes.
Alot of the trader warranties aren't worth the paper they are written on. A friend of mine has just had a thermostat, water pump and radiator changed under warranty 3 months after buying it from BMW ; it went in with a minor coolant leak, but not overheating. I'd like to see a trader do that (or rather, I haven't).
Alot of the trader warranties aren't worth the paper they are written on. A friend of mine has just had a thermostat, water pump and radiator changed under warranty 3 months after buying it from BMW ; it went in with a minor coolant leak, but not overheating. I'd like to see a trader do that (or rather, I haven't).
I'd never bought from a main dealer until I bought my 640d.
The approved warranty has enabled me to have about £6k of repairs and a few niggles that may otherwise have been ignored if I was paying.
The dealer has also been superb. Refurbishing the wheels, replaced front discs & pads (an £800 job) re mopped it when the wax wore off and showed some swirls.
You'll also be able to benefit from a cheaper compressive warranty that's paid for on a monthly basis that's in perpetuity as its already covered, so less of a risk.
For me in my situation it has been brilliant.
Cars from an independent were not any cheaper.
Its piece of mind!
The approved warranty has enabled me to have about £6k of repairs and a few niggles that may otherwise have been ignored if I was paying.
The dealer has also been superb. Refurbishing the wheels, replaced front discs & pads (an £800 job) re mopped it when the wax wore off and showed some swirls.
You'll also be able to benefit from a cheaper compressive warranty that's paid for on a monthly basis that's in perpetuity as its already covered, so less of a risk.
For me in my situation it has been brilliant.
Cars from an independent were not any cheaper.
Its piece of mind!
Edited by T16OLE on Thursday 16th February 23:01
iSore said:
SimboRS said:
Gents, is it worth paying a little bit more than auto trader prices and buying from BMW used approved range?
What kind of warranty do they offer? Just a standard year one or can you extend it?
Is th timing chain still an issue? If so which engines does it affect, I know it's the n47 but are there any others? and what cars are they in.
Looking at a 3 series msport coupe, manual. Not really bothered about engine/performance much but don't want to get one with the n47/timing chain issue engines. The bigger 6 pot engines seem to be few and far between..
Lots of questions but I'm sure some of you guys have the answers.
Any help,appreciated.
On no account buy a 320i - the N43 engine is absolute garbage. I would still have a 320d N47 but keep the warranty going.What kind of warranty do they offer? Just a standard year one or can you extend it?
Is th timing chain still an issue? If so which engines does it affect, I know it's the n47 but are there any others? and what cars are they in.
Looking at a 3 series msport coupe, manual. Not really bothered about engine/performance much but don't want to get one with the n47/timing chain issue engines. The bigger 6 pot engines seem to be few and far between..
Lots of questions but I'm sure some of you guys have the answers.
Any help,appreciated.
They are notorious for eating injectors, which often subsequently leads to more coils and plugs.
If you can get one that's had it all ironed out then you're golden, otherwise avoid. It's a nice looking car and the auto version is a lovely drive. I've had the dreaded injector problem, but it has been a great car otherwise. Still considering chopping it in for a Mondeo or Accord for an easy life.
Ok guys thanks for all the replies, I have to say though the issues with the engines are really putting me off, seems the 318i, 320i and the diesels all have problematic engines. The 335 is mega road tax and a fuel guzzler, which only really leaves the 325 and 330 6 pot engines. Trying to find these in manual is a really tough gig.
Thanks for the advice though, I'll keep looking
Thanks for the advice though, I'll keep looking
SimboRS said:
Ok guys thanks for all the replies, I have to say though the issues with the engines are really putting me off, seems the 318i, 320i and the diesels all have problematic engines. The 335 is mega road tax and a fuel guzzler, which only really leaves the 325 and 330 6 pot engines. Trying to find these in manual is a really tough gig.
Thanks for the advice though, I'll keep looking
Do remember though that for every one horror story, there are 99 other cars without problems.Thanks for the advice though, I'll keep looking
I can't speak for the petrol 318/320s, but you shouldn't think that all of the diesel engines are problematic - 320d's are really pretty reliable on the whole. Our company has had dozens and only one has had timing chain issues, and that was at over 200k miles. The vast majority had clocked 100-150k miles without any major issues.
SimboRS said:
Ok guys thanks for all the replies, I have to say though the issues with the engines are really putting me off, seems the 318i, 320i and the diesels all have problematic engines. The 335 is mega road tax and a fuel guzzler, which only really leaves the 325 and 330 6 pot engines. Trying to find these in manual is a really tough gig.
Thanks for the advice though, I'll keep looking
I've got a 325i 3.0 E92 manual. It's SE spec, but was optioned with elec/heated sports seats and 18" wheels from new. LCI model with pro-nav and iDrive (rare!!)Thanks for the advice though, I'll keep looking
It's sublime.
And doing late-30s mpg average/early-40s on a run.
Faultless so far, but i'm considering putting it under the monthly BMW warranty scheme. It's only on 43k miles, so it's not too expensive. The supplying dealer (non BMW) offered a 6 month warranty and it was back with them within a fortnight as the headlight washers refused to retract. They're a complicated car, and i want to keep it tip-top, so warranty would offer peace of mind.
Took me ages to find a good spec, low mileage, manual 3.0 in a decent colour. I wanted the 330i, but there's a premium for that and the 325 is fast enough and basically the same engine. I wanted M Sport rather than SE, but after trying an M Sport i found the SE had a much nicer ride. Then the big task. Finding an SE with sports seats as the SE has horrid seats!
Finally this turned up
Edited by PTF on Friday 17th February 10:15
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