RE: Alpina D3 Bi-Turbo: Driven

[Wills2]

CJP80 said:

breadvan said:

All well and and good until you try and buy one. Spent a whole day driving to Nottingham and back. Great test drive, so decided to pull the trigger.

60,000 with options, 10,000 down, pcp over 2 years, 15,000 miles pa with a gmfv.

So far so good.

1,579.66 per month with gmfv 22,568.45

Gosh!

I walked.

Eek! You could get a 330d and a new M3 for less than that!

No wonder they are rare, looking at those figures they are using an interest rate of about 14%! So no discount and finance by Wonga, mental.

[Burnham]

Zyp said:

Yes, they tend to depreciate rather rapidly. Don't buy a new one - I certainly won't again!

ortontom said:

cant believe we are comparing MPG when the £53k price tag would be £20k after 3 years!! the cost isnt the fuel.......at all ever.... lol

Riyazc said:

2nd hand in 2 yrs time this will be a performance bargain. Can see the touring versions of these being super popular as mentioned before its all the car youll ever need.

Bit of a thread revival as Im looking at a new D3 now. Depreciation always being the biggest cost, its interesting to see 2 year old cars are still selling for circa £39k. Great for the first owners, not much help for people looking for a used bargain.

I wish I could pick a 2yr old one up for circa £30K...

So great performance, 50ish MPG and strong residuals...whats not to like (apart from the sound!).

[Wills2]

The fact that the dealer probably bought the car for 30k.....

[Burnham]

Wills2 said:

The fact that the dealer probably bought the car for 30k.....

With those kind of margins, Im obviously in the wrong business!

[Chris944_S2]

Bladedancer said:

Leins said:

Once again, this is not my opinion, but surprisingly an actual fact! Don't believe it, sneer at it, try make me look a bit silly on here if you want, but it's still the case. If you don't agree, then write to the German TUV and give them your thoughts, as I've heard they're particularly easy to influence

It really is hard work on here sometimes!

German TUV can recognise them as whatever they want. They can classify them as robot chicken if they want.
It still won't change the fact Alpina tunes BMW for s living and does not make their own cars.
Rest is just semantics, politics and bookkeeping.

Kraftfahrt Bundesamt recognise them as a manufacturer, which gives them that status. What TUEV say makes no difference, they are the technical service, not the type approval authority.

[Wills2]

Burnham said:

Wills2 said:

The fact that the dealer probably bought the car for 30k.....

With those kind of margins, Im obviously in the wrong business!

Well lets not confuse gross with net, as an example the dealer will have to pass through £1500 in VAT if he buys at 30k and sells at 39k taking his gross to £7500 before overheads or 20% gross margin so not excessive. (but of course I have no idea but as an example that's not crazy) shows the likely difference between a trade sale and retail on cars like these.

As a real world example I got 41k for a 12 month old F10 M5 the dealer put it up for 49k, so I try not to rely solely on the forecourt price as an indication of depreciation.

[ZX10R NIN]

Burnham said:

Bit of a thread revival as Im looking at a new D3 now. Depreciation always being the biggest cost, its interesting to see 2 year old cars are still selling for circa £39k. Great for the first owners, not much help for people looking for a used bargain.

I wish I could pick a 2yr old one up for circa £30K...

So great performance, 50ish MPG and strong residuals...whats not to like (apart from the sound!).

Get one you won't regret it, we've had our one for coming upto a year & it's faultless great performance & economy (well in the OH's hands) the interiors are a bit nicer to, as for seeing one for 30k I'd say not for a while yet as they're so rare. The Depreciation isn't as bad as people make out the thing that muddies the water is that you can get upto 24% off of regular BM's.

Get one you won't regret it.

[Burnham]

Wills2 said:

Burnham said:

Wills2 said:

The fact that the dealer probably bought the car for 30k.....

With those kind of margins, Im obviously in the wrong business!

Well lets not confuse gross with net, as an example the dealer will have to pass through £1500 in VAT if he buys at 30k and sells at 39k taking his gross to £7500 before overheads or 20% gross margin so not excessive. (but of course I have no idea but as an example that's not crazy) shows the likely difference between a trade sale and retail on cars like these.

As a real world example I got 41k for a 12 month old F10 M5 the dealer put it up for 49k, so I try not to rely solely on the forecourt price as an indication of depreciation.

Understood, they will need some wiggle room on the sale price, and there will be costs to get the cars prepped. There just seems so few of these D3s available (at least in Touring spec), that I'm now looking at ordering one new...which I said Id never do!

[Burnham]

ZX10R NIN said:

Burnham said:

Bit of a thread revival as Im looking at a new D3 now. Depreciation always being the biggest cost, its interesting to see 2 year old cars are still selling for circa £39k. Great for the first owners, not much help for people looking for a used bargain.

I wish I could pick a 2yr old one up for circa £30K...

So great performance, 50ish MPG and strong residuals...whats not to like (apart from the sound!).

Get one you won't regret it, we've had our one for coming upto a year & it's faultless great performance & economy (well in the OH's hands) the interiors are a bit nicer to, as for seeing one for 30k I'd say not for a while yet as they're so rare. The Depreciation isn't as bad as people make out the thing that muddies the water is that you can get upto 24% off of regular BM's.

Get one you won't regret it.

I went to Goodwood on Friday to speak with the guys on the Alpina stand. Its easy to get carried away with the options list. Did you stick with the original speakers, or go for the Harmon/Kardon?

Any specifics options that are a must? I'm thinking: LSD, Sunroof, Pro-Nav, 20inch Wheels and some other trinkets.

[Dave Hedgehog]

Chris944_S2 said:

Bladedancer said:

Leins said:

Once again, this is not my opinion, but surprisingly an actual fact! Don't believe it, sneer at it, try make me look a bit silly on here if you want, but it's still the case. If you don't agree, then write to the German TUV and give them your thoughts, as I've heard they're particularly easy to influence

It really is hard work on here sometimes!

German TUV can recognise them as whatever they want. They can classify them as robot chicken if they want.
It still won't change the fact Alpina tunes BMW for s living and does not make their own cars.
Rest is just semantics, politics and bookkeeping.

Kraftfahrt Bundesamt recognise them as a manufacturer, which gives them that status. What TUEV say makes no difference, they are the technical service, not the type approval authority.

look at the manufacturer code on the log book, quattro gmbh built RS Audi's have a different man code to normal audi's

[Burnham]

Dave Hedgehog said:

Chris944_S2 said:

Bladedancer said:

Leins said:

Once again, this is not my opinion, but surprisingly an actual fact! Don't believe it, sneer at it, try make me look a bit silly on here if you want, but it's still the case. If you don't agree, then write to the German TUV and give them your thoughts, as I've heard they're particularly easy to influence

It really is hard work on here sometimes!

German TUV can recognise them as whatever they want. They can classify them as robot chicken if they want.
It still won't change the fact Alpina tunes BMW for s living and does not make their own cars.
Rest is just semantics, politics and bookkeeping.

Kraftfahrt Bundesamt recognise them as a manufacturer, which gives them that status. What TUEV say makes no difference, they are the technical service, not the type approval authority.

look at the manufacturer code on the log book, quattro gmbh built RS Audi's have a different man code to normal audi's

It was quite interesting to see the VIM under the bonnet on the Aplinas - the BMW one was struck through, and the Aplina VIN etched beneath it. If you didn't know, if would look decidedly dodgy.

[Welshbeef]

Burnham said:

Understood, they will need some wiggle room on the sale price, and there will be costs to get the cars prepped. There just seems so few of these D3s available (at least in Touring spec), that I'm now looking at ordering one new...which I said Id never do!

Try looking at a D5 Touring

[Welshbeef]

Welshbeef said:

Burnham said:

Understood, they will need some wiggle room on the sale price, and there will be costs to get the cars prepped. There just seems so few of these D3s available (at least in Touring spec), that I'm now looking at ordering one new...which I said Id never do!

Try looking at a D5 Touring

http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/alpina/d5

Honestly though they are not that much quicker than a 535d but notable more £. Instead you could purchase a 535d then add on a DMS/Birds/Hartage remap upgrade taking it to best part of 400bhp (D3/D5 is 347bhp).

Then again an imported LHD used M550d rwd with 385bhp out of the box - or if your feeling fruity with remapping etc then think 450-480bhp range. Brutus.

[ZX10R NIN]

Burnham said:

I went to Goodwood on Friday to speak with the guys on the Alpina stand. It's easy to get carried away with the options list. Did you stick with the original speakers, or go for the Harmon/Kardon?

Any specifics options that are a must? I'm thinking: LSD, Sunroof, Pro-Nav, 20inch Wheels and some other trinkets.

20's LSD Pro Nav Merino Leather are the must haves, then take your pick from the rest the Harmon Kardon really isn't a must mine came with it but it all came out after 3 months I replaced it with Infinity Kappa Speakers which gave a much cleaner sound (as a sidebar Harmon Kardon own Infinity & JBL but the speakers they use in the Manufacturer's are not good enough to grace their respective bottom of the range speakers) so find a good specialist & get a good setup put in as it'll cost less & sound better.

[Welshbeef]

Can you get extended leather in these?

[Burnham]

Welshbeef said:

Can you get extended leather in these?

The leather options are crazy, and expensive. You can have Merino as ZX10R NIN has suggested, or Lavalina which is Alpinas next step up from the top-tier of BMWs own offering. The ones at Goodwood had extended leather to pretty much everything (I think you can go as far as having the steering column also in leather).

While it looked lovely, I think my budget is only going to stretch to the standard, as I'm already up to £59k...which is a little scary.

I think the D5 is a little too grown up for me. I'm trying to hold onto my youth.

[ZX10R NIN]

You can get whatever you want it's a bespoke car that's tailored to your needs mine has the Lavalina (it was a cancelled order so I saved a few pennies) with the leather stitched dash etc it's a lovely place to be it felt more special inside than the F80 M3 at the time, when people talk about 335d's etc they really aren't in the same class the ride handling etc.

When you compare the prices take the 20% that you get off of list price as depreciation & they're not the bargain people think they are.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/search/used/cars/bmw/a...

A similar 335d would be around £52,000 but it's £42,000 having lost 10k by having 10 miles on the clock.

335d Xdrive Estate
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

which buys you a 2014 Alpina
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

Which is a drop of around 35% which is similar to what the 335d has suffered after already being on the end of a £10,000.00 discount if you take that into account then the depreciation of the regular model is horrendous.

335d
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

[Burnham]

Deposit paid today, how exciting! I've never had a Brand New car before.

At least the 6 months wait for delivery will give me time to work out how to pay for it.

[breadvan]

breadvan said:

All well and and good until you try and buy one. Spent a whole day driving to Nottingham and back. Great test drive, so decided to pull the trigger.

60,000 with options, 10,000 down, pcp over 2 years, 15,000 miles pa with a gmfv.

So far so good.

1,579.66 per month with gmfv 22,568.45

Gosh!

I walked.

Tried everything else, walked back and bought one. Excellent car.

FWIW, the deal improved somewhat with a different funder.

What spec have you gone for?

[smashy]

.....and no x drive to ruin the handling. As someone else said as an Alpina lover myself I just havent got the money re no discounts no decent finance rates only 2 year warranty so takes the financial difference in real terms way over the 335d