Are BMWs really worth the money

[smashy]

Well after 6 years of a 120d auto ,which I never looked back at once after I locked it and walked away,I am in the car I have allways fancied.
a 330d auto. F30 BMW ,new,

A retail price of around £39K I have after 2 weeks got rid of the SE suspension which was truly awful.floaty ,bouncy ,walllowy... and paid for AC Schnitzers

The handling is great now but bump bump bump bump of the 18inch runflats ,so they will have to go,the seat well a £30 halfords seat cover makes it acceptable.

My question is are the next so called level down cars ie Mondeo ,Insignia,Passat,Mazda etc really truly inferior ???? I dont know never driven them,are we really paying a 10k premium for the badge as a lot of people say??

The thing is none of them have a 3ltr Diesel like my BMW and I guess that is the moneyshot its amazing and 50mpg on some runs
Am I dissapointed ,yes but I think the runflats going will cure that ,along with the ACS suspension,

But if Ford put that engine in the Mondeo that would have done me.

I guess most will say its not, fair enough,a lot of you will say didnt you test drive it? Well after 6 years of a 120d I thought I was going up in comfort.The SE seats were fine 16inch run flats were ok,infact more drivers room in the oner believe it or not

Really intersted in your thoughts,

Edited by smashy on Monday 17th November 22:15

[MrBarry123]

They're definitely worth £39.

[BFG TERRANO]

The BMW will be worth something at 5 years old and 150000 miles. The Mondeo would be traded for chip money. You get what you pay for. I bought a 12 year old Audi A4 just over a year ago and it's been faultless. I doubt a 12 year old Mondeo would have been so good.

[Cemesis]

There used to be a bigger difference between a BMW and normal brands but now I find the build quality of BMW's laughable. When I was getting rid of my M5 for something more economical. I wanted an F10 520D or maybe a 530D but in the end I went for a Skoda Superb. The Skoda is very well speced and I like toys so I went onto the online configurator and added the necessary items to the 520D to make it the same as the Skoda. The result was a car that cost twice as much. Yes it had a 184bhp 2 litre vs a 1.6 105bhp CR engine but I didn't care about that.

I went down to the BMW dealership desperate for it to win me over and I found the ashtray lid came off in my hand (7 miles on the car), the door pockets were too small, the plastics felt pretty cheap and the car was massive on the outside yet small on the inside.

If you go for 6 series with full leather, I bet it feels special but £39k for a 330D with suspension, wheels and a poor seat? I don't think you need me to comment...

I've given up on BMW's now. Having just broken a 3rd because of rust and issues (a 2005 M3 and two E39 M5's before that), I really don't want another. I do keep looking at the F10 M5 though but know it will be a moneypit compared to what I have now.

[rufusgti]

I only ever buy old cars so my opinion is based on the opposite end of the cars life. But In my price bracket BMW's tend to be one of the only cars that are highly likely to be suffering from rusting arches. I ran an e46 325i from 60k to 80k and a clio cup from 60k to 80k. both 2002 models. The renault was superior in quality in terms of condition, parts, problems. Both were one owner fsh cars. both owned for 2 years.
Have friends who love BMW's but I wouldn't buy another.

[phil4]

I used to have a 120d, from new it was specced as a mix of SE (the starting point) with sports stuff added. This was back when the 1 series was first launched and the 120d was strangely the fastest of them.

Its was pretty good. Not extra special, but pretty good. The idrive was a nice idea... tying the stereo and car management, whereas everything else just seemed to have the stereo system seperate.

But as a car to drive, strangely my MR2 roadster was more fun, and a bit more special. It just involved you more, felt like you mastered it, even if the speeds weren't terrific.

The BMW finally started to have too many things go wrong (4 years and 70K in), so traded it in for some more Japaneseness. Now I'm using a German car again as a daily driver, but this time a VW. It feels good to sit in, not too bad to drive, and has enough toys.

So the point of this meandering tail.... looking back on the BMW. Yep, the badge was about the only thing that the others couldn't improve on. In every other respect one of the other cars outdid it, the MR2 for driving, the Prius (shudder) for tech, the VW for build.

Could/Should you consider the BMW the good all-rounder. Maybe, but just not good enough in my eyes.

[Welshbeef]

I'd say they are notably better handling than all run of the mill cars they have great engines leading edge not bleeding edge.

Are they worth more? Rwd costs more than fwd, latest tech/leading edge engines cost more rightly so is it better than a Superb---its nice we have choice

[smashy]

...as I thought and I cant disagree (apart from welshbeef a Beemer fan lol),,,and re the 3ltr diesel ,the honest hand on heart truth ,you just cant use it properly in this country,I have hardly put it in sport. On the BMW forum there are guys remapping the twin turbo version ,I have 258bhp and 414lb those remapped Twins are 360 and 480 really, what is the point.
My engine in sport mode is brutal enough.

[jayemm89]

OP surely you must have thought something was good about the Beemer to drop £39 on a car it seems you don't really like.

Call me strange but if I drive a car at any price and don't fall in love with it I try a different one... Perhaps you should try some other cars for yourself and see how the BM stacks up?

[daemon]

smashy said:

...as I thought and I cant disagree,,,and re the 3ltr diesel ,the honest hand on heart truth ,you just cant use it properly in this country,I have hardly put it in sport. On the BMW forum there are guys remapping the twin turbo version ,I have 258bhp and 4124lb those remapped Twins are 360 and 480 really, what is the point.
My engine in sport mode is brutal enough.

I'd a remapped 535d. Well, two actually.

The power is just amazing. No real "point" but FUN

[gaz1234]

Depends which one you buy.

[530dTPhil]

smashy said:

The handling is great now but bump bump bump bump of the 18inch runflats ,so they will have to go,the seat well a £30 halfords seat cover makes it acceptable.

Did you buy a Sport or the SE version? I had two 530dT Sports and then changed to an SE. For sure, the Sport looks better but the ride is so much better in the SE even on 19" runflats.

[Pentoman]

They are nice cars, but they are overadored and overrated, too.

They are not as good as everyone thinks they are. There is a "halo effect" going on with them. But they are still good cars.

They're only somewhat better than the equivalent Mondeo etc - depending on your requirements.

This is all well reflected by the driving experience of the M4 I just didn't buy.

[Ali_T]

MrBarry123 said:

They're definitely worth £39.

Beat me to it. But they'd have to throw in a set of mats.

[smashy]

jayemm89 said:

OP surely you must have thought something was good about the Beemer to drop £39 on a car it seems you don't really like.

Call me strange but if I drive a car at any price and don't fall in love with it I try a different one... Perhaps you should try some other cars for yourself and see how the BM stacks up?

Agreed ,its a long story buddy based on a fantastic PX deal on a car that was slowly falling to bits and another car ordered that from being here in 5 weeks turned out to be 5 months etc etc etc
Once I get the tyres sorted I will have a decent car but worth the BMW premium??? I dont know
It was The Luxury so SE suspension which In mine and my partner view was a joke,like a blacmange,
the AC schnitzer supension has really sorted that out mind

Edited by smashy on Monday 17th November 22:18

[Welshbeef]

smashy said:

...as I thought and I cant disagree (apart from welshbeef a Beemer fan lol),,,and re the 3ltr diesel ,the honest hand on heart truth ,you just cant use it properly in this country,I have hardly put it in sport. On the BMW forum there are guys remapping the twin turbo version ,I have 258bhp and 414lb those remapped Twins are 360 and 480 really, what is the point.
My engine in sport mode is brutal enough.

To which you could argue why should any road car have more than 250bhp it is more than ample - but we do and really most cars you can only legally use max BHP in 2 gears 1st and 2nd... And realistically it doubt many people drive round at 30mph in 1st just waiting to unleash max bhp... So its 1 gear they can really use day in day out legally!

[Ali_T]

Welshbeef said:

I'd say they are notably better handling than all run of the mill cars they have great engines leading edge not bleeding edge.

Are they worth more? Rwd costs more than fwd, latest tech/leading edge engines cost more rightly so is it better than a Superb---its nice we have choice

Only the high end cars handle well. Low to mid range tend to understeer more than their FWD competition. Ad a dab of throttle and.....they understeer even more.

[Driver101]

To most people there isn't any point of them spending far more money on something they'll never use, need or understand.

Most just want to go from A to B and don't care what wheel drive the car is, or care about interior plastics.

I don't think that much of the softer SE suspension. The firmer Sport suspension is better for handling, but the obvious trade off is the car has a harsher ride.

I'm also not a huge fan of diesel engines, even though some of the BMW diesel engines are considered the better one.

Generally BMWs offer a better driving experience than other brands that are comparable. The way a Mondeo handles isn't remotely close to a 3 series and they only have rough 2.0 diesel engine options.

If you tried to make the Mondeo to the same spec with all things equal, there wouldn't be such a price difference.

[thelawnet]

BFG TERRANO said:

The BMW will be worth something at 5 years old and 150000 miles. The Mondeo would be traded for chip money. .

Nonsense. Five year old 3 series start just above £5k with high miles on autotrader. Mondeo start just over £2k.

Considering the Beemer would have cost far more than £2k more to start with, it's clear that depreciation on BMWs is far worse than Fords. Higher starting price means you have more to lose,

The only time this doesn't apply is on newish models in high demand. Run of the mill boxes like 3 series are not in this category,

[Kawasicki]

Ali_T said:

Only the high end cars handle well. Low to mid range tend to understeer more than their FWD competition. Ad a dab of throttle and.....they understeer even more.

Haven't driven the F30, but I have driven base model bmws for decades, never noticed abnormal understeer. Why would the smaller engined versions have more understeer?