BMW 330e ordered...

[bigphil47]

Gb908010 said:

Thanks a lot for that,I'm just under 40% tax bracket so even more savings.

Whilst your salary is just under the 40% bracket of £43k I think that with the tax on the car it will mean that you end up in the 40% bracket for a small amount of your salary as per the methodology that I was advised to use. I looked at this long and hard as my salary is £44,600 and therefore only a small part of my small attracts tax at 40%.

[Mcpaynter]

Given the car value you may find that it tips you into the 40% bracket. Whether you're £1 into 40% or 10k into it, BIK is 40%. If it's marginal you could put a little extra into any pension you may have to keep you at 20% tax.. An extra £50 in your pension monthly rather than in the taxmans pocket for the car

[Whytey88]

Evening all

Hoping someone may be able to answer this, When I configured the car it shows as if the grill has a hint of blue?
Is it my eyes or does it indeed in real life have this colour? I'm not bothered either way just curious

Edited by Whytey88 on Wednesday 17th August 10:20

[Whytey88]

Also wanted to point out this particular socket that may be of interest, If your competent with DIY could make a perfect external socket for charging.
Drill hole into wall feed cable through to existing socket and fix external socket to wall and done comes with RCD.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Masterplug-Outdoor-Power-...

[raspy]

Whytey88 said:

Evening all

Hoping someone may be able to answer this, When I configured the car it shows as if the grill has a hint of blue?
Is it my eyes or does it indeed in real life have this colour? I'm not bothered either way just curious

Edited by Whytey88 on Wednesday 17th August 10:20

Yes. http://www.bmwblog.com/2016/05/18/bmw-iperformance...

[bigphil47]

raspy said:

Yes. http://www.bmwblog.com/2016/05/18/bmw-iperformance...

Just had a good look at mine which was delivered on 2/8 and it definitely has black slats - maybe it was built before the blue ones?

[humpy999]

bigphil47 said:

I am not an expert by any means and stand to be corrected but the way I was advised to calculate it by a financial planner was to start with the tax free allowance which is £11,000 and then deduct any benefits which attract BIK payments, eg if your car costs £35k the BIK at 7% is £2,450 which is deducted from your personal allowance giving £8,550 which is then your new nil rate band, ie the starting point at which you pay tax. You can then earn an additional £32k at 20% tax which means that you don't start paying 40% tax until £40,550, but even then you will only pay tax at 40% on salary above £40,550 so on £1,950.

Having a lower tax code is a bad thing (unless we're talking K codes). The BIK value of the car is removed from your tax free allowance, so, instead of getting 11k tax free you only get, say, 8.5k tax free so you end up paying more tax. If your marginal rate is 40% you end up paying 40% tax on the amount your tax free allowance is reduced by.

The thresholds are not thresholds per se, you pay 20% on the next £n pounds you earn then 40% on the next £n you earn etc

[bigphil47]

humpy999 said:

Having a lower tax code is a bad thing (unless we're talking K codes). The BIK value of the car is removed from your tax free allowance, so, instead of getting 11k tax free you only get, say, 8.5k tax free so you end up paying more tax. If your marginal rate is 40% you end up paying 40% tax on the amount your tax free allowance is reduced by.

The thresholds are not thresholds per se, you pay 20% on the next £n pounds you earn then 40% on the next £n you earn etc

Agreed - the word threshold should really read 'bands' - so you have a nil rate band, a 20% band (which means that tax of 20% is payable on the next £32k (2061/17)) and 40% above that. The point with this car for company car drivers is that the reduction in the nil rate band is significantly less than with the majority of the alternatives - in my case my coding has gone from 439L to 939L and I now have a £40k hybrid as opposed to a £34k diesel. I understand that the BIK on these is going from 7% this year to 16% in 2019/20 which is still better than the 29% that I would have paid on my second choice car.

[humpy999]

Absolutely agree

[oop north]

bigphil47 said:

Agreed - the word threshold should really read 'bands' - so you have a nil rate band, a 20% band (which means that tax of 20% is payable on the next £32k (2061/17)) and 40% above that. The point with this car for company car drivers is that the reduction in the nil rate band is significantly less than with the majority of the alternatives - in my case my coding has gone from 439L to 939L and I now have a £40k hybrid as opposed to a £34k diesel. I understand that the BIK on these is going from 7% this year to 16% in 2019/20 which is still better than the 29% that I would have paid on my second choice car.

And the 29% will be going up to 31 them 33 and 35...

[redrum_g]

Rob-kqpsf said:

redrum_g said:

Rob-kqpsf said:

You're welcome. As I said, I will check this evening on my drive home.
I have tried a standing start (not using Launch Control) In Sport and Sport+ and the car definitely takes off in electric mode but the petrol quickly kicks in. I also recall being in sport while coasting downhill where the engine turned off. I think it depends on how you're driving the car. If you want performance then it will always switch to petrol.

Rob/anyone.. Have you managed to get the launch control working??
On any regular F30 from what i understand launch control is standard, once the car is up to temperaure, put it into Sport plus, flick gearbox to the left into 'S', foot on the break and as you hit the accelerator the car should hold and rev (as if it was in neutral), a little flag appears on the dash, release the brake and the car goes.

Ive tried on my 330e, and after you hold the brake and begin to hit the accelerator, the car lurches a little, there seems to be no sign of the launch control kicking in? Is it possible it has be removed from the 330e?

Not tried it on mine yet but there are some YouTube videos of how it's done on a 330d. I'm not sure if it's available on a 330e

Turns out Launch Control is not available on the 330e. It is on cars fitted with the 'Sport automatic transmission' so basically most of the 'Sport' or the 'MSport' models from the 320i or 320d and above. The 330e however is fitted with an "Automatic transmission with gearshift paddles", so no launch control fun for us

[Whytey88]

raspy said:

Yes. http://www.bmwblog.com/2016/05/18/bmw-iperformance...

bigphil47 said:

Just had a good look at mine which was delivered on 2/8 and it definitely has black slats - maybe it was built before the blue ones?

Thanks for the article.
Seen alot of photos of the BMW 330e infact ive just returned one Ive had for 4days that didnt have blue tint to grill either

[Chris1712]

The blue grill will appear at some point, just like July onwards having CarPlay etc. it's a manufacturing change that will come in sometime but no one knows when. May well be for the 66 plate cars?

[caseys]

Interesting to see some people have applied plug-in tuning to the 330e now...

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=...

Watching with some interest to see if the electric motor craps itself or not. Wondering if the 8-speed ZF has had much modification to fit the motor and what the gearbox is then rated to.

Edit : http://www.venturatuning.nl/chiptuning-bmw-330-e-2...

Edited by caseys on Friday 19th August 12:39

[chrisoldroyd]

I have had my 330e now for just over a week, lovely drive but not that impressed with the media system or sat nav. I know Apple CarPlay is not happening in the future but are there any mods that are easy to do to the standard NAV Package to improve it?

Also is there anyway to add speed camera database to the nav and get it to show actual road speed limits? All seems a bit lame compared to other navs I have used.

Cheers
Chris

Edited by chrisoldroyd on Friday 19th August 16:55

[beardman]

private lease here, long time lurker.. since February actually.

Finally got mine, black sapphire m sport a month ago.

done nearly 1k miles on it, a few points to mention.

the sat nav is great Imo, not speced anything extra but it almost got me to where I was going.. so it's better than what it replaces. 9 times out of 10 works everytime.

ride is not bad considering 19 inch alloys and the parking sensors are a welcome standard.

not charged it yet... but seem to be averaging reasonable mpg and the battery is hovering around 10% rather constantly.. which is good.

it's nice to know I should be able to do better once I get the charging situation sorted.

the electrically assisted steering is something new and although I can get used to the feel, the turn to turn in feels a bit off yet. not sure if sports plus will sort it.. although I have briefly made the tyres chirp.

the only negative to mention is the start stop system, seems to lag at the lights.. I was expecting the electric motor to torque instantly but I am feeling it.. a hesitation before ?both? electric and petrol start up.

although this may be due to the charging situation..

eyes lit up at the non existent launch control post.

sadly, I may be tamed yet.

sorry for the long post, all things considered those still waiting will not be disappointed.

hopefully more to come.

[likhan_s]

Whytey88 said:

Evening all

Hoping someone may be able to answer this, When I configured the car it shows as if the grill has a hint of blue?
Is it my eyes or does it indeed in real life have this colour? I'm not bothered either way just curious

Edited by Whytey88 on Wednesday 17th August 10:20

Since july build blue kit is available as option. When iordered mine in may the dealer told me it was going to be a july build hence i could get that blue kit as an option or not. In NL website i can configure it with or without the blue kit. Not sure how it is for UK

[likhan_s]

chrisoldroyd said:

I have had my 330e now for just over a week, lovely drive but not that impressed with the media system or sat nav. I know Apple CarPlay is not happening in the future but are there any mods that are easy to do to the standard NAV Package to improve it?

Also is there anyway to add speed camera database to the nav and get it to show actual road speed limits? All seems a bit lame compared to other navs I have used.

Cheers
Chris

Edited by chrisoldroyd on Friday 19th August 16:55

Mine was built july and in connected drive i see i can activate carplay for 300eur

[chrisoldroyd]

Which nav package do you have? I have been told you need the professional to activate it?

[johnduq]

My Charging Flat will Not Open! Has anyone had this if so do you know a fix or is it back to dealer?? John