Morning.

I'm looking for a 3 series touring for everyday and family use and a 335i M sport touring caught my eye. Does anyone know of any buyers guides for these cars kicking about?

Anything I should look for when viewing one and can anyone that has one give me an idea of the real world MPG they get. The one I'm looking at is a2007 auto with 45,000 miles and fsh by the way.

I was looking for a 330i but this car caught my eye as it's obviously faster

Thanks,

Mark

FWIW I know someone who has a 57 plate 335i auto ... he lives in mid Surrey and gets about 22mpg .... his description was that 'it seriously drinks and the petrol bills hurt ... but I absolutely love it'.

Do a search on the N54 engine OP. At least you can't say you haven't been warned! ;-)

My E92 335i auto is currently showing an average of 28mpg which I'm absolutely delighted with. That's a mixture of motorway (and I don't sit at 56mph) and a/b roads. For comparison, the car I had before this (Mazda 6 MPS) had less power (but admittedly AWD) and averaged 25mpg.

People will say the run-flats are evil and they should be ripped off on your way home from the dealership. I don't have a problem with them, and I'm not about to spend £1000 on non-runflats and a 'mobility kit'. Conversely, the ride over the cobbled streets of Edinburgh with the run-flats on my wife's Cooper is horrendous!

Try and find a BMW AUC if you're worried about reliability. I bought mine last November and haggled an extra years AUC warranty, so I'm covered for two years. The N54 is also more tuneable than the N55 if that's your bag - 400bhp for £800 I believe.

It isn't particularly reliable I agree but the BMW warranty on a sub 60k mile car is about 40 quid a month, therefore the reliability isn't a concern.

Thanks very much for all the advice.

I take the point about the warranty. However, I tend to service and work on cars myself and am prepared to take the risk of not having a warranty and then if such items as the turbos do go I'm comfortable sourcing them and dropping the engine and replacing them myself. What I'm trying to avoid is buying a car model that requires work frequently. I'm trying to get away from that which is why I want to buy a much newer car than I've recently had. My last volvo seemed to require fettling far too frequently but then it was pretty old.

On that note... Do I need special equipment to turn off service lights on this generation of BMWs once I've done the work myself? Is the interface a straight forward OBD2 interface for example?

I know that servicing cars myself will have a detrimental effect on value (potentially) but this is part of car ownership for me, I'm comfortable doing what ever needs doing and is the way I like to run cars.

Thanks,

Mark

It can all be reset without any additional equipment , do a serch on 'CBS reset'.

They have a standard OBDII interface.

Correct.

Good luck selling a 335i with no service history because you did it all yourself. Surely these cars are still worth far too much for it to ever be worth home servicing?

Fair enough if its a £3000 325i...

I read the same way regarding the OP keeping the car a while. If this is the case, any subsequent sale is likely to be on the private market - so the penalty of self servicing would be less?

The OP is clearly already more knowledgeable than any of us about working on his own car and then selling them on...hence, I think he knows what he's getting himself into...so none of us are really in a place to tell him what to do or where he's going wrong. You pays your money, you takes your choices.

I personally hate warranties - although the PH community seems to bum them. They wouldn't exist if they weren't just another way of making cash. Put the same money away each month into a fighting fund if you must, at least then you can have some of it back if all is well!

Go for it Mark and enjoy!