E92 330i Opinions / Reliability

[Mackey444]

Im currently got the itch to buy a new car, I've had Audis for the past few years, first a 3.2L A3 and now a A4 2.0T Quattro S-line Special Edition, but the silky smoothness of BMW's 6 cylinders is calling me again.

I bought the A4 looking to be a bit more sensible ahead of buying a new house, and wanting to get rid of the A3 before the DSG gearbox gave me any trouble. Ive now got the new house, and the A4 is lovely inside and handles well, but I miss the 6 cylinder power delivery and sound, and just the feel of driving a beemer. The A4 has 220bhp but feels a bit gutless for it, also I'm 28 and single, so it looks a bit odd with me behind the wheel, and every woman I know takes the mick out of me for it (im not that shallow obviously )

But now I have a bit of spare cash and rather than being sensible and saving it for a rainy day, I've been thinking what the hell, I'm a petrolhead and you only live once!!

I have been looking at a few options, generally between £8-12k and no more than 70k miles.

• 130i M sport hatchbacks can be picked up at good prices, but not my taste of looks and generally not as well specced as 3's. 125i coupes are highly priced and pretty rare.
• I looked at Z4 coupes but while I dont need all the seats, it a bit too impractical.
• E46 330ci's. There are some very nice well specced low milage convertables kicking about which I could almost just straight swap my Audi for value wise, but a 10 year + old roof would worry me, plus I have already owned an E46 albiet a very early 328.
• Keep the Audi, revo chip to 255bhp, replace the drilled brake disks which need doing and find a girl with 3 kids!
• Then theres the E92's, right up my street looks wise. I actually wouldnt mind a 325i, the autos are a little sluggish, slower than what I already have, or are they deceptive like many BM straight 6's? Also there are a few convertables which are not much more, even slower but they must be a decent investment depreciation wise. Then theres the 330s. I wouldnt mind and SE if it meant saving some money but I'm reluctant to go for non sports seats, the BMW ones always seem quite poor (maybe to make you upgrade!). The M sports seem an excellent mix of looks, spec, power with sensible MPG figures! I ignored the early 335i's, 2 turbos to go wrong!

There is a very nice M Sport close to me which I could go look at, 62k miles and £11k. However now I have the house to worry about too, I still have nagging worries that the newer cars seem to get, the more expensive the problems seem to be! I will maintain to the highest standard but money will be a bit tighter, dont want £500+ problems!

What have peoples general ownership experiences of these been? I read about cracking alloys - this one has 18"s. Tyres £300 a pop? Injector problems? I only get around 28-32 mpg from the Audi so hopefully it could even be an improvement on that front. Insurance is another 25% higher.

Ive always been reasonably lucky with my cars, plenty of little issues (VAG seem experts on this front!) but never had the "big one", so I wanted to make sure I wouldnt be opening myself up to any nightmares or having to sell the house to run it. Should I just follow my heart??

Edited by Mackey444 on Tuesday 22 April 14:48

[Mackey444]

Sure that would be nice to waft about in, but I was trying to get away from family guy image, dread to think of the fuel costs on that too. There's a few 6 series kicking about for reasonable money, even convertibles, just seems a bit excessive!

[Mackey444]

Thanks guys, well I've decided to go look at one tomorrow. It's not an auc but it does have full bmw s/h and it's at a small prestige dealer so looks clean enough. I have Munich legends round the corner so I tend to use them for all issues anyway, had a bad experience with a BMW dealer when servicing my E46.
If I get it I'll post some pics.

[Mackey444]

Well I didn't get the one I went to see.

It had a lot of stone chips all over the bonnet and bumper, I know you have to expect some at 62k, but it seemed like a lot. Other than that the bodywork was clean. Inside the leather was good, but some of the plastic near the buttons on the steering wheel had been worn off (by rings?) and and metal trim on the door was badly pitted. Also the catch on the armrest lid no longer work. The dealer had got the wheels painted gun metal grey himself, they looked good but I always want things as they came out the factory. It was a great drive, engine felt lovely. A red tyre light came on while we were driving, he said one of the runflats probably just needed pumping up a bit, but could this be hiding another issue?

Also it said full BMW s/h but the last BMW one was in 2012 at 40k, and then he has just done an oil service himself now at 62k, so it must have been long overdue, he tried to explain it away. I would be the 5th owner.

Think I was justified to pass on it, but maybe I am expecting a little too much for the money I want to spend. Are the coupes very bad for stonechips at this sort of milage?