2009ish 3 Series - most reliable?

[Trailhead]

Hi all

Does anyone know if the 3 series around 2009 age in petrol guise suffer from expensive failures? I am thinking manual 318i or 320i, but possibly 325i/330i also.

I am aware the 4 pot diesels suffer in this regard so will be avoiding those. This car just needs to be a run around for 60k or so over 3 years as reliable as possible.

Thanks

TH

[Trailhead]

wax lyrical said:

I'd avoid the 4-pot petrols (320). Don't think the 318 petrol exists for the E90/92 3-series.

You may as well go for the 330i. No major downsides compared to the 325i (but buy the best example you can find).

Trailhead said:

Hi all

Does anyone know if the 3 series around 2009 age in petrol guise suffer from expensive failures? I am thinking manual 318i or 320i, but possibly 325i/330i also.

I am aware the 4 pot diesels suffer in this regard so will be avoiding those. This car just needs to be a run around for 60k or so over 3 years as reliable as possible.

Thanks

TH

Why would you avoid the 320? Reliability or performance?

[Trailhead]

Thanks all

Is the chain issue petrol as well then? I thought it was only diesel...

[Trailhead]

iSore said:

2009 320i will be the direct injection N43 unit - apart from chain and guides you have the HP pump, coil packs, injectors and the BMW only £350 NoX sensor. Same issues with the 325i and 330i apart from the chain that is a rare problem. 2009 320d will be the N47 with the associated timing chain nightmares.

Whilst they are generally fairly reliable, they can generate some truly eye watering invoices when they aren't.

Thanks for this. Is the chains issue the same issue on the petrol and the diesel then?

It's hard to know what to do!

[Trailhead]

Fox- said:

Digitalize said:

The general consensus was because the Diesel's all have turbo's to fail, swirl flaps etc that they were in general less reliable than their NA petrol counterparts.

Correct but the N53 is a special case as it introduced a complex and fragile stratified direct injection system.

Is it better to get something a bit older then?