6 Cylinder Diesel for around £4k ?
Discussion
Im looking to sell my Passat 1.8t as £25 of fuel gets me sub 100 miles even when driving like a granny. My old car, a remapped Passat Tdi used to do 300 miles for the same price and had more power!
I never want a 4cyl diesel ever again, but 6cyl or above is a definate yes. Also, I cant be bothered using tons of revs anymore, i change gear at 3k as it is. In fact, I loved riding the torque wave of the old car and commented on how it would really suit a good automatic with 170hp as apposed to 130hp.
So I am looking at 330d's. Automatic.
Will be the first auto I have ever owned.
What do i need to look out for, and what are they like to drive, is the tiptronic auto any good ? And what sort of mileage will i get for £10 ?
Cheers
I never want a 4cyl diesel ever again, but 6cyl or above is a definate yes. Also, I cant be bothered using tons of revs anymore, i change gear at 3k as it is. In fact, I loved riding the torque wave of the old car and commented on how it would really suit a good automatic with 170hp as apposed to 130hp.
So I am looking at 330d's. Automatic.
Will be the first auto I have ever owned.
What do i need to look out for, and what are they like to drive, is the tiptronic auto any good ? And what sort of mileage will i get for £10 ?
Cheers
Oh and reading on here it seems the manual does much better MPG so another question...whats the manual like to drive ?
In the passat remapped, all the power would come in instantly then your left going up the powerband with no power, consequently having to change gear all the time which was a proper pain especially in the city!
In the passat remapped, all the power would come in instantly then your left going up the powerband with no power, consequently having to change gear all the time which was a proper pain especially in the city!
I bought a 2001 E39 530D Auto Sport for 4.5K a month ago with 77K miles on it. And I can honestly say its the nicest diesel I have ever driven. Get one, they rock.
I do 500 miles a week and the tank lasts me about 10 days (can't be bothered to work out that mpg).
Plenty of them around and the auto's are quite nice to drive. I deliberately looked for one as I tend to get stuck in traffic round the Tyne Tunnel and can't be bothered clutching
I do 500 miles a week and the tank lasts me about 10 days (can't be bothered to work out that mpg).
Plenty of them around and the auto's are quite nice to drive. I deliberately looked for one as I tend to get stuck in traffic round the Tyne Tunnel and can't be bothered clutching
The BMW 3.0d with the autobox is not a 50mpg diesel - infact the combined mpg figures are circa mid 30's. The S320 CDI is more thirsty again - infact I wouldn't be suprised if its actually less economical than a Passat 1.8T, a car which isn't known for being particularly thirsty. The S Class with its airmatic suspension is a hugely complex beast capable of delivering the sort of bills that will make you long for the days when all you had to worry about was the fact 25 quid only go you 100 miles.
If you are bothered about miles to a tenner, you don't want an S Class Mercedes!
The 530d isn't silent at idle either - you can definately tell its a diesel. Infact you can tell pretty much every diesel is a diesel - they've all got the clatter, its just a bit less annoying in the 6 pots. But it's still there. Even in something like a 535d it's still there.
If you are bothered about miles to a tenner, you don't want an S Class Mercedes!
The 530d isn't silent at idle either - you can definately tell its a diesel. Infact you can tell pretty much every diesel is a diesel - they've all got the clatter, its just a bit less annoying in the 6 pots. But it's still there. Even in something like a 535d it's still there.
twoblacklines said:
I did notice the 530d and also the S320 CDI are hovering around that price too. Is the diesel in your car silent or do you hear a horrible diesel transit van sound at idle like I used to ? It used to sound really rough, the 1.9tdi.
In my opinion the BMW 3.0d engine actually sounds very good and the Merc V6 isn't to bad although noticeably quieter and both are definitely smoother than the VAG 1.9 TDi.In terms of economy, around town we struggled to get more than 28 MPG out of our 330d Auto's but up here there are a lot of hills, in places where it is more level it would probably be better, on a run we could see around 40mpg and once we remapped it that rose to about 45-47 MPG if you could resist the temptation to thrash it. The triptronic or steptronic in BMW speak was a good box - only one car out of the 3 we had had gearbox issues - most of the time you just leave it in D and then knock it across to Sport when accelerating hard or overtaking.
I bought a 530d sport (E39) in March, and have put on over 10k since then, have to say as an every day car, it is the best car I have ever owned. Loads of grunt, cruises at 100 leptons plus easily, great handling for a big car, and very very comfy. It's my first auto as well, grown to love it 
, so lazy & smooth. I get 45mpg crusing at an indicated 90Mph, high 30's around town. Best thing about it is the 6 sounds very smooth, hardly tell it is a diesel.
, so lazy & smooth. I get 45mpg crusing at an indicated 90Mph, high 30's around town. Best thing about it is the 6 sounds very smooth, hardly tell it is a diesel.RWD cossie wil said:
I bought a 530d sport (E39) in March, and have put on over 10k since then, have to say as an every day car, it is the best car I have ever owned. Loads of grunt, cruises at 100 leptons plus easily, great handling for a big car, and very very comfy. It's my first auto as well, grown to love it , so lazy & smooth. I get 45mpg crusing at an indicated 90Mph, high 30's around town. Best thing about it is the 6 sounds very smooth, hardly tell it is a diesel.
I never got more than 30mpg around town out of 530d manual E39 - and we had it from 2 years old! It always seemed to be around 7mpg better than the 530i was in any circumstance. That said my definition of 'around town' is short trips from cold, so yours might be different., so lazy & smooth. I get 45mpg crusing at an indicated 90Mph, high 30's around town. Best thing about it is the 6 sounds very smooth, hardly tell it is a diesel.I can't think of many cars that would have only 6mpg between round town and motorway economy mind..
530d (E39) Auto tends to average about 30mpg in mixed driving and probably sub-30mpg around town. It also takes a while to warm up so can actually be quite thirsty on short trips. At about 70-75mph driven gently it can just about do 40mpg. It is still a 2.9 litre 6-cylinder engine in a heavy car diesel or not.
In your price range something with the VAG 1.9 litre 130ps lump is the sensible choice for economy but you've already had that. Unfortunately, you do not get something for nothing and the price you pay for economy is refinenemnt (not that I've ever found them *that* bad).
You won't get a Merc V6 diesel at that price, it will be an older straight six.
No sub-£4k 6-cylinder diesel will be cheap to run, it will have high miles and you'll have to account for possible injectors, turbos etc. in your budgeting.
In your price range something with the VAG 1.9 litre 130ps lump is the sensible choice for economy but you've already had that. Unfortunately, you do not get something for nothing and the price you pay for economy is refinenemnt (not that I've ever found them *that* bad).
You won't get a Merc V6 diesel at that price, it will be an older straight six.
No sub-£4k 6-cylinder diesel will be cheap to run, it will have high miles and you'll have to account for possible injectors, turbos etc. in your budgeting.
RWD cossie wil said:
. I get 45mpg crusing at an indicated 90Mph, high 30's around town. Best thing about it is the 6 sounds very smooth, hardly tell it is a diesel.
That's impressive. I've driven loads and never seen close to that sort of mileage. Is that calculated or relying on the OBC?I had a 330D tourer auto for about a year.
Realistically you're looking at 40ish on the motorway at sensible speeds and 30 round town.
They are quite quick but the noise is not that inspiring, Mine had a full miltek on it almost had a single note. Didn't encourage you to rev it at all so ended up driving it slowly.
Sure it was fast, But it didn't feel like it wanted to go fast. And when you did drive fast it wasn't economical.
It was most at home sitting at 80-90mph on the m way which i think the 2.0d could handle just as well whilst returning better MPG. I wished I'd have just bought the 4 pot and had a proper eco mobile. The sport derv thing is a bit neither here nor there for me.
Did look nice though.
Realistically you're looking at 40ish on the motorway at sensible speeds and 30 round town.
They are quite quick but the noise is not that inspiring, Mine had a full miltek on it almost had a single note. Didn't encourage you to rev it at all so ended up driving it slowly.
Sure it was fast, But it didn't feel like it wanted to go fast. And when you did drive fast it wasn't economical.
It was most at home sitting at 80-90mph on the m way which i think the 2.0d could handle just as well whilst returning better MPG. I wished I'd have just bought the 4 pot and had a proper eco mobile. The sport derv thing is a bit neither here nor there for me.
Did look nice though.
confused_buyer said:
530d (E39) Auto tends to average about 30mpg in mixed driving and probably sub-30mpg around town. It also takes a while to warm up so can actually be quite thirsty on short trips. At about 70-75mph driven gently it can just about do 40mpg. It is still a 2.9 litre 6-cylinder engine in a heavy car diesel or not.
This completely echos my experience with the manual as well. Every so often you see somebody saying they always average 50mpg in a 530d and I'm just not sure how these people manage it - I certainly didn't drive it hard, infact my driving style is very sympathetic and I regularly coax 37-38 out of my 530i on long trips.Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff