Buying 530 SE petrol touring

[Robmilford]

Hi,
I have a 330SE touring 2001 and want to change to the 530SE touring petrol post 2007. My thinking is that I could do with the extra room and comfort and I'm under the impression that after September 2007 I get more performance and mpg than I have now. The Desiel option doesn't seem worth it because of the problems potentially of the turbo etc. and the mpg dosen't seem that much better especially as I will probably end up putting 110000 on the clock. I have about £12500 to spend, please could I have your thoughts

[Fox-]

£12500 is going to get a leggy post 07 530i Touring - if you can even find one. These cars have N53 engines which means great mpg but it also means great complexity and reliabilty issues. You dont want one without a warranty, a decent example of which you won't get on a sub £12.5k car.

If you want a really lovely LCI 530i Touring then you need significantly more money.

[Redeem]

I have a 530i 2004 with only 40K miles on it and it is a great car (it is used daily). A few months ago I thought of upgrading it to a 2009 535 d but in terms of driving experience or fuel consumption I did not find any significant difference. In terms of reliability, the 530 is a bullet proof car (it has been more reliable than a Porsche 911 turbo that I used to have until recently - obviously they are completely different cars). I never had any problem with it apart once from a flat battery. If you cannot increase your budget to target a post 2007 one then an option would be to buy a 2005/6 one with a low mileage (very good and low miles examples should not cost more than 8/9 K) and although the fuel consumption is not as good as the post 2007 ones, use the price difference to pay for the increased fuel consumption

[Fox-]

The post 2007 530i has a completely different engine - it's a direct injection N53. The previous 530i does indeed have a reliable engine. But then you are stick with the horrendous interior of the pre LCI E60, so you pretty much have to get an LCI just to avoid that, which then gives you the more economical yet less reliable engine.

[DennisCooper]

Hi

I'm not 100% familiar with what the interior difference is with Pre and post LCI is. Why is a pre LCI car so horrendous on it's interior compared to a post LCI?

Cheers, Dennis!

[Fox-]

The LCI had a few nice upgrades to remove the completely bizarre styling from the original - the most notable differences are much nicer doorcards. They also changed a lot of the switchgear to, and I quote from the BMW announcement at the time, 'Give the interior a premium look and feel'. Arguably something it should have had all along.

[Robmilford]

Thanks for the info, I might try and spend a bit more money, but you've got me worried with reliability issues, are the diesels more reliable. I remember hearing that tubos tend to fail at about 100000

[DavidHM]

This seems to be what you're after, mileagey but approved used though only a 525i (still a 3.0).

http://www.bmw.co.uk/bmwuk/bmwauc/details/0,,1156_...