3 Series Touring - Making the move

[Fraxinu5]

I’m almost ready to pull the trigger on a 320D M Sport Touring. My only concern is the mileage and if I’m going to be paying over the odds.
It’s currently on 59k miles and I’ve got the dealer down from £29,991 to a nice round £29k, they seem pretty adamant that they can’t go any lower than that. I’ll be putting down £10k deposit with the rest on finance. I’m still deciding between PCP or HP, but as I’m trying to keep monthly costs as low as possible, PCP might be the way.

[The Rotrex Kid]

Cap retail for that car is £25k based on a standard car. Obviously it’s not standard, but is it worth £4K over book to you?

What interest rate are you being offered?

[Fraxinu5]

The Rotrex Kid said:

Cap retail for that car is £25k based on a standard car. Obviously it’s not standard, but is it worth £4K over book to you?

What interest rate are you being offered?

8.9%
I’ve been told retail is just under £27k

[The Rotrex Kid]

Fraxinu5 said:

The Rotrex Kid said:

Cap retail for that car is £25k based on a standard car. Obviously it’s not standard, but is it worth £4K over book to you?

What interest rate are you being offered?

8.9%
I’ve been told retail is just under £27k

Do you know if it has Tech or Plus pack additions?

If it has both it bumps the retail to about £26k. If it were and Xdrive then it would be £27k

[Nickbrapp]

4 exhausts on a 4 pot oil burner

How tragic

[Fraxinu5]

Nickbrapp said:

4 exhausts on a 4 pot oil burner

How tragic

Haha is that a red flag straight away? Looks alright though 😉

[Maxus]

You are paying quite a premium for what is likely a load of aftermarket add ons. The car is fairly high mileage and standard spec.

Here is a BMW dealer selling a high spec car with less than half the mileage up for similar money. Plus it’s an x drive.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202206096...

I quite like the look of the white car but I wouldn’t personally buy it at that premium.

[Fraxinu5]

Maxus said:

You are paying quite a premium for what is likely a load of aftermarket add ons. The car is fairly high mileage and standard spec.

Here is a BMW dealer selling a high spec car with less than half the mileage up for similar money. Plus it’s an x drive.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202206096...

I quite like the look of the white car but I wouldn’t personally buy it at that premium.

I personally love the look of it, sure it’s a lamb in wolf’s clothing, but surely you’ll want to be happy when looking at it everyday?

However, I am going off it a bit when seeing how much extra I can get for the same money; less miles, more extras etc. Case in point, the one you posted (hate the interior however).

[Earthdweller]

My thoughts

It’s high miles and high price, it’s outside the BMW warranty period and it’s been modified

I’d be checking it’s service history very carefully

My red flags .. someone has fitted a quad exhaust system to it and plastered “Mperformance” down the sides


I’d wager that whoever did that took it to a back street tuner and had it chipped to death and then ragged it like a rotweiller chewing a toy

I’d be pretty certain it wasn’t driven by a middle aged rep at below the speed limit up and down the motorways

As well as it’s service history I’d be getting it on a code reader and running it through all those car check websites like carvertical etc

As it is there’s thousands of them …


If you do buy it then I will keep an eye out for the thread in six months

• I bought a car and it blew up the dealer never told me it had been chipped*. ( or similar )

[Comacchio]

£1k more gets you a 340i touring with most of the options ticked. Albeit it also gets you low to mid 20s mpg.

[Maxus]

Earthdweller said:

My thoughts

It’s high miles and high price, it’s outside the BMW warranty period and it’s been modified

I’d be checking it’s service history very carefully

My red flags .. someone has fitted a quad exhaust system to it and plastered “Mperformance” down the sides


I’d wager that whoever did that took it to a back street tuner and had it chipped to death and then ragged it like a rotweiller chewing a toy

I’d be pretty certain it wasn’t driven by a middle aged rep at below the speed limit up and down the motorways

As well as it’s service history I’d be getting it on a code reader and running it through all those car check websites like carvertical etc

As it is there’s thousands of them …


If you do buy it then I will keep an eye out for the thread in six months

• I bought a car and it blew up the dealer never told me it had been chipped*. ( or similar )

It’s not quite like that. Take a look at the Dealers stock. Their model is to buy high mileage few year old cars (probably ex fleet from auction). It’s therefore likely it was driven by a middle aged rep up and down the motorway!

They then apply aftermarket body kits and wheels (the OPs example also has aftermarket tints) to make them stand out and sell them at a premium.

That’s not a criticism and I quite like the look of them. But it also doesn’t represent the previous owner or how the car has been treated.

Edited by Maxus on Wednesday 12th October 19:04

[helix402]

It has a “race car” style red light in the rear diffuser.

[Fraxinu5]

Maxus said:

It’s not quite like that. Take a look at the Dealers stock. Their model is to buy high mileage few year old cars (probably ex fleet from auction). It’s therefore likely it was driven by a middle aged rep up and down the motorway!

They then apply aftermarket body kits and wheels (the OPs example also has aftermarket tints) to make them stand out and sell them at a premium.

That’s not a criticism and I quite like the look of them. But it also doesn’t represent the previous owner or how the car has been treated.

Edited by Maxus on Wednesday 12th October 19:04

Exactly, it’s all been done in house. The standard exhaust sits behind the quad and has not been touched. They have just put on the body kit and new wheels.

Speaking to a few people, the dealer is highly rated and I’ve only heard good things about their customer service.

[Geffg]

Besides whatever history it has etc I think it looks really good.
Personally I prefer a standard model then do any mods myself and would always go for spec over the looks as mods are easier to do afterwards if wanted.

[Fraxinu5]

Geffg said:

Besides whatever history it has etc I think it looks really good.
Personally I prefer a standard model then do any mods myself and would always go for spec over the looks as mods are easier to do afterwards if wanted.

I’m starting to lean towards better spec if I’m honest, but I can’t help pining over how this one looks. You are however right, the body kit can be bought after. Not sure how that works when the car is on finance, but I guess you could always remove it if you were to give it back.

[Fraxinu5]

Probably easier if I just gave you all the link….

https://www.yournextcarltd.co.uk/used-bmw-3-series...

[un1eash]

There's a few dealers that market cars this way. Everything they've added can easily be done yourself at a later date, it's just bolt on's and a poor looking window tint.

[twokcc]

The blue one in the Maxus link is from a BMW main dealer and as a BMW AUC will have a warranty for 12 months is best you can get. No idea how good warranty will be from your next car but unlikely to be as cast iron as the BMW one. BMW one can be extended by insured warranty but cost goes up significantly after 60k miles. Can buy this for the white car but buying from a non franchised dealer service history will not have been checked and could result in warranty claim being rejected. Service history will be on idrive get it checked out- if any doubts post on here and other PH'ers will help you check it out.

Edit
Some history shown in photo's does service partner mean its not by BMW dealer?
(on my Mini) just says Mini

Edited by twokcc on Thursday 13th October 09:59

[Fraxinu5]

I’ve been looking around on Autotrader and found this one that seems pretty good. M Sport Pro Pack and Technology pack, low miles but slightly above the price I was aiming for.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202108146...

[VeeReihenmotor6]

I'm not normally one to care about mileage but buy that last one if you're only wanting a 2.0 tdi - just think in 3 years time and 30k the first one will be on 90k where as the second one will be on 40k. That will pay for the extra 2k sticker price easily come resale and de-risk of any large bills too.