Discussion
Just been using an E65 735i today, and think it's a really, really nice car. Massive leap over the old shape 7, if a little more luxobargey.
What are the chances of running one of these privately as being financially viable, if you're not a company director? What are parts prices like? I have a decent independent garage and labour cost isn't a worry but parts is. Does expensive stuff go wrong? There seem to be a lot of toys - an awful lot, it's more like a Merc than a BMW! The example I have borrowed has the central locking remote unlock failed and the airbag warning light showing. Been asked to drop it into the BMW dealer to get them to fix it all, which will give me an idea of the scaryness of price, but I thought I'd ask here too.
And for the record, I quite like iDrive!
Russell
What are the chances of running one of these privately as being financially viable, if you're not a company director? What are parts prices like? I have a decent independent garage and labour cost isn't a worry but parts is. Does expensive stuff go wrong? There seem to be a lot of toys - an awful lot, it's more like a Merc than a BMW! The example I have borrowed has the central locking remote unlock failed and the airbag warning light showing. Been asked to drop it into the BMW dealer to get them to fix it all, which will give me an idea of the scaryness of price, but I thought I'd ask here too.
And for the record, I quite like iDrive!
Russell
The 735i you drove is pre-facelift (new one's are 740i & 750i) so could easily pick up a good model with around 40,000 miles on for £20,000 - £25,000 but might be a nasty spec lower down the price range. If you buy from a dealer you get 12 months warranty etc. They do loose a lot of money from new but that levels out eventually. Go for one of the first E65's & you'll be entitled to the 4+ plan 15% off servicing.
Air-bag warning light is the most common fault with BMW's & MINI's imo, hear it all the time.
The i-drive is so easy to use I cringe when someone comments on how difficult it is to use, even more so when I question them on if they've used it & haven't. It's tw@'s like clarkson who've given it a bad name & a lot of people can't come up with their own opinion so copy his often ill-informed view.
Air-bag warning light is the most common fault with BMW's & MINI's imo, hear it all the time.
The i-drive is so easy to use I cringe when someone comments on how difficult it is to use, even more so when I question them on if they've used it & haven't. It's tw@'s like clarkson who've given it a bad name & a lot of people can't come up with their own opinion so copy his often ill-informed view.
Cheers,
It had 3 faults logged - rear side bag, front occupancy sensor, and pretensioner turned up there too apparently. They couldn't clear them. Next road to go is the "leave it with us and we'll spend some time investigating" presumably by the hour rather expensive option. Hmm. Doesn't exactly make me tempted to buy one. Perhaps it's because this was an early car ('02 plate).
Russell
It had 3 faults logged - rear side bag, front occupancy sensor, and pretensioner turned up there too apparently. They couldn't clear them. Next road to go is the "leave it with us and we'll spend some time investigating" presumably by the hour rather expensive option. Hmm. Doesn't exactly make me tempted to buy one. Perhaps it's because this was an early car ('02 plate).
Russell
A dealer won't charge you anymore than is required, there's no such thing in the BMW franchise as keeping it for ages to get more money out of people as BMW themselves do random checks on everything especially process to make sure it's done right. However, there is the approach to takling problems which BMW HQ really interfere with. They won't let the service techinician investigate themselves too much as they have to follow a set process which unfortunately for the customer doesn't cure the problem first time round every time but is the cheapest for the customer if the problem is solved on the first attempt. If not then go to stage 2, etc etc.
You having a serious think about a 7? It's a bloody goos buy imo & I'm not just saying that because of my job. You get advanced i-drive loads of standard spec, lots of space, well balanced & powerful. also quite a rare sight and used prices practically give them away when they're not that old or used!
You having a serious think about a 7? It's a bloody goos buy imo & I'm not just saying that because of my job. You get advanced i-drive loads of standard spec, lots of space, well balanced & powerful. also quite a rare sight and used prices practically give them away when they're not that old or used!
Welshbeef said:
Are both of those the 204bhp unit or the 231bhp??
Cannot knock the garage down as its a link semi with a bedroom on top and houses either side so no option.
They're both pre-facelift so haven't got the modified engines also different output on petrol & disel just thought I'd demonstrate the cost difference between the two.Cannot knock the garage down as its a link semi with a bedroom on top and houses either side so no option.
Pentoman said:
Would/should an E65 be more expensive to run than the previous shape 7? On the one hand it's newer so shouldn't go wrong... on the other hand it has more toys to break and the problems are less well known.
?
I think the problem has been that most of the E65's have been in the TLC programme (or whatever its called) and so nobody really knows what the costs are likely to be.?
Total BMW (I think) ran a used buying guide on them and rated them, but warned of heeeeuuuuuuge bills should one go pop.
Everything, and I mean, everything, hinges on the electrics with these things, and should something go pop, you're pretty much stuffed.
neil_bolton said:
Pentoman said:
Would/should an E65 be more expensive to run than the previous shape 7? On the one hand it's newer so shouldn't go wrong... on the other hand it has more toys to break and the problems are less well known.
?
I think the problem has been that most of the E65's have been in the TLC programme (or whatever its called) and so nobody really knows what the costs are likely to be.?
Total BMW (I think) ran a used buying guide on them and rated them, but warned of heeeeuuuuuuge bills should one go pop.
Everything, and I mean, everything, hinges on the electrics with these things, and should something go pop, you're pretty much stuffed.
Pentoman said:
neil_bolton said:
Everything, and I mean, everything, hinges on the electrics with these things,
Indeed - even the hinges are electric! Really. They hold the door whereever you park it, there's no predefined stop points.Amazing car, first BMW that's actually excited or impressed me!
Well the airbag was finally fixed.. it was, I believe, 2 broken wires in the harness in the rear door.
Merely £22 in parts, £524 in labour (inc VAT). Oh lord! Which was enough to put me off buying one of these - even though this car is for sale privately and I could probably have it cheap. I could just never afford to fix something like that. And the truly extraordinary appetite for fuel. I know it's big and heavy, but still I'd have a thought a super-modern engine of merely 3.6 litres could do a bit more than 21.9 MPG average the computer was showing. I've no calculations to back it up but the rate it drank seemed to make my dad's old A8 4.2 Quattro feel economical.
Otherwise, I still really like it and it feels prefereable to me to an A8 or S-class. The gearbox is the only thing I didn't like - vague and wishy washy when changing gears, never decisive about choosing/sticking to a gear and it seems to be changing gear all the time. I preferred getting back into my old Merc with the instant 'POW here's the perfect gear and some acceleration' old-school box. Do they need 6 gears?? You can drive it in manual but it seems a bit strange, and there's so many gears to choose from, and 5 of the gears feel like they will do 70mph anyway so it's a pointless exercise in excessive button pressing! As if idrive didn't take up enough attention.
Actually I liked iDrive except for one thing - the inability to easily do a scan through radio stations. You can use the dedicated buttons on the console but it takes an age to search and seems to start at 87.5 then go through all the frequencies you can possibly get radio 2 on, then all the frequencies you can get radio 3 on, then 4 etc. For some reason it's much slower than a 'normal' car radio and getting to radio 1s frequencies takes an age of button holding. Also like most of the optional fancy car stereos in luxury cars I have used, it's a bit gimmicky with all those surround sound speakers and subwoofers and "LOGIC7" gadgets; you can make a 4 speaker setup sound a lot nicer for a couple of hundred quid in my opinion.
Love the interior; no other BMW comes close they've totally excelled, even the 6-series cab at the dealer I sat in was plastic and cheap by comparison. Even sitting in the brand new S-class doesn't feel as nice.
Merely £22 in parts, £524 in labour (inc VAT). Oh lord! Which was enough to put me off buying one of these - even though this car is for sale privately and I could probably have it cheap. I could just never afford to fix something like that. And the truly extraordinary appetite for fuel. I know it's big and heavy, but still I'd have a thought a super-modern engine of merely 3.6 litres could do a bit more than 21.9 MPG average the computer was showing. I've no calculations to back it up but the rate it drank seemed to make my dad's old A8 4.2 Quattro feel economical.
Otherwise, I still really like it and it feels prefereable to me to an A8 or S-class. The gearbox is the only thing I didn't like - vague and wishy washy when changing gears, never decisive about choosing/sticking to a gear and it seems to be changing gear all the time. I preferred getting back into my old Merc with the instant 'POW here's the perfect gear and some acceleration' old-school box. Do they need 6 gears?? You can drive it in manual but it seems a bit strange, and there's so many gears to choose from, and 5 of the gears feel like they will do 70mph anyway so it's a pointless exercise in excessive button pressing! As if idrive didn't take up enough attention.
Actually I liked iDrive except for one thing - the inability to easily do a scan through radio stations. You can use the dedicated buttons on the console but it takes an age to search and seems to start at 87.5 then go through all the frequencies you can possibly get radio 2 on, then all the frequencies you can get radio 3 on, then 4 etc. For some reason it's much slower than a 'normal' car radio and getting to radio 1s frequencies takes an age of button holding. Also like most of the optional fancy car stereos in luxury cars I have used, it's a bit gimmicky with all those surround sound speakers and subwoofers and "LOGIC7" gadgets; you can make a 4 speaker setup sound a lot nicer for a couple of hundred quid in my opinion.
Love the interior; no other BMW comes close they've totally excelled, even the 6-series cab at the dealer I sat in was plastic and cheap by comparison. Even sitting in the brand new S-class doesn't feel as nice.
I had a 2002 745i and sold it almost 2 years ago now, and still rate it highly especially more so now as they are near the £10k mark for a high mileage one. In 75k miles the only item other than routine service/consumables it needed was a replacement gear selection stalk, under warranty so don't know how much it would have cost but believe it is not uncommon?? Agree you need to be able to afford it if something does go wrong and needs fixing at main agent. Otherwise use an indy, if your freinds 735 was done at reduced labour cost of an indy the bill would be halved surely?
I'm thinking of getting a barge bargin in the new year, i've looked at the E65, A8 D3, Xj and S class.
All four are nice cars, but imho it is the E65 and A8 D3 that are the best. the XJ X350 is lovely but the boot is useless which defeats the point of buying a 5m long luxo barge. The S Class (W220) looks very old inside and imho looks very tired compared to the new modern rivals. With the exception of the S55 or S600 none of the regular S500 S320s look nice inside. I say that because my uncle has a S500 on a 04 plate and a while ago drove his business partners S600L on a 03 plate. His comment on the S600 other than the huge performance was the better better build quality. The A8 looks really nice, but some of the wood trim inside the A8 can be very ugly!
How bad is the fuel consumption on the 745i @ 70-80mph? what is the servicing costs? £500 a service?
All four are nice cars, but imho it is the E65 and A8 D3 that are the best. the XJ X350 is lovely but the boot is useless which defeats the point of buying a 5m long luxo barge. The S Class (W220) looks very old inside and imho looks very tired compared to the new modern rivals. With the exception of the S55 or S600 none of the regular S500 S320s look nice inside. I say that because my uncle has a S500 on a 04 plate and a while ago drove his business partners S600L on a 03 plate. His comment on the S600 other than the huge performance was the better better build quality. The A8 looks really nice, but some of the wood trim inside the A8 can be very ugly!
How bad is the fuel consumption on the 745i @ 70-80mph? what is the servicing costs? £500 a service?
NST said:
I'm thinking of getting a barge bargin in the new year, i've looked at the E65, A8 D3, Xj and S class.
All four are nice cars, but imho it is the E65 and A8 D3 that are the best. the XJ X350 is lovely but the boot is useless which defeats the point of buying a 5m long luxo barge. The S Class (W220) looks very old inside and imho looks very tired compared to the new modern rivals. With the exception of the S55 or S600 none of the regular S500 S320s look nice inside. I say that because my uncle has a S500 on a 04 plate and a while ago drove his business partners S600L on a 03 plate. His comment on the S600 other than the huge performance was the better better build quality. The A8 looks really nice, but some of the wood trim inside the A8 can be very ugly!
How bad is the fuel consumption on the 745i @ 70-80mph? what is the servicing costs? £500 a service?
Will be about 30-35mpg for a pre-facelift E65. The servicing is done as & when it's due which is good but can be inconvenient so use collection & delivery for that. Servicing is done on fuel economy not time or distance & the car will tell you what needs doing at what time. It can all fall into one service but sometimes it doesn't so you'll have to come in a few times to save on servicing parts cost (not to mention labour). To be honest if fuel consuption is a requirement of yours go for a 730d SE 251bhp loads of torque and good fuel economy just no V8 burbling away.All four are nice cars, but imho it is the E65 and A8 D3 that are the best. the XJ X350 is lovely but the boot is useless which defeats the point of buying a 5m long luxo barge. The S Class (W220) looks very old inside and imho looks very tired compared to the new modern rivals. With the exception of the S55 or S600 none of the regular S500 S320s look nice inside. I say that because my uncle has a S500 on a 04 plate and a while ago drove his business partners S600L on a 03 plate. His comment on the S600 other than the huge performance was the better better build quality. The A8 looks really nice, but some of the wood trim inside the A8 can be very ugly!
How bad is the fuel consumption on the 745i @ 70-80mph? what is the servicing costs? £500 a service?
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