E60 530D - Reliable?
Discussion
finmac said:
Thinking of buying a 1 owner FSH 530 D with 80K miles and FBMWSH.
However have heard a few horror stories of the BMW 3litre diesel and BIG repair bills (saying that these have all been in 3 series cars).
Anyone care to express an opinion?
Our 730d fleet rack up intergalactic miles and have never had an engine problem.However have heard a few horror stories of the BMW 3litre diesel and BIG repair bills (saying that these have all been in 3 series cars).
Anyone care to express an opinion?
You will always get good guy/bad guy stories on this one, I bought a new 330D sport in 2004 and after 2.4 years 26000 miles and £13400 of warranty work enough was enough for me, ECU, two turbos, two manifolds, clutch, gearbox, flywheel,and countless little things but for every bad one there's a good one, good luck..
I have a 530D SE Auto which is three years old next month (Jan 2008). I have had it since new. It has done 51,000 miles and has been a very good car. I use it for my daily commute into London. Fuel consumption is excellent (I previously had a 535i Sport which had the petrol V8 and it was thirsty by comparison).
The servicing is a nuisance because it works on "condition" servicing which means that it may have to go in for an oil change and then 3,000 miles later its back for brake pads. Obviously you can combine some of the service items when they are close together but overall I prefer set servicing at say every 12,000 miles.
Servicing has been normal and routine except for new front brake discs at about 40,000 miles.
Any niggles have been dealt with under warranty but there has been nothing major. It had a lazy starter motor and clonk on the front suspension all before 20,000 miles but I believe these problems are quite well known about and they were quickly resolved.
I am going to keep it for the time being because there is nothing wrong with it. I did look at a new 635D but at £70k I couldn't see it being nearly 4 times better than my 530D which is probably now worth £18k. The 635D would also have lost £30k in the first year and I really don't want to lose that kind of money.
I have ordered a Nissan GT-R for March 2009 delivery and I will probably keep the 530D at that time because it is so good. By March 2009 it may only be worth about £12,000 so I will use it alongside the GT-R and share the miles around.
The servicing is a nuisance because it works on "condition" servicing which means that it may have to go in for an oil change and then 3,000 miles later its back for brake pads. Obviously you can combine some of the service items when they are close together but overall I prefer set servicing at say every 12,000 miles.
Servicing has been normal and routine except for new front brake discs at about 40,000 miles.
Any niggles have been dealt with under warranty but there has been nothing major. It had a lazy starter motor and clonk on the front suspension all before 20,000 miles but I believe these problems are quite well known about and they were quickly resolved.
I am going to keep it for the time being because there is nothing wrong with it. I did look at a new 635D but at £70k I couldn't see it being nearly 4 times better than my 530D which is probably now worth £18k. The 635D would also have lost £30k in the first year and I really don't want to lose that kind of money.
I have ordered a Nissan GT-R for March 2009 delivery and I will probably keep the 530D at that time because it is so good. By March 2009 it may only be worth about £12,000 so I will use it alongside the GT-R and share the miles around.
My E60 530d just clocked up 80k and seems to be going ok at the moment. I am concerned about potential failures, but I do ensure service integrity is maintained.
I think there were more 'issues' with the older 3.0d motors in E39 and E46's, but I think quite a few were resolved by 2003. There have been futher updates to this motor since of course. I'd suggest a check on a few specialist E60 forums might help.
I think there were more 'issues' with the older 3.0d motors in E39 and E46's, but I think quite a few were resolved by 2003. There have been futher updates to this motor since of course. I'd suggest a check on a few specialist E60 forums might help.
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