Early BMW X3 (2008-) buyers guide
Discussion
Done a quick search on here but only found a guide for models a bit later than this.
We need a new, bigger, more practical car for my wife to drive as her £1,000 VW beetle although reliable will fail it's MOT in Jan without doubt and it's just not practical enough so we'll probably scrap it.
We have a budget of about £4k - £4.5k MAX.
I've no hesitation about buying second hand, higher mileage cars privately and so have been looking at what we can find in the budget. She'd really like a Jeep but they don't fit in our budget. Having had E34's, & still having an E36 I thought I'd look into BMW's and was surprised to see some nice looking X3's available in our budget.
I wondered if anyone could tell me what these are but like for reliability?
The ones in that budget all seem to have 2.0d diesel engines in. I'm wondering if these are likely to be the notorious N47 engines?
Anything else to look out for?
Thanks in advance
We need a new, bigger, more practical car for my wife to drive as her £1,000 VW beetle although reliable will fail it's MOT in Jan without doubt and it's just not practical enough so we'll probably scrap it.
We have a budget of about £4k - £4.5k MAX.
I've no hesitation about buying second hand, higher mileage cars privately and so have been looking at what we can find in the budget. She'd really like a Jeep but they don't fit in our budget. Having had E34's, & still having an E36 I thought I'd look into BMW's and was surprised to see some nice looking X3's available in our budget.
I wondered if anyone could tell me what these are but like for reliability?
The ones in that budget all seem to have 2.0d diesel engines in. I'm wondering if these are likely to be the notorious N47 engines?
Anything else to look out for?
Thanks in advance
57 plates onwards they started phasing in the N47 engine.
163BHP - M47 -Solid engine, turbos fail when oil isnt regularly changed. (54-57 reg)
173BHP - N47 - Timing chain issues, EGR valves can cause problems (57 to 11 reg)
Things to look for:
Depress the clutch with the engine running. Any rattling would mean the clutch/flywheel is on the way out
Make sure the rear wiper and all the windows are working and the radio gets reception.
Do some low speed maneuvering and listen for grinding/clicking noises from the drivetrain. The AWD system is sensitive to incorrect/worn/uninflated tyres.
On acceleration any jerking/hesitation would most likely be from the AWD system slipping due to incorrect/worn/uninflated tyres or an issue with the transfer box.
163BHP - M47 -Solid engine, turbos fail when oil isnt regularly changed. (54-57 reg)
173BHP - N47 - Timing chain issues, EGR valves can cause problems (57 to 11 reg)
Things to look for:
Depress the clutch with the engine running. Any rattling would mean the clutch/flywheel is on the way out
Make sure the rear wiper and all the windows are working and the radio gets reception.
Do some low speed maneuvering and listen for grinding/clicking noises from the drivetrain. The AWD system is sensitive to incorrect/worn/uninflated tyres.
On acceleration any jerking/hesitation would most likely be from the AWD system slipping due to incorrect/worn/uninflated tyres or an issue with the transfer box.
I had an 06 2 0d M Sport X3 manual for 9 months last year & did 18k miles (bought at 100k miles). If you are interested In an MSport be warned that the ride on runflats can be quite hard. Decide if you prefer a manual vs auto as it's the sort of car where an auto might be easier & wouldn't suffer from dual mass flywheel issues (mine showed this as I was part exchanging it!). Over and above normal maintenance, mine suffered from injector failure and also required swirl flap replacement (it cost quite a lot in a few months) & I never got to the bottom of hesitation under load on the open road. EGR valves can also be an issue if the car has done lots of short journeys. As mentioned, if the tyres aren't similar in tread depth the transmission will "clunk" which isn't good.
FWIW, I bought a much newer X1 2.0d to replace my X3 as I still wanted a 4x4 SUV. Alternatives when I was looking to change the X3 included a Honda CRV (apparently typically Japanese when it comes to reliability) & also a Skoda Yeti. Make sure you try a few X3s before you buy though be warned at £4-4.5k you might find a few less than reliable cars (as I found out with mine) & the after market warranties can prove useless as they'll claim Injectors/swirl flaps on a high mileage car are wear and tear items.
FWIW, I bought a much newer X1 2.0d to replace my X3 as I still wanted a 4x4 SUV. Alternatives when I was looking to change the X3 included a Honda CRV (apparently typically Japanese when it comes to reliability) & also a Skoda Yeti. Make sure you try a few X3s before you buy though be warned at £4-4.5k you might find a few less than reliable cars (as I found out with mine) & the after market warranties can prove useless as they'll claim Injectors/swirl flaps on a high mileage car are wear and tear items.
Gassing Station | BMW General | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff