RE: BMW 335i Touring (F31): Spotted

[Harry_523]

[quote=louiebaby]I dunno, I'd find it hard not to go for the t5er, similar age, but less miles, only a little it more cash...

you've missed the point that this is significant because its a MANUAL

[J4CKO]

I dont get the fixation on the sat nav thing, I drove cars for years with out it and have had various contraptions stuck to my windscreen.

Is it that you are really into navigation and always use the nav, or just that the screen looks nicer and you dont want Alan from accounts thinking you arent living the dream ?

When looking for mine, there were plenty out there, when you start getting fussy it narrows the range of available cars down so much, particualrly on the One Series, I just had my must haves, wanted a 5 door auto with low miles, anything else was a nice to have.

Is a bit weird the turbo going, lots of N55's out there, plenty with JB4's or similar fitted and not really heard of any failures, seems to be a pretty solid engine by and large. The Americans havent got a Class Action lawsuit thing going so it is probably ok.

[kambites]

spikyone said:

Not sure I understand your question. New-ish BMWs seem to make up a disproportionately high number of the cars that I see sitting on the hard shoulder. I'm surprised if I manage a motorway journey without seeing a broken BMW; last time I actually passed one that was on fire on the opposite carriageway.

I suspect you underestimate the proportion of UK motorway miles which are done in a BMW 3-series. I don't think BMWs are particularly reliable, but I don't think they're especially unreliable either - by and large they're just bog-standard mainstream cars with bog-standard mainstream reliability.

[pb8g09]

J4CKO said:

I dont get the fixation on the sat nav thing, I drove cars for years with out it and have had various contraptions stuck to my windscreen.

Is it that you are really into navigation and always use the nav, or just that the screen looks nicer and you dont want Alan from accounts thinking you arent living the dream ?

When looking for mine, there were plenty out there, when you start getting fussy it narrows the range of available cars down so much, particualrly on the One Series, I just had my must haves, wanted a 5 door auto with low miles, anything else was a nice to have.

Is a bit weird the turbo going, lots of N55's out there, plenty with JB4's or similar fitted and not really heard of any failures, seems to be a pretty solid engine by and large. The Americans havent got a Class Action lawsuit thing going so it is probably ok.

Wanting to have something that's nicer doesn't have to be because of Alan in accounts?

Do you refuse to get a 4k television because otherwise people might think you're competing with Alan in accounts? - or do you refuse to get little Jimmy the latest Playstation he's asked for Christmas because Alan in accounts got his nipper one and you don't want to look like you're competing with him?

You arse. Some people buy nicer things because they want them.

[CooperS]

All i know is that the Sat Nav be that in Pro or standard form is awful.

The only reason i ticked the box was standard in an I3 looks terrible and even if Alan was judging me i'd be the one sat in my car 2 hours a day to get to work.

BMW's support for their software is beyond a joke...

[James76G]

MattOz said:

I had one, but having come from an E91 335i, I was ultimately disappointed at the way the F31 drove. I'm back in an E90 now and it's a much nicer car to drive. My F31 was a cracking spec, and should have been a keeper. Sadly it wasn't. The interior space and tech is/was a step up from the E9*, but that was about it. My F31 also suffered from rev hang between gears, which BMW couldn't resolve. Something to do with NOx emissions. Made the car drive poorly.

My manual M135i suffered with the same rev hang. I assumed it was how the engine was set up to work with the auto box and they hadn't bothered to reconfigure it for the few of us that had chosen the manual gearbox.

Mine was this colour scheme too, but I did at least add ProNav and HK. And wood trim because I hate the default silver trim.

[Usget]

pb8g09 said:

Wanting to have something that's nicer doesn't have to be because of Alan in accounts?

Do you refuse to get a 4k television because otherwise people might think you're competing with Alan in accounts? - or do you refuse to get little Jimmy the latest Playstation he's asked for Christmas because Alan in accounts got his nipper one and you don't want to look like you're competing with him?

You arse. Some people buy nicer things because they want them.

You've completely misread the post. People are saying "Well it's a great car but I wouldn't touch it with a stty stick because it hasn't got pro nav" and J4CKO is quite rightly questioning whether that's really the most important thing in the world.

I love this and I'd have it in a heartbeat if I had the money. It's everything I want in a car (with the possible exception of reliability by the sound of things).

[mradam]

moffat said:

You're right about the M Performance Exhaust, it is epic, not sure if it's switchable like it is on the B58 though?

Not switchable as standard, but I imagine it could be retrofitted with a switch.

[pSyCoSiS]

That's a great, rare find. Not many around at all.

My wife had an E90 335i SE in manual, Monaco Blue with Saffron Leather. To the untrained eye, it looked like a bog standard 318i SE on 17 inch alloys.

Drove well, but suffered from the turbo waste gate issues and kept going into limp mode under full throttle.

Sold that and recently found a facelift LCI 335i M Sport Saloon in Manual - now thats a really nice car to drive and looks good as well. The F31 styling never grew on me, and as others have said, they aren't that engaging to drive.

[Andrewph75]

These are indeed rare. I purchased a year old 330D touring in 2014 and I struggled to find any 335i's at dealers to test drive that weren't a coupe or convertible. In defence of the auto it is brilliant but then I bought as a family wagon after baby arrived. 95% of 3 series seem to be 320d's or were at the time.

[Andrewph75]

CooperS said:

All i know is that the Sat Nav be that in Pro or standard form is awful.

The only reason i ticked the box was standard in an I3 looks terrible and even if Alan was judging me i'd be the one sat in my car 2 hours a day to get to work.

BMW's support for their software is beyond a joke...

Mine needed a near 2 day software update to fix idrive problems but not sure I'd agree sat nav is a joke, traffic data has been proved right on many occasions but didn't renew as Waze is better still

[Ares]

spikyone said:

wingman0401 said:

spikyone said:

But with modern BMWs, not unusual for something to fail that early, judging by the number that I see parked up on motorway hard shoulders.

What number is that?

Not sure I understand your question. New-ish BMWs seem to make up a disproportionately high number of the cars that I see sitting on the hard shoulder. I'm surprised if I manage a motorway journey without seeing a broken BMW; last time I actually passed one that was on fire on the opposite carriageway.

Really? Its rare to see ANY car on the hard shoulder nowadays. You see a BMW on every trip?

<sniff> <sniff>

[Oily76]

Triumph Man said:

Lack of a decent nav wouldn't worry me. It's got a straight 6, manual gearbox, and decent lights for fast night driving. The only thing that puts me off is that it's an estate, and not a saloon.

I don't understand people who want a saloon over an estate. Same footprint but one of them is missing a chunk of body that could be used for carrying stuff!

Agree it's silly to choose cars by their nav screens, but there is something awful about having a massive bezel on the screens - looks like BMW deliberately makes it look naff to get people to pay for the upgrade. I have the pro-nav and the decision was purely aesthetic (sad I know).

[anonymous-user]

spikyone said:

Not sure I understand your question. New-ish BMWs seem to make up a disproportionately high number of the cars that I see sitting on the hard shoulder. I'm surprised if I manage a motorway journey without seeing a broken BMW; last time I actually passed one that was on fire on the opposite carriageway.

Ares said:

Really? Its rare to see ANY car on the hard shoulder nowadays. You see a BMW on every trip?

<sniff> <sniff>

I do a fair amount of motorway journeys, nothing excessive, but various trips (from the Midlands) include Scotland, Birmingham, London, Bristol and three or so times a year to the Tunnel and I've never, ever witnessed (to my memory) a broken down modern BMW (or old, for that matter).

To expand on that, I rarely see cars broken down at all, but especially modern ones. Sure, you get the old rot box which clearly hasn't been maintained.

I've passed your comment onto my father - a devout Merc fan might I add - who drives haulage for a living, travelling some 65,000 miles per annum. Roughly 250 miles every working day of the year, and he's observed exactly the same. Can't recall a time he's witnessed a modern BMW on the hard shoulder, or many other cars at all.

I'm not saying anecdotally you're wrong, but my assumption is either you've weirdly witnessed a lot of modern Beemers broken down, or you're telling porkies.

Sorry to go off topic. To bring it back... that Touring is overpriced. Basic nav looks cheap, and no HK system? No thanks. I get the point that it's a manual transmission, but even so, that's not the transmission you want on that car. The ZF8 is perfectly suited to the N55 engine. It's five years old and, the next time you renew the BMW warranty, it's likely to be passed the 60,000 mile mark (hence more expensive warranty premiums).

[andrew_baran]

Hunting for an E91 330i Sport Manual at the moment. Modern manual wagons with decent engines are rocking horse poop.

[MattOz]

wingman0401 said:

To bring it back... that Touring is overpriced. Basic nav looks cheap, and no HK system? No thanks. I get the point that it's a manual transmission, but even so, that's not the transmission you want on that car. The ZF8 is perfectly suited to the N55 engine. It's five years old and, the next time you renew the BMW warranty, it's likely to be passed the 60,000 mile mark (hence more expensive warranty premiums).

I'd disagree on it being overpriced. My 65 plate car (F31 335i manual), admittedly with better spec and less miles, went for double that 18 months ago. I think the price is fine. Surprisingly, there are still some of us who want a manual 'box in a car, especially one like this. I think it's ridiculous that you can't buy an F31 340i with a manual 'box. With the warranty, just get on a monthly policy before 60k miles and you're fine.

[FanBoy21]

I currently have a BMW 340i saloon with the 6MT and MPPSK. I range between thinking its wonderful to wishing I got the ZF-Auto (which I had in my last car - DMS remapped F30 335D).

Once the gearbox is completely warm its not too bad but it really is with the weak link of the car. Its not that it ever impedes your progress, per se, more that the shift from 1st to second simply isn't very nice and therefore isnt very enjoyable. Once you are up and running the B58 engine is a peach and the gearbox is actually quite good. Would I have another, i'd think long and hard about it.

[aaron_2000]

louiebaby said:

I dunno, I'd find it hard not to go for the t5er, similar age, but less miles, only a little it more cash...

https://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/...

Rather have the diesel in the 5 Series. Seems pointless to have that engine in a heavy car with an auto when you can have the torque from the diesel for the same price.

[Ares]

Oily76 said:

I don't understand people who want a saloon over an estate. Same footprint but one of them is missing a chunk of body that could be used for carrying stuff!

I'll go in a hearse when I'm dead, not before.

Saloons bring great refinement and look better. If I need space I'll go one better and get an SUV.

[Harry_523]

on the subject of manual estates with nice engines:

THIS is rocking-horse st:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...