Buying a 3 year old upmarket estate
Discussion
So 16 months a go we bought a 330d (luxury) estate on a 15 plate (3 years old). Don't buy one, ever as you will measure everything against the engine/drive and all will pale in comparison.
In all seriousness the car is great, it fits our 2 adults plus occasional 17yo son, but has been a bit of a financial burden. we picked it up @75k miles at £15k. we've added 12k in those 16 months and the car has lost £4-5k in value and 4 tyres, major service to add to it and the brakes will be due soon too.
For this price, over 2 years, I can run something decent on a lease and actively looking on the big thread. Ofc if I don't sell it I won't lose this money and the engine is bomb proof so not likely to go wrong.
But you plan on keeping it so ignore most of my comments and I do recommend the motor.
In all seriousness the car is great, it fits our 2 adults plus occasional 17yo son, but has been a bit of a financial burden. we picked it up @75k miles at £15k. we've added 12k in those 16 months and the car has lost £4-5k in value and 4 tyres, major service to add to it and the brakes will be due soon too.
For this price, over 2 years, I can run something decent on a lease and actively looking on the big thread. Ofc if I don't sell it I won't lose this money and the engine is bomb proof so not likely to go wrong.
But you plan on keeping it so ignore most of my comments and I do recommend the motor.
V90 of some flavour?
Should get one with your budget. Looks great, has one of the best interiors out there for a mainstream car and is absolute massive in the back.
V60 owner here and as another poster has commented, the boot ain’t that big and has an annoying slope to it which can prove restrictive. Great car otherwise.
Should get one with your budget. Looks great, has one of the best interiors out there for a mainstream car and is absolute massive in the back.
V60 owner here and as another poster has commented, the boot ain’t that big and has an annoying slope to it which can prove restrictive. Great car otherwise.
TheDrownedApe said:
So 16 months a go we bought a 330d (luxury) estate on a 15 plate (3 years old). Don't buy one, ever as you will measure everything against the engine/drive and all will pale in comparison.
In all seriousness the car is great, it fits our 2 adults plus occasional 17yo son, but has been a bit of a financial burden. we picked it up @75k miles at £15k. we've added 12k in those 16 months and the car has lost £4-5k in value and 4 tyres, major service to add to it and the brakes will be due soon too.
For this price, over 2 years, I can run something decent on a lease and actively looking on the big thread. Ofc if I don't sell it I won't lose this money and the engine is bomb proof so not likely to go wrong.
But you plan on keeping it so ignore most of my comments and I do recommend the motor.
I had a 2015 330d and it is a good engine but my 3.0d V6 XF is also very good and the oil sump never leaked at 30k miles 2 1/2 years in. It has the same transmission and whilst I would say the BMW was very slightly more tuned for performance in comfort mode you can pop mine into sport mode and it's the same as the bmw in sport mode. However, the ride quality on our roads is far superior than the bmw and it soaks up bumps with ease and the steering has better feel. In all seriousness the car is great, it fits our 2 adults plus occasional 17yo son, but has been a bit of a financial burden. we picked it up @75k miles at £15k. we've added 12k in those 16 months and the car has lost £4-5k in value and 4 tyres, major service to add to it and the brakes will be due soon too.
For this price, over 2 years, I can run something decent on a lease and actively looking on the big thread. Ofc if I don't sell it I won't lose this money and the engine is bomb proof so not likely to go wrong.
But you plan on keeping it so ignore most of my comments and I do recommend the motor.
To be fair the XF is more comparable to the 5 series and don't get me wrong in that the 330d is a remarkable piece of engineering with its ability to provide either performance or economy, but I would go so far as to say anything else pales in comparison.
A big plus for the 330d though is that it's Euro 6 but doesn't use adblue, which is very convenient if Euro 5 is a problem.
TheDrownedApe said:
So 16 months a go we bought a 330d (luxury) estate on a 15 plate (3 years old). Don't buy one, ever as you will measure everything against the engine/drive and all will pale in comparison.
In all seriousness the car is great, it fits our 2 adults plus occasional 17yo son, but has been a bit of a financial burden. we picked it up @75k miles at £15k. we've added 12k in those 16 months and the car has lost £4-5k in value and 4 tyres, major service to add to it and the brakes will be due soon too.
For this price, over 2 years, I can run something decent on a lease and actively looking on the big thread. Ofc if I don't sell it I won't lose this money and the engine is bomb proof so not likely to go wrong.
But you plan on keeping it so ignore most of my comments and I do recommend the motor.
The reason you've lost so much money on that is that it was a poor buy to begin with and you paid over the odds for that age/mileage/condition IMOIn all seriousness the car is great, it fits our 2 adults plus occasional 17yo son, but has been a bit of a financial burden. we picked it up @75k miles at £15k. we've added 12k in those 16 months and the car has lost £4-5k in value and 4 tyres, major service to add to it and the brakes will be due soon too.
For this price, over 2 years, I can run something decent on a lease and actively looking on the big thread. Ofc if I don't sell it I won't lose this money and the engine is bomb proof so not likely to go wrong.
But you plan on keeping it so ignore most of my comments and I do recommend the motor.
scot_aln said:
NewUsername said:
The reason you've lost so much money on that is that it was a poor buy to begin with and you paid over the odds for that age/mileage/condition IMO
Isn't that simply the spread of retail price paid vs trade buyback which would account for most of that potential loss.I assumed outright purchace and current resale value is where the poster got his number from.....
The point is that whatever method of purchase £15k into a 75k mile 3 series that needs a big service and 4 tyres is not a great buy....overpriced to start with IMO
ninjag said:
My 2015 330d X-Drive M-Sport at the end of the three year contract was offered to me for £17,925 with 35k miles on it by Alphabet. I'm not sure how it would depreciate with double the mileage.
My 2012 (62) plate 330d was £13.7k on 39k miles with full bmw s/h about 2 weeks ago. It’s the Modern spec so basically top spec in terms of interior tech without the wheels, m suspension or body kit.pb8g09 said:
ninjag said:
My 2015 330d X-Drive M-Sport at the end of the three year contract was offered to me for £17,925 with 35k miles on it by Alphabet. I'm not sure how it would depreciate with double the mileage.
My 2012 (62) plate 330d was £13.7k on 39k miles with full bmw s/h about 2 weeks ago. It’s the Modern spec so basically top spec in terms of interior tech without the wheels, m suspension or body kit.nobrakes said:
You can get an E350 approx 2012 for around half your budget. Tons of car. Looks pretty new.
Is that half the £20k or £15k? I have been monitoring these for a while an a decent E350 around 2011/12 age sub 80k miles seem to be £10-13k. The ones at £10k seem to be poorly spec’d and silver on silver or silver/black.
I spoke with a specialist in Reading who has a high spec white one and he thinks E220 should be avoided (I think he sees too many clocked taxis).
Just need to find a decent colour/spec combo.
Agreed about the C class, smaller volvos their boots aren’t that big.
Less than 10k annually then I’d be very wary of a diesel. Lots of posts on various FB groups for BMW, VAG, Jaguar etc.. for DPF issues when doing little mileage.
If you could get into a 340i in budget then that’s the way I’d go otherwise petrol Mondeo all the way on your lower budget.
If you could get into a 340i in budget then that’s the way I’d go otherwise petrol Mondeo all the way on your lower budget.
Obee72 said:
Less than 10k annually then I’d be very wary of a diesel. Lots of posts on various FB groups for BMW, VAG, Jaguar etc.. for DPF issues when doing little mileage.
They warn you nowadays so not an issue I think.My car came up with 'Particle filter alert' the other day, first time happened in several years.
Googled it, and it was warning me of too many short journeys, which was true, so took it for a blast on the motorway and the display cleared again.
Poppiecock said:
And cut out around 90% of the cars available!
This is prime ex company lease territory, petrols are in very short supply.
I’m in the same boat and yes it’s a much smaller group but having had first hand issues with DPF’s, I won’t get another one due to the mileage I do. The OP has mentioned petrol so just reaffirming their concerns.This is prime ex company lease territory, petrols are in very short supply.
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