Discussion
12TS said:
rudester said:
IIMO neither car represents good value when the 70k 840i Gran Coupe can be had for less that £450 on a 3 + 23 10K miles per year profile.
Not seen that. I’d do that if it would fit in my garage, much better value than a 340simonwhite2000 said:
12TS said:
rudester said:
IIMO neither car represents good value when the 70k 840i Gran Coupe can be had for less that £450 on a 3 + 23 10K miles per year profile.
Not seen that. I’d do that if it would fit in my garage, much better value than a 340I’m changing my 2017 540 for a new 340 . I find the 5 series too big.
bad company said:
simonwhite2000 said:
12TS said:
rudester said:
IIMO neither car represents good value when the 70k 840i Gran Coupe can be had for less that £450 on a 3 + 23 10K miles per year profile.
Not seen that. I’d do that if it would fit in my garage, much better value than a 340I’m changing my 2017 540 for a new 340 . I find the 5 series too big.
The 8 series sounds like a flagship, but it’s actually a rebadged 6 series. Then they have moved the 3 series so that it is much closer to the 5 than before, so they differentiate more on size than comfort.
In the process the 3 series has become expensive and I think the discounts on the m340i reflect their ‘aspirational’ pricing. I think the new m3 will be a big price tag compared to the previous model for similar reasons.
Those 8 series deals are epic, but I wanted a smaller more nimble car, not a super smooth GT. the fact that the m340i can do both is what appealed to me.
Th 4wd competition-my call, it will be loaded and list for about 80k. With deals at 65k straight out of the gates. If you look back and if history repeats, deals were 15-20k (run out) apr rates 4.9/2.9/1.9 and zero.
One other observation, the X3M will have a higher RRP and that is £77k. All X models are higher than their 3/5 counterparts by between 6-12k so that says the M3 will come in at no more than 70k.
One other observation, the X3M will have a higher RRP and that is £77k. All X models are higher than their 3/5 counterparts by between 6-12k so that says the M3 will come in at no more than 70k.
Edited by Burwood on Sunday 9th February 18:25
Burwood said:
Th 4wd competition-my call, it will be loaded and list for about 80k. With deals at 65k straight out of the gates. If you look back and if history repeats, deals were 15-20k (run out) apr rates 4.9/2.9/1.9 and zero.
One other observation, the X3M will have a higher RRP and that is £77k. All X models are higher than their 3/5 counterparts by between 6-12k so that says the M3 will come in at no more than 70k.
My guess would be £74k for the standard car and nudging £80k for the competition. The F80 version was £61k for a manual.One other observation, the X3M will have a higher RRP and that is £77k. All X models are higher than their 3/5 counterparts by between 6-12k so that says the M3 will come in at no more than 70k.
Judging by the M340i I think the new M3 may be a return to form and something quite special.
Elysium said:
Burwood said:
Th 4wd competition-my call, it will be loaded and list for about 80k. With deals at 65k straight out of the gates. If you look back and if history repeats, deals were 15-20k (run out) apr rates 4.9/2.9/1.9 and zero.
One other observation, the X3M will have a higher RRP and that is £77k. All X models are higher than their 3/5 counterparts by between 6-12k so that says the M3 will come in at no more than 70k.
My guess would be £74k for the standard car and nudging £80k for the competition. The F80 version was £61k for a manual.One other observation, the X3M will have a higher RRP and that is £77k. All X models are higher than their 3/5 counterparts by between 6-12k so that says the M3 will come in at no more than 70k.
Judging by the M340i I think the new M3 may be a return to form and something quite special.
It’s moot for now but the X3 comp is a very strong barometer at 77k and the m3 can’t be priced the same. It must be less by at least 5k probably more. All comp M cars also come well spec’d too. My gut says 71k for the xdrive comp. spec it up nicely to 75 with initial deals at 65k. That’s still a 20k gap to the 340. If it’s too expensive it won’t sell and the 3 series, even the halo models must sell in volume.
Burwood said:
It’s moot for now but the X3 comp is a very strong barometer at 77k and the m3 can’t be priced the same. It must be less by at least 5k probably more. All comp M cars also come well spec’d too. My gut says 71k for the xdrive comp. spec it up nicely to 75 with initial deals at 65k. That’s still a 20k gap to the 340. If it’s too expensive it won’t sell and the 3 series, even the halo models must sell in volume.
Makes sense. To be honest I have never really looked into pricing for the X3M or X5M as they hold very little interest for me. I just looked online and am pretty staggered to see the X5M competition starts at £110k vs £98k for the M5 Competition. To me the saloon is clearly a much better car.
What do people consider to be the “must have” specifications? The way the options are packaged means I’m currently ticking them all, which is going to add a fair chunk to the cost. Laser lights a nice to have? I have adaptive LED on my current touring and they are great - so wondering if Lasers are worth the extra cost. Black line pack, or whatever it’s called, seems just cosmetic and might not bother.
I'm rural so excellent headlights is a must but Laser lights are over kill. Nice to have if you have deep pockets. Adaptive LEDs are excellent and come as standard.
If I were to spec a car and be sensible i'd go for:
Driver assistance pro for adaptive cruise but also has lane keep assist included.
Drivers memory seat
upgraded leather for that premium feel
Harmon Kardon
Flag the tech pack even though the HUD is great, £1,900 is pricey and gesture is a gimmick. you may find wifi and wireless charging handy but heavy price to pay.
sun roof? I'm not bothered. We don't often use it.
If I were to spec a car and be sensible i'd go for:
Driver assistance pro for adaptive cruise but also has lane keep assist included.
Drivers memory seat
upgraded leather for that premium feel
Harmon Kardon
Flag the tech pack even though the HUD is great, £1,900 is pricey and gesture is a gimmick. you may find wifi and wireless charging handy but heavy price to pay.
sun roof? I'm not bothered. We don't often use it.
My thoughts on the options my car has:
HUD: personally I find it distracting, although I do sit as low as possible in cars, which means the conventional dials are in front of me anyway, not beneath me out of my line of sight. I just find that I spend most of my time looking at the road ahead, and to have something in that view it constantly draws my attention away from the road ahead. Having said that, I do use it with the sat nav on it in unfamiliar towns if there are lots of turnings. I certainly wouldn't pay for it though.
Harmon Kardon is wonderful, but then again I am mildly obsessed with music.
Memory seats are jolly useful if more than one person drives the car, and for finer adjustment of your seating position. However, if you're the only one driving your car, once the seats are set how you like them you'll only use it after each service.
Folding mirrors are useful for passing cars on narrow lanes, although you do lose a view down the side of the car as you pass, which I use to judge how close I am if it's a really tight squeeze. I've never found them necessary when parking - I think it just encourages other people to park too close to your car.
Reversing camera is useful for hitching up a trailer, and for tricky reversing after dark in unlit rural areas, when its night mode is better than my vision. I dropped into my wife's work the other day and reversed in a tricky car park in pitch darkness and it was invaluable. That's a rare occurrence though - all you need is the moon out or some light and your eyes are better.
Heated seats are great if you have a bad back, and for warming up much quicker than the cabin on cold days.
Headlights that turn with the steering wheel: I've owned the same model of car with and without these and the difference is very subtle. I wouldn't bother.
auto-dipping headlights: Far too slow to react - worthless.
HUD: personally I find it distracting, although I do sit as low as possible in cars, which means the conventional dials are in front of me anyway, not beneath me out of my line of sight. I just find that I spend most of my time looking at the road ahead, and to have something in that view it constantly draws my attention away from the road ahead. Having said that, I do use it with the sat nav on it in unfamiliar towns if there are lots of turnings. I certainly wouldn't pay for it though.
Harmon Kardon is wonderful, but then again I am mildly obsessed with music.
Memory seats are jolly useful if more than one person drives the car, and for finer adjustment of your seating position. However, if you're the only one driving your car, once the seats are set how you like them you'll only use it after each service.
Folding mirrors are useful for passing cars on narrow lanes, although you do lose a view down the side of the car as you pass, which I use to judge how close I am if it's a really tight squeeze. I've never found them necessary when parking - I think it just encourages other people to park too close to your car.
Reversing camera is useful for hitching up a trailer, and for tricky reversing after dark in unlit rural areas, when its night mode is better than my vision. I dropped into my wife's work the other day and reversed in a tricky car park in pitch darkness and it was invaluable. That's a rare occurrence though - all you need is the moon out or some light and your eyes are better.
Heated seats are great if you have a bad back, and for warming up much quicker than the cabin on cold days.
Headlights that turn with the steering wheel: I've owned the same model of car with and without these and the difference is very subtle. I wouldn't bother.
auto-dipping headlights: Far too slow to react - worthless.
RobM77 said:
My thoughts on the options my car has:
HUD: personally I find it distracting, although I do sit as low as possible in cars, which means the conventional dials are in front of me anyway, not beneath me out of my line of sight. I just find that I spend most of my time looking at the road ahead, and to have something in that view it constantly draws my attention away from the road ahead. Having said that, I do use it with the sat nav on it in unfamiliar towns if there are lots of turnings. I certainly wouldn't pay for it though.
Harmon Kardon is wonderful, but then again I am mildly obsessed with music.
Memory seats are jolly useful if more than one person drives the car, and for finer adjustment of your seating position. However, if you're the only one driving your car, once the seats are set how you like them you'll only use it after each service.
Folding mirrors are useful for passing cars on narrow lanes, although you do lose a view down the side of the car as you pass, which I use to judge how close I am if it's a really tight squeeze. I've never found them necessary when parking - I think it just encourages other people to park too close to your car.
Reversing camera is useful for hitching up a trailer, and for tricky reversing after dark in unlit rural areas, when its night mode is better than my vision. I dropped into my wife's work the other day and reversed in a tricky car park in pitch darkness and it was invaluable. That's a rare occurrence though - all you need is the moon out or some light and your eyes are better.
Heated seats are great if you have a bad back, and for warming up much quicker than the cabin on cold days.
Headlights that turn with the steering wheel: I've owned the same model of car with and without these and the difference is very subtle. I wouldn't bother.
auto-dipping headlights: Far too slow to react - worthless.
Out of all of those, adaptive (turns with cornering) headlights would be top of the list for me. I loved them when I had my 4 series. I do live in the country though where dark is proper dark and little lanes about the place are common. HUD: personally I find it distracting, although I do sit as low as possible in cars, which means the conventional dials are in front of me anyway, not beneath me out of my line of sight. I just find that I spend most of my time looking at the road ahead, and to have something in that view it constantly draws my attention away from the road ahead. Having said that, I do use it with the sat nav on it in unfamiliar towns if there are lots of turnings. I certainly wouldn't pay for it though.
Harmon Kardon is wonderful, but then again I am mildly obsessed with music.
Memory seats are jolly useful if more than one person drives the car, and for finer adjustment of your seating position. However, if you're the only one driving your car, once the seats are set how you like them you'll only use it after each service.
Folding mirrors are useful for passing cars on narrow lanes, although you do lose a view down the side of the car as you pass, which I use to judge how close I am if it's a really tight squeeze. I've never found them necessary when parking - I think it just encourages other people to park too close to your car.
Reversing camera is useful for hitching up a trailer, and for tricky reversing after dark in unlit rural areas, when its night mode is better than my vision. I dropped into my wife's work the other day and reversed in a tricky car park in pitch darkness and it was invaluable. That's a rare occurrence though - all you need is the moon out or some light and your eyes are better.
Heated seats are great if you have a bad back, and for warming up much quicker than the cabin on cold days.
Headlights that turn with the steering wheel: I've owned the same model of car with and without these and the difference is very subtle. I wouldn't bother.
auto-dipping headlights: Far too slow to react - worthless.
Auto dip and the way they can keep high beam on and keep a box around oncoming traffic, while amazing in the right setting, rarely worked properly due to the kinds of roads I drove on.
If I did a lot of driving on straight a-roads I’d imagine it would be great.
p1stonhead said:
Out of all of those, adaptive (turns with cornering) headlights would be top of the list for me. I loved them when I had my 4 series. I do live in the country though where dark is proper dark and little lanes about the place are common.
Auto dip and the way they can keep high beam on and keep a box around oncoming traffic, while amazing in the right setting, rarely worked properly due to the kinds of roads I drove on.
If I did a lot of driving on straight a-roads I’d imagine it would be great.
I also live out in the countryside far away from streetlights, but for me the cornering headlights was more of an interesting quirk than something genuinely useful. It might depend on the exact type of corners you take regularly. I only really noticed them when turning off onto a sideroad as I always thought there was another car coming down the road, because I saw light where it shouldn't be!Auto dip and the way they can keep high beam on and keep a box around oncoming traffic, while amazing in the right setting, rarely worked properly due to the kinds of roads I drove on.
If I did a lot of driving on straight a-roads I’d imagine it would be great.
The auto dip is indeed just too slow. For example, you're driving along a pitch black lane with main beam on and a car comes over a crest or around a corner towards you - I reckon it's about a second before the lights dip! Enough time to dazzle the oncoming driver.
The other thing with auto-dip is how I (and most people?) use main beam in rural areas - I don't just leave it on all the time at night - if I'm approaching a corner or crest I'll usually manually dip briefly to see if I can see any light, and therefore get a hint if something's coming or not. Obviously the auto-dip doesn't do this. It goes without saying that I dip for better vision more times than I dip for oncoming cars, so auto-dip really is only capturing a tiny sub-set of dipped light usage. Plus, if you dip for better vision, your finger's on the stalk anyway....
Edited by RobM77 on Wednesday 12th February 12:03
Burwood said:
adaptive LED headlights, which ate dip and don't dazzle other roads users-standard. I assume they turn also but not 100% sure.
To clarify, the adaptive headlights that come as standard don't include the selective beam function which avoids dazzling the car in front and/or cars coming the other way; to get that you need High Beam Assist but that's only available in conjunction with the laser lights as part of the Visibility Pack. The standard adaptive LED's turn to look around corners but that's it (and for many that will be enough!).JNW1 said:
Burwood said:
adaptive LED headlights, which ate dip and don't dazzle other roads users-standard. I assume they turn also but not 100% sure.
To clarify, the adaptive headlights that come as standard don't include the selective beam function which avoids dazzling the car in front and/or cars coming the other way; to get that you need High Beam Assist but that's only available in conjunction with the laser lights as part of the Visibility Pack. The standard adaptive LED's turn to look around corners but that's it (and for many that will be enough!).I looked it up and you are 100% correct
Burwood said:
JNW1 said:
Burwood said:
adaptive LED headlights, which ate dip and don't dazzle other roads users-standard. I assume they turn also but not 100% sure.
To clarify, the adaptive headlights that come as standard don't include the selective beam function which avoids dazzling the car in front and/or cars coming the other way; to get that you need High Beam Assist but that's only available in conjunction with the laser lights as part of the Visibility Pack. The standard adaptive LED's turn to look around corners but that's it (and for many that will be enough!).I looked it up and you are 100% correct
I actually think BMW should have offered ICON LED's as standard on the M340i (i.e. including the selective beam function) and asked buyers to pay extra only if they wanted to upgrade to laser lights; however, perhaps bundling selective beam with the laser lights is a ploy to encourage more people to opt for the expensive laser lights?
nammynake said:
What do people consider to be the “must have” specifications? The way the options are packaged means I’m currently ticking them all, which is going to add a fair chunk to the cost. Laser lights a nice to have? I have adaptive LED on my current touring and they are great - so wondering if Lasers are worth the extra cost. Black line pack, or whatever it’s called, seems just cosmetic and might not bother.
'Must Have' would be AC, NAV, BT Phone and possibly heated seats. All of which is standard plus much much more.Mine will be a poverty spec touring and I won't shed a tear
JNW1 said:
The only reason I found out was I didn't think it was entirely clear on the configurator and therefore asked the question on the relevant forum section of Bimmerpost! As a result my order includes the Visibility Pack but I do wonder how many have seen adaptive LED's as standard and assumed they'd be the same as the "dancing" ICON LED's on the F3x?
I actually think BMW should have offered ICON LED's as standard on the M340i (i.e. including the selective beam function) and asked buyers to pay extra only if they wanted to upgrade to laser lights; however, perhaps bundling selective beam with the laser lights is a ploy to encourage more people to opt for the expensive laser lights?
I had the Icons on the F80 and they are utterly brilliant. I actually think BMW should have offered ICON LED's as standard on the M340i (i.e. including the selective beam function) and asked buyers to pay extra only if they wanted to upgrade to laser lights; however, perhaps bundling selective beam with the laser lights is a ploy to encourage more people to opt for the expensive laser lights?
My M340i is the first car I've had with HUD, and I find it great - it's something I'd find hard to give up now.
Mine came with the Technology pack and the Comfort Pack (it was a stock car on the showroom floor when I walked in), and about the only thing I slightly miss is adaptive cruise.
Mine came with the Technology pack and the Comfort Pack (it was a stock car on the showroom floor when I walked in), and about the only thing I slightly miss is adaptive cruise.
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