The Fun Bus - BMW 320i Efficient Dynamics (F30)
Discussion
About a year ago, I secured a new job which included a company car as part of the package. The first hire car I had was a Mondeo Titanium TDCi hatch which I really quite liked and I then inherited a '61 plate Passat Sport from within the company. Once I'd proved I wanted to stay and the company wanted me to stay, I was given free reign on ordering 'my' company car. Of course, I had to ensure I stayed within the parameters of manufacturer, body style (saloon, hatch or estate cars only) and of course budget.
I considered many cars but dismissed some as quickly as I considered having one. The final few included a Golf GTD, Mondeo Titanium-X Sport, Volkswagen Passat CC GT, BMW 120d M-Sport, 318d SE and the 320i efficient dynamics. I went for the 320 - I've always liked BMW and the opportunity to order one brand new to my spec appealed. The company car tax liability was also attractive as it's lower than almost all the other cars I considered.
I decided I wanted a test drive and this would be a 3-week wait! The reason being that my car is quite rare - less than 200 registered in the UK. The dealer assigned by the Lease company (Blue Bell in Wilmslow) didn't have one so had to order direct from the BMW GB fleet. I wanted to be sure that I'd like the car for the 80k miles I'll have it for - I soon realised when driving home in the demonstrator it was what I wanted. So decision made and an order to be placed.
The order I placed was for a '14 model year, 320i Efficient Dynamics saloon in Imperial Blue Xirallic with black cloth. Extras were Harman Kardon Hi-Fi, light pack, rear armrest and the Xirallic paint. The spec as standard is better than some would believe - compared to the Passat CC GT it lacks Sat-nav, leather, Xenons and heated seats. I could have had the 'Business edition' of the 320 and this would have added all but the Xenons previously mentioned - to be honest, none of which really bothered me. The car was a factory order - not one existed in BMW stock (of any spec) so a 12 week wait ensued.
Thursday 12th September arrived as did the car.
The dealer had been first class in every respect, the salesman (Gordon) treated me as if I'd spent £100k on an M6 - I never felt I was 'only' a lease company end user which some dealers did even before I'd ordered anything.
The interior is a nice place to be - my commute is 60 miles a day on dual-carriageway and that's before I do any other business mileage. It does everything well. I'll not lie, things that annoy me are the rain-sensing wipers that I don't think work well at all and the rear parking sensors that stay on even when you've deselected reverse for neutral - you have to actively pull forward to turn them off or turn the engine off. The Harman Kardon is a delight and Dire Straits' Telegraph Road is the perfect track to show off its ability - the settings I have are spot on for me. The iDrive is painfully slow to get going upon starting the car but works well and the shortcuts make life easier than buggering around in menus and sub-menus.
The car has been in to my local dealer (Sytner Leicester) once and it turned out the fault I thought I had was normal operation - it took one poor technician most of the day to try and resolve before being put right by a master tech! The auto headlights were coming on and not going off when you'd expect them too - bright sunshine and they'd come on. It turns out that from August 2013 built cars onwards, the sensors work on a light level which is more prevalent in the winter sun and in turn meant I had disco headlights.
The engine is a 1.6l with a turbo attached to it and has 170bhp - in sport mode it pulls very well and even in Eco-Pro can push on well. I'm now on 14k miles and it's not missed a beat. Average mpg is 40.92 although the car tells me it's 43mpg. Average range to a tank is about 500 miles. The best I've seen has been 597 miles to a tank with an mpg return of 46.21mpg. The tank is 60 litre capacity. I'm very lucky that I get all my fuel paid for so economy was less of a consideration to me.
The car sits lower than a standard 3-series SE - I think on sports suspension. It can ride bloody badly on poor road surfaces but on a decent road surface will push on at decent speed with comfort. It handles well, well enough for me on my commute/business mileage and also pretty well when pushing on on an occasional B-road blast. Sport mode transforms the car and it really does become quite a lively lump of metal.
Will I have another when this is due to be replaced at 80k miles? No, it'll be something different I think. Doesn't matter for now though - I've 66,000 miles to think about it!
I considered many cars but dismissed some as quickly as I considered having one. The final few included a Golf GTD, Mondeo Titanium-X Sport, Volkswagen Passat CC GT, BMW 120d M-Sport, 318d SE and the 320i efficient dynamics. I went for the 320 - I've always liked BMW and the opportunity to order one brand new to my spec appealed. The company car tax liability was also attractive as it's lower than almost all the other cars I considered.
I decided I wanted a test drive and this would be a 3-week wait! The reason being that my car is quite rare - less than 200 registered in the UK. The dealer assigned by the Lease company (Blue Bell in Wilmslow) didn't have one so had to order direct from the BMW GB fleet. I wanted to be sure that I'd like the car for the 80k miles I'll have it for - I soon realised when driving home in the demonstrator it was what I wanted. So decision made and an order to be placed.
The order I placed was for a '14 model year, 320i Efficient Dynamics saloon in Imperial Blue Xirallic with black cloth. Extras were Harman Kardon Hi-Fi, light pack, rear armrest and the Xirallic paint. The spec as standard is better than some would believe - compared to the Passat CC GT it lacks Sat-nav, leather, Xenons and heated seats. I could have had the 'Business edition' of the 320 and this would have added all but the Xenons previously mentioned - to be honest, none of which really bothered me. The car was a factory order - not one existed in BMW stock (of any spec) so a 12 week wait ensued.
Thursday 12th September arrived as did the car.
The dealer had been first class in every respect, the salesman (Gordon) treated me as if I'd spent £100k on an M6 - I never felt I was 'only' a lease company end user which some dealers did even before I'd ordered anything.
The interior is a nice place to be - my commute is 60 miles a day on dual-carriageway and that's before I do any other business mileage. It does everything well. I'll not lie, things that annoy me are the rain-sensing wipers that I don't think work well at all and the rear parking sensors that stay on even when you've deselected reverse for neutral - you have to actively pull forward to turn them off or turn the engine off. The Harman Kardon is a delight and Dire Straits' Telegraph Road is the perfect track to show off its ability - the settings I have are spot on for me. The iDrive is painfully slow to get going upon starting the car but works well and the shortcuts make life easier than buggering around in menus and sub-menus.
The car has been in to my local dealer (Sytner Leicester) once and it turned out the fault I thought I had was normal operation - it took one poor technician most of the day to try and resolve before being put right by a master tech! The auto headlights were coming on and not going off when you'd expect them too - bright sunshine and they'd come on. It turns out that from August 2013 built cars onwards, the sensors work on a light level which is more prevalent in the winter sun and in turn meant I had disco headlights.
The engine is a 1.6l with a turbo attached to it and has 170bhp - in sport mode it pulls very well and even in Eco-Pro can push on well. I'm now on 14k miles and it's not missed a beat. Average mpg is 40.92 although the car tells me it's 43mpg. Average range to a tank is about 500 miles. The best I've seen has been 597 miles to a tank with an mpg return of 46.21mpg. The tank is 60 litre capacity. I'm very lucky that I get all my fuel paid for so economy was less of a consideration to me.
The car sits lower than a standard 3-series SE - I think on sports suspension. It can ride bloody badly on poor road surfaces but on a decent road surface will push on at decent speed with comfort. It handles well, well enough for me on my commute/business mileage and also pretty well when pushing on on an occasional B-road blast. Sport mode transforms the car and it really does become quite a lively lump of metal.
Will I have another when this is due to be replaced at 80k miles? No, it'll be something different I think. Doesn't matter for now though - I've 66,000 miles to think about it!
Edited by Fun Bus on Sunday 23 March 20:47
Edited by Fun Bus on Sunday 23 March 21:00
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