BMW E91 330d and F31 335d long term keepers
Discussion
Thought I'd put a topic up about our two daily drivers, which look to be long term vehicles for us.
Like many on here had a number of makes and models over the years as daily drivers, and having had an E46 325i touring for 4 years which proved to be a great car I decided to stick with BMW moving forwards.
I purchased this silver pre-LCI 2008 E91 330d M-sport in December 2016. I'd spent 3 months looking and after only finding cars that were not as described, it was out of my budget but dropped back in after a reduction. It's not fully loaded, but has some nice options on of Sat Nav, paddle shift, the larger disks and calipers, shadow line trim, extra storage, heated seats plus it was a two owner car with the last owner having had it for 7 years. The mileage when purchased was a reasonable 78k, it had loads of history with it and drove much, much better than any others i'd viewed - the trim was still matt in finish. It had been well looked after, couple of small marks around it and the alloys needed a refurb.
These images are recent, alloys have been done and it's now on 115k miles.
Since owning it's had a detachable tow bar fitted for our bike rack and small trailer, other than that it's remaining standard.
We've used it for some holidays on the west coast of France where it's been a great asset, split load tailgate is so useful - pit stop somewhere south of Le Mans here, fully loaded for 2 weeks with kids:
The only attention that it's needed in over 35k miles have been routine servicing, a starter motor, gearbox oil service and it decided to wreck a pair of new rear tyres within 3k miles due to an upper and lower rear control arm bush failure - the car drove fine which was most odd, it really surprised me. As it's nearly 13 years old now it'll need a few things soon, main annoyance at the moment is the rubber at the top of the screen has perished so that's on my to do list.
As it was into it's teens age wise, it was time to decide what to replace it with. I started to look at F31 335d's as a replacement, question was whether to move on our trusty E91 or sell a fully loaded 61 plate Focus Titanium X Tdci Estate. I left the choice down to my other half, so she used my E91 for two weeks and decided that we should keep that (which I was most happy about!) even though it is older and doesn't have newer toys like adaptive lights and self park like the focus had.
So on to the replacement, again I looked far and wide for over 3 months for a decent spec f31 335d. I had a list of must haves and a pretty healthy budget, they were selling so fast - I called to put a holding deposit on two different ones after them appearing online at 9am on a morning only to find that by 10am they had been reserved or sold. After a couple of quick viewings of some for sale I realised that the price versus spec seemed all over the place. Some of the cars I looked at in April are still for sale now. There was an Estoril blue 17 plate shadow line for sale that visually looked great, but had absolutely zero options on it. It appeared that darker coloured cars seemed to have more options, so I started to look at all colour options and also newer ones on the BMW AUC scheme.
I eventually found a 2 owner, sub 50k car with all options that I would have spec'd if new - it was sapphire black though, and having never owned a black car I was a bit worried about keeping it looking decent.
We did a 320 mile round trip to view it on a terrible rainy day. It was as expected, drove great and other than some very light marks on the drivers inner door handle the inside was unmarked - just needed a decent clean. Exterior wise the rain made it very hard to tell, there were some odd light scratches (not through lacquer) and the front was quite stone rashed compared to the mileage. I weighed up the spec and the possibility that the exterior might need to some attention and decided to go for it. The price was negotiated down enough for me to deal with the stone rash if need be, the wheels were refurbished with 3 new tyres fitted (the 4th was on 8mm, they changed the matching one the other side that was on on 6mm), it had new front pads, an inspection service and a brake fluid change. Being BMW AUC it's got the 12 months warranty on it which i'll extend when due.
It rained badly again on collection day so these are from after it being cleaned and some of the paintwork marks being rectified:
Main spec on it is:
Black Sapphire Metallic Paint
Black Dakota Leather with blue stitch and 'M' colour motif
Reversing Camera with approach assist
Panoramic Glass Sunroof
M Sport Pro Pack
Innovation Package
Interior Comfort Package inc heated steering wheel
Electric and heated seats, memory on drivers side
Folding door mirrors with auto dimming
Some of the extended storage options (not full pack)
It was the blue stitch on the inside that swayed me in the end, although not an 'individual' spec car it is unusual - i've not seen another 335d with it yet. It's just subtle enough to break all the dark up.
All in all really happy with it, and also glad to be keeping the E91 too! Couple of small summer jobs on it, the caliper decals need replacing and I need to get a detachable tow bar sorted.
Like many on here had a number of makes and models over the years as daily drivers, and having had an E46 325i touring for 4 years which proved to be a great car I decided to stick with BMW moving forwards.
I purchased this silver pre-LCI 2008 E91 330d M-sport in December 2016. I'd spent 3 months looking and after only finding cars that were not as described, it was out of my budget but dropped back in after a reduction. It's not fully loaded, but has some nice options on of Sat Nav, paddle shift, the larger disks and calipers, shadow line trim, extra storage, heated seats plus it was a two owner car with the last owner having had it for 7 years. The mileage when purchased was a reasonable 78k, it had loads of history with it and drove much, much better than any others i'd viewed - the trim was still matt in finish. It had been well looked after, couple of small marks around it and the alloys needed a refurb.
These images are recent, alloys have been done and it's now on 115k miles.
Since owning it's had a detachable tow bar fitted for our bike rack and small trailer, other than that it's remaining standard.
We've used it for some holidays on the west coast of France where it's been a great asset, split load tailgate is so useful - pit stop somewhere south of Le Mans here, fully loaded for 2 weeks with kids:
The only attention that it's needed in over 35k miles have been routine servicing, a starter motor, gearbox oil service and it decided to wreck a pair of new rear tyres within 3k miles due to an upper and lower rear control arm bush failure - the car drove fine which was most odd, it really surprised me. As it's nearly 13 years old now it'll need a few things soon, main annoyance at the moment is the rubber at the top of the screen has perished so that's on my to do list.
As it was into it's teens age wise, it was time to decide what to replace it with. I started to look at F31 335d's as a replacement, question was whether to move on our trusty E91 or sell a fully loaded 61 plate Focus Titanium X Tdci Estate. I left the choice down to my other half, so she used my E91 for two weeks and decided that we should keep that (which I was most happy about!) even though it is older and doesn't have newer toys like adaptive lights and self park like the focus had.
So on to the replacement, again I looked far and wide for over 3 months for a decent spec f31 335d. I had a list of must haves and a pretty healthy budget, they were selling so fast - I called to put a holding deposit on two different ones after them appearing online at 9am on a morning only to find that by 10am they had been reserved or sold. After a couple of quick viewings of some for sale I realised that the price versus spec seemed all over the place. Some of the cars I looked at in April are still for sale now. There was an Estoril blue 17 plate shadow line for sale that visually looked great, but had absolutely zero options on it. It appeared that darker coloured cars seemed to have more options, so I started to look at all colour options and also newer ones on the BMW AUC scheme.
I eventually found a 2 owner, sub 50k car with all options that I would have spec'd if new - it was sapphire black though, and having never owned a black car I was a bit worried about keeping it looking decent.
We did a 320 mile round trip to view it on a terrible rainy day. It was as expected, drove great and other than some very light marks on the drivers inner door handle the inside was unmarked - just needed a decent clean. Exterior wise the rain made it very hard to tell, there were some odd light scratches (not through lacquer) and the front was quite stone rashed compared to the mileage. I weighed up the spec and the possibility that the exterior might need to some attention and decided to go for it. The price was negotiated down enough for me to deal with the stone rash if need be, the wheels were refurbished with 3 new tyres fitted (the 4th was on 8mm, they changed the matching one the other side that was on on 6mm), it had new front pads, an inspection service and a brake fluid change. Being BMW AUC it's got the 12 months warranty on it which i'll extend when due.
It rained badly again on collection day so these are from after it being cleaned and some of the paintwork marks being rectified:
Main spec on it is:
Black Sapphire Metallic Paint
Black Dakota Leather with blue stitch and 'M' colour motif
Reversing Camera with approach assist
Panoramic Glass Sunroof
M Sport Pro Pack
Innovation Package
Interior Comfort Package inc heated steering wheel
Electric and heated seats, memory on drivers side
Folding door mirrors with auto dimming
Some of the extended storage options (not full pack)
It was the blue stitch on the inside that swayed me in the end, although not an 'individual' spec car it is unusual - i've not seen another 335d with it yet. It's just subtle enough to break all the dark up.
All in all really happy with it, and also glad to be keeping the E91 too! Couple of small summer jobs on it, the caliper decals need replacing and I need to get a detachable tow bar sorted.
Both looking good. I found the same stone rash issue you mention above on my F31, which was <50k miles when purchased. I haven't got round to doing anything about it - found it's bothered me less over time!
Mine doesn't have the pano roof (seems to be pretty rare) - definitely an option I miss having had one on a previous Pug 308. Really helped to lift a dark interior.
Mine doesn't have the pano roof (seems to be pretty rare) - definitely an option I miss having had one on a previous Pug 308. Really helped to lift a dark interior.
Nice pair of tourings.
I’m a sucker for the E91. I tried to find a good 330 on two occasions. First time they were all dogs so I ended up with an E90. Tried again recently but they were all expensive and poorly spec’d so bought a 130. I’ve since seen a couple of nicely spec’d 330 tourings. Tits.
Which version of the nav does yours have? Just thinking re your comments about adding Bluetooth etc. There seem to be sone good options out there these days. I’ve found a way to add CarPlay to the CCC nav in my 130. Not particularly cheap but keeps it looking OE and brings the car up to date.
I’m a sucker for the E91. I tried to find a good 330 on two occasions. First time they were all dogs so I ended up with an E90. Tried again recently but they were all expensive and poorly spec’d so bought a 130. I’ve since seen a couple of nicely spec’d 330 tourings. Tits.
Which version of the nav does yours have? Just thinking re your comments about adding Bluetooth etc. There seem to be sone good options out there these days. I’ve found a way to add CarPlay to the CCC nav in my 130. Not particularly cheap but keeps it looking OE and brings the car up to date.
Edited by Court_S on Tuesday 6th July 21:54
Had to put 3rd tank of fuel since May in the newer 3 series this week, thought i'd update.
The newer one as expected is a great all rounder like the older one, just with more tech. I'm planning on adding the extra front splitter a side skit extensions later this summer.
Only thing I will say is it's bloody hard to keep clean.
The newer one as expected is a great all rounder like the older one, just with more tech. I'm planning on adding the extra front splitter a side skit extensions later this summer.
Only thing I will say is it's bloody hard to keep clean.
sortedcossie said:
Had to put 3rd tank of fuel since May in the newer 3 series this week, thought i'd update.
The newer one as expected is a great all rounder like the older one, just with more tech. I'm planning on adding the extra front splitter a side skit extensions later this summer.
Only thing I will say is it's bloody hard to keep clean.
Both look in great condition. I vowed never to get another black car after the RS2. The newer one as expected is a great all rounder like the older one, just with more tech. I'm planning on adding the extra front splitter a side skit extensions later this summer.
Only thing I will say is it's bloody hard to keep clean.
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff