Would a 2012, 80k mile 320d ED be a sensible company car?
Discussion
So I'm on the hunt for a new car to use as a company car/daily driver. Recently got a new job with a £200 a month car allowance which required a bit of travel to sites which can be all over the country, I estimate approx. 15k miles a year at most including office and personal use. I have a 2012 Mini Cooper S to part exchange which should get about £3500-4000.
Ideally I want something comfy on the motorway thats a nice all rounder and these seem perfect due to the £20 tax and good milage as well as reasonable speed and generally being nice drive. All that said, £8000 is probably as much as I want to spend, and the only one that gets me is a 2012 320d ED BluePerformance EfficientDynamics with 80k miles on the clock. I've seen a lot of people saying that the maintenance costs of these can be pretty high, and I'm sort of seeing that with the Mini already. I don't mind some maintenance costs, its a nearly 10 year old car, but it has to be reliable and not be breaking the bank with repairs every few months. Are the costs as bad as people online make out? Reviews all indicate that this model has few common issues and is generally reliable, but people's opinions seem to differ.
Any advice appreciated. I test drove one earlier today and loved it, I could go and pick it up in the next couple of days which would be perfect, but want to be sure I'm doing the right thing first.
Ideally I want something comfy on the motorway thats a nice all rounder and these seem perfect due to the £20 tax and good milage as well as reasonable speed and generally being nice drive. All that said, £8000 is probably as much as I want to spend, and the only one that gets me is a 2012 320d ED BluePerformance EfficientDynamics with 80k miles on the clock. I've seen a lot of people saying that the maintenance costs of these can be pretty high, and I'm sort of seeing that with the Mini already. I don't mind some maintenance costs, its a nearly 10 year old car, but it has to be reliable and not be breaking the bank with repairs every few months. Are the costs as bad as people online make out? Reviews all indicate that this model has few common issues and is generally reliable, but people's opinions seem to differ.
Any advice appreciated. I test drove one earlier today and loved it, I could go and pick it up in the next couple of days which would be perfect, but want to be sure I'm doing the right thing first.
Turnippp said:
So I'm on the hunt for a new car to use as a company car/daily driver. Recently got a new job with a £200 a month car allowance which required a bit of travel to sites which can be all over the country, I estimate approx. 15k miles a year at most including office and personal use. I have a 2012 Mini Cooper S to part exchange which should get about £3500-4000.
Ideally I want something comfy on the motorway thats a nice all rounder and these seem perfect due to the £20 tax and good milage as well as reasonable speed and generally being nice drive. All that said, £8000 is probably as much as I want to spend, and the only one that gets me is a 2012 320d ED BluePerformance EfficientDynamics with 80k miles on the clock. I've seen a lot of people saying that the maintenance costs of these can be pretty high, and I'm sort of seeing that with the Mini already. I don't mind some maintenance costs, its a nearly 10 year old car, but it has to be reliable and not be breaking the bank with repairs every few months. Are the costs as bad as people online make out? Reviews all indicate that this model has few common issues and is generally reliable, but people's opinions seem to differ.
Any advice appreciated. I test drove one earlier today and loved it, I could go and pick it up in the next couple of days which would be perfect, but want to be sure I'm doing the right thing first.
I've put 140k on mine since new in 2011. Great car.Ideally I want something comfy on the motorway thats a nice all rounder and these seem perfect due to the £20 tax and good milage as well as reasonable speed and generally being nice drive. All that said, £8000 is probably as much as I want to spend, and the only one that gets me is a 2012 320d ED BluePerformance EfficientDynamics with 80k miles on the clock. I've seen a lot of people saying that the maintenance costs of these can be pretty high, and I'm sort of seeing that with the Mini already. I don't mind some maintenance costs, its a nearly 10 year old car, but it has to be reliable and not be breaking the bank with repairs every few months. Are the costs as bad as people online make out? Reviews all indicate that this model has few common issues and is generally reliable, but people's opinions seem to differ.
Any advice appreciated. I test drove one earlier today and loved it, I could go and pick it up in the next couple of days which would be perfect, but want to be sure I'm doing the right thing first.
RUSSELLM said:
Are you going for manual or automatic ?
This one in particular is a manual. But if I don't get this I'm not fussed either way.CraigyMc said:
I've put 140k on mine since new in 2011. Great car.
That's good to hear, I'd heard they can do high milage relatively easily. Mind if I ask what the maintenance costs are like or if there are any issues I should look out for?I've got one of these, same situation as you in having to get a car via car allowance after years of having a company car.
Was going to get a Mazda 6, but had been sold when I went to see it. Definitely wasn't going to get a BMW!
However after a test drive thought it was ok, 4 years and over 100,000 miles later my next car will be another one.
My only gripe with it is that it doesn't have have front parking sensors (hopefully you can tell from that that I'm exceedingly happy with it)
My advice would be to have an oil & filter change every 10k and find a decent BMW specialist to look after it.
Was going to get a Mazda 6, but had been sold when I went to see it. Definitely wasn't going to get a BMW!
However after a test drive thought it was ok, 4 years and over 100,000 miles later my next car will be another one.
My only gripe with it is that it doesn't have have front parking sensors (hopefully you can tell from that that I'm exceedingly happy with it)
My advice would be to have an oil & filter change every 10k and find a decent BMW specialist to look after it.
Turnippp said:
RUSSELLM said:
Are you going for manual or automatic ?
This one in particular is a manual. But if I don't get this I'm not fussed either way.CraigyMc said:
I've put 140k on mine since new in 2011. Great car.
That's good to hear, I'd heard they can do high milage relatively easily. Mind if I ask what the maintenance costs are like or if there are any issues I should look out for?About servicing, you are totally asking the right and wrong person about this. Buckle up.
If I was to demonstrate how organised/anal I am about servicing pictorially, it would look like this (..for this is the fiche I've collected for my ED)
In terms of maintenance and other costs, it's basically a 320d SE with a few things that make it a little cheaper.
Maintenance:
In my experience, routine servicing at BMW (BMW value service, formerly called BMW four-plus) isn't generally all that much more expensive than taking it to a decent BMW indie.
I do actually take mine to an indie these days, but that's for the quality of service rather than for the price (they are better at diagnosis than the BMW main dealers, and they don't try to upsell me new brakes every visit, blatantly just to make money). BMW main dealer service staff are always struggling to make a target for upsells. This stresses me out so I've stopped going to them. My indie doesn't do that, and will query things I've asked to be done if he doesn't understand why I want them done ahead of schedule. [BMW indie is Bartlett BMW]
In my use (mainly longer journeys over 50 miles), the car tells me it wants to do 22,000 miles between oil changes (there's an oil quality sensor in the oil level sender, it measures the viscosity of the oil so isn't based on time or hours). I have always ignored that suggestion; I've never let the car go more than 12,000 miles, oil and filters aren't expensive compared to replacing a motor. Other owners may have just gone with the recommendation.
Brakes (discs/pads on all corners) on my car have been done twice in 140K miles, the second time, the rear discs were done only for cosmetics (they looked a bit rusty, still worked fine). My car is on its original clutch at 140K miles.
Cheaper than usual stuff: the specified tyres are not runflats (note: some tyre suppliers systems will be coded to tell you the car needs runflats because they assume all 320d's do). This is odd for a 3-series because all the others except the M cars come on runflats from the factory. Runflats are a lot more expensive than non-runflats, so the car is cheaper in this regard.
My 320d/ED came on Michelin Energy Savers (there is a BMW star-marked model of this tyre which I'd suggest using) - these are 205/55/R16 and cost around £70 to 80 per corner fitted, and in my use I expect they would run for more than 40K miles until replacement if I didn't generally swap them out ages before they were worn out because I like them when they have a lot of tread and can afford to change whenever I like. I've tested Bridgestone Potenza T005, they aren't bad (currently on the car but I'll be back on Michelins, probably Energy EVs at the next change).
The battery is an AGM type, but you need to get BMW to fit it because the battery computer needs to know what its capacity is, and when it was fitted, in order to manage the charging properly. Not as simple as just putting a new one in there.
Things that have needed doing that aren't routine maintenance:
A coil spring on the rear of mine cracked, I had both sides replaced because I didn't want any asymmetry.
The exhaust downpipe cracked near the flexi. This was replaced.
Other costs
£20 annual VED is nice. I pay mine monthly (£1.75 direct debit) because the extra £2 a year to do this means I have the payment in my bank statement every month so can see it happening.
Known/common faults
The N47D20 motor (which is the motor all diesel E90 320d/EDs have) has a timing chain tensioner problem until cars built in Mar 2011. After that is fine (though various nerds will attempt to convince you otherwise).
BMW official Recalls
The propshaft flexible coupling (rubberised doughnut-shaped thing) quality improvement program was replaced at BMWs cost.
Heater wiring was replaced at BMWs cost (they'd used too-light a gauge of wire and the recall involves replacing that with much heavier stuff). This was an official recall and resulted in me having a rental car at BMWs cost for a few weeks while the new loom parts were being manufactured.
Other stuff
The car comes on standard (comfy) suspension settings, but has a ride-height set about 15mm lower than the other SE cars in order to cut drag (it's the same ride-height as the M-sport cars).
The car has a towing limit of 0kg. You're not supposed to fit a towhook to it.
The car has 163hp but the motor is actually physically identical to the 184hp 320d, if you compare the part numbers on something like realoem.com. The fuelling map is different between the two, although the hardware is the same. I believe this was done partially to stop the ED from being the faster car in terms of top speed (it has less drag than the normal 320d, so all other things being equal it'd be faster). My 320d/ED has done ~144mph (averaged) flat out on an autobahn even with "just" 163hp. The ED has the same torque figures as the regular 320d, it's just that the power is clipped from 3200rpm on the ED and not on the regular car.
Please don't ask why thumbsnap turned this photo upside down, it just did...
Fuel economy is a pretty varied thing based on how and where you use the car, but on an unimpeded run at 70mph (indicated 73mph) expect somewhere around 65-70mpg in warm, dry weather. Cold and rain affect this by maybe 5mpg. As you can see, at top speed, reported fuel economy is about 40mpg (I think this is optimistic).
It is possible to get 1000 miles out of a tank of diesel if you want (I've done this on a run out from England to Munich once), I typically fill the car at around 800 miles. It's like having the opposite of having range anxiety
Downsides
The car has very long gearing. This is great for cruising - the lowest speed you can realistically take 6th on the motorway is about 50mph, which is about 1200rpm, but the downside is that in stop-start traffic, the idle speed in 1st gear is still too high. You end up bumping along on and off the clutch constantly, which is bad for both it and for your left leg (because the clutch pedal isn't light).
Some people don't like the feel of the power steering, it's electric assisted. I've never had a problem with it, although my car has the smaller M-sport style wheel anyway.
Some people hate 16" wheels with tall sidewalls. They don't look sporty, but they work like on an old jag - magic carpet primary ride. This is a compromise I live happily with, but I do have another car that is much more sporty.
Folding rear seats are a cost option on this car, and not every buyer ticked the box. I mention this only because a few friends were shocked to find that this was the case on any car.
The car isn't as comfortable as the F30 or subsequent generations in terms of adjusting wheel/seat for taller drivers. I'm 6'1" tall, not overweight, and don't suffer.
It has 5 seatbelts but is really a 4-seater, and not great for people in the back for long journeys even if there are just 4.
No spare wheel/tyre of any sort on this car. I have not had a problem in the 10 years I've owned it but some folk hate this.
Water ingress into the cabin is stopped on the inside of the door cards with a foam insulation sheet stuck to the metalwork of the door by buytl rope. If this comes unstuck (it does eventually) then 3 BMW dealerships and two indies won't know how to fix it. You'll eventually buy the tools and sundries and sort it yourself, then explain that to someone on pistonheads a year later.
I have found that the trim around the idrive controller in my car (shiny metal) is both sharp and has started to crease, I think because of heating and cooling cycles. Likewise, the trim round the stop/start button has started to peel. Both of these are replaceable with ebay parts if you are inclined to do so.
The car has a different flywheel to the other 320d's; this enables the car to run without kangarooing at low revs, but I do wonder what it would cost to replace if the clutch ever kills it when it wears out.
Some of the more obscure parts are becoming obsolete from BMW direct. It's not a current model any more.
Edited to add, you may wish to read this https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Edited by CraigyMc on Thursday 11th November 09:36
If you don't already know, timing chain issues could bring a big bill. The timing chain went on a neighbour's manual 318d after 88K. He had an oil service when the car car asked for it rather than changing the oil every 9k ish which others recommend here. I have a 2013 320d ED (Blue performance isn't a BMW descriptor by the way) and find it spritely for its 165HP and has a decent amount of torque. On a 120mile run to the Lakes during the fuel crisis I took it easy, not going above 65mph and achieved 70.7mpg!
CraigyMc said:
For this era (E90) of 320d ED I am surprised the auto was an option, I think that came in with the F30 and wasn't available on the E90 320d/ED as far as I recall. I did buy my car new and it was built to order for me rather than coming from stock, I don't recall auto being an option at the time.
About servicing, you are totally asking the right and wrong person about this. Buckle up.
If I was to demonstrate how organised/anal I am about servicing pictorially, it would look like this (..for this is the fiche I've collected for my ED)
In terms of maintenance and other costs, it's basically a 320d SE with a few things that make it a little cheaper.
Maintenance:
In my experience, routine servicing at BMW (BMW value service, formerly called BMW four-plus) isn't generally all that much more expensive than taking it to a decent BMW indie.
I do actually take mine to an indie these days, but that's for the quality of service rather than for the price (they are better at diagnosis than the BMW main dealers, and they don't try to upsell me new brakes every visit, blatantly just to make money). BMW main dealer service staff are always struggling to make a target for upsells. This stresses me out so I've stopped going to them. My indie doesn't do that, and will query things I've asked to be done if he doesn't understand why I want them done ahead of schedule. [BMW indie is Bartlett BMW]
In my use (mainly longer journeys over 50 miles), the car tells me it wants to do 22,000 miles between oil changes (there's an oil quality sensor in the oil level sender, it measures the viscosity of the oil so isn't based on time or hours). I have always ignored that suggestion; I've never let the car go more than 12,000 miles, oil and filters aren't expensive compared to replacing a motor. Other owners may have just gone with the recommendation.
Brakes (discs/pads on all corners) on my car have been done twice in 140K miles, the second time, the rear discs were done only for cosmetics (they looked a bit rusty, still worked fine). My car is on its original clutch at 140K miles.
Cheaper than usual stuff: the specified tyres are not runflats (note: some tyre suppliers systems will be coded to tell you the car needs runflats because they assume all 320d's do). This is odd for a 3-series because all the others except the M cars come on runflats from the factory. Runflats are a lot more expensive than non-runflats, so the car is cheaper in this regard.
My 320d/ED came on Michelin Energy Savers (there is a BMW star-marked model of this tyre which I'd suggest using) - these are 205/55/R16 and cost around £70 to 80 per corner fitted, and in my use I expect they would run for more than 40K miles until replacement if I didn't generally swap them out ages before they were worn out because I like them when they have a lot of tread and can afford to change whenever I like. I've tested Bridgestone Potenza T005, they aren't bad (currently on the car but I'll be back on Michelins, probably Energy EVs at the next change).
The battery is an AGM type, but you need to get BMW to fit it because the battery computer needs to know what its capacity is, and when it was fitted, in order to manage the charging properly. Not as simple as just putting a new one in there.
Things that have needed doing that aren't routine maintenance:
A coil spring on the rear of mine cracked, I had both sides replaced because I didn't want any asymmetry.
The exhaust downpipe cracked near the flexi. This was replaced.
Other costs
£20 annual VED is nice. I pay mine monthly (£1.75 direct debit) because the extra £2 a year to do this means I have the payment in my bank statement every month so can see it happening.
Known/common faults
The N47D20 motor (which is the motor all diesel E90 320d/EDs have) has a timing chain tensioner problem until cars built in Mar 2011. After that is fine (though various nerds will attempt to convince you otherwise).
BMW official Recalls
The propshaft flexible coupling (rubberised doughnut-shaped thing) quality improvement program was replaced at BMWs cost.
Heater wiring was replaced at BMWs cost (they'd used too-light a gauge of wire and the recall involves replacing that with much heavier stuff). This was an official recall and resulted in me having a rental car at BMWs cost for a few weeks while the new loom parts were being manufactured.
Other stuff
The car comes on standard (comfy) suspension settings, but has a ride-height set about 15mm lower than the other SE cars in order to cut drag (it's the same ride-height as the M-sport cars).
The car has a towing limit of 0kg. You're not supposed to fit a towhook to it.
The car has 163hp but the motor is actually physically identical to the 184hp 320d, if you compare the part numbers on something like realoem.com. The fuelling map is different between the two, although the hardware is the same. I believe this was done partially to stop the ED from being the faster car in terms of top speed (it has less drag than the normal 320d, so all other things being equal it'd be faster). My 320d/ED has done ~144mph (averaged) flat out on an autobahn even with "just" 163hp. The ED has the same torque figures as the regular 320d, it's just that the power is clipped from 3200rpm on the ED and not on the regular car.
Please don't ask why thumbsnap turned this photo upside down, it just did...
Fuel economy is a pretty varied thing based on how and where you use the car, but on an unimpeded run at 70mph (indicated 73mph) expect somewhere around 65-70mpg in warm, dry weather. Cold and rain affect this by maybe 5mpg. As you can see, at top speed, reported fuel economy is about 40mpg (I think this is optimistic).
It is possible to get 1000 miles out of a tank of diesel if you want (I've done this on a run out from England to Munich once), I typically fill the car at around 800 miles. It's like having the opposite of having range anxiety
Downsides
The car has very long gearing. This is great for cruising - the lowest speed you can realistically take 6th on the motorway is about 50mph, which is about 1200rpm, but the downside is that in stop-start traffic, the idle speed in 1st gear is still too high. You end up bumping along on and off the clutch constantly, which is bad for both it and for your left leg (because the clutch pedal isn't light).
Some people don't like the feel of the power steering, it's electric assisted. I've never had a problem with it, although my car has the smaller M-sport style wheel anyway.
Some people hate 16" wheels with tall sidewalls. They don't look sporty, but they work like on an old jag - magic carpet primary ride. This is a compromise I live happily with, but I do have another car that is much more sporty.
Folding rear seats are a cost option on this car, and not every buyer ticked the box. I mention this only because a few friends were shocked to find that this was the case on any car.
The car isn't as comfortable as the F30 or subsequent generations in terms of adjusting wheel/seat for taller drivers. I'm 6'1" tall, not overweight, and don't suffer.
It has 5 seatbelts but is really a 4-seater, and not great for people in the back for long journeys even if there are just 4.
No spare wheel/tyre of any sort on this car. I have not had a problem in the 10 years I've owned it but some folk hate this.
Water ingress into the cabin is stopped on the inside of the door cards with a foam insulation sheet stuck to the metalwork of the door by buytl rope. If this comes unstuck (it does eventually) then 3 BMW dealerships and two indies won't know how to fix it. You'll eventually buy the tools and sundries and sort it yourself, then explain that to someone on pistonheads a year later.
I have found that the trim around the idrive controller in my car (shiny metal) is both sharp and has started to crease, I think because of heating and cooling cycles. Likewise, the trim round the stop/start button has started to peel. Both of these are replaceable with ebay parts if you are inclined to do so.
The car has a different flywheel to the other 320d's; this enables the car to run without kangarooing at low revs, but I do wonder what it would cost to replace if the clutch ever kills it when it wears out.
Some of the more obscure parts are becoming obsolete from BMW direct. It's not a current model any more.
Edited to add, you may wish to read this https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Good advice, I’m not a nerd, maybe a light anorak, but later N47 timing chains do fail. As do HPFPs.About servicing, you are totally asking the right and wrong person about this. Buckle up.
If I was to demonstrate how organised/anal I am about servicing pictorially, it would look like this (..for this is the fiche I've collected for my ED)
In terms of maintenance and other costs, it's basically a 320d SE with a few things that make it a little cheaper.
Maintenance:
In my experience, routine servicing at BMW (BMW value service, formerly called BMW four-plus) isn't generally all that much more expensive than taking it to a decent BMW indie.
I do actually take mine to an indie these days, but that's for the quality of service rather than for the price (they are better at diagnosis than the BMW main dealers, and they don't try to upsell me new brakes every visit, blatantly just to make money). BMW main dealer service staff are always struggling to make a target for upsells. This stresses me out so I've stopped going to them. My indie doesn't do that, and will query things I've asked to be done if he doesn't understand why I want them done ahead of schedule. [BMW indie is Bartlett BMW]
In my use (mainly longer journeys over 50 miles), the car tells me it wants to do 22,000 miles between oil changes (there's an oil quality sensor in the oil level sender, it measures the viscosity of the oil so isn't based on time or hours). I have always ignored that suggestion; I've never let the car go more than 12,000 miles, oil and filters aren't expensive compared to replacing a motor. Other owners may have just gone with the recommendation.
Brakes (discs/pads on all corners) on my car have been done twice in 140K miles, the second time, the rear discs were done only for cosmetics (they looked a bit rusty, still worked fine). My car is on its original clutch at 140K miles.
Cheaper than usual stuff: the specified tyres are not runflats (note: some tyre suppliers systems will be coded to tell you the car needs runflats because they assume all 320d's do). This is odd for a 3-series because all the others except the M cars come on runflats from the factory. Runflats are a lot more expensive than non-runflats, so the car is cheaper in this regard.
My 320d/ED came on Michelin Energy Savers (there is a BMW star-marked model of this tyre which I'd suggest using) - these are 205/55/R16 and cost around £70 to 80 per corner fitted, and in my use I expect they would run for more than 40K miles until replacement if I didn't generally swap them out ages before they were worn out because I like them when they have a lot of tread and can afford to change whenever I like. I've tested Bridgestone Potenza T005, they aren't bad (currently on the car but I'll be back on Michelins, probably Energy EVs at the next change).
The battery is an AGM type, but you need to get BMW to fit it because the battery computer needs to know what its capacity is, and when it was fitted, in order to manage the charging properly. Not as simple as just putting a new one in there.
Things that have needed doing that aren't routine maintenance:
A coil spring on the rear of mine cracked, I had both sides replaced because I didn't want any asymmetry.
The exhaust downpipe cracked near the flexi. This was replaced.
Other costs
£20 annual VED is nice. I pay mine monthly (£1.75 direct debit) because the extra £2 a year to do this means I have the payment in my bank statement every month so can see it happening.
Known/common faults
The N47D20 motor (which is the motor all diesel E90 320d/EDs have) has a timing chain tensioner problem until cars built in Mar 2011. After that is fine (though various nerds will attempt to convince you otherwise).
BMW official Recalls
The propshaft flexible coupling (rubberised doughnut-shaped thing) quality improvement program was replaced at BMWs cost.
Heater wiring was replaced at BMWs cost (they'd used too-light a gauge of wire and the recall involves replacing that with much heavier stuff). This was an official recall and resulted in me having a rental car at BMWs cost for a few weeks while the new loom parts were being manufactured.
Other stuff
The car comes on standard (comfy) suspension settings, but has a ride-height set about 15mm lower than the other SE cars in order to cut drag (it's the same ride-height as the M-sport cars).
The car has a towing limit of 0kg. You're not supposed to fit a towhook to it.
The car has 163hp but the motor is actually physically identical to the 184hp 320d, if you compare the part numbers on something like realoem.com. The fuelling map is different between the two, although the hardware is the same. I believe this was done partially to stop the ED from being the faster car in terms of top speed (it has less drag than the normal 320d, so all other things being equal it'd be faster). My 320d/ED has done ~144mph (averaged) flat out on an autobahn even with "just" 163hp. The ED has the same torque figures as the regular 320d, it's just that the power is clipped from 3200rpm on the ED and not on the regular car.
Please don't ask why thumbsnap turned this photo upside down, it just did...
Fuel economy is a pretty varied thing based on how and where you use the car, but on an unimpeded run at 70mph (indicated 73mph) expect somewhere around 65-70mpg in warm, dry weather. Cold and rain affect this by maybe 5mpg. As you can see, at top speed, reported fuel economy is about 40mpg (I think this is optimistic).
It is possible to get 1000 miles out of a tank of diesel if you want (I've done this on a run out from England to Munich once), I typically fill the car at around 800 miles. It's like having the opposite of having range anxiety
Downsides
The car has very long gearing. This is great for cruising - the lowest speed you can realistically take 6th on the motorway is about 50mph, which is about 1200rpm, but the downside is that in stop-start traffic, the idle speed in 1st gear is still too high. You end up bumping along on and off the clutch constantly, which is bad for both it and for your left leg (because the clutch pedal isn't light).
Some people don't like the feel of the power steering, it's electric assisted. I've never had a problem with it, although my car has the smaller M-sport style wheel anyway.
Some people hate 16" wheels with tall sidewalls. They don't look sporty, but they work like on an old jag - magic carpet primary ride. This is a compromise I live happily with, but I do have another car that is much more sporty.
Folding rear seats are a cost option on this car, and not every buyer ticked the box. I mention this only because a few friends were shocked to find that this was the case on any car.
The car isn't as comfortable as the F30 or subsequent generations in terms of adjusting wheel/seat for taller drivers. I'm 6'1" tall, not overweight, and don't suffer.
It has 5 seatbelts but is really a 4-seater, and not great for people in the back for long journeys even if there are just 4.
No spare wheel/tyre of any sort on this car. I have not had a problem in the 10 years I've owned it but some folk hate this.
Water ingress into the cabin is stopped on the inside of the door cards with a foam insulation sheet stuck to the metalwork of the door by buytl rope. If this comes unstuck (it does eventually) then 3 BMW dealerships and two indies won't know how to fix it. You'll eventually buy the tools and sundries and sort it yourself, then explain that to someone on pistonheads a year later.
I have found that the trim around the idrive controller in my car (shiny metal) is both sharp and has started to crease, I think because of heating and cooling cycles. Likewise, the trim round the stop/start button has started to peel. Both of these are replaceable with ebay parts if you are inclined to do so.
The car has a different flywheel to the other 320d's; this enables the car to run without kangarooing at low revs, but I do wonder what it would cost to replace if the clutch ever kills it when it wears out.
Some of the more obscure parts are becoming obsolete from BMW direct. It's not a current model any more.
Edited to add, you may wish to read this https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Edited by CraigyMc on Thursday 11th November 09:36
Magnum 475 said:
I had one of these from new in 2011. Sold it in 2015 with 95k miles. Never had a problem in that time. According to the MoT History Check site, it now has 195k miles on, and is still managing to pass the MoT each year.
Thats very reassuring. Assuming I'll be keeping it for a few years it'll be getting over 100k for sure.Deltic said:
I've got one of these, same situation as you in having to get a car via car allowance after years of having a company car.
Was going to get a Mazda 6, but had been sold when I went to see it. Definitely wasn't going to get a BMW!
However after a test drive thought it was ok, 4 years and over 100,000 miles later my next car will be another one.
My only gripe with it is that it doesn't have have front parking sensors (hopefully you can tell from that that I'm exceedingly happy with it)
My advice would be to have an oil & filter change every 10k and find a decent BMW specialist to look after it.
Yeah it wasn't my first choice, I was going to go more sensible, but realised Id rather pay a little extra and have a comfortable butt on long drives. Thanks for the reply.Was going to get a Mazda 6, but had been sold when I went to see it. Definitely wasn't going to get a BMW!
However after a test drive thought it was ok, 4 years and over 100,000 miles later my next car will be another one.
My only gripe with it is that it doesn't have have front parking sensors (hopefully you can tell from that that I'm exceedingly happy with it)
My advice would be to have an oil & filter change every 10k and find a decent BMW specialist to look after it.
CraigyMc said:
Text
Thank you so much for all that info, its exactly the sort of account I was interested in and I'll be sure to read through the other thread you linked. That all seems very reasonable to me for a car like this._Hoppers said:
If you don't already know, timing chain issues could bring a big bill. The timing chain went on a neighbour's manual 318d after 88K. He had an oil service when the car car asked for it rather than changing the oil every 9k ish which others recommend here. I have a 2013 320d ED (Blue performance isn't a BMW descriptor by the way) and find it spritely for its 165HP and has a decent amount of torque. On a 120mile run to the Lakes during the fuel crisis I took it easy, not going above 65mph and achieved 70.7mpg!
This is the one major issue I'd heard of, and had to replace the one on my Mini earlier in the year. Great to hear of the economy though, things like that make the potential fixes seem worth it imo.Turnippp said:
Great to hear of the economy though, things like that make the potential fixes seem worth it imo.
I don't usually get anywhere near that though! Average overall MPG on computer is 52mpg but I do quite a few trips that hammer the average. On a 'normal' motorway run, 60mpg is easily achievable. By the way, if you go for the 320ed LCI (facelift) version, which I think came out in 2015/6 (ish) the Tax is free (although a few years later the revised tax scheme killed that!) and is also Euro 6._Hoppers said:
I don't usually get anywhere near that though! Average overall MPG on computer is 52mpg but I do quite a few trips that hammer the average. On a 'normal' motorway run, 60mpg is easily achievable. By the way, if you go for the 320ed LCI (facelift) version, which I think came out in 2015/6 (ish) the Tax is free (although a few years later the revised tax scheme killed that!) and is also Euro 6.
Tbh 60mpg still seems pretty good to me for a reasonably quick and luxurious car. It's a lot better than my Cooper S gets. The 2012 model is only £20 a year tax which is amazing to me. CraigyMc said:
Known/common faults
The N47D20 motor (which is the motor all diesel E90 320d/EDs have) has a timing chain tensioner problem until cars built in Mar 2011. After that is fine (though various nerds will attempt to convince you otherwise).
Nonsense. I've seen plenty of F30's with chain problems. It wasn't cured until the B47 arrived in early 2015.The N47D20 motor (which is the motor all diesel E90 320d/EDs have) has a timing chain tensioner problem until cars built in Mar 2011. After that is fine (though various nerds will attempt to convince you otherwise).
Touring442 said:
Nonsense. I've seen plenty of F30's with chain problems. It wasn't cured until the B47 arrived in early 2015.
Doesn't the B47 have the same tensioner & chain as the final revision of the N47!Al least that's what I was assured of by the dealer when I questioned buying one over the other (with 3 months between their production dates).
ETA: just checked RealOEM and the same chain/guide/tensioner is/can be used all the way into 2019 in some cases...so included the LCI B47-engined F3x...so I assume any earlier car would/could have been retrofitted with the later parts?
Edited by mmm-five on Thursday 11th November 17:11
I had a 2011 320D ED. Fuel economy was excellent, almost unbelievable.
Only complaint I had of mine, was clutch judder. If it had been raining overnight or had been cold, as I let the clutch out, it would judder slightly. Would do it once and then be fine for the rest of the day. Didn’t get any worse during my ownership, so I just lived with it.
The 16” ? alloy wheels looked small, but I suspect they helped make the ride as nice as it was.
I’d definitely have one again.
Only complaint I had of mine, was clutch judder. If it had been raining overnight or had been cold, as I let the clutch out, it would judder slightly. Would do it once and then be fine for the rest of the day. Didn’t get any worse during my ownership, so I just lived with it.
The 16” ? alloy wheels looked small, but I suspect they helped make the ride as nice as it was.
I’d definitely have one again.
RUSSELLM said:
Only complaint I had of mine, was clutch judder. If it had been raining overnight or had been cold, as I let the clutch out, it would judder slightly. Would do it once and then be fine for the rest of the day. Didn’t get any worse during my ownership, so I just lived with it.
I've had this too, only on cold days and only for the first minute or two.It's possible to drive around it by just giving the car a few more revs (this is how I do it, ymmv..)
Gassing Station | BMW General | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff