Buying high mileage BMW - good or bad idea?
Discussion
Hi all,
I currently have a 66 plate 218i with around 35k miles on the clock. Since I am young and at university and the thing drinks fuel (getting <20mpg around town with careful driving and 36mpg motorway) I am looking at possibly downgrading and getting an old 1 series coupe which basically looks the same as my 2 series.
I would be looking at getting one with circa 100k on the clock, possibly a bit less, and it would be an automatic 2.0 diesel, probably around 10-12 years old.
Realistically I do around 6k miles each year and I'll only need the car for another 3 years. I'm not desperate to sell my 218i if the general advice is that the old 118d/120d automatic diesels are unreliable but would be nice to free up some cash. I've never bought high mileage so I don't know what to expect...
Would appreciate some advice
I currently have a 66 plate 218i with around 35k miles on the clock. Since I am young and at university and the thing drinks fuel (getting <20mpg around town with careful driving and 36mpg motorway) I am looking at possibly downgrading and getting an old 1 series coupe which basically looks the same as my 2 series.
I would be looking at getting one with circa 100k on the clock, possibly a bit less, and it would be an automatic 2.0 diesel, probably around 10-12 years old.
Realistically I do around 6k miles each year and I'll only need the car for another 3 years. I'm not desperate to sell my 218i if the general advice is that the old 118d/120d automatic diesels are unreliable but would be nice to free up some cash. I've never bought high mileage so I don't know what to expect...
Would appreciate some advice
I don't understand how you're getting such high fuel consumption unless you either have a hole drilled in the bottom of your fuel tank, or you're wheelspinning everywhere. Is your MIL (engine fault light) on? Are you spending as much time idling in traffic or at lights as moving? If the latter, then make sure stop/start is working. My heaviest drinking car is a 1992 3 litre 7-series auto weighing a lot and even in that I can't do worse than 24mpg despite my heavy right foot!
LunarOne said:
I don't understand how you're getting such high fuel consumption unless you either have a hole drilled in the bottom of your fuel tank, or you're wheelspinning everywhere. Is your MIL (engine fault light) on? Are you spending as much time idling in traffic or at lights as moving? If the latter, then make sure stop/start is working. My heaviest drinking car is a 1992 3 litre 7-series auto weighing a lot and even in that I can't do worse than 24mpg despite my heavy right foot!
I've got no fault lights on at all and my code scanner doesn't show anything. Had the spark plugs replaced at 32k miles. I bought it from CarShop last summer so maybe they cleared the codes etc.?I guess having heard that it's not a normal mpg I can either spend money getting it looked at or I can sell it on...
I think a diesel will be a false economy on such low mileage - it'll hate short, slow journeys and probably end up costing more to fix than you'd save on fuel.
As for high mileage? I had a '97 E36 328i convertible that I bought on 143k and sold at 176k - most reliable used car I've ever had. In contrast the '06 E46 330Ci on 76k that replaced it was the most awfully unreliable car and raped my wallet. I think a lot of it comes down to how a car's been called for and maintained and there's just no easy way of telling unfortunately.
I'd be surprised if getting out of your existing car for an older diesel actually paid off financially in the long run to be frank.
As for high mileage? I had a '97 E36 328i convertible that I bought on 143k and sold at 176k - most reliable used car I've ever had. In contrast the '06 E46 330Ci on 76k that replaced it was the most awfully unreliable car and raped my wallet. I think a lot of it comes down to how a car's been called for and maintained and there's just no easy way of telling unfortunately.
I'd be surprised if getting out of your existing car for an older diesel actually paid off financially in the long run to be frank.
Funk said:
I think a diesel will be a false economy on such low mileage - it'll hate short, slow journeys and probably end up costing more to fix than you'd save on fuel.
As for high mileage? I had a '97 E36 328i convertible that I bought on 143k and sold at 176k - most reliable used car I've ever had. In contrast the '06 E46 330Ci on 76k that replaced it was the most awfully unreliable car and raped my wallet. I think a lot of it comes down to how a car's been called for and maintained and there's just no easy way of telling unfortunately.
I'd be surprised if getting out of your existing car for an older diesel actually paid off financially in the long run to be frank.
If I started looking at the old 120i coupe with around 100k miles is that a bad idea? I have a bit of a preconception that petrol engines don't last much longer after 100k...correct me if I'm wrong as in your case it seemed alrightAs for high mileage? I had a '97 E36 328i convertible that I bought on 143k and sold at 176k - most reliable used car I've ever had. In contrast the '06 E46 330Ci on 76k that replaced it was the most awfully unreliable car and raped my wallet. I think a lot of it comes down to how a car's been called for and maintained and there's just no easy way of telling unfortunately.
I'd be surprised if getting out of your existing car for an older diesel actually paid off financially in the long run to be frank.
curvature said:
In another post you said -
"I've got a 2 series (218i) which has the exact same engine as the 118i - it's fairly powerful and beats most cars off the lights, especially in sport mode."
That might explain your fuel economy......
It might, but I don't often use the car in that way. "I've got a 2 series (218i) which has the exact same engine as the 118i - it's fairly powerful and beats most cars off the lights, especially in sport mode."
That might explain your fuel economy......
I've been doing everything I can to reduce the fuel consumption including using the speed limiter around town, using half a bottle of redex every time I fill up and generally changing to the best gears frequently since it's a manual.
As mentioned, on the motorway I'm getting 36mpg and that's in ECO mode.
Given your low annual mileage maybe your car does a lot of short trips so never really get properly warmed up, which may explain your fuel consumption. For that sort of use a diesel wouldn't be any more economical and you might have issues with the DPF.
BMW 4 cylinder engines do seem to have some issues - my Indy recommended 6 cylinders, preferably petrol.
So I've had my 2005 330i for nearly 3 years and it has averaged over 30mpg!
Unless finances are an issue you might as well keep what you have - sometimes when you change you are just buying someone elses' problem(s).
BMW 4 cylinder engines do seem to have some issues - my Indy recommended 6 cylinders, preferably petrol.
So I've had my 2005 330i for nearly 3 years and it has averaged over 30mpg!
Unless finances are an issue you might as well keep what you have - sometimes when you change you are just buying someone elses' problem(s).
scg1 said:
If I started looking at the old 120i coupe with around 100k miles is that a bad idea? I have a bit of a preconception that petrol engines don't last much longer after 100k...correct me if I'm wrong as in your case it seemed alright
Complete nonsense. My E46 330Ci got to 210k miles before it overheated when the plastic expansion tank cracked. I'd owned the car from new and it was pretty much faultless until about 180k, when the fuel pump, alternator and power steering pump all needed replacing within a few months of each other. I replaced them myself for a parts cost of about £300 in total. Other than that it was just servicing and consumables like brake pads and rotors. I still own the car and when certain life events are out of the way, I hope to get it back on the road again.All that aside, I wouldn't advise swapping your 218i for a 100k 1-series. Find out why your car is drinking fuel. You may not have any faults listed, but if your code reader allows, check fuel trims. There are two stats, long and short term. If your long term trims are above a few percent in the positive direction, then the car is compensating for something by injecting extra fuel and that would explain the terrible fuel consumption. Then you just need to find the cause. Most likely causes might be a vacuum leak, a filter problem or faulty sensors in the exhaust. All potentially cheap to fix! My £25 bluetooth code reader that I bought a decade ago shows fuel trims with an app like OBD Fusion or Torque.
Edit: Handy summary of what fuel trims are and what could cause sub-optimal values. Ideally you want the numbers to be around 0% which would mean that the ECU is fuelling the engine normally:
https://www.thedrive.com/cars-101/38138/what-shoul...
Edited by LunarOne on Thursday 3rd February 20:01
Is it even possible for that 3 pot engine to get such low fuel consumption unless you're ragging it or it has a serious fault? These are frugal engines in the big scheme of things. If you want to free up cash as you say move it on and get something sensible, I wouldn't say a high mileage 1 series is that sensible in the big scheme of things, plenty of better options out there but depends on your budget.
DT1975 said:
Is it even possible for that 3 pot engine to get such low fuel consumption unless you're ragging it or it has a serious fault? These are frugal engines in the big scheme of things. If you want to free up cash as you say move it on and get something sensible, I wouldn't say a high mileage 1 series is that sensible in the big scheme of things, plenty of better options out there but depends on your budget.
I bought the car from CarShop last summer and I have since traced all the service history.First couple of services were at the main dealer and one was a microfilter service and the other was an oil service. When I got the car at 30k miles I noticed that it hadn't particularly been serviced to the schedule so I had the oil and filter changed and then I got my local BMW indy to do my spark plugs.
I have since also replaced the air filter and the microfilter myself at around 35k miles. At the moment I'm doing around 40-50 miles a week and it's costing me about £15 a week because since I'm a student it's easier to budget if I keep a full tank each week.
I hate doing the calculation but I just did it and that works out to be like 14mpg - evidently we're talking only a few pounds extra a week but it adds up.
I've got a code reader which didn't come up with anything. Fuel filter doesn't seem to have been replaced and bearing in mind the car is now around 6 years old, should I consider getting this done? Or should I pop down to the indy and ask them to diagnose it. The thing is, if it's a £400 repair bill for new lambda sensors and MAF etc. then the payback time for that is quite long since my mileage is low...
Realistically now, what could my issue be?
LunarOne said:
scg1 said:
If I started looking at the old 120i coupe with around 100k miles is that a bad idea? I have a bit of a preconception that petrol engines don't last much longer after 100k...correct me if I'm wrong as in your case it seemed alright
Complete nonsense. My E46 330Ci got to 210k miles before it overheated when the plastic expansion tank cracked. I'd owned the car from new and it was pretty much faultless until about 180k, when the fuel pump, alternator and power steering pump all needed replacing within a few months of each other. I replaced them myself for a parts cost of about £300 in total. Other than that it was just servicing and consumables like brake pads and rotors. I still own the car and when certain life events are out of the way, I hope to get it back on the road again.All that aside, I wouldn't advise swapping your 218i for a 100k 1-series. Find out why your car is drinking fuel. You may not have any faults listed, but if your code reader allows, check fuel trims. There are two stats, long and short term. If your long term trims are above a few percent in the positive direction, then the car is compensating for something by injecting extra fuel and that would explain the terrible fuel consumption. Then you just need to find the cause. Most likely causes might be a vacuum leak, a filter problem or faulty sensors in the exhaust. All potentially cheap to fix! My £25 bluetooth code reader that I bought a decade ago shows fuel trims with an app like OBD Fusion or Torque.
Edit: Handy summary of what fuel trims are and what could cause sub-optimal values. Ideally you want the numbers to be around 0% which would mean that the ECU is fuelling the engine normally:
https://www.thedrive.com/cars-101/38138/what-shoul...
Edited by LunarOne on Thursday 3rd February 20:01
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