BMW F31 330D Touring

[housemouse]

New to me dog car, an early F31 330d Touring. Took ages to find a nice one that wasn't M Sport and didn't have the dreaded privacy glass. I also wanted a nice non-black interior colour and ideally sports seats, which is a slightly complicated ask as I didn't want an M Sport car. If you want non M Sport, no privacy glass and a non-black interior, you're looking at about one in 30 of these cars, at best!



Finally found this one owner car that came with a nicely bound history folder of every bill, all BMW main agent. Bought it over the phone within about two minutes of it going up on AT. Slightly annoying that the official service intervals are so long on these cars as this one had been serviced on the button by the official schedule, but I'd have preferred shorter intervals on the engine oil. Still, it's in ridiculously nice condition for a 100k mile car, inside and out. The light interior is so much nicer than all the black interior cars.



Drives beautifully. I noticed a slight front knock prior to purchase and happily that has turned out to be the usual steering rack bush, so not an expensive fix. Overall, a fabulous car for around £8k. The N57 engine is stellar, much nicer than the agricultural M57 in the earlier 330Ds, and the ZF8 is a great box obviously. The performance really is far beyond what you'd expect for what is the second rung diesel option in this chassis, and again a fairly major advance on the E9x 330D.



Chassis is impressive, too. This Luxury spec car drives a lot better than the M Sport cars, rides better and much more fun to fling down a good road. Steering is precise, though largely devoid of feel. You can absolutely dismantle a B road in this thing. No, it's not as fun as my flat-six fun car. But it's a lot closer than it has any right to be. Car currently has run flats, but they have loads of tread, so I'll have to wait a bit to swap them out. Still, it rides reasonably well.



I've driven a lot of stuff over the years, and this is right up there as one of the very best all-rounders I've experienced, at any price, when you factor in the combination of performance, civility, fun and fuel efficiency. Crazy good for the money. Heck, even the iDrive screen feels reasonably contemporary and the BMW Professional sound system is decent. I actually prefer the interior to the newer 3ers with the silly / OTT wrap-around screen.



I'd say if you're looking for weaknesses, there are two main candidates. The road noise is a bit more than I would prefer and the structure doesn't feel as rigid as I would like. Both of these aspects slightly cheapen the overall feel of the car. And both would be a fair bit better on, say, an F11 Touring. But the F11 isn't as fun to drive. And I don't need the extra space. There are always trade offs.

Anyway, this thing really is far better than it needs to be and has impressed me enough that I'll probably get the underside treated with a view to keeping it long term. The dog likes it a lot, too:



Speaking of long term, I have it booked in to have the ZF8 serviced. There's no record of it being done, which isn't a surprise as BMW views it as sealed for life. However, I'd be interested on views regarding this. I've read that once you're up at 100k, changing the box oil can actually cause problems. It currently functions correctly as far as I am aware and certainly has not thrown any codes in the 2k miles that I have owned it. So, what's the consensus on the wisdom of servicing the ZF8 for the first time at 100K miles?

[Billy_Whizzzz]

I’ve got a g31 530d and had the box done at 75,000 - definitely worth doing.