335i vs 335d
335i vs 335d
Author
Discussion

speedbird74

Original Poster:

3 posts

204 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
I bought a 57 335i M (Saloon Auto) 2 months ago and love it. Problem is the tax is in the 400 range (just) and it is hard on fuel. My dilemma is the car will only do 5-6000 miles a year so I am wondering is swapping it for a diesel worth it? How does the performance compare? What about reliability?

Love the car to be honest, just curious.

Xerces

88 posts

208 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
Cant comment directly on either car, but doing 5-6000 miles a year you would lose far more money trading between cars than you would spend on petrol and tax.

phumy

5,828 posts

267 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
If youre really concerned about paying 400 a year for tax then maybe you didnt put enough effort into thinking about the car you actually bought.

clonmult

10,529 posts

239 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
phumy said:
If youre really concerned about paying 400 a year for tax then maybe you didnt put enough effort into thinking about the car you actually bought.
True.

£400 per year when you've possibly paid tens of thousands on a car shouldn't really be an issue.

a_bloke

40,169 posts

227 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
As someone else has said, any potential saving will be offset by the vast cost to change - typically dealers look for a £4000 gross margin on a car like yours.

Also, and i'm guessing here, if you're only doing 4-6K a year, chances are its shorter runs you're doing, which TBH you wont see great economy in a 335d anyway. Purely round town work in my 535d got me around 22mpg.

Enjoy what you have!

baz1985

3,685 posts

275 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
I'd just enjoy what you have. Having a £400 tax band car, is the sign of a true enthusiast!

jontysafe

2,370 posts

208 months

Friday 9th October 2009
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I would say that you`d have to be doing at LEAST three times your mileage for any savings to be made at all, and those savings would have to be made for three-five years at least otherwise you`ll dent your wallet seriously. Get the 335 re mapped then you won`t think about changing it ever!

ICSD

638 posts

264 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
Simple really!

Blip the throttle in your 3.5 litre straight six and how does it affect you emotionally lick

Do the same in a car with a tractor engine and then decide if you've got the right car or not.

squeezebm

2,319 posts

235 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
ICSD said:
Simple really!

Blip the throttle in your 3.5 litre straight six and how does it affect you emotionally lick

Do the same in a car with a tractor engine and then decide if you've got the right car or not.
Somebody tell him ffs

ICSD

638 posts

264 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
squeezebm said:
ICSD said:
Simple really!

Blip the throttle in your 3.5 litre straight six and how does it affect you emotionally lick

Do the same in a car with a tractor engine and then decide if you've got the right car or not.
Somebody tell him ffs
Beg pardon - 3 litre!

martin vr6

3,883 posts

231 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
As has been said before, the cost to change will offset the higher road tax and fuel savings between the two cars.

Frankly £400 per year road tax is just ridiculous IMO, no matter what car it's for, even if I could afford a supercar I would still grudge the road tax.

Had you been doing more miles then I would perhaps advise you to look at changing, even for a 330d, but as you do very little miles it just purely wouldn't be worth it

FWIW (probably nothing) we are getting 26-29mpg in town in our 335d tourer

phumy

5,828 posts

267 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
martin vr6 said:
As has been said before, the cost to change will offset the higher road tax and fuel savings between the two cars.

Frankly £400 per year road tax is just ridiculous IMO, no matter what car it's for, even if I could afford a supercar I would still grudge the road tax.

Had you been doing more miles then I would perhaps advise you to look at changing, even for a 330d, but as you do very little miles it just purely wouldn't be worth it

FWIW (probably nothing) we are getting 26-29mpg in town in our 335d tourer
Obviously you dont want to own a supercar!!! Oh, you already have one hehe

thetapeworm

13,862 posts

269 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all

Would the 335d be remapped? Surely this has to be taken into consideration before any decisions can be made?

speedbird74

Original Poster:

3 posts

204 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
Ok, thanks all.

Not all 335i models fall under the same road tax band which is a bit of a joke. They hover on the boundary. Parked next to a 57 335i coupe with a manual box who was paying almost half. In fact some models being marketed on auto trader and via BMW direct in some cases have the wrong tax band advertised. It was not until I picked up my car did I notice the difference to the original ad. Beware.

I love the car and am am happy with it to say the least. I do tend to own cars for a long period of time so was curious about the difference in economy around town. That being said it is marginal and the cost of a swap does not as rightly pointed out justify it.

I will look at chipping it once the warranty has run out. Any comments on perf and econ once done?

theboss

7,514 posts

249 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
speedbird74 said:
Ok, thanks all.

Not all 335i models fall under the same road tax band which is a bit of a joke. They hover on the boundary. Parked next to a 57 335i coupe with a manual box who was paying almost half. In fact some models being marketed on auto trader and via BMW direct in some cases have the wrong tax band advertised. It was not until I picked up my car did I notice the difference to the original ad. Beware.

I love the car and am am happy with it to say the least. I do tend to own cars for a long period of time so was curious about the difference in economy around town. That being said it is marginal and the cost of a swap does not as rightly pointed out justify it.

I will look at chipping it once the warranty has run out. Any comments on perf and econ once done?
I had exactly the same issue recently when I bought my wife an X3 3.0sd on a '57 plate... the build date (unknown to me at the time) was Aug 07 and the car falls into the 400 bracket, whereas cars built from Sept/Oct onwards incorporate ED and are in the 200 bracket. Still a great family car though, I can't really be arsed to complain. It's losing the same amount in value every 3-4 weeks.

AB

20,542 posts

225 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
You dont pay that much for a car and moan about £200 a year, shirley?

Unless that £400 means you can't pay the finance on it for that month? (Tongue in cheek).


Alex

9,978 posts

314 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
It's a proven fact that diesels only become viable if you are doing more than 786,234,654,764 miles per year. And then only if you are deaf. And have no sense of smell. And are a farmer.

SJobson

13,851 posts

294 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
I do 15k miles a year in my 540i and it's marginal whether changing to a diesel would give me any saving when you take into account the cost of changing. If you're doing less miles in a more economical car then you'll be out of pocket on the change and struggle to make that up on fuel savings even over many years - probably a maximum of £30 a month difference in fuel cost at 6,000 mile per annum.

Oh, and if you were to change, would you really change to something quite so similar to what you already own?

gizlaroc

17,251 posts

254 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
I got exactly the same mpg wise from my 535d and 335i, both were averaging 25.9mpg on the OBC.

On a run the 335i would see about 30mpg where as the 535d would see about 34mpg. I do 30k miles a year minimum and the diesel is no cheaper.

If you want to see cheap buy an Alpina D3 BiTurbo, I have swapped to a 123d auto and I am now seeing 51mpg, doing the same journeys as I was in the 535d and 335i I was seeing 39.7.

Absolutely no point swapping financially, and the 335d is no where near as nice as the 335i, I was looking for a 335d and then drove the 335i and had one within a week.

speedbird74

Original Poster:

3 posts

204 months

Friday 9th October 2009
quotequote all
Paying 200 a year more for road tax than drivers of the same car just pisses me off! Typical of this wonderful soon to be decimated Labour clan. Remember, they are all green taxes (like the stupid high taxes to fly out of UK airports) that are going towards paying the interest on the national mountain range of debt.

What a joke.