Who's Owned A Bmw? Or Can Comment On Them?

[MidnightXR6]

I chopped in my E60 M5 v10 in for an 08 C63 AMG best choice I ever made with the bimmer.

It seemed to love the BMW dealership with its niggly electrical gremlins but did sound beautifull singing its V10 out through the pipes.

A friend had his gearbox destroy itself on his X5 but was fixed under warranty. HE also had the dreaded water leak in the engine.

[SuckSqueezeBangBlow]

someone will correct me if I'm wrong but I think the water pump impellors are all plastic now.

when I was 19, back in 2000 I bought a e30 318i, which although it had 245000kms was bullet proof. Obviously had f*ck all electrical to go wrong. I redlined it everyday (because it had now power) for 4 years until it had 365000km and the only problems were broken window winders, and a fuel pump.

my mate had a e46 330ci which was pretty good although the interior fell apart and you couldn't update the sat nav.

[Pete A]

Brother bought new 535 2 years ago. Had it 6 months. sold it. Lot's a niggly problems, elecetrics, oil leaks, nothing major at that point and he wasn't willing to wait for the big problems to start.. Probably could be classified as a lemon. Bought a Mec and has had no problems with it and that's probably close to 18 months now.

He confirmed what lot's have said. When you pay that sort of dough ofr a car, you expect better. I also think that Beammers are way too common. But that's just a different observation.

Have a mate who had an M series for a couple of years. On the F3 it caught fire and burnt to the ground. Had a court battle for another year against BMW (he eventually won) who said "their cars don't catch fire" and so the problem was caused by the owner. The courts didn't see it that way and eventually he got an out of court settlement. He's now driving an Alpha! The arrogance of BMW was amazing.

[Slash]

Looked into the 130i a few years ago, RWD hatch, 3l 190kw N/A 6cyl with 6 speed manual, bit of a sleeper.

Read a long term review where they clocked up over 100k on it and they had no major issues, had pretty good things to say about it except for f*ck all rear leg room.

The 135i coupe would be good too, same engine pretty much but twin turbo. Seems a few people are getting them into the 11's relatively easy too.

I'd be having a good chat with a BMW mech before buying either though.

Easy 11's? Doubtful...

There are a handful of 11sec 1 series in Australia. My old man owns one with substantial bolt-on mods & JB4 tuner that runs low 12's @ 116mph, but they can't get off the line properly due to no software/hardware updates for auto & nose over top end due to torque reduction.

[_Velocity_]

I know a few people with BMWs but they are all leased through their business. Two have 7 series the other a 5 series. Tax write offs for big businesses is the best way to describe these cars.

[turbotrana]

Only Mercedes build all their models in Germany. The Z4 is built in USA and I know some other BMW models are built in South Africa. I spoke to a BMW mechanic who reckons the 5 series E39 from 1997 to 2004 was the best model BMW ever madein Germany. I must admit for its time, mechanically it does give you some understanding of what "german engineering" means as most of it was built well. Its just that in Aust they were overpriced to begin with.

Edited 25/06/12 02:28 PM by turbotrana

[smicky]

Did I say...

"Get a Merc instead! "

lol