[Johnny1987]

Hi Team,

Due to a change in circumstances (found the one i want to marry ) i am going to be selling my E92 M3 as it kills my bank account on running costs.

I am wanting to replace the car with a fairly new, nice BMW diesel and have been looking at fuel efficient cars as i do a lot of driving. Im not too concerned on power as i think i have been there now and need to chill after getting my first 3points in March.

At the moment i get around 200miles per tank and will fill up £75ish every 4-5 days. Thats where most the money is spent on the M3. I would like to find a car that looks nice and i can get around 300+ miles out of a tank on city driving. I don't drive much on the motorway as my workplace is local.

I have been looking at a 420D and would like some input from as many people as possible as to cars that are worth taking a look at.

My main aim is to spend less, save more. 2 Doors is fine as i have no family etc that sit in the car with me. My budget is around £500 a month.

Thanks Guys

[dy63]

will you be leasing / finance?

i would go for 530d. mpg is high 40s around town and on a run even better i guess. i have only driven it around town though. the power. comfort and economy is all there and it is a beauty to look at with the M sport package.

i know a guy who works as accountant for BMW. he first had 530d. then went to 420d. 6months later went back to a 530d as he goes there is something special about them and i will agree. out of a tank on a 530d you will easily get 500+ and have the power and luxury there too.

[Russbmw]

Depends on what driving you do.

No point in getting a diesel if you're only ever doing short journeys. A 428 would probably return fuel economy that will keep you happy, as well as being pretty pokey and a nice place to sit.

Even a late 335 petrol would seem like the most efficient thing going if you're used to 16-21mpg on an m3.

[Johnny1987]

Originally Posted by cupraraj

will you be leasing / finance?

i would go for 530d. mpg is high 40s around town and on a run even better i guess. i have only driven it around town though. the power. comfort and economy is all there and it is a beauty to look at with the M sport package.

i know a guy who works as accountant for BMW. he first had 530d. then went to 420d. 6months later went back to a 530d as he goes there is something special about them and i will agree. out of a tank on a 530d you will easily get 500+ and have the power and luxury there too.

I don't know wether leasing works out better for me, i would like to keep repayments down but at the same time if i enjoy the car i would like to own it at some point. I would probably finance the car if the repayment is under £400 a month. I think the 5series is just to big of a car for myself so I'm aiming at 4series or even a used 3series. 40Mpg sounds amazing, I'm used to seeing 17mpg

[Johnny1987]

Originally Posted by Russbmw

Depends on what driving you do.

No point in getting a diesel if you're only ever doing short journeys. A 428 would probably return fuel economy that will keep you happy, as well as being pretty pokey and a nice place to sit.

Even a late 335 petrol would seem like the most efficient thing going if you're used to 16-21mpg on an m3.

I do mainly city driving, a few A roads but mostly start stop and dual carriageways. i definitely don't want a 335 i think the fuel economy won't b much different I'm looking for something that will give me anything north of 300-350miles per tank. Would there be a noticeable difference in 428i compared to 420d in terms of power delivery and mpg?

[Hulla the Hulla]

Russ is right, short journeys aren't good for diesels. If it were me I'd go petrol for sure.

VW are doing some stonking lease deals on Golf R's.........

edit : VW were doing deals, ended 1st Nov apparently..

[gangzoom]

Not sure about BMW diesel engine, but our Honda Civic diesel struggles to hit 30-35mpg in urban city traffic, and only really starts to make sense economically on longer commutes, which is does amazingly well, currently 20K average of 50mpg, but thats a 100mile daily commute, 70% of which is free flowing roads.

Diesels and short trips only also guarantee you issues like DPF problems, EV/Hybrid is the way forwards if your a city commuter and want good mpg. Just spent the weekend test driving a Lexus IS300H as a replacement for our Cvic, and I was amazed at the urban/city mpg readings it was returning...Infact the worse the traffic jam the higher the mpg reading went!!! I know something like a <1.0 3 cylinder City mini car can do similar, but remember the IS300H is a 1700kg 'luxury' car, where you surrounded by leather/electric everything, gadget galore...



I know BMW don't offer anything else but the i3 (i8 is a toy for the rich) at the moment interms of EV/hybrid, but it is the future of motoring....I much rather have a EV/hybrid petrol than a diesel. We're now negotiating a deal on the IS300H

But also don't forgot depreciation is usually still the biggest cost, your M3 has probably deprecated a decent amount already, a brand new car regardless how you pay for it lease/PCP/cash will depreciate much more....Unless you get yourself one of those freakish Golf R deals, where VW seems to have lost the plot and leasing them for not much money at all!!!

Congratulations on getting married though.....but getting rid of your M3 is probably a sign of things to come (says the guy who has wasted ££££ modding a 335i because his wife said a firm 'NO' to the M3)

[gangzoom]

I stand corrected on the BMW hybrid front.

More power than a 335i, and nearly 50mpg ....just ignore the £40K base price, and you have found your answer to the M3

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/bmw/3-s...activehybrid-3

[m20b25]

What's the deal with replacing batteries on an EV if they fail? Or whats the life span?

[dy63]

Originally Posted by m20b25

What's the deal with replacing batteries on an EV if they fail? Or whats the life span?

there really expensive. talking thousands. charging time is around 13 hours i think but they do have a power charger which can do it in 3 hours...however constantly power charging can take the life span down to 3 years and your talking around 7k to replace one.

[djgandy]

Originally Posted by gangzoom

I stand corrected on the BMW hybrid front.

More power than a 335i, and nearly 50mpg ....just ignore the £40K base price, and you have found your answer to the M3

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/bmw/3-s...activehybrid-3

Active hybrids go for less than standard 335i's. If they actually sold any I'd pick one up second hand at some point.

[gangzoom]

Originally Posted by cupraraj

there really expensive. talking thousands. charging time is around 13 hours i think but they do have a power charger which can do it in 3 hours...however constantly power charging can take the life span down to 3 years and your talking around 7k to replace one.

I'm sorry but all the talk about battery packs imploding after 3 years is nothing but a urban myth. Toyota has been producing the Prius since 1997!! And the Prius is consistently one of the highest scoring cars in any reliability survey. Yes batteries will eventually fail, but Toyota current do a 100,000 mile warranty on the hybrid drive train. Tesla have a 'unlimited' mileage/8 year warranty on their cars. Both are factory warranties not extended deals you have to pay for...Can you see BMW ever offering 100,000 mile warranty/8 year warranty on any of their cars for free

In additional replacement battery packs on something like a Prius is £2K max from dealers, and a lot cheaper from else where. Granted the battery pack in a Tesla is much larger and more expensive, but every year the price the battery packs are coming down.....

Cars like the IS300H use the hybrid technology to simply capture energy that would otherwise be 'lost' when breaking / sitting idle in traffic. So your essentially getting an extra 15-20mpg in return for the 80-100kg weight penalty associated with the hybrid drive train. They are perfect for city driving where theres lots of breaking and sitting around not moving very fast, hence all the Prius Taxis you see these days.

Plug-in Hybrids and full EVs move the game on, they have been hindered by cost, but that appears to be changing quickly.

VW is about to release a Golf GTE, 0-60 7.6 seconds, 150mpg+, 3.5hr recharge time from a standard wall plug, and with a £5K government discount its unlikely to be much more costly to buy compared to a GTD/GTI.

Mitsubishis have just released their Outlander plug-in hybrid. It's not my kind of car, ugly, and boxy....But it starts at under £30K (after £5K government grant) which makes it cheaper than the diesel equivalent, does the same 0-60 time, but has a combined mpg for 148 vs 48, so if your after a Outlander why on earth would you pick the diesel over the hybrid ...Though I'm not sure why you would want a outlander in the first place.

Like it or not EV/Hybrid cars are the future, personally I love it. After spending over 12 months commuting daily in a diesel I cannot wait to get away from that horrible idle rattle.

[dy63]

Originally Posted by gangzoom

I'm sorry but all the talk about battery packs imploding after 3 years is nothing but a urban myth. Toyota has been producing the Prius since 1997!! And the Prius is consistently one of the highest scoring cars in any reliability survey. Yes batteries will eventually fail, but Toyota current do a 100,000 mile warranty on the hybrid drive train. Tesla have a 'unlimited' mileage/8 year warranty on their cars. Both are factory warranties not extended deals you have to pay for...Can you see BMW ever offering 100,000 mile warranty/8 year warranty on any of their cars for free

In additional replacement battery packs on something like a Prius is £2K max from dealers, and a lot cheaper from else where. Granted the battery pack in a Tesla is much larger and more expensive, but every year the price the battery packs are coming down.....

VW is about to release a Golf GTE, 0-60 7.6 seconds, 150mpg+, 3.5hr recharge time from a standard wall plug, and with a £5K government discount its unlikely to be much more costly to buy compared to a GTD/GTI.

Mitsubishis have just released their Outlander plug-in hybrid. It's not my kind of car, ugly, and boxy....But it starts at under £30K (after £5K government grant) which makes it cheaper than the diesel equivalent, does the same 0-60 time, but has a combined mpg for 148 vs 48, so if your after a Outlander why on earth would you pick the diesel over the hybrid ...Though I'm not sure why you would want a outlander in the first place.

Like it or not EV/Hybrid cars are the future, personally I love it. After spending over 12 months commuting daily in a diesel I cannot wait to get away from that horrible idle rattle.

are we talking about electric cars here? or normal batterys for cars because i dont think electric cars have been out since 1997.

[djgandy]

150mpg. Yeah if your commute is just sitting in traffic. I do love the made up numbers they sell these electrics with!

It is the way forward though, even if the range on the electric is short, just for the sake of sitting in traffic and stop start conditions. It actually makes a lot more sense for huge cars with large engines. I'd sure save a lot of fuel crawling the M25 each day with an electric motor.

[gangzoom]

Originally Posted by djgandy

150mpg. Yeah if your commute is just sitting in traffic. I do love the made up numbers they sell these electrics with!

It is the way forward though, even if the range on the electric is short, just for the sake of sitting in traffic and stop start conditions. It actually makes a lot more sense for huge cars with large engines. I'd sure save a lot of fuel crawling the M25 each day with an electric motor.

+1

Yeah the mpg reading are pretty much made up but these things are cheap to run for people who get want to get from A to B. When I test drove the IS300H last weekend I was determined to prove the hybrid thing is a fad and waste of time, because for £35K we have a choice of a new Merc C class, Jag XE, a slightly used Jag XF...all more exciting to me as a petrol-head than a car that shares its roots with the Prius. But when we ended up hitting Xmas shopping traffic the whole whole hybrid thing just made complete sense. To be sitting there in pure silence whilst crawling in traffic was odd and very cool, apart for the fact it made me notice the fan was too loud even on the lowest setting

Hybrids are not good for any kind of sporty driving though, on a quick B road blast it returned a mpg not that much better than the 335i. Essentially when you use up the charge in the battery the engine has to than both recharge the battery and drive the wheels, so you get less performance and worse economy when the battery is deplete and you keep hammering the throttle. Which is why TopGear was able to show the famous episode of a M3 been more economical than a Prius around the track.



For us lot obsessed with power/speed, I still think full EV is only way forwards. But I was looking up the battery life of hybrids because we're just about to sink £32K into one

This review by consumer reports is quite encouraging though, 200,000 miles and 10 yeas on the original hybrid battery pack and over all mpg has only dropped 1%, and 0-60 performance by 3%. Good news for us, because my wife is not planning to change cars after this for another 6-7 years at least

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/n...d-up/index.htm