[scooba0010]

Originally Posted by gIzzE

Alpina discount is no go, they are made to order and there is a 6 month wait so why would they??

It uses the Bilstein struts off the m-sport with the eibach supplied springs from the 330xd and proper tyres in an oversized profile, so you get far more comfort, less skipping at the back and more bite into corners, it handles wonderfully whether crusing or pressing on.
It is a very nice car, it holds its money better than the M-Sport so that balances out the lack of discount.

You will probably never see another on the road in the same colour as yours and it feels different and a bit special.


My only gripe is why the hell didn't they add proper climate and nav as standard, you can add Nav from BMW for around £1400 with all the offers so I'm sure it would cost Alpina no more than this, the climate is a £300 option.

Touring at £32k with manual climate and no options sounds expensive, at £33500 with nav sounds a lot more reasonable and starts to make sense.
I would retrofit it if I were to buy one.



I had a long argument about this as I had my name down for one, the sales guy insited that nav was not wanted, however, I then pointed out that Sytner pulled out of buying my 320d m-sport touring when they realised that didn't have nav, he went very quiet.

Hi Guy well i was offered £500 today and that was without pushing it just shows how bad it must be out there

[Steve A]

Originally Posted by scooba0010

Hi well no chance of a discount.How about £500 as a starting point and i am sure i could have got more .If you want to know where PM as it seams there is a problem with posting who at present

i cant belive it out of principal ive not ordered an alpina as i couldnt get any discount ever and im, its fair to say ok at haggling on something i really want.

twice they let me walk away.

Its defo hard for them as the D3 has gone from a 26995 machine to a 32k machine big differnce................

[scooba0010]

I agree trading conditions in the motor trade must be grim at present and i guess thats reflected in how they are ready to be more flexible ,I think they would rather make a little than let you walk away .Just my opinion .

I always ask for discount or best price it makes my wife cringe .if you dont ask you never know,whats the worse they can say no .

What i will say is the stealers down south have had it to good for to long .they talk as though they are doing you a favour letting you buy one of there cars.

I have traveled as far as Maccelsfield to get a car at the right price .And just orderd my Mercedes from Milton Keynes as they were £1300 cheaper for the same car down on the south coast and in the price its delivered to my door .The sales guy was polite efficent and courteous he knew his product wasnt pushy and called when he said he would .Top marks on all areas if anyone is looking at mercedes and wants his number PM ME . None of the $hit about come in and meet us and we will do you a great deal then come up £600 more expensive than drive the deal and i advised them that was what i wanted as aminimum to get the deal waste of time LOOKERS MERCEDES ..

[_KG_]

Originally Posted by scooba0010

And just orderd my Mercedes

What've you gone for?

[ScottC25]

I am the lucky driver of a D3 saloon, the single turbo unit not the new biturbo version. Your post wasn't 100% clear but I assume its the biturbo version you are considering?
No one buys/drives a D3 for the spec. We all know that a similarly priced 320dMsport has slightly more gadgets and has the flexibility to add as many options as you can think of.
The reasons for having a D3 are:

no one else in your street/neighbourhood/village is likely to have one.

It has more power(warranty issues may mean you don't want to chip/remap a 320d)

The suspension/non RFTs means it handles considerably better than the 320dmsport

The brakes are from the 330 rather than the 320(i think)

The wheels!

Not sure about the biturbo, but mine has climate rather than manual aircon. No cruise control, no option for full leather, they are the only things I would want.

I still struggle to understand why someone would hand BMW or any other manufacturer the thick end of £2k for satnav that is usually not as good as a £150 tomtom that you can take with you to your next car.

Obviously I am biased, but the D3 is not about spec, its about wanting to have a car that is not more common than a Mondeo!!

[gIzzE]

You will get a discount, just not in the same league as on standard BMWs.
For example, the deciding factor on my not bothering with one was the fact I could get a 335d SE discounted for less than the D3, which really annoyed me.

[gIzzE]

Originally Posted by ScottC25

I still struggle to understand why someone would hand BMW or any other manufacturer the thick end of £2k for satnav that is usually not as good as a £150 tomtom that you can take with you to your next car.

BMW uses Igo8 for their nav now, which is leagues ahead of TomTom and garmin and is my preferred nav software along with Navigon.
The routing it chooses is much better.

The system is also a multimedia hub, it allows you to keep your favourite albums on it, watch DVDs when waiting for people or arriving early at meetings, send address' to your car via google maps from home, call people using the POI through bluetooth, and of course hook up your ipod or usb stick and browse your music on a nice big screen.

You also have the benefit of it always being on hand, no messy wires, not having to take it all out everytime you get out of the car and it makes the cabin feel alot more special too.

The nav part is only a small part of the £1350 it costs at the moment to add it, and considering you get all of that back come resale I can't see why anyone would not add it.
In fact when I bought my 335i, the residual after 36 months was £13800 for a car with no nav and £15600 for a car with nav, so it shows how important the finance companies consider it.

[ScottC25]

gIzzE,

that puts a whole new perspective on it, IF i was the owner of the car. Mine is a co car owned by a fleet lease co. They obviously don't care about residuals, so neither do I. If they did, then leather and satnav would be free(paid for by them) in order to make up the residual on disposal.

Appreciate what you're saying about watching DVDs, making the tea and ironing your suit while you wait, but I'm a fairly simple person and just want to drive my car and listen to the radio/cd. If I want to watch a DVD, I do it at home:-). Like with my mobile, I only want to be able to talk to people on it(and be able to finish the conversation without getting cut off!), I couldn't care less about the million mega pixel camera on it, I just want the provider to realise that there are people who want to talk to each other via their network north of carlisle!!!.

We get a hands free kit fitted at a cost of around £200, I asked if I could have this cash towards the built in bluetooth and I would pay the difference and they declined, so stuff them. My next car will likely be a white manual transmission 5 series with no satnav just to take my small bit of revenge at their corporate greed:-)

[scooba0010]

Originally Posted by _KG_

What've you gone for?

Mercedes C class estate 250d sport auto ,leather,18"amg ,

[Steve A]

Originally Posted by scooba0010

Mercedes C class estate 250d sport auto ,leather,18"amg ,

Very nice motor mate!!

[PhilL]

The lack of discount on the D3 put me off, which was a shame as I LOVE Alpinas and live 10 mins from Notts Sytners. Got a much better deal on the 335d M Sport.

Perhaps the lack of discount available might be offset by negotiating a favourable trade-in value?

[gIzzE]

Scott, I do here where you're coming from, I use Nokia 6310 as I simply need to be able to make calls and get texts.

I have a camera for taking pics too.

I do however do 30-40k miles, on Thursday I had a meeting in Bristol at 12pm, then in Newport at 1.30pm and then Tamworth at 5pm and I live in Norwich. I took the M3 which doesn't have an ipod connector in it and doesn't play MP3 discs. By the time I was stuck in traffic trying to get onto the A14 to get back home to Norwich I suddenly wished that I was in my A6 with all the toys and comforts that it brings, the CD changer in the M3 had my dance tunes that I had bought and a set I had mixed last Saturday night, and that was great going through them all for the first 10 hours, but by hour 11 I was crying out for some Einaudi, John Rutter or Diana Krall, even some Tears for Fears or David Gilmour, in the end Radio 4 won listening to some foreign minister trying to convince the nation that calling a group 'queers and faggots' was not wrong.
Even that was better than more beats by hour 12.

Luckily the nav told me that the A14 was busy and took me down through Northampton and back up to the A14 via Kettering, so in the end it was only 13 odd hours in the car!!

I guess if I did 10k miles a year I wouldn't be as fussed, but then I never was until I got my first system, now going back to a car without it just seems like I am missing so much!



Scooba, nice car mate.

[ScottC25]

The D3 does have an ipod connector in it! its just an earphone plug, which after having a fully integrated aftermarket Alpine set up in my previous E46 is a bit of a come down but I've got used to it. I can't be bothered with the hassle of taking the car apart this time around, and I'm too tight to pay someone else to do it so will make do. Like I say the D3 is not the car for anyone who wants all the toys you can spec in a normal 3. Its about dynamics and exculsivity.

[scooba0010]

Originally Posted by Steve A

Very nice motor mate!!

Practical nothing like a RS or M car i am afraid .I would have a heart attack when i saw the fuel bill for one of those beastys

[ShereKhan]

Originally Posted by ScottC25

We get a hands free kit fitted at a cost of around £200, I asked if I could have this cash towards the built in bluetooth and I would pay the difference and they declined, so stuff them. My next car will likely be a white manual transmission 5 series with no satnav just to take my small bit of revenge at their corporate greed:-)

I'm in the same boat as you.
I'm glad to know that there are also other awkward **c*ers like me.
I will gladly get the colour or combination that depreciates the worst.

I got my 320si as I knew lease company had got their calculations wrong for maintenance and disposal. I had to make sure I got basic spec so I got in on the 500 units made for UK.

I would love a D3 Bi Turbo next - but lease company don't seem to show pricing for it. I know that BMW cars must be Synter supplied for my company lease. For some reason I receive a car from only selected dealerships.

As my company get some kickback from the nominated dealer via leasecompany. I have no idea why this happens or if it is bordering on shady grounds.........

I may ask Darren to enquire for me maybe. As the business development guy at stealers only tends to speak to you to advise when you will be getting your car (usually to confirm delivery address). They were suprised to see me collecting car from Rydale Oldbury (now Syntner).

With regards to bluetooth we get Parrot kits installed for us install costs £200 to the company deinstall £200 (when its faulty or change of car).
Our HR have now realised that they will pay upto £200 over lease agreement.
But only if the BT option is less than £200.

Only problem is that not many vendors offer BT option for less than £200!

[ScottC25]

Sherekhan,

Agree, its absolute madness but there's no way of getting these big lease co's to listen. Our latest is that a basic 5 series is cheaper in the scheme than a reasonably specc'ed 3 coupe. Both almost identical in cash cost, and I'm guessing the discount on the 5 will be larger and the residual on the 3 coupe massively more than the 5. However, some thieving bar steward either in my employer, or the lease co, has decided that it needs an extra £100/month to drive the 3 coupe, explanations are not forthcoming. Like I say my plan next time is to still get a decent car but to stick it back to them on the residual. 520d White, or even solid red if i can. Cloth seats, manual. They now offer us free leather on BMWs cos they want the money back come auction time, I'm going to decline it cos its too cold in the winter:-)

Stuff them, if they don't want to be reasonable why should we, they are shafting the driver any way they can, same as Gordon Brown and his mates

[Irnbrukid]

If the 5 is a Msport it will have half leather standard.....

[ShereKhan]

Originally Posted by Irnbrukid

If the 5 is a Msport it will have half leather standard.....

Yeah but on most co car lease schemes the monthly outlay of the car goes up if you don't choose full leather. Just like Alpine white (sometimes) makes it more expensive per month.

I wish they would do the option for free on the 3. But they only seem to do it on a 5.

Scott - we can't ask anyone - if we do they disappear into a black hole only to be replaced by someone else.....

[dubbers]

Perhaps things have changed in the motor trade since this thread was started back in July. I've just bought a dealer car (E92 Alpina D3 Coupe) with ~£5k off, about a £1 for each mile the car had covered when I bought it.

Re the spec - It isnt going to suit most people. Rotary knobs for air con, no sat nav, no auto lights, no auto wipers, 6SP manual etc. But imo thats missing the point of this Alpina. Its not an overtly bejewelled car, it just has the parts that matter. I've come from a LCI 535d to this car, and I dont miss the toys - the driving experience is very good and probably as good as the RS4's.

Its cheap to insure, great fuel economy and rare. Perhaps the residuals might be better than the equivilent 320d M Sport?

[Em135eye]

The "orange" wood is a real turn off but the rest of the car is nice.

I love their really quick cars too - always seem more refined than the M versions.