BMW 320i vs 320D: your choice?

Tman* said:
5.8 is nothing short of remarkable. Is that an OBC figure, or actual fuel usage?

I know several people that this exact model of car sitting with 11L in town and 9L on the freeway.
Click to expand...

I get slightly less than 9l/100km @ cruise control 130, on my old 2008 135i. The people you know probably doesn't do a near constant 120km/h?
 
So after quite a long hiatus from this thread, I just had a rather fun (not fun) experience worth sharing: my first BMW service outside of the maintenance plan. I know a lot of people try keep switching to new BMWs so they stay in maintenance plan, but maybe it's not entirely necessary ... with the correct budgeting.

After reading lots of horror stories about Bad Things happening to people taking their BMWs to non-OEM dealerships, I chickened out and went back to a BMW dealership I trust (BMW Menlyn Auto in Pretoria) with my BMW 320i.

The interesting part for me is how BMW services are split up into different components that all require checks / maintenance at different times: there's a brake service, a car check service, an oil service ... and my car was due for its oil service (which also comes with a replacement of the airconditioner's microfilter at the same time).

Bottom line cost to me: R3 097 inc VAT
In return for all this money, I got:
- 1x free cappuccino + 1x free muffin
- 1x free drop-off and 1x free collection from work (in a BMW with only 1 other person in the car)
- A lot of oil (50 units of the stuff)
- An oil filter
- A microfilter for the aircon
- A carwash
- Some windscreen washer fluid
- 1x small halogen bulb (my one parking lamp had burned out - and my onboard computer thoughtfully picked that up)

Here's what the invoice looked like:
Car Service.JPG

So my next service is the 'car check' service, and that's due in March 2019. Wish me luck :D

One useful thing I learned:
You can get an online estimate for what your service will cost (my estimate was pretty close to the total - just a little bit under): https://www.bmw.co.za/en/topics/offers-and-services/bmw_services/service-estimate.html

Any thoughts on above? I honestly can't complain with the extremely professional service I received from Menlyn Auto ... every single touchpoint is superior to anything I've experienced before, but you truly DO pay for that.

I'll report back on the rest of the maintenance journey with my car (more than one year on I'm still delighted!).
 
Good price for micro-filter, SMG charges a bit more for it. I only replace it every 3rd service which is the major service.

The bulbs can easily be bought from goldwagon and fitted yourself, recently did my brake lights and even my front xenon bulb :)

They also had special running until end of September for services, only cost me R1200 to service my 320D when I booked it in September, normally runs every year around the same time.
 
For a standard service, factoring in the Uber costs from an independent mechanic, the BMW service costs pretty much the same.
I also started making use of the oil service special, which is actually much cheaper than what I paid at an indy.

Also, you can actually negotiate with BMW. I got more than 10% off, even after accepting their quote just before paying, using their online estimator as an arguing point.
Another time I went into negotiation mode before accepting their quote, again getting more than 10% off.
 
Took my 320D in for a 90k service today.

They estimated R9k (however this includes pads and discs that I had done two months ago).

According to the link provided earlier should only be R4179.

Still a lot cheaper than buying a new car
 
06146f2b212c8bf05234fbbdc4dd5038.jpg


My anus is bleeding
 
Why are you guys paying for services with a BMW that has less than 100 000 km? Don't they come out with a maintenance plan? I use Mercedes Benzes in the family and I cannot remember having paid a cent towards a service or maintenance (except for tyres) in the last 10 years. Obviously the maintenance plan stops after 6 years or 100 000 km but I usually replace my cars before that.

It is not as if a BMW is cheaper than a Merc - or is it?
 
Freddl said:
Why are you guys paying for services with a BMW that has less than 100 000 km? Don't they come out with a maintenance plan? I use Mercedes Benzes in the family and I cannot remember having paid a cent towards a service or maintenance (except for tyres) in the last 10 years. Obviously the maintenance plan stops after 6 years or 100 000 km but I usually replace my cars before that.

It is not as if a BMW is cheaper than a Merc - or is it?
Click to expand...
5 year 100k on the bmw. 6 year 100k on merc.
 
Freddl said:
Why are you guys paying for services with a BMW that has less than 100 000 km? Don't they come out with a maintenance plan? I use Mercedes Benzes in the family and I cannot remember having paid a cent towards a service or maintenance (except for tyres) in the last 10 years. Obviously the maintenance plan stops after 6 years or 100 000 km but I usually replace my cars before that.

It is not as if a BMW is cheaper than a Merc - or is it?
Click to expand...

I bought the car in 2011. So 5 years have passed, but only 86k km.

Was great with the maintenance plan.
 
Ok, so seeing as this is now pretty much THE thread for my BMW ramblings, I was thinking about something you don't often read about in car reviews: the aspects of cars that motoring journalists never pick up on because they don't have them long enough to notice the little things.

Now that I've had my BMW 320i for 1.5 years, I definitely appreciate a lot of the finer points of engineering that have gone into it. That's one of the reasons that motivated me buying it in the first place anyway compared to some new car: I figured that over the generations a lot of the rough edges will have been engineered out, and it's worked out that way :)

Examples:
- Wipers -> When the car has the wipers on their lowest setting and it is stationary, they're wiping across the screen with larger pauses than when driving. As soon as you pull away, the wipers start moving faster (even though the setting hasn't changed). This is without using the automatic wiper setting.
- Ambient lighting -> I love how when sitting in the car at night and all the lights are off, if I put my foot on the brake (it's an automatic) a few subtle interior lights will immediately come on (e.g. engine start button being an obvious one).
- Ambient lighting (cont.) -> There are two very small pin lights that shine down from the ceiling towards the centre of the car, providing just enough light to find keys and things in the front cupholders at night.
- Trip computer -> It took me a while to realise that the colouring of the letters on the trip computer's display changes from white on black during the day to orange on black at night.
- Gearshift -> If I leave the car in sport mode (shifter clicked to the left) and then turn the car off, the transmission shifter clicks itself back to the right physically and then changes into park

Dunno if anybody has picked up anything else BMW does to make life that little bit easier?
 
Yes, the shifter in manual mode works in the correct direction!
-Push Forward for downshifts and pull backwards for upshifts! That was never a consideration of mine when I bought the car and it simply made sense. I've driven a car where this action is reserved and it feels very wrong.
- vanity lights in the sun visors
- soft retracting handgrabs (they gently return to their position rather than thudding back)
- you can change the ambient lighting colour....from white to red....if you want....
- you can wind up all the windows (or down) +fold /unfold mirrors (if you have folding mirrors) by holding the lock/unlock button on the key fob.

Foxhound5366 said:
Ok, so seeing as this is now pretty much THE thread for my BMW ramblings, I was thinking about something you don't often read about in car reviews: the aspects of cars that motoring journalists never pick up on because they don't have them long enough to notice the little things.

Now that I've had my BMW 320i for 1.5 years, I definitely appreciate a lot of the finer points of engineering that have gone into it. That's one of the reasons that motivated me buying it in the first place anyway compared to some new car: I figured that over the generations a lot of the rough edges will have been engineered out, and it's worked out that way :)

Examples:
- Wipers -> When the car has the wipers on their lowest setting and it is stationary, they're wiping across the screen with larger pauses than when driving. As soon as you pull away, the wipers start moving faster (even though the setting hasn't changed). This is without using the automatic wiper setting.
- Ambient lighting -> I love how when sitting in the car at night and all the lights are off, if I put my foot on the brake (it's an automatic) a few subtle interior lights will immediately come on (e.g. engine start button being an obvious one).
- Ambient lighting (cont.) -> There are two very small pin lights that shine down from the ceiling towards the centre of the car, providing just enough light to find keys and things in the front cupholders at night.
- Trip computer -> It took me a while to realise that the colouring of the letters on the trip computer's display changes from white on black during the day to orange on black at night.
- Gearshift -> If I leave the car in sport mode (shifter clicked to the left) and then turn the car off, the transmission shifter clicks itself back to the right physically and then changes into park

Dunno if anybody has picked up anything else BMW does to make life that little bit easier?
Click to expand...
 
justplain said:
- you can change the ambient lighting colour....from white to red....if you want....
Click to expand...
Nice one justplain, I'd forgotten about that ... I played with the setting on Day 1 and settled on white, the red seemed a bit too dramatic lol. One day I'll get a car with GREEN interior lighting and live out my Fast & Furious fantasies.
 
The new G20..... :)

Foxhound5366 said:
Nice one justplain, I'd forgotten about that ... I played with the setting on Day 1 and settled on white, the red seemed a bit too dramatic lol. One day I'll get a car with GREEN interior lighting and live out my Fast & Furious fantasies.
Click to expand...
 
Foxhound5366 said:
So after quite a long hiatus from this thread, I just had a rather fun (not fun) experience worth sharing: my first BMW service outside of the maintenance plan. I know a lot of people try keep switching to new BMWs so they stay in maintenance plan, but maybe it's not entirely necessary ... with the correct budgeting.

After reading lots of horror stories about Bad Things happening to people taking their BMWs to non-OEM dealerships, I chickened out and went back to a BMW dealership I trust (BMW Menlyn Auto in Pretoria) with my BMW 320i.

The interesting part for me is how BMW services are split up into different components that all require checks / maintenance at different times: there's a brake service, a car check service, an oil service ... and my car was due for its oil service (which also comes with a replacement of the airconditioner's microfilter at the same time).

Bottom line cost to me: R3 097 inc VAT
In return for all this money, I got:
- 1x free cappuccino + 1x free muffin
- 1x free drop-off and 1x free collection from work (in a BMW with only 1 other person in the car)
- A lot of oil (50 units of the stuff)
- An oil filter
- A microfilter for the aircon
- A carwash
- Some windscreen washer fluid
- 1x small halogen bulb (my one parking lamp had burned out - and my onboard computer thoughtfully picked that up)

Here's what the invoice looked like:
View attachment 568523

So my next service is the 'car check' service, and that's due in March 2019. Wish me luck :D

One useful thing I learned:
You can get an online estimate for what your service will cost (my estimate was pretty close to the total - just a little bit under): https://www.bmw.co.za/en/topics/offers-and-services/bmw_services/service-estimate.html

Any thoughts on above? I honestly can't complain with the extremely professional service I received from Menlyn Auto ... every single touchpoint is superior to anything I've experienced before, but you truly DO pay for that.

I'll report back on the rest of the maintenance journey with my car (more than one year on I'm still delighted!).
Click to expand...
This link don't like my e30
 
Foxhound5366 said:
So after quite a long hiatus from this thread, I just had a rather fun (not fun) experience worth sharing: my first BMW service outside of the maintenance plan. I know a lot of people try keep switching to new BMWs so they stay in maintenance plan, but maybe it's not entirely necessary ... with the correct budgeting.

After reading lots of horror stories about Bad Things happening to people taking their BMWs to non-OEM dealerships, I chickened out and went back to a BMW dealership I trust (BMW Menlyn Auto in Pretoria) with my BMW 320i.

The interesting part for me is how BMW services are split up into different components that all require checks / maintenance at different times: there's a brake service, a car check service, an oil service ... and my car was due for its oil service (which also comes with a replacement of the airconditioner's microfilter at the same time).

Bottom line cost to me: R3 097 inc VAT
In return for all this money, I got:
- 1x free cappuccino + 1x free muffin
- 1x free drop-off and 1x free collection from work (in a BMW with only 1 other person in the car)
- A lot of oil (50 units of the stuff)
- An oil filter
- A microfilter for the aircon
- A carwash
- Some windscreen washer fluid
- 1x small halogen bulb (my one parking lamp had burned out - and my onboard computer thoughtfully picked that up)

Here's what the invoice looked like:
View attachment 568523

So my next service is the 'car check' service, and that's due in March 2019. Wish me luck :D

One useful thing I learned:
You can get an online estimate for what your service will cost (my estimate was pretty close to the total - just a little bit under): https://www.bmw.co.za/en/topics/offers-and-services/bmw_services/service-estimate.html

Any thoughts on above? I honestly can't complain with the extremely professional service I received from Menlyn Auto ... every single touchpoint is superior to anything I've experienced before, but you truly DO pay for that.

I'll report back on the rest of the maintenance journey with my car (more than one year on I'm still delighted!).
Click to expand...

That cappuccino clearly wasn’t free mate...

Also R3000 for an oil change is laughable.

What I don’t understand is how BMW Cars get away with this while their motorcycle division is near the cheapest in the business.

The full blown hardcore major valve check service on my bike was R3500.

That includes oil, brake fluid being bled and and drive shade being lubed and half a day’s labour.

The service experience is astounding though and I can agree there, but still doesn’t seem like a solid value equation on the car side.

I fully blame the motorplan farce for the situation and maybe explains why it doesn’t happen with their bikes as they don’t have motorplans.

****

Okay I see the micro filter amounts for 1/3rd of that.

Exclude that and it’s not all that unreasonable I guess.

One has to question if any filter can legitimately cost that much money.
 
Last edited:
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