Not going to lie....My favourite cars are BMW's but i just can't afford it :-(

[Acko1991]

One day.....I really want a BMW M3 or an M5 I aren't picky :rolleyes:. I didn't want to buy an old BMW....As i believe in Australia the maintenance capabilities in comparison to Germany are useless.....My friend has a BMW in Germany with over 350 000 KMs on the clock and runs like a house on fire......My old BMW M3 E36 had 150,000 km's and it was falling to bits and was just a money pit. Lovely car which i miss to this day....But wasn't maintained correctly in my opinion by the people who were meant to know what they were doing.

I was looking into getting a E87 BMW 120D with an M sport kit.....but i dunno if its worth spending 30 k on a car which has 60 - 70 thousand km's on the clock.....I'd rather buy a brand new VW Polo GTI or a golf GTI

Whats other peoples thoughts?

[Big_M]

Don't know what you mean about the capabilities of maint in Australia being useless. Bit bold if you ask me. From all the people I have had dealings with I've never had any problems.

I bought a E30 318is back in the start of 2004 it had 212,000 on the clock. 13years old too.
I drove that all day everyday 50,000 plus k's a year and ran like a trooper. If i went anywhere to get some maint outside of the basic stuff never had an issue everyone was great.

Damn why did i get rid of that car :(

60-70 tho on the clock is nothing mate. You going to be racking up the k's ? I know I wouldn't be put off by it.

[Njay]

i currently have a e46 318i which was passed from my mum and soon will be my sisters, ive driven a few bmw's now and believe that their motors and drivetrain and their engineering is amazing, much better than audi and mercedes

Im looking for an e39 m5 but there bloody hard to find with low km's

[Johnbu]

I wouldn't say the BMW specialist here in Australia are useless, rather they are expensive and far and few between.

Dealer servicing prices for BMW and VW are ridiculous here.

In Germany, because they are so common, like fords or holdens, there will be many mechanics who can service them properly without overcharging and therefore it's economically viable to run an older BMW or Merc.

Call it economies of scale.. Even in the US it's not expensive to buy and maintain an European car.

Add to the fact- German work ethic and honesty, compared to the average mechanic here.

I would love to buy a latter model E46 M3..but am concerned with the maintenance cost.


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[balkanac]

Ive had my 318is for 2 and a bit years and i have only changed the wear and tear parts on it that you can expect from a 20yr old car. Parts are cheap if you know where to find them, in sayng that, my car is not an m3 and i work on it myself. Nothing has really broken except the diff, partly my fault :) now it has an e30 m3 diff and it hasnt missed a beat! e46 m3 would be a great replacement for my r32 but thats not gonna happen anytime soon

To answer your question, 1 series are not as well built as 3 and 5 series, but they are still better than equvalent audi/vw IMO. Maintenance will cost about the same, so if you really wanna save buy a toyota

[Bambazonke]

Totally agree re pricing of BMW Audi Merc in this country it is a joke. I have owned BMW's for over 20 years in africa and aus and am a current owner of an e90 320d and a Tiguan. Got a call from BMW Aus last week asking if I had received a brochure on the new 3 series told him nice car BUT price is ridiculous came up with all the usual excuses re duty taxes rtc. New 328i is double the price of what they cost in the (USA USD34k vs AUD70k)and to make it worse BMW's are even cheaper in NZ I did a quick price comparsion on the 120d 5k cheaper in NZ & it also come with a service plan.

What I would like to see is some entrepreneur to import demo or near new BMW units from the uk. They would have no problems selling them here and hope fully this would dent their new car sales that would force BMW management re assess their marketing strategy and stop sponsoring donkey races for the elete few and pass on the savings to new and existing owners who are their real customers not the horse racing fraternity.

I must applaud VW Australia in their marketing and pricing strategy they have passed on the AUD exchange rate gain to the customer unlike Audi/BMW and it is a matter time before VW are number one in the world and "the car behind will be a toyota". Maybe VW Aus should run Audi Aus and pass on their costing markup strategy and force BMW & Mercedes to follow suit. Anyway enough of my rumblings as you can see it is a sore point with me.

[Bayman]

I must applaud VW Australia in their marketing and pricing strategy they have passed on the AUD exchange rate gain to the customer unlike Audi/BMW and it is a matter time before VW are number one in the world and "the car behind will be a toyota". Maybe VW Aus should run Audi Aus and pass on their costing markup strategy and force BMW & Mercedes to follow suit. Anyway enough of my rumblings as you can see it is a sore point with me.

Yes true well said, new cars are very good value getting more features for your buck than 3 years ago but the price VWA dealers charge for servicing and SPARE PARTS has not reduced. The profit centre of most dealers must surely be dependant upon the service manager overservicing the cars that come in each 15,000kms. As for VW being #1 in time, is this going to be at the cost of poorer quality of build and worse reliability as is becoming more evident. My Tiguan's interior showed signs of a rush job (2009) rear plastics were put in wrong order in 2 spots and roof lining was not clipped in fully, although minor seems these things are have not improved and this was Germany factory too! As for BMW the new X3 is USA built so is that a bad thing? neighbour has one so I will be keen to see if they have any issues.

Bayman

[Acko1991]

Fair points....I must of had a bad experience....I agree with what people have said about the build quality of the 1 series.....My dads 120i had an engine oil leak at only 40,000km's...the 2.0 D is apparently a very good engine though......and you don't really bed in a diesel properly until 150,000km's.....

BMW's are very expensive in Australia....It is a bit of a joke.....You can buy an E46 M3 in england with high Miles for about 8000 pounds which is not even $20,000 with the current exchange rate.

might be worth looking into shipping them indeed!!

[Bambazonke]

Hi bayman surprised to hear that about your Tiguan. Mine has been an absolute pleasure. It's had 3 services to date and all have been reasonable in costs when compared to my BMW which is similar in mileage and year .The Tiguan is due for it's 60000km service so i will monitor that with interest after your comments. We have had no issues with the car other than a faulty immobilizer in one of the keys which took the local dealer 2 weeks to sort out as a new Key had to be ordered from Sydney.

My second service on my bmw cost me 5k as it was just out of warranty and had several electronic and engine component failures that BMW refused to honour even though that were appearing as intermittent issues prior to the warranty expiring unfortunately I live a 400 plus Km's from the nearest dealer so I waited for my scheduled second service at 50000 Km's to have them resolved (service interval on BMW is now every 25000km) I drove a 1000kms to the only reputable dealer in Qld (Brisbane BMW) who did a fine job repairing and servicing the car. The service manager eventually managed to get BMW Australia to refund me $1300 on the steering wheel sensor after I supplied countless documentation from BMW forums where dealers in the USA admitted their diagnostic equipment were unable to detect intermittent faults.

I have had a look at the new X3 but I would much prefer the toureg 150 which has a 3 liter vs the 2 liter BMW for the same price. It also comes standard with leather and 8 spd auto which the BMW does not and most importantly it comes with a spare wheel! Run flat technology may be ok in Europe but for SUV's in rural qld it's a big no no.

[Acko1991]

I don't trust that long life **** oil BMW hype on about....Maybe in Germany where the weather is cooler.....I don't think its a very sensible idea running an engine with the same oil for 25000km's....ridiculous.

BMW Australia are arschlochs.......When i had to get a fuel pump on my M3 i got quoted $1800...I rang my mate up in germany and he got me one for $400......

Me and my dad wrote a letter to BMW AG in Munchen.....in German....rather angry.....And they replied that BMW Australia technically has nothing to do with BMW in germany....they buy the cars off them and run their own show and choose their own prices.....such a load of rubbish.

[Njay]

most of time time i need a top between the oil services and the price they charge per litre is ridiculous

[balkanac]

i agree with 25k kms being too long, i change oil in mycars every 6-7k kms
njay why not go to supercheap or similar and get your oil from there? as long as its bmw approved

[Finance_Analyst]

From my experience, that is why most BMWs have massive issues after a few years - the long service intervals kill the engine. Especially in hot QLD weather. I had a E46 325ci and that was nothing but problems after 5 yrs, but I blame the previous owner who had it 3 yrs before me.

[Njay]

These days I use mobil. 1 fully synthetic and it gets serviced every 10-15k

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[balkanac]

From my experience, that is why most BMWs have massive issues after a few years - the long service intervals kill the engine. Especially in hot QLD weather. I had a E46 325ci and that was nothing but problems after 5 yrs, but I blame the previous owner who had it 3 yrs before me.

I dont think you can blame the previous owner for this if he serviced it as per the schedule. no matter how good the oil is, it shouldnt be in the engine for more than 10k km or 1 year. not sure if it degrades over time, but i drained the 1 year old oil from my r32 and it was stinking. The car did 5-6k in that year

[Ben J]

Id love an e30, especially a m3. if I hadnt spent so much to get my stupid car working id seriously consider selling it and getting one for a change. Do like my mk3 when its playing nice though :rolleyes:

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[Njay]

I would love an e30 m3 one of my dream cars

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[Acko1991]

It makes you wonder why BMW Australia doesn't invest in creating a maintenance schedule for Australian conditions....or more so climate specific maintenance schedules.....I am sure it wouldn't be that hard....

[polo_spec_d]

It makes you wonder why BMW Australia doesn't invest in creating a maintenance schedule for Australian conditions....or more so climate specific maintenance schedules.....I am sure it wouldn't be that hard....

BMW Australia use the maintenance schedule from South Africa.

[Acko1991]

not good enough then.

[Sharkie]

BMW's services are not set at 25K kms, they are driver dependent. I've had 5 BMWs and never reached that distance between services, lowest was 17K Kim's on a E46 328i ..... Lowest my dealer had ever seen .....

South Africa has a similar climate to Australia, with more extreme temps, summer heat to 50degrees C in places and winter temps of lower than -10degrees C.

Problem is not the schedule, it's the requirements of the later 6cylinder engines needing really good oil or the Vanos packs up within 100K kms and it does that even in Germany. Blame the previous owners.... I had an E36 M3 for 160K kms with no issues due to regular full
synthetic oil changes.

[Bambazonke]

Agree with sharkie however engine oil in particular non synthetic progressively breaks down more rapidly if the car does short trips and the engine is allowed to cool down. BMW were on to this in the early 1980's when the first installed service indicator lights to their cars which used to monitor the number of cold starts and time engine spent doing over 4000 rpm

[Acko1991]

My BMW E36 M3 ran rubbish on fully synthetic....The best oil i found and was advised to use by my german friend was the oil that BMW put in at the factory....which is Fuch's mineral oil. It ran like a dream after that. I changed the oil every 6500 km's...so you are correct about the non synthetic breaking down more rapidly....but it was very good....

[Blitzen]

I have been lucky enough to do the 'BMW Experiance' at the Spartanburg, South Carolina back in December 2010. For $100USD I got access to the BMW museum onsite, a tour of the X5 and X6 production line (which is the same production line, builds all models of both vehicles including the M spec models, and builds all the X vehicle for the would wide market... The X3 production line was just gearing up for this at the time of my visit), then we headed over to the BMW test track to thrash around high end vehicles... On both dirt and bitumen surfaces... For the dirt track, I took a X5 3L diesel (there was a 50cm deep fording pit), then on the bitumen I took out an X5M, 750I, 550I, and Z4... All great cars, but the X5M was the most fun surprisingly enough...

What topped it off though was paying the extra $30 and getting one of their driving instructors to take me out in an M5, and just wring its neck!! I will admit to laughing my ass off, and having a ball!! Best $130 I have ever spent, and I have the pics and videos to back it all up!!

My dream car is an E30 M3, and one day I'll have one!!

[BWoody]

My BMW E36 M3 ran rubbish on fully synthetic....The best oil i found and was advised to use by my german friend was the oil that BMW put in at the factory....which is Fuch's mineral oil. It ran like a dream after that. I changed the oil every 6500 km's...so you are correct about the non synthetic breaking down more rapidly....but it was very good....

eeek, I've got my E36 320i (M50B20 Pre-knock Pre-vanos) Running on a local brand of oil.
Really can't complain, it's doing a lot better than the Repco garbage the last owner put in it :mad:

[Acko1991]

The repco rubbish used to be Fuch's. lol but they changed it over to an australian brand which we found out about a few years ago.....he may of not realised the change.....it was great though....thus why i did oil changes all the time.

In bigger news my old man has taken the plunge and ordered a Brand new BMW 125i Coupe in Alpine Weiß. With the 6 speed auto and the innovations package. Which includes bi-xenon headlights, BMW business navigation system and some other stuff that i can't remember...should be pretty cool!....i did tell him to get the 135i but my mum has to drive it and she is a shocker haha.

I have been told the 3 litre in the 125i can be worked on anyways.


i might be able to convince him.

[Arcemsed]

Many people like BMW but he cant afford. Not only you.