Purchased First BMW

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1907 posts

Uber Geek

#1336352 3-Jul-2015 12:09

CitizenErased:
DravidDavid: Purchased from a lady who used it as a a shopping car who purchased it NZ new at 24,000KM.

That makes it a used import. "NZ new" means sold brand new in New Zealand.

Yes. It's not a brand new car. Hence more reason to get the original service records. :)

DravidDavid

1907 posts

Uber Geek

#1338957 7-Jul-2015 23:19

We got the car on Monday night!
It's in fantastic condition! Paint is excellent, 10 years of service records, including the original manual are in the glovebox. Leather is in great condition too. It even has it's safety triangle from the factory!

We drove it to Pak n' Save to do some shopping and look at it under the light. My girlfriend decided to try the passenger side window. She observed it was going quite slowly, and half way down it went BANG! I thought the glass had shattered in the door, but it had simply come off it's mount. She literally broke it in the first 30 minutes of ownership. :( It didn't happen when she inspected it, but apparently it's a common issue where cold weather can turn the gunk keeping the tracks lubricated turn solid and cause problems.

I took the door card off today. Surprisingly easy considering I thought I was going to be there a few hours trying to get it off. Two screws and the rest are clips. What ticked me off is that BMW decided to make the plastic clips that hold the door card on, stronger than the glue holding the clip-holders to the doors. Majority broke away staying inside the door and now have a lose door card at the bottom. I'll have to get back in there and glue it up.

I snapped the ball joint connecting the scissor lift back in to the plastic connector (which also broke) to get the window to seal properly. I will have to find parts and fix it properly later.

The headliner has in fact dropped at the back. Hope it won't be too much of a hassle to fix, but it's not too bad at the moment.

The exhaust seems to have a rattle despite having a new muffler and baffles. It seems to rattle sometimes at idle after a drive, or when I've got my foot in it. It seems to be coming from underneath the car and not the engine. I know some have suggested the VANOS system can rattle, but those cars usually have 150+K on them. It seems more likely to be a catalytic converter issue or a loose bracket or something. If it helps, it sounds like a raspy rattle which you can't hear while cruising at all.

The car handles beautifully. But it's SO GUTLESS. I put it in "sport" mode, which seems to be a glorified overdrive mode and put my foot down only to get nothing in return. It's the most gutless 1.8L I've ever driven. My Corolla SE was a 1.5L and got up quicker than this thing.

I like the fact there is ZERO road noise. The suspension handles all conditions very well and I like the seating position. I don't like the accellerator pedal. I have size 13 feet and it barely fits between the brake pedal and the side of the car!

I'll check out the rattle, find a way to get parts for the window and clay cut and polish it. :) Will also need to find a folder for the huge amount of paperwork just laying around.

ludez

903 posts

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Inactive user

#1338963 7-Jul-2015 23:45

You know when you get a car and those little things are already creeping in that are super annoying that even bigger things are on its way.Wifes mum had exact same model.I refused to drive or work on it hated the thing.It started with the service panel dying then the windows.Then the seats started falling apart.Then the abs,the bushings everything.She spent 40k on it(overcharged) naive.Then another 35k in fixing it...........

mattwnz

20141 posts

Uber Geek

#1338964 7-Jul-2015 23:49

If I was buying a 20 year old car, it wouldn't be a European, they are not built to last. Even my 8 year old europeon brand car was starting to fall apart before I got rid of it .
Why didn't you look at a Japanese, something like an older Subaru are nice to drive. I know what you mean by toyota, but at the end of the day a car that is actually reliable is far more satisfying than one that is always parked in the garage due to problems.

mdooher

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#1339014 8-Jul-2015 08:00

The little plastic clip that holds the window is a very common fault. Some advice, the reason it goes on the passengers window first is because it gets less use and the grease goes hard. When it pings out it slightly bends the runners meaning it always ends up under stress. Not only that but when you put the door card back on it flexes the door upsetting your perfect alignment.

I can't believe I am saying this but to fix it properly take it to BMW. They should put it on a jig and regrease the rails. If it pops again it is their problem . You may have already have noticed that every time you take the door card off it either breaks or unstick the plastic clips. It is a problem for someone else, trust me

Matthew

Smithy100

180 posts

Master Geek

#1339020 8-Jul-2015 08:07

DravidDavid:
The car handles beautifully. But it's SO GUTLESS. I put it in "sport" mode, which seems to be a glorified overdrive mode and put my foot down only to get nothing in return. It's the most gutless 1.8L I've ever driven. My Corolla SE was a 1.5L and got up quicker than this thing.

I've seen this before on a Jap import - was purchased from Japan as a 318ti but turned out it was a 316 (with the full M spec). Not cool at all (but explained why it was so horribly underpowered).

Mattmannz

471 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1339204 8-Jul-2015 12:17

Ignore the haters.

Search the forums and you will find fixes for most of the common issues. There are a couple of good sellers of after market parts on trademe that keep these cars affordable.

Once you have had the quality of a german car it's hard to go back to the lifeless budget japanese cars.

The 318 is pretty under powered for a car of it's size, it's not a lightweight. Enjoy it and post pics!

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mdooher

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#1339210 8-Jul-2015 12:33

DravidDavid: What ticked me off is that BMW decided to make the plastic clips that hold the door card on, stronger than the glue holding the clip-holders to the doors. Majority broke away staying inside the door and now have a lose door card at the bottom. I'll have to get back in there and glue it up.

.

now I've had a chance to re read your post on a real screen..

Now you have this car go and buy one of the those interior panel removal kits that they have in Super cheap auto. They are just the ducks nuts for removing BMW interior panels without breaking /ungluing clips

the kit is made up of a set of blue plastic jemmy bar screwdriver things

http://www.supercheapauto.co.nz/online-store/products/SCA-Door-Trim-Remover-Set-5-Piece.aspx?pid=282096#Recommendations

Matthew

blakamin

4431 posts

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#1339221 8-Jul-2015 12:52

mattwnz: If I was buying a 20 year old car, it wouldn't be a European, they are not built to last.

My 20 year old daily driver says otherwise.. And the 26yo before it is still going fine.

The 318ti was never the most powerful thing to start with. Hope it hasn't lost too many horses since new.

Not a car I'd buy, and nor is the 728 you looked at, both are too underpowered for their weight for my liking, but I hope nothing major goes wrong and you get to enjoy it!

mdooher

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#1339224 8-Jul-2015 13:03

mattwnz: If I was buying a 20 year old car, it wouldn't be a European, they are not built to last. Even my 8 year old europeon brand car was starting to fall apart before I got rid of it .
Why didn't you look at a Japanese, something like an older Subaru are nice to drive. I know what you mean by toyota, but at the end of the day a car that is actually reliable is far more satisfying than one that is always parked in the garage due to problems.

Nothing wrong with and old European.
Let me put it this way. The reason many old European cars are in the garage is because they are being repaired so they drive as well as they did when new.
Many old Subarus and Toyotas on the road should have had all of their suspension replaced years ago. The difference is that many drivers of those cars don't know or don't care to know what a properly running and handling car is actually like.
The divers that do care fix their cars just as much as the ones that drive old euro cars

Matthew

graemeh

2078 posts

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#1339229 8-Jul-2015 13:20

mdooher: Many old Subarus and Toyotas on the road should have had all of their suspension replaced years ago. The difference is that many drivers of those cars don't know or don't care to know what a properly running and handling car is actually like.
The divers that do care fix their cars just as much as the ones that drive old euro cars

Exactly. My rear suspension in my Subaru needed new shock absorbers at about 50,000km. I constantly see Subaru Legacys driving around town with "low riding" rear suspension which is an obvious sign that it is stuffed.

mattwnz

20141 posts

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#1339240 8-Jul-2015 13:56

mdooher:
mattwnz: If I was buying a 20 year old car, it wouldn't be a European, they are not built to last. Even my 8 year old europeon brand car was starting to fall apart before I got rid of it .
Why didn't you look at a Japanese, something like an older Subaru are nice to drive. I know what you mean by toyota, but at the end of the day a car that is actually reliable is far more satisfying than one that is always parked in the garage due to problems.

Nothing wrong with and old European.
Let me put it this way. The reason many old European cars are in the garage is because they are being repaired so they drive as well as they did when new.
Many old Subarus and Toyotas on the road should have had all of their suspension replaced years ago. The difference is that many drivers of those cars don't know or don't care to know what a properly running and handling car is actually like.
The divers that do care fix their cars just as much as the ones that drive old euro cars

Well when an 8 year old European that has done less than 80,000km needs thousands of dollars of repairs to fix lots of little things, like failing electronics, I wouldn't buy another. Granted that is NZ authorised repair agent in NZ who probably charge like a wounded bull, but lets say I have had far better experiences with Japanese (true japanese made ones) cars. Electronics is something the Japanese seem to get right in them. Handling can be sunjective, but after driving the mazda 3 recently for example and comparing it with some european cars, the handling in that is up there with the euros.

frankv

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#1339275 8-Jul-2015 15:04

Ahhhh, the two happiest days of your life...

The day you buy your first BMW, and the day you sell your last one.

DravidDavid

1907 posts

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#1339350 8-Jul-2015 16:43

We think it's a keeper.

The window fault in the new BMW seems to be just as common as the wheel bearing fault on my Toyota Caldina and the electric aerial failing on my SW20 MR2 or the air conditioning fault on my old Corolla SE.

Out of the three, the BMW's window issue seems to be the cheaper issue to fix thus far.

It may be a slightly older vehicle, but I think we did everything right.

We purchased it with low kilometers
It's got every single last sheet of paper work, right down to the documents it left the dealership with.
It hasn't been modified
It hasn't been thrashed.

It needs a few plastic parts, glue and a hose clamp around the exhaust. Anyway, for $2,600 it's not that much of a risk at the end of the day.

Spending 10K on a used Audi S8 with 260,000 kilometers...Yea, that might be a silly move. And yes, the 728i would have been an equally bad move, although was in similar condition with the same amount of paperwork.

The plan is to drive it for 5,000 kilometers. I'll give it a clay, cut and polish Seal it, wax it and sell it for twice what I bought it for.

blakamin

4431 posts

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#1339554 8-Jul-2015 21:32

DravidDavid:

Spending 10K on a used Audi S8 with 260,000 kilometers...Yea, that might be a silly move. And yes, the 728i would have been an equally bad move, although was in similar condition with the same amount of paperwork.

Yeah, the Audi timing chain... bleh.
A V8 e38 is a beautiful thing... the 6, not so much.

As long as you enjoy, that's all that matters!

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