Found a 2011 new-model X3 2.0dSE that we are off to inspect on Wednesday. Done 48,000 miles in 2 years, has been the Aftersales Manager's car at one of the BMW main dealers over here. They have 2 premises about 60 miles apart so I suspect the mileage has been clocked up shuttling to and from their 2 workshops several times a week.
Am presuming that since it has been the 1-owner company car of one of the dealership's more senior employees it will have been fettled and looked after with no expense spared..?!
Anyone got any experience of the new X3? All the reviews sound positive. Quite like the sound of the 8-speed autobox, better suspension, and excellent fuel economy compared to our old model 2006 X3.
Potential downside is kissing farewell to the 3-litre 6-cylinder twin-turbo diesel in our current car in exchange for BMW's 2-litre 4-cylinder...?! Curious to see if we notice the power deficit.
Still very tempted on paper if the $$ figures stack up...
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Turbos are made of cheese apparently.
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...Am presuming that since it has been the 1-owner company car of one of the dealership's more senior employees it will have been fettled and looked after with no expense spared..?!
I suspect you yourself doubt that. There's hardly a car built today that won't run for two years with minimal servicing. Why would they spend more on it than necessary to keep it eligible for the Approved Used programme?
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Serviced every 20,000 miles, as per factory requirements, so no worries there. Dilutes their offer of "2-year's free servicing" though - which in practice will be just 1 service.
Plenty of odd stone chips on the car commensurate with the relatively high mileage over a short time on our poor road surfaces - certainly no extra care or fettling been made to the paintwork!
Still considering a swap if the figures work out. Needless to say their first "cost to change" figure was utterly derisory, but they phoned up next morning with a more vaguely realistic figure we can start haggling over...
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All I can say of it's as good as the old 177bhp X1 of mine, it's a good one. Wouldn't go back to a diesel after the pure svelteness of the 6 -- Autobox is a bonus.
The F25 is a significantly better car from what I've readthan the E83
Last edited by: R.P. on Thu 6 Jun 13 at 23:22
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Stick with the 3.0d you already have (if you can live with the reputed poor ride), I observed that people run cars until they're much older in NZ (a legacy of import duties in the past perhaps) and diesel is very cheap so any economy benefit will be marginal ?
Surely the 48K miles will have been 'hard miles', IIRC NZ isn't over-endowed with motorways or even dual carriageways for it to have been bowling along ?
Last edited by: idle_chatterer on Fri 7 Jun 13 at 00:54
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Well, the new 2.0 four engine certainly isn't as sweet as the twin-turbo six, but claimed economy is 25% better, which is a heck of a difference.
Diesel's retailing at 75p/litre at present, but diesel-powered vehicles also pay a road-user charge which equates to about 1p/mile driven.
Current ride is bone-hard, but I guess we've got used to it over 4.5 years..! It's on 69,000 miles and coming up 7 years old in October. Yes Kiwis do keep cars longer: purchase prices are much higher than the UK, and I think most Kiwis would rather spend their money on beer and fishing equipment as opposed to motoring!
Previous owner has driven it to/from his home and workplace (100km/day) and to his weekend home in our town, so we know the kind of roads its been on.
The appeal of a 2.5 year old car as opposed to one nearing 7 years is attractive, if the tiresome process of haggling and posturing over the price to change can be completed easily...
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Deal done, after 3 days of haggling, posturing, and generally peeing around. Why is it so hard to buy a car?! What bit of "your best price for cash" do car salesman fail to understand?!
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>> What bit of "your best price for cash" do
>> car salesman fail to understand?!
>>
I don't know if it's the same in NZ but in the UK dealers really do not like selling cars for cash.
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Bike deals are a lot easier - no discounts on the new model Triples we were looking at today - but adjustment in "other areas" Easy to deal with.
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"What bit of "your best price for cash" do car salesman fail to understand?!"
No salesman is really going to come out and tell you straight away in the same way (I hope) you are not going to tell them the maximum amount you are really prepared to pay.
That is what haggling over a price is all about. Unavoidable if you want to achieve the lowest price
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>> Serviced every 20,000 miles, as per factory requirements, so no worries there.
Thats a worry in itself. 20k services? With a Turbo? no thanks.
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SWMBO has purchased several big ticket items over the past few weeks - including the lawnmower - and our cut-to-the-chase what's your best cash price? approach has worked well. Except with the car purchase, where the to-ing and fro-ing tedium nearly put us off the whole idea...
Anyway, Z, it seems pretty common practice these days to do 20k miles between services. Our current car has 2 turbos, and doesn't seem to have suffered the past 6 years...
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BMW X3 E83 SUV - Upgrade to 2011 new F25 X3? - Lygonos
