[dhruvritzed]

Originally Posted by graaja

Thanks a lot for the feedback. Getting first hand experience helps a lot.

I did try the GT on a very short test drive in the beginning. But as I was trying it just as they did not have the regular 3 TD car and I was not considering the GT at that point of time, I did not pay much attention to the ride and handling qualities. And now they do not have a TD car!



That would be fantastic! Please do keep me updated on the progress. I would love to do this to improve handling. Though the BMW dealer here was telling warranty will become void on any change, I doubt if they will be able to find out if we were to install a OE BMW suspension

Installing the BMW suspension would be way too expensive, plus the GT looks too practical when you're on the lookout for a bit of fun.
Would recommend you go the whole Hog and go for the 530i, fulfils both purposes really and there are some handsome deals to be had on MY'17 stock.Also do consider the fact that the GT too is outdated with old interiors and will be replaced soon, might as well have the much more advanced 5.

[graaja]

Originally Posted by dhruvritzed

Installing the BMW suspension would be way too expensive, plus the GT looks too practical when you're on the lookout for a bit of fun.
Would recommend you go the whole Hog and go for the 530i, fulfils both purposes really and there are some handsome deals to be had on MY'17 stock.Also do consider the fact that the GT too is outdated with old interiors and will be replaced soon, might as well have the much more advanced 5.

Have already considered the 5. But because of the long wheel base GC is a big issue. I have documented my test drive experience here.

As I travel in various types of roads - sometimes with really bad potholes, this GC issue in 5 could become a nagging issue throughout my ownership.

And the MY2017 GT is loaded with lots of good features - full digital instrument cluster, Heads up display, adaptive LED headlights etc.

[dhruvritzed]

Originally Posted by graaja

Have already considered the 5. But because of the long wheel base GC is a big issue. I have documented my test drive experience here.

As I travel in various types of roads - sometimes with really bad potholes, this GC issue in 5 could become a nagging issue throughout my ownership.

Why don't you consider the S60 polestar? Following points in its favour-
1. Much more powerful than any
2. Exclusive
3. Good discounts
4. AMG competitor without the premium price.
5.Volvo service is cheaper

[graaja]

Originally Posted by dhruvritzed

Why don't you consider the S60 polestar? Following points in its favour-
1. Much more powerful than any
2. Exclusive
3. Good discounts
4. AMG competitor without the premium price.
5.Volvo service is cheaper

The first major let down in the Polestar is the 20" wheels with those skinny tires. I had driven the Polestar in the Kari motor track during the launch. The car was just explosive, but the ride was quite harsh. Though they said the suspension has been tuned to track, with those 20' super low profile wheels, not sure how much improvement it would provide to the ride even if the suspension were to be tuned for comfort.

Polestar would be fine if I had another car for regular duty and kept the Polestar for those fun drives. But in my case, I can't do that. I need a car that strikes a balance between comfort and power/sportiness, which is a very difficult thing to ask of course.

[graaja]

Hi Axe77,

First of all, thanks a lot for all your inputs and this thread which helped a lot during my purchase decision of the 330i GT.

As you have taken BSI package, I would like to get some inputs from you on your experience with BSI.

1. How many kilometers has the car covered and how many oil services have happened?
2. Has there been any brake pad replacements yet?
3. Do you end up paying for services not covered by BSI? Are there anything else other than wheel alignment/balancing and wash that need to be paid for during service? If yes, how much is the approximate you end up paying on each service?

Thanks in advance for the inputs.

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by graaja

As you have taken BSI package, I would like to get some inputs from you on your experience with BSI.

Hey Graaja,

So here is the information you requested. Before anything else, my personal advice would be to not take BSI at all – certainly not if your running is on the lower side, and possibly even if it is on the higher side you may just want the convenience of servicing at your own will.

You principally don’t want to be bound by the automatic service reminders. I had a situation where my car went in twice in two months, because of the condition based service intervals. They only did brake pad in the first and then did the oil change in the next service. This is pretty inconvenient. Now imagine you want to do a long drive in your car and want all preventive or anticipated maintenance in advance of the trip. You cannot override the CBS rule. I would much rather have total control over what service I want to do on my car and at what intervals (assuming I am doing better than the bare minimum required). Secondly and much more importantly of course I don’t think the math adds up anyway.

Here are the service details:

I got my car in October 2015. To date it has covered approximately 24,750 kms – i.e. less than 25k kms in 31 months. That’s pretty low usage to make the most of BSI.

I have not paid for anything whatsoever except wheel alignment and special detailing, both of which I do at a specialist places, not BMW.

The only key maintenance that has happened so far is listed below (in addition to standard checks of course):

1st service (end Oct 2016): Oil change (5.2 ltrs) @ 6,800 kms
2nd service (end June 2017): Engine oil changed (5.2 ltrs) @ 15,340 kms
3rd service (end Dec 2017): Front brake pad service (that means they were replaced) @ 20,534 kms
4th service (Feb 2018): Engine oil change (5.2 ltrs) @ 21,860 kms.

My sincere advice – you’ve done great going for 6 years extended warranty if I’m not mistaken from your GT thread. Don’t waste time and money on BSI. Its just not worth it. I’d rather pocket the cash and service as per my complete convenience.

Other than this I had a minor bumper incident once and a runflat blow up on another occasion both of which had to be covered under my zero dep insurance. Now getting that (zero dep) is in itself worth its weight in gold trust me.

Cheers

[Axe77]

So no news is generally good news. The car will be 3 years old in October 2018 and has just about clocked only 27,000 kms, despite my best efforts to use it as much as possible.

Only one extraordinary issue to report which happened recently. The rear right tyre sensor had failed, which threw up a number of failure messages including runflat monitor, ABS sensor as well as surprisingly rear spoiler. Apparently this is quite common and it was replaced during my scheduled service within the scope of my BSI. Other messages that came up were rear brake pad and engine oil related.

I've put up images of the various routine and sensor related related warnings as well as copies of the invoice for reference.

The car feels absolutely tight and as good as the day I bought it - I guess partly also given that I am particular how I as well as my driver drives as well as maintains it.

The only other incident I had was a minor shunt within our parking where the driver did not see a big screw like thing jutting out from a water pipe and it went through the front bumper at slow speed. The bumper was worked on and replaced entirely under insurance in that instance since it left an ugly hole there.



















I owe one important update on Infinity Motors. Even though my car was purchased at Navnit, it is now regularly serviced at Infinity - thanks to the comfort of having fellow BHPian <Maverick5490>.

So far I only had GTO's feedback but this is the second time my car has gone under his watch and it is genuinely such a relief and comfort to know he's got your back and the job will be done well. I was regularly in touch with him on the sensor issue and he was always very responsive and gave me all the information I needed. The car too was completely serviced including the sensor change in less than a working day at Turbhe.

Big shout of thanks Maverick5490. Hopefully I can keep the GT for the long haul at this rate.

[abhi182]

Originally Posted by abhi182

Right - so post a lot of reading up, here is what I have been able to discover on Head unit features that are supported by our hardware but not enabled:

Enhanced Bluetooth - This enables connection of a second phone concurrently + messages/email view in the communication section of idrive. Feature is supported fully by hardware and needs to be activated on the HU .
See below for how I did it.. works perfectly fine as expected

carplay - I think the hardware supports it but it requires a subscription key based activation (FSC as BMW calls it)
The subscription keys are available with third parties and I have sent a couple of inquiries to get more details
If it is as I expect, it would involve coding in the activation code on the head unit and marking the carplay flag as active - fingers crossed!

Doing the above required activating deactive flags on the headunit via the OBD port.
Al BMWs post 2012 use a very simple OBD to ethernet connector which I made on my own by simply connecting a OBD II male connector to a Cat6 cable

The flags were edited via a BMW software called esys which is available on the net

Thought it would be worth updating that I got a FSC for carplay for approx 4200/-
Activated the same and it works like a charm..

Also worth noting that while the headunit on the LCi GT has the required wifi hardware but since it wasn't enabled for India, the wifi antenna connector that plugs into the HU is missing

What this means is carplay works brilliant as long as your phone is kept near the HU (coffee holder area) but the connection starts cutting out if you move it away

TBD: Ordered a wifi antenna for the HU - waiting for delivery

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by abhi182

Thought it would be worth updating that I got a FSC for carplay for approx 4200/-

Activated the same and it works like a charm..





What this means is carplay works brilliant as long as your phone is kept near the HU (coffee holder area) but the connection starts cutting out if you move it away



TBD: Ordered a wifi antenna for the HU - waiting for delivery

Thanks for this very useful update. Can you please share a link of where you purchased the wifi antenna from and the price? Thanks.


In separate news, the car got the full TLC treatment from Mazda motors at Tardeo. Exterior and Interior detailing. I am not an expert but as a lay person I am very impressed with their work. I can see my car paying a visit once every 7-8 months. The service cost aoproximately 12,400 or so. My only one gripe is that they do not take credit cards. Has to be either cheque or cash payment. In today’s day and age that’s a bit annoying. I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

[graaja]

Originally Posted by Axe77

Thanks for this very useful update. Can you please share a link of where you purchased the wifi antenna from and the price? Thanks.

I think Abhi got it hand carried from UK.

I had ordered the same antenna from AliExpress from below link. Reached me in 2 weeks.

WiFi Antenna for BMW CarPlay

If you are planning to do the coding yourself, then you will need the ENet cable as well, and the ESys software.

ENet Cable

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by graaja

I think Abhi got it hand carried from UK.



I had ordered the same antenna from AliExpress from below link. Reached me in 2 weeks.



WiFi Antenna for BMW CarPlay



If you are planning to do the coding yourself, then you will need the ENet cable as well, and the ESys software.



ENet Cable

Thanks Graaja. I can't code these things. I was simply thinking of getting the update for 4000 INR from BMW as he mentioned and buying the antenna.

[graaja]

Originally Posted by Axe77

Thanks Graaja. I can't code these things. I was simply thinking of getting the update for 4000 INR from BMW as he mentioned and buying the antenna.

BMW would not do this update for INR4000. As of now, they are not even offering this update for even a higher price. They may do this in the future, but not sure when though.

[Axe77]

Its been another uneventfully reliable year with the 3 GT. The only problem I have had in recent times was a rear right sensor failure that impacted my ABS - duly replaced under BSI.

After 3 rides in 6 weeks to Igatpuri on the Tiger, I've been itching to hit Kasara ghat in the car and the opportunity presented itself with short 2.5 day XMas break to Utopia Farmstays <https://www.utopiafarmstay.com/> - 4/5 rating - hugely recommended and smack within the Sula etc wine district - I've attached some pics of the place below for anyone interested.

The only minor issue I had was a flat tyre on my way to Nasik (which got fixed at a roadside guy within 10 mins) - the car otherwise was beautiful and still as tight as its first year of duty.

On our way out on Sunday, we took a slight detour post kasara to visit a vineyard called Vallonne for lunch - the restaurant there is Malaka Spice (Pune folks might know this from the original in Koregaon Park).

You can get here by turning left about 10 -15 kms after Manas petting zoo - its an incredible road from the turn off the highway up to a little before Vallonne - 90% being smooth tarred winding road (ghat like in some sections) with little traffic. I can't wait to go onward to this section on my next bike ride to Igatpuri. I have attached a map link below for anyone interested:

<https://goo.gl/maps/tA2Xs7LJJip> <Nashik highway turnoff to Vallonne>.



Post lunch it was a 1 hour drive to Utopia Farmstays from Vallonne - the road from Vallonne to the highway going to nasik were a bit rougher on this section Utopia has lovely lake facing homely cottages with no wifi or tv and great home food - just the recipe for a short break away from home.

Spent a quiet couple of days with some Go Karting thrown in at the nearby adventure park, some nice meals at Radhekrishna and Little Italy Sula and a nice jog along the back roads there.

The drive back was even better with lesser traffic on kasara ghat than the way out. Letting some of the pics tell the rest of the story.

Cheers.


A quick reminder why I bought this over the 3 and the 5 series. Space saver, big family bag, two other medium bags and a kid's bike, all swallowed in the boot so I can have 3 adults and a kid in a car seat in the car.



A taste of some of the roads the GT handled with aplomb.



Vallonne Vineyards - our lunch destination both ways.




Hit the 30,000 km milestone while at Nashik. Taken about 38 months to get here so averaging less than 1,000 kms / month despite this being our primary car. So much for the wasted money on BSI.



A few final pics of the place where we stayed - Utopia Farmstays. Amazing how a soccer ball, frisbee and a same aged friend can completely occupy a 6 year - not once did I hear the hankering for any electronics / TV from my son.

[Axe77]

Another reminder why the GT is so perfect for me. Morning ride + run workout means I need a safe place to transport and keep my bike.

No problem for this notchback. Dont even need to remove the wheels. Make flatbed, put sheets and just put the bike in. :-)

[Axe77]

Been a little over 38,000 kms and a shade over 4 years almost to the day. Finally changed my stock RFT tyres (all 4) with CPC5 runflats in factory specification. I have heard a lot about the comfort of tubeless over the RFTs but heard really good reviews on the comfort aspects of the continental C5 RFTs.

Also, honestly the peace of mind of having a run flat, having used it for 4 years is more than enough for me. I go in my car well outside the outskirts of the city at odd AM hours sometimes for long bicycle rides and also once in a way to our ancestral home. I really prefer the peace of mind of not having to immediately find a tyre shop in a tyre incident.

Used Pal tyres at Santacruz who gave me the best quote by a margin (cost me around 22.5k per tyre including fitting, wheel alignment / balancing etc). Ensured they were 2019 stock.

While I was due to change the tyres pretty soon what specifically prompted the change was 3 punctures in one of the rear tyres the night before. I had also had some share of punctures on other tyres too and while I might have held off another 2-3k kms for the change, the triple puncture in one tyres just didn't make it worth it to wait anymore.

PS: Thanks to @Graaja for his help in making the decision. I went from initial research and inquiry to actual change of the tyres in a space of about a single working day.

PPS: Thanks to @Akshay1234 for recommending Pal Tyres to me.