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Old 29th July 2019, 10:13   #76
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re: Red-Hot BMW: Story of my pre-owned BMW 320d Sport Line (F30 LCI). EDIT: 90,000 kms up!

I completely agree with Graaja's post above.

Quote:
Originally Posted by zebanaff View Post
1. My running is usually around 8k-ish a year. Would that still warrant a brake pad set every year? And also, how often would I be looking at a brake disc change?
8000km a year is too low a running to worry about brake pads or even BSI. When I said a brake pad set every year, I assumed about 20000 km a year running. For example, my front brake pads lasted 18000km and the rear set lasted 27000km. For discs, I would say 40000km of life is a safe assumption. As of now my car has a total running of 32000km and the discs are still fine.

Quote:
2. With this kind of running would the base BSI package make more sense for me than the BSI Plus? Because it's really the BSI Plus that's running me out of budget here. I do understand that I could take a 3 year package now to save 1.3L and then upgrade it later. I'm tempted to do that, but would that turn out to be significantly more expensive in the long run?
As Graaja said, 8000km a year a too low a running for BSI. I would not take any BSI package for this low running if I were in your situation. You will end up paying more for BSI than you would recover in actual servicing costs for such low running. Of course, this is assuming your running is actually only 8000km a year. Once you get a 3-series, it will tempt you to drive more and whether that changes your driving pattern and running statistics is something you need to think about.

Quote:
3. The car I'm looking at has no BSI package, so if I'm buying it now (say a 5 year package), I'm told it would be retro-active from the date of manufacture. Is that correct?
That is correct. If the car has no BSI, you have to take it again from Day 1 (the day of invoicing) retroactively, and in effect, you will unnecessarily end up paying for BSI coverage for the previous period also. However this is a complete waste of money because the amount already spent on service is not recovered, and the past coverage has zero value to you now. So this is even more reason not to take BSI if the car does not have one already.

As I said earlier, it is more important to take extended warranty than BSI. BSI only covers your routine maintenance and you more or less know how much that will cost. If there is any unforeseen maintenance issue (which can cost a lot for a BMW), then it is the extended warranty that protects your from that cost, and not BSI. Therefore, extended warranty is a must for peace of mind.

In your case, my recommendation would be that for your low running you can ignore the BSI and save that money for now, but definitely take extended warranty.

Also, as mentioned earlier, please do a thorough check of the car at a BMW workshop and check the past history of repairs. BSI and warranty are for future issues, but it is equally important that you know the past history and past issues (if any) of the car before making a final decision.
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Old 29th July 2019, 11:02   #77
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re: Red-Hot BMW: Story of my pre-owned BMW 320d Sport Line (F30 LCI). EDIT: 90,000 kms up!

Thank you guys! This makes a lot of sense. I think I'm going to skip BSI altogether. The absolute max I've ever done in a year is 10,000km, and I don't see myself exceeding that. I usually just have city running and a couple of Bombay-Pune runs every other month.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr.AD View Post
I completely agree with Graaja's post above.

Also, as mentioned earlier, please do a thorough check of the car at a BMW workshop and check the past history of repairs. BSI and warranty are for future issues, but it is equally important that you know the past history and past issues (if any) of the car before making a final decision.
I'm buying a Premium Selection car from Infinity Motors, so considering they only sell approved cars I should be good. Service history looked okay. Only thing that stood out for me is that two tyres have been replaced. One denting job on the rear bumper, but that's about it. I think a first service with fuel filter and air filter changes has been done on it. I'm going to recheck whether the brake pads have also been changed since the car has done 12000km. If not I'm going to push them to change the pads before I buy it as part of the deal. Or get them to reduce the price and get it done myself. That should cover everything I think!

Thank you guys once again for the help. Hopefully my next post is pictures of the car and me next to it!
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Old 29th July 2019, 11:19   #78
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re: Red-Hot BMW: Story of my pre-owned BMW 320d Sport Line (F30 LCI). EDIT: 90,000 kms up!

Quote:
Originally Posted by zebanaff View Post
I'm buying a Premium Selection car from Infinity Motors, so considering they only sell approved cars I should be good. Service history looked okay. Only thing that stood out for me is that two tyres have been replaced. One denting job on the rear bumper, but that's about it. I think a first service with fuel filter and air filter changes has been done on it. I'm going to recheck whether the brake pads have also been changed since the car has done 12000km. If not I'm going to push them to change the pads before I buy it as part of the deal. Or get them to reduce the price and get it done myself. That should cover everything I think!
Tyres replacement is not very uncommon on these cars. I assume it has the Bridgstone Potenza S001 RFTs (which are OEM on 320d). It is likely that the car had BMW Secure in the 1st year (which comes complementary for 1st year I guess). Under that, if there is any puncture on RFT, the authorized BMW method is just to replace the tyres. So it is possible that the tyres were replaced under warranty from BMW. In general, the RFTs are also prone to bulges and some other faults, and change of tyres is not so uncommon for many such reasons. Even in my car, one tyre was already replaced when I bought it with 14000km on the odometer.

Regarding denting of the rear bumper, make sure that was not a major accident and nothing else is damaged structurally.

Quote:
Thank you guys once again for the help. Hopefully my next post is pictures of the car and me next to it!
All the best. Looking forward to the pictures.
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Old 29th July 2019, 19:07   #79
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re: Red-Hot BMW: Story of my pre-owned BMW 320d Sport Line (F30 LCI). EDIT: 90,000 kms up!

Thanks a lot for all your help guys but my story ends in an anti-climax. Called the SR to make the booking today and was informed that the car I was looking at was booked by someone else at another Infinity Cars outlet.

She shall forever be the one that got away :'(
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Old 29th July 2019, 19:46   #80
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re: Red-Hot BMW: Story of my pre-owned BMW 320d Sport Line (F30 LCI). EDIT: 90,000 kms up!

Quote:
Originally Posted by zebanaff View Post
Thanks a lot for all your help guys but my story ends in an anti-climax. Called the SR to make the booking today and was informed that the car I was looking at was booked by someone else at another Infinity Cars outlet. (
Oh, sorry to hear that. Bad luck. But it happens. It happened to me twice. Two times the car I liked was sold out before I could make my decision. BWMs in good condition and within original warranty are in big demand in used car market and they get sold out fast. This is why it requires patience to keep searching for the perfect car. Hopefully you will find yours soon.

In fact, after having lost two cars like this, there was a funny story of how I eventually found this car. That story is narrated in Post #42 of this thread:
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-...ml#post4499687

Eventually what will happen is that after seeing and evaluating many cars, you will become an expert in used 320d, and then one day you will find a car and your brain will tell you it is the right one. At that point you have to trust your instincts (trained over previous examples) and take a quick decision. This is exactly what happened to me.
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Old 1st August 2019, 19:55   #81
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re: Red-Hot BMW: Story of my pre-owned BMW 320d Sport Line (F30 LCI). EDIT: 90,000 kms up!

EGR Cooler Replaced (under global recall):

Mr car was one of the cars recalled under the global recall campaign by BMW for the EGR cooler replacement in certain 20d and 30d engines. Reference: https://www.team-bhp.com/news/bmw-in...ign-egr-defect

I had proactively reached BMW a few months ago (since I felt this is a very serious matter with a small chance of potential fire, and I was keen to get this fixed ASAP), and that time they inspected my car's EGR system and told me everything is fine. They told me I could continue driving without worrying about the fire risk. However, at the same time, they told me that BMW had asked them to replace all affected cars' EGR coolers anyways, just to be safe, and they would call me when the parts were available.

Accordingly, I received an official email about this recall a couple of weeks ago asking me to visit their service center. I visited yesterday, and under this campaign, they replaced the EGR Cooler assembly. Since they can work on the EGR system only when the engine is cold, I had to leave my car there for a day. I left my car there yesterday and today I promptly got a call back from the Service Advisor updating me that the replacement has been done, and the car was given to me well within promised time. Everything was handled very smoothly and professionally, and I am super happy with BMW service experience.


Fuel Efficiency (FE): I don't care much about FE, but I do care about the range, and FE is important to me from range point of view. And anyways, I love to track data, so I keep tracking FE data just for the fun of it :-)

The chart below shows the FE I got over last year (these are actual tankful-to-tankful calculations):

Red-Hot BMW: Story of my pre-owned BMW 320d Sport Line (F30 LCI). EDIT: 90,000 kms up!-320dfe.jpg

The FE numbers above the average line of 13.38km/l are all for out of city long drives, and the numbers below that line are mix of city and highway drives. The most important thing for me is that with FE of about 14 or 15km/l on highways, I get a range of somewhere between 800 to 900km on one tank of diesel. That is very useful for the weekend drives. Most of my weekend drives are around 700km round trip, and I can do the entire trip without having to refuel on the way or at the destination. This is very convenient, especially while visiting smaller places where quality of fuel could be suspect.

Last edited by Dr.AD : 1st August 2019 at 20:09.
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Old 2nd August 2019, 00:21   #82
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re: Red-Hot BMW: Story of my pre-owned BMW 320d Sport Line (F30 LCI). EDIT: 90,000 kms up!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr.AD View Post
Oh, sorry to hear that. Bad luck. But it happens. It happened to me twice. Two times the car I liked was sold out before I could make my decision. BWMs in good condition and within original warranty are in big demand in used car market and they get sold out fast. This is why it requires patience to keep searching for the perfect car. Hopefully you will find yours soon.

Eventually what will happen is that after seeing and evaluating many cars, you will become an expert in used 320d, and then one day you will find a car and your brain will tell you it is the right one. At that point you have to trust your instincts (trained over previous examples) and take a quick decision. This is exactly what happened to me.
This advice served me very well Dr. AD. After wallowing in my misery, I took a TD on a 2016 luxury line from a fellow BHPian (on the forums as Unrealistic). A lovely car, beautifully maintained, but the deal just didn't feel right. I still kept wondering if it's worth taking the plunge, but gut said no and decided against it. Further sadness followed. I started to feel there just isn't a good 320d deal for me out there.

And that's how we got to 6pm today. The SR from Infinity Worli sent me pictures of a 2018 320d Luxury Line (15,000km) that had got to the showroom two hours ago. Just so happened I was in that part of town for a meeting, and was 5 minutes away and on my way back home. The pictures l saw gave me hope and I took a quick detour. One look at the car, 500m of the test drive in, I was sold and pulled the trigger and booked it right then and there. I don't know who was more surprised. Me, or the SR and his colleagues, who have never turned around a car in under 3 hours (and probably never will again!)

The kicker? 2L cheaper than the car I missed out on, and with ALL the features (rear camera, front parking sensors, touch iDrive, digital MFD) I would have had to compromise on. AND the colour I'd wanted all along. A happy ending indeed. Delivery in 10 days! Thanks for all the help, genuinely wouldn't have done it without your little pep talk. And finally here's a picture of the little beauty
Attached Thumbnails
Red-Hot BMW: Story of my pre-owned BMW 320d Sport Line (F30 LCI). EDIT: 90,000 kms up!-img20190801wa0006.jpg  


Last edited by zebanaff : 2nd August 2019 at 00:23.
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Old 2nd August 2019, 08:40   #83
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re: Red-Hot BMW: Story of my pre-owned BMW 320d Sport Line (F30 LCI). EDIT: 90,000 kms up!

Quote:
Originally Posted by zebanaff View Post
One look at the car, 500m of the test drive in, I was sold and pulled the trigger and booked it right then and there. I don't know who was more surprised. Me, or the SR and his colleagues, who have never turned around a car in under 3 hours (and probably never will again!)
Wow! Awesome! Congratulations! This is a real cool story and sounds very similar to mine. For cars in such demand, eventually you have to make on the spot decisions, especially if the car is genuine and under warranty. But all the research and test drives that you did before this helped you a lot because all the experience forms the collective knowledge on the basis of which you make such on the spot decisions. Such decisions would not have been possible if you had not checked out all those earlier cars. The same was true for me.

Quote:
The kicker? 2L cheaper than the car I missed out on, and with ALL the features (rear camera, front parking sensors, touch iDrive, digital MFD) I would have had to compromise on. AND the colour I'd wanted all along. A happy ending indeed. Delivery in 10 days! Thanks for all the help, genuinely wouldn't have done it without your little pep talk. And finally here's a picture of the little beauty
This is absolutely great! The 2018 car has many more features as you mentioned. In addition to what you mentioned, it has Apple CarPlay and Cruise Control. All very useful feature! It is really great that you got a 2018 car and that too 2L cheaper :-) BTW the car looks absolutely great and looks brand new. Great find!

Once again congratulations to you! Looking forward to your ownership report and more photos soon, and wish you many great miles and great times with this car!

Last edited by Dr.AD : 2nd August 2019 at 08:44.
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Old 3rd August 2019, 02:13   #84
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re: Red-Hot BMW: Story of my pre-owned BMW 320d Sport Line (F30 LCI). EDIT: 90,000 kms up!

Thank you for the explanation Dr AD.
One doubt - if i buy a used BMW (say 3 series)
* For a car that is 3 yrs old, can i buy extended warranty (company provides standard 2 yrs warranty)? So if the owner has not opted for extended warranty beyond 2 yrs can i after buying get it extended?
* For BSI if it is bought when the car does not have BSI - then need to pay from the 1st year itself even if the car is 3 years. Does the similar logic apply to extended warranty? Do we need to pay from end of 2nd year (standard warranty completion) upto the current age of the car in order to obtain extended warranty?

Hope i have not stated my questions in a confusing manner
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Old 3rd August 2019, 08:53   #85
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re: Red-Hot BMW: Story of my pre-owned BMW 320d Sport Line (F30 LCI). EDIT: 90,000 kms up!

Quote:
Originally Posted by nikhil_pon View Post
For a car that is 3 yrs old, can i buy extended warranty (company provides standard 2 yrs warranty)? So if the owner has not opted for extended warranty beyond 2 yrs can i after buying get it extended?
The extended warranty can only be purchased while the original warranty still exists. Or you can extend the extended warranty (say you bought extended warranty for 5 years, and now want to extend it to the 6th year) while the first extended warranty exists. But once the car is out of warranty, then extended warranty can not be purchased.

So if the owner has not bought the extended warranty and if the original 2 year warranty has expired, then no, you don't have the option of buying any extended warranty.

Quote:
For BSI if it is bought when the car does not have BSI - then need to pay from the 1st year itself even if the car is 3 years. Does the similar logic apply to extended warranty? Do we need to pay from end of 2nd year (standard warranty completion) upto the current age of the car in order to obtain extended warranty?
No, as explained above, the similar logic does NOT apply to extended warranty, because extended warranty can't be purchased later if it is not already in force. So there is no question of buying extended warranty retroactively. It can only be extended before the current warranty expires.

Hope this clarifies your doubts.
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Old 24th August 2019, 17:54   #86
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re: Red-Hot BMW: Story of my pre-owned BMW 320d Sport Line (F30 LCI). EDIT: 90,000 kms up!

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Originally Posted by Dr.AD View Post
Once again congratulations to you! Looking forward to your ownership report and more photos soon, and wish you many great miles and great times with this car!
The review is finally here

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-...ne-review.html
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Old 29th September 2019, 17:04   #87
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re: Red-Hot BMW: Story of my pre-owned BMW 320d Sport Line (F30 LCI). EDIT: 90,000 kms up!

The car has been running great as always, and I continue to do weekend trips whenever possible.

A couple of weeks ago, I made a short trip to Bandipur National Park. Driving through the Bnadipur National Park and Tiger Reserve is one my favorite drives. The jungles are always lush green, the atmosphere is always very serene and clean, and the roads are fabulous. Here, some random photos taken in and around our staying place in Bandipur.

Red-Hot BMW: Story of my pre-owned BMW 320d Sport Line (F30 LCI). EDIT: 90,000 kms up!-img_20190913_150506-2.jpg


Red-Hot BMW: Story of my pre-owned BMW 320d Sport Line (F30 LCI). EDIT: 90,000 kms up!-img_20190913_150416.jpg


Red-Hot BMW: Story of my pre-owned BMW 320d Sport Line (F30 LCI). EDIT: 90,000 kms up!-img_20190913_150535-2.jpg


Red-Hot BMW: Story of my pre-owned BMW 320d Sport Line (F30 LCI). EDIT: 90,000 kms up!-img_20190914_073052-2.jpg


Red-Hot BMW: Story of my pre-owned BMW 320d Sport Line (F30 LCI). EDIT: 90,000 kms up!-img_20190914_082141.jpg


Red-Hot BMW: Story of my pre-owned BMW 320d Sport Line (F30 LCI). EDIT: 90,000 kms up!-img_20190914_082203-2.jpg


As I mentioned earlier too in this thread, the car gives a great range of highway driving, and as a result, I rarely have to fill diesel in some remote places. I can do most of my weekend drives and also some work drives to cities like Chennai in one tank. This is really convenient and avoids the task of having to search for a reliable fuel station in unknown places. Here, below, is an example of this.

In one of my recent highway drives, I got a range of 927km!
Red-Hot BMW: Story of my pre-owned BMW 320d Sport Line (F30 LCI). EDIT: 90,000 kms up!-img_20190916_211730.jpg


Then the last weekend, we had an impromptu meet with fellow BMW owners and friends at Salem, TN. Distinguished bhpian Graaja drove there from Coimbatore, and fellow bhpians robimahanta, d3mon and myself drove there from Bangalore in our respective 3-serieses. So in the end, we had three 3-series sedans and one 3GT there at the Radisson, Salem. It was a great meet and it was fun exchanging notes and experiences with fellow 3-series owners.

A quick coffee break while on the way to Salem:
Red-Hot BMW: Story of my pre-owned BMW 320d Sport Line (F30 LCI). EDIT: 90,000 kms up!-img_20190921_154240.jpg


The BMW mini-meet at Radisson, Salem. From L to R, Graaja's 3GT, my 320d, d3mon's 320d, and robimahanta's 328i.
Red-Hot BMW: Story of my pre-owned BMW 320d Sport Line (F30 LCI). EDIT: 90,000 kms up!-img_20190922_102605.jpg


Red-Hot BMW: Story of my pre-owned BMW 320d Sport Line (F30 LCI). EDIT: 90,000 kms up!-img_20190922_102621.jpg


And last but not the least, it was great meeting d3mon and his red 320d. Sorry for the multitude of dual photos below, but I could not resist clicking and sharing tons of photos of the two red F30s together! So here you go:

Red-Hot BMW: Story of my pre-owned BMW 320d Sport Line (F30 LCI). EDIT: 90,000 kms up!-img_20190922_10280101.jpg


Red-Hot BMW: Story of my pre-owned BMW 320d Sport Line (F30 LCI). EDIT: 90,000 kms up!-img_20190922_10282601-2.jpg


Red-Hot BMW: Story of my pre-owned BMW 320d Sport Line (F30 LCI). EDIT: 90,000 kms up!-img_20190922_111003.jpg


Red-Hot BMW: Story of my pre-owned BMW 320d Sport Line (F30 LCI). EDIT: 90,000 kms up!-img_20190922_111101-2.jpg


Red-Hot BMW: Story of my pre-owned BMW 320d Sport Line (F30 LCI). EDIT: 90,000 kms up!-img_20190922_111129-3.jpg

Last edited by Dr.AD : 29th September 2019 at 17:18.
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Old 20th October 2019, 20:12   #88
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re: Red-Hot BMW: Story of my pre-owned BMW 320d Sport Line (F30 LCI). EDIT: 90,000 kms up!

Guess the car I spotted on bangalore-mangalore highway today was yours? Don't recall the number but remember seeing cam inside rear windscreen.
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Old 22nd October 2019, 20:11   #89
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re: Red-Hot BMW: Story of my pre-owned BMW 320d Sport Line (F30 LCI). EDIT: 90,000 kms up!

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Originally Posted by PrideRed View Post
Guess the car I spotted on bangalore-mangalore highway today was yours? Don't recall the number but remember seeing cam inside rear windscreen.
Yes, that must have been me :-) I was returning from my weekend trip, and was on Mangalore-Bangalore highway. Which car you were in? I wonder if I spotted you too.
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Old 23rd October 2019, 11:00   #90
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re: Red-Hot BMW: Story of my pre-owned BMW 320d Sport Line (F30 LCI). EDIT: 90,000 kms up!

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Originally Posted by Dr.AD View Post
Yes, that must have been me :-) I was returning from my weekend trip, and was on Mangalore-Bangalore highway. Which car you were in? I wonder if I spotted you too.
I was in a garnet red Innova and was right next to you just before You took diversion to Nelamangala toll.
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