Hi Friends , Am planing to get the 3 series in the next few days (possibly in December itself).
Many thoughts and questions are going through my mind as I take this decision to shell out this much amount.
I wanted to share all that is going through my mind and possibly have some suggestions with regards to any possibility.
Well I have test driven the Audi A4 (143bhp) and the 3 series(320d) in the last couple of months.
A lot of you would totally disagree wit me but for some reason I have never been able to view the Audi in the same class as the Mercedes and the BMW. This is just a one time opportunity for me to fulfill the dream of my life and am just not able to convince myself to get the Audi. The other demotivating factor for the Audi being that a totally new version of the car is expected to hit either late next year or by max 2015.
My first love has always been Mercedes but again the C Class is about to get the new model by 2015. Also that the C Class base model is priced much higher than the other two. Have not taken any test drive for the car.
I have test driven the 3 series twice in the last couple of weeks.
Just two words to describe it - AWESOME POWER.
Other factors in favor of 3 series being :
-New model launched only last year.
-The car looks great. Love the sporty stance of the BMW's.
-BMW enjoys the same appeal as that of a Mercedes in India.
Have many thoughts and questions with regards to BMW.
The no 1 being about the Run Flat Tyres.
- The absence of a fifth tyre is making me go nuts. Not sure if this would work out but since my drives would mostly be within City, I plan to purchase a fifth tyre (TUBELESS) and keep it in the boot somehow. Since would be mostly driving within the city so would not have much of a use for the boot anyways. The sales guy has suggested me to get a similar looking alloy wheel from the market that can be kept for emergency purposes.
- Another issue is that once the run flats get punctured, they cannot be repaired. The tyre would have to be changed to a new one.
And the new ones cost a bomb. Not sure what is the exact cost but read somewhere these tyres cost almost 37k a piece. The sales guy however suggested that the punctured tyres can be repaired from local punctrewaalas.
Would anyone be able throw some light on this. Is it actually possible to get a puncture repaired for a run flat tyre ?
So as per my understanding you would always require the BMW secure package to be bought for the car if you want to ensure that the tyres and alloys are covered for replacement. This somehow I feel is kind of like a Blackmail. Elsewhere even GTO has mentioned he would prefer to change the runflats first thing after purchasing any BMW -
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techni...d-go-flat.html
I have spoken about this run flat issue with the dealers and all of them start singing this song about how safe and secure the run flat technology is. What the hell man - Am happy with my tubeless tyres in any other car that I have owned till now.
Other thing is that the sales guys are clearly telling in advance that while we can change the runflats to tubeless immediately from the market after the purchase, the suspension warranty would get voided for the car
For now have decided to keep the runflats and maybe buy the tubeless ones sometime later. Also that would be buying a spare tubeless along with an alloy from the market to be kept as a spare in the boot. And there goes the bootspace.
As I am on a limited budget , need one suggestion from all.
The dealer has in stock 2-3 cars with chasis made in 2012. The sales guy is telling me that while the chasis has been made in 2012 the overall car has been assembled in 2013.
What exactly does this mean ?
Is this a 2012 car or will it be called a 2013 model ?
Am planing to take the VIN number of the vehicle from the sales guy.
Not sure but these could be 2012 pack cars.
I have some major doubts about this as of now.
If I purchase this 2012 pack car assembled in 2013 and go to sell it anytime later, would this be called a 2012 model or a 2013 model ?
Someone suggested that the model can be checked with the serial no on the BMW website.
And now finally the confusion remains whether to get a non-xenon or the xenon equipped model. Well obviously the xenon lights look absolutely cool as compared to the other plain ones. While the price difference between the two is only 50000, the catch here is that the dealer is possibly willing to give more discounts on a non-xenon model. Will decide about this after the final discounts are offered at the time of booking.
So I have 3 choices here.
2012 pack assembled in 2013 without xenon.
2013 model without xenon.
2013 model with xenon.
Another question going through my mind is with regards to 320i petrol. Since my running would be quite low , am thinking if I can save some money now and purchase 320i petrol. The 320i should be approx 1.5 lacs cheaper onroad.
Would need to check but the dealer might give more discounts due to fewer petrol customers. The downside would be when 5 years down the line I would be selling the car and the depreciation in the resale value would be higher as compared to a diesel car.
Due to the planned price hike from January am not sure whether the present cars would be sold at the new price or the present price. Sales guys are giving different stories on this. I have been told of a 10% price hike that would come to about 3 lacs on the ex-showroom price. Am already on a budget and if the 2013 model cars would be sold with the new price, I would just about shelve my plan to buy this car altogether.
Am open to any kind of feedback or suggestions before I take the final plunge. Any kind of advise would be most welcome. Thanks....