Team-BHP - My 2013 BMW 320d Luxury Line - Review & Updates (over the 2012 model)

Quote:

Originally Posted by S5157 (Post 3070412)

Hello Bluebeem,

If possible few interior shots taken from outside with doors open so that we can experience the interior and exterior color combination.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Motored Mindset (Post 3070384)

Congratulations on your purchase, and Looking forward to some interior pictures, congratulations once again on buying into "Sheer Driving Pleasure".

Quote:

Originally Posted by karan561 (Post 3070192)

Congratulations Bluebeem on ur F30.

PS - Please post some interior pics

Pics Uploaded. Posting more pics soon! Hope you like them

Quote:

Originally Posted by drmohitg (Post 3071326)

Hey congratulations on your bimmer. Its a dream car. Shocked to hear your experience at the BMW showroom. I find it hard to digest the attitude given that it is a luxury offering and they hardly sell a handful of cars in a month comapred to car makers like Maruti, hyundai and Toyota. Still they find it difficult to keep there customers happy?

I didn't understand the dislike part of the A6 regarding the year end discounts. Aren't these discounts available across the line including the almost newly launched F30 too? 3-5L discount has kind of become a norm these days give the slump the industry finds itself in.

Wish you many happy miles with your car.

Hi Mohit,

So Most Companies including BMW and Mercedes usually give high discounts (above 1.5 lacs) on extremely slow moving models. You will never find BMW or Mercedes offering 4-6 lacs discount on their cash cows i.e 520d and E220 CDI except maybe a particular dealer who may have built up excessive inventories.

BMW were offering a steep discount on 320 Luxury Line because significant upgrades were made in the 2013 model and nobody (including me) would want to buy the 2012 model at the same price when you're getting significant upgrades in the 2013 model.

A6 on the other hand is a high seller for AUDI and yet AUDI is offering massive discounts on this car. makes you wonder why. Let me describe in detail. I test drove the AUDI and i was quoted 42.30 lacs for the 2013 model and 41.5 lacs for the 2012 model. The salesman further said they were giving a discount of 1.5 lacs on the 2012 model bringing it down to 40 lacs ex-showroom. This is the story of the Ludhiana showroom. PUrely out of coincidence next day i met a friend who bought a brand new A6 and he said he got it for 37 Lacs including insurance of 1 lac (means ex showroom cost of 36 lacs). Which meant whoever bought the car from AUDI ludhiana would feel very stupid. I asked a couple of other people as well and their cases seemed the same. They had bought the A6 at a sub 36 lac ex showroom price due to the year end discounts in Jan 2012. There seems to be no other reason why people are buying A6.

Also a very very good reason why you see hardly any Q3s and A4s on the road ;) Through this method AUDI seem to be providing "great value for money" on their cars. Which is also why you'll notice that in every segment AUDI seems to be offering the cheapest price. Because they use Chassis and Engines from VW with almost no car (except R8) having its own unique frame hence being able to absorb these massive discounts.

That Said, I'm a passionate driver who loves a crisp, great handling & High Revving engine. So i would never buy an AUDI under any circumstances.

Quote:

Originally Posted by n.devdath (Post 3070389)

This news is a revelation and if true, I m happy. I ve been eyeing the Beemers for quite some time now and was not very impressed by the 2012 F30 Sportline for its features, interior quality and its price then.

I am, however, a huge fan of the 5's looks and I had high expectations from it. Now that you tell me that the 3 is a better car than the 5 in space, comfort and handling, it feels good, because I can think about affording a new 3.

Let us see if the other Beemer owners agree with your views.

It really depends on your age and the phase of life :-) The black plastic back of front seats alone makes the rear seat of 3 series less desirable (compared to 5 of course). The interior color coordination is much better in 5 apart from the beautiful (subjective :-)) exterior. 3 still has a mechanical hand-brake - doesn't help the interior upmarket feel.

3 will definitely drive sharp, that has been their strongest and defining feature for generations. 520 drives pretty decent and "night-and-day" when compared to equivalent in Merc/Audi camp.

If you are a family-type with kids that could use the rear-seat-entertainment, etc. then 525D with RSE is an excellent choice.

All BMWs drive "edgy and bumpy". Edgy because the drive train is set up to be eager and hence start/stops are a tad abrupt and not silky smooth. Bumpy because of the RFTs. So I don't think 3 will be significantly be better than 5. You are better off looking at E or A6 for smooth ride.

5 being a bigger and higher segment vehicle might provide better NVH but 520d is definitely diesel-rough. If people have done a back-to-back test drive and felt 320d smoother, it must be true.

BMWs (sedans) also have lousy ground-clearance which is an important factor for people living in Bangalore. In Bangalore, I am always ahead of a BMW sedan no matter what puny car I drive :-)

Quote:

Originally Posted by androdev (Post 3072684)

I can't agree more with you on this. My dad recently td'd both the 520 and the 320 and found the 520d much better in terms of comfort and interior feel. Yes, the 520d is noticeably slower than the 3 because of its lesser bhp/weight ratio but again, this depends on the way you drive.
With regard to ground clearance, I'd like to mention that the 5 and the 3 have more than sufficient ground clearance for the roads in Kochi. In fact, my New Honda City scrapes more speed breakers than the bimmer!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bluebeem (Post 3071590)

Pics Uploaded. Posting more pics soon! Hope you like them

Hi Mohit,

So Most Companies including BMW and Mercedes usually give high discounts (above 1.5 lacs) on extremely slow moving models. You will never find BMW or Mercedes offering 4-6 lacs discount on their cash cows i.e 520d and E220 CDI except maybe a particular dealer who may have built up excessive inventories.

B

You are highly mistaken mate..Here in New Delhi i was straightaway offered 5 lacs discount on the E220(by T&T) and 4.5 on the 520d(Deutsch) and 3 lacs on the a6 premium 2.0Tdi.
a friend ended up buying an E350 while i got the A6.
so if you seriously negotiate then all 3 will offer around the same discount though :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by fiorano88 (Post 3079125)

As I said,

It only depends on what the dealer has in stock at that point in time.

For instance in ludhiana the Merc dealer is offering 6 lacs discount on an E350 but not a single penny discount and 6 months waiting on the ML 350.

Same goes for the other brands. And yes as I said. AUDI is offering the highest discounts in the ludhiana showroom on the A6

Quote:

Originally Posted by Turbo car (Post 3083305)

Hi Blue beem,

Congrats on the purchase of the new 320d. The saddle brown interiors look fantastic !!!

Can you post pictures of the heads up display of the car when its in motion ? And also more pictures of the console please.

Regards

Turbocar

Hey TurboCar.

Thanks ! yes the saddle brown interiors look amazing. Even better in person i assure you.
The heads up display is only available in the 328i in India. There was a 320d. luxury plus model costing approx 38 lacs ex showroom Ludhiana which offered the heads up display but this model has been discontinued. Although i do expect Bmw to introduce this variant in India some time in the near future as part of their "mid life makeover". Sorry to disappoint there ! Will put up more pics of the console as soon as I get a chance.

Quote:

Originally Posted by deepjaju (Post 3083865)

Congratulations on your purchase. Love the color of the interior and exterior.
Can you post pics of the sun roof? How it works and how much it opens ?
Also its shocking to hear BMW offering such horrible customer experiences. I personally feel the dealer is more responsible and lethargic towards its customers; as only a well settled individual is capable of opening up a high end dealership like that of BMW, Audi, etc.

Well the customer experience has been simply horrible. More than the dealership also I would pin it to the particular salesperson dealing with me. I've had a couple of more bad experiences with him post writing the review and now I've decided to take this up very sternly with BMW as this guy doesn't seem to know his limits. I've written about him to the head of sales india. No reply yet since a week. Lets what they plan to do about it.

The Sunroof is a standard one u get in all cars across all brands Infact. If you want I'll post some pictures soon ! :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bluebeem (Post 3065793)

The funny thing is, that Mr. Oversmart from BMW very conveniently told us that the 2012 is available at a discount of 3 lacs and itll cost me 32,25,000 after discount. Which means he first jacked up the price by 3 lacs, then gave 3 lacs discount on this. Anyway, so i confronted him and once he knew that i was a well informed customer, i went ahead and booked the 2013 model.

5 Days after booking my car i happened to walk into the BMW showroom because i wanted to see the upgraded 2013 model in person. Surprisingly my sales executive informed me that mine will be a 2012 model. Hearing this was in shock! as i'd paid 3 lacs premium just to get the upgraded 2013 model. On top of this the sales executive told me that when he offered me the price of 2013 model he meant that it'll be a 2012 model which will be billed in 2013. I had to create a little bit of a hue and cry in the showroom before they finally agreed to give me a 2013 model. I got BMW to confirm in writing that they were giving me a 2013 model along with the interior colour i'd ordered(since i didnt trust them anymore).

Although I was informed the car would arrive in 15 days. The car did not arrive in 15. While BMW showroom insisted that it had been dispatched from Chennai 15 days back. But they also insisted that they had absolutely no details of the transporter and therefore could not give me a definite date until one day before it arrived. This seemed very unjustified considering every small parcel today is also traceable by the transporter and that I'd paid 15 lacs advance for the car ! The car arrived in 24 days. It arrived on a Saturday evening and BMW refused to give me delivery on Sunday. I had to take the same route of asking the head of sales as a special request. She got it done. To my utter shock when I reached the showroom on Sunday, there were 3 other customers there to take delivery. Apparently all the drama of the showroom being shut and their inability to deliver on Sunday had been complete nonsense.

The booking experience was not pleasant at all. But this may be purely circumstantial and may not apply to all customers or all showrooms for that matter.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bluebeem (Post 3065793)

1. THE STAFF HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO KNOWLEDGE OF THE PRODUCT : After my repeatedly asking the local showroom for a saddle brown interior in an Imperial Blue car, the sales exec was adamant that they would only give me a saddle brown in a white or a black car. I found out the email address for the "head of sales -india" and mailed her requesting her to give me a saddle brown interior in the Imperial blue. She was shocked to know that showroom had refused this as this was a regular offering by BMW. she arranged it for me. It seems the BMW staff wasn't aware that this was available. The staff were also completely unaware of the difference in features between the 2012 and 2013 model. They simple handed me the "features" pamphlet and asked me to go through the same.

Wow, horrific experiences for a "luxury car" buyer. If this is what you guys have to put up with, we should be grateful for the service we get from VW/Skoda/Maruti guys then lol: But seriously, you should look at getting a complaint filed against your local dealer. The quality of the service industry in India is really poor and only with regular complaining/badgering, can we hope to do anything to improve this state.

Congrats on the car!