[Dr.AD]

This is a great thread with lot of useful information and details on your car ownership. Thank you for sharing these details and keeping this thread updated.

Originally Posted by Hayek

So after 5 years of spending nothing incremental other than for fuel and a tyre replacement, I will now need to start thinking about service costs. Would appreciate inputs for any reliable third party garages experienced at servicing BMWs - though for the near term, I would likely stick to authorised service.

Completing 5 years is actually the best time to stick to the authorized service. The reason is that BMW offers discounted service rates for cars which are 5 years old. The discount starts increasing with age after 5 years, and older the car, more the discount. This discount is only limited to basic service costs (what would otherwise be covered under BSI), but nevertheless, this is a sweet deal.

My car (F30 320d) just completed 4.5 years and I did my latest service last week. My SA reassured me that I will start getting discounted service rates from the next service, when I would have completed 5 years.

I am sure you would have seen this thread, but in case you have missed it, here is the link: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...-old-bmws.html (BMW Joy Rewards: Reduced maintenance costs for 5+ year old BMWs)

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by Hayek

Would appreciate inputs for any reliable third party garages experienced at servicing BMWs - though for the near term, I would likely stick to authorised service.

I frequently use the services of a fellow Team BHP member who lives near our area. I trust him for FNG work - recently also got my door handles as well as front brake pads replaced with him. The door handles had suffered that famous BMW blackening out and I simply couldn’t bear to see it in that condition. I can message you the details if you are keen. I think the difference is still quite significant and I would pick FNG a lot given that I trust this particular FNG on quality and integrity. The delta on both these items was quite significant over what it would have cost me at BMW official service.

Originally Posted by Hayek

Talking of fuel, just incurred the highest cost I every have incurred on a fuel up for this car - with diesel at ₹102.48 per litre in Bombay, just spend ₹ 5343 for just over 52 litres.
…
Which comes to the next point, thought of posting some data I have tracked on this car over the last 57 months. Just shocks me to see how the cost of fuel and cost per fuel up has risen. This has been offset by low running in the last 18 months - but as that phase comes to an end, fuel costs will start mattering a lot more

Interesting - I am curious, if you had running of between 1200 - 1400 kms per month and had to buy the X3 all over again today - would you pick the petrol or the diesel. I’m also conscious that since your last post, the difference between petrol and diesel is even more stark - about 15 Rs. maybe (~94/- for diesel compared to almost 110/- for petrol at BP pumps.).

I think the petrol X3 is an absolute gem of an engine but the 2.0D isn’t a disappointment either. I’d struggle to make the choice but would likely pick the petrol all other things being equal.

Finally, on the consumption log images, is that an app on which you have mapped those efficiency figures? Can you please share the details of the app if thats the case? Thank you.

[Hayek]

Originally Posted by Axe77

I trust him for FNG work - recently also got my door handles as well as front brake pads replaced with him… I can message you the details if you are keen.

Thanks. Please do PM the details. I suspect I would pick the FNG option for cosmetic work but not for safety or reliability critical items like brakes or engine / transmission related aspects, but having a reliable option is very valuable.

Interesting - I am curious, if you had running of between 1200 - 1400 kms per month and had to buy the X3 all over again today - would you pick the petrol or the diesel.

As you are aware, my run is more like half of that - about 700-800 km per month on the X3 (bar Covid times) and slightly more (800-900 km per month) on our second car, currently the Tiguan. But even at 1200-1400 km per month, with my kind of running (Central Bombay crawls and short hauls by and large), I would pick a Petrol in the BS6 world. Don’t think DPFs are designed for average speeds of 20-30 kmph and a maximum high speed (80-100 kmph) run of 1-2 km at a stretch. The way I look at it, even at 1400 km of usage, the petrol would cost me just ₹8000 per month more than the diesel (₹24000 VS ₹16000) - and a lakh a year is nothing when you are talking of cars that cost ₹60 l+ on the road.

Finally, on the consumption log images, is that an app on which you have mapped those efficiency figures? Can you please share the details of the app if thats the case?

I use the paid version of Fuelly. The App Store link is below

https://apps.apple.com/in/app/fuelly...er/id295905460

[Hayek]

As many of you know, I purchased my car in January 2017, and it is now getting close to completing 5 years. That of course implies that both the extended warranty and BSI package would expire in coming weeks. Further, I planned to take the car on a driving holiday to South India, and wanted to be sure that it is in fine fettle before the journey.

I therefore went through the car with a fine tooth comb, and discovered two issues which needed to be addressed:

1) A disintegrating driver door handle coin holder



Everyone who owns a BMW has heard of the tendency of the door handles to discolor and turn sticky over time. And while that has not yet happened to my car, I noticed that the coin holder plastic had started disintegrating.

2) Some suspension noise

There was also slight suspension noise from the front left suspension, which I decided should be dealt with asap

Sent the car to BMW Infinity Lalbaug. After inspecting the car, they agreed to deal with both of these issues under warranty. Parts were not available, but they said the suspension parts would come in a few days, while the door handle would take a while. However, they agreed to cover the handle under warranty even if the part arrived after the warranty expired. This process meant that the car was off the road for a few days

The suspension parts arrived a few days later, and I sent the car once again - and it was duly repaired. I was relieved, and thought I was all set for my journey. But when my driver went to pick up the car, he found the following error - they key fob battery needed to be replaced. Fortunately, that was available in stock, and the replacement was duly carried out.



I got the car back, and drove it for a couple of days. I had to travel out of town on work, and my driver tried to start the car the next morning. And he found that the car was refusing to move, and the following error message appeared



It turned out that the electronic parking brake actuator had failed, and this meant that the car was jammed in parked position. A call to Infinity led to their dispatching an engineer who released the brake - but the car had to go back to Infinity for the third time in just over a week.



The required parts were not in stock - but my service advisor was very proactive realizing I was just a few days away from a long drive, and managed to source the parts from Poona. Repairs were duly done, and I was finally set for my driving holiday. More on the driving holiday in a subsequent post - but suffice to say the car worked flawlessly through the nearly 3000 kms I drove in the last 8 days. The door handle still needs to be dealt with of course.

[androdev]

@Hayek, thanks for sharing an update. Looking forward to your road trip details - that must have been a refreshing year end break given all the doom and gloom these days.

Would it be possible to post more details about the above repairs - what exactly went wrong and how much it would have costed without warranty. Degrading plastic is a known issue and reasonably cheap to get it fixed outside (I did it for my 520d) but other two issues (suspension noise and e-parking) seem too early and unacceptable for such a well maintained car. Suspension issue could be due to going over a pothole, etc. but e-parking brake issue is hard to justify. Do you always keep auto-hold on? Is it a mechanical failure or electronic? Thanks!

[Hayek]

Originally Posted by androdev

Degrading plastic is a known issue and reasonably cheap to get it fixed outside (I did it for my 520d) but other two issues (suspension noise and e-parking) seem too early and unacceptable for such a well maintained car. Suspension issue could be due to going over a pothole, etc. but e-parking brake issue is hard to justify. Do you always keep auto-hold on? Is it a mechanical failure or electronic? Thanks!

Did not ask what it would have cost without a warranty. So no idea about that.

Don’t think I have had any extreme moves through potholes - the noise was mild and if the car had not been under warranty, I may not have bothered about it.

Yes, I always keep the EPB on - and my drive is mainly in stop and go Bombay traffic - so perhaps that was the cause. Was a mechanical issue with the actuator. Searching through BMW forums abroad suggests that this is a fairly common issue.

[zipzapzoom]

@hayek
Its so coincidental that i have faced exactly these same issues with my 6 year old X3
but in different order
And yes my car too is serviced at turbhe infinity.

1) the shock absorbers failed first the car was jumping up and down and there i was accusing bad roads quality but my Verna on same roads ran smoothly, so i sent in for a check and bad shock absorbers were diagnosed.

2) One fine day the car wont budge at all and the faulty brake actuator was diagnosed, Infinity service sent two techs home, they disengaged the stuck actuator and took away the car on break down vehicle.

3) then the key FOB failed with low battery same was sorted out by self, i simply opened it and changed the battery however the settings were reset by service advisor.

4) Lastly the sticky plastic inserts in the door its started with driver side door first and then to passenger side door. I had suffered the same problem in my 3 series earlier and was resorting to various local juggads. but this time i enquired with service center they confirmed that it can be easily taken care in warranty.

All the above problems were handled efficiently and very professionally (car stayed with them only for a day, i generally keep my driver waiting)

cant comment how much each of these replacements or repairs would have cost me out of warranty.
Once again this proves the point how critical or important is extended warranty for these cars.

[Hayek]

Completed 5 years and 39,950 kms yesterday - along with our family’s release from Covid quarantine.

As mentioned on my previous post, I took the X3 for my longest ever driving holiday in India - covering nearly 3,000 km across South India between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. When I returned from our Southern Sojourn (Hayek's Road Trips - A Southern India Sojourn) on New Year’s eve, the car was at about 39,500 km, and showing 2,400 km to the next service.




Had a chat with my SA who advised me that they can take the car for service only when the system shows 2,000 km or less. The cost of each service is approximately ₹30,000 - so I had my driver carry out errands not just for our family but the neighbours too —and also run the car randomly until we got the indicator down to the necessary level. Yes, we probably drove 200 km unnecessarily - but it was clearly worthwhile in getting the next service done under BSI.





Infinity managed to get the door trim redone under warranty.






So, did it really make sense to take up the BSI package? Perhaps not from a purely economic perspective - but mainly because of Covid which was something that could not have been anticipated. Would probably have done another 7000-8000 km in the absence of the pandemic, and not having to worry about problems was clearly worth it.

Hope the car gives me relatively trouble free service going forward.

[mobike008]

Congratulations Hayek on completing 5 years and 40,000kms.

I'm sure you enjoyed the ownership experience till date and looks like it's been trouble free till date.

A few questions :

a) How much was your rough cost of ownership (minus gas) for your X3 over this 5-year period?

b) BSI package cost and typical per service cost?

b) What's the gas mileage you get in diesel version? High, Average and Lowest?

c) Finally, I see you also have a VW. How would you compare the driving experience vs. your other SUV?

Kudos to you for resisting driving it only for 8,000kms per year. I just completed my 1st year and clocked 20,000kms. I just find an excuse to drive it. LOL!

Cheers and Many more miles on your X3.

[Hayek]

Originally Posted by mobike008

a) How much was your rough cost of ownership (minus gas) for your X3 over this 5-year period?

b) BSI package cost and typical per service cost?

Sorry, had missed this completely - and was off the forum for a 6 month sabbatical (or detox, whatever you choose to call it). Paid about ₹500000 IIRC for the BSI and the extended warranty. Had a few problems in the interim - an AC gas leak, changes in the Exhaust Gas Recirculation system (subject of a recall), and also sent the car for oil services and brake pad replacement. Suspect I paid more than what I would have paid in the absence of BSI - but that is also because of Covid - I covered 28000 km in the first 3 years of my BSI and just another 12000 in the next two. Apart from BSI cost, the only costs I incurred was insurance, replacing the tyres (₹98500) and detailing. Would have saved more money and made the BSI more worthwhile if I had driven a little more (more later in this post)

b) What's the gas mileage you get in diesel version? High, Average and Lowest?

My average mileage (81% Bombay city driving - mainly Parel to BKC and 19% highways) has been 8.8 kmpl, the best is 11.7 kmpl since my highway drives tend to be high speed. Worst is probably 2 kmpl MID indicated on some of my East West crossings in the city.

c) Finally, I see you also have a VW. How would you compare the driving experience vs. your other SUV?

The Tiguan Allspace is really good too. Probably not as planted as the X3, but the engine is super smooth (I will never buy a diesel again), and my family prefers it’s rear seat.

Updates Since February 2022

Had to replace both front and rear brake pads in Late April 2022 - just 3.5 months after my BSI ended, which cost me ₹ 84000. Had to replace the coolant recently (₹6000) and also the battery which conked out a couple of weeks back. The battery issue was frustrating - since the car started giving vague error messages (transmission error, check engine etc) and BMW Infinity charged a bomb to run all kinds of diagnostics before concluding that the errors were because of the battery. The battery replacement cost ₹50000+ (including the diagnostics they ran). So yes, the car has proved much more expensive in the 5000 km after BSI expired - have spent ₹ 140000+ in this period - which is more than I had expected. Have another 4 months of the year left, so I could well be at the point where the 6th year BSI and BRI cost would have been justified if I have another service requirement before that ends (my iDrive currently shows 3500 km to the next service).

Have just crossed 45000 km now in 5 years and 8 months

[androdev]

Originally Posted by Hayek

Had to replace both front and rear brake pads in Late April 2022 - just 3.5 months after my BSI ended, which cost me ₹ 84000.

Did you change the brake discs also? 84K is steep for just brake pads.

The battery issue was frustrating - since the car started giving vague error messages (transmission error, check engine etc) and BMW Infinity charged a bomb to run all kinds of diagnostics before concluding that the errors were because of the battery. The battery replacement cost ₹50000+ (including the diagnostics they ran).

I highly recommend using a battery charger. The savings from extending the life of battery may not be substantial, but it's a great thing to have the car always ready to go and not having to see some scary error messages.

Welcome back, by the way!! You were missed.

[Hayek]

More not so good news to report. About six months back, I had a puncture in my left rear tyre, with a largish nail entering the shoulder of the tyre. Had got that mended the usual way. Over the last 6 months, there were two more occasions when the same patch started leaking again, with slow loss of pressure. Happened again just before Diwali and this time, the local puncture guy suggested I need to change the tyre.

Went down to my tyre dealer yesterday. I have done about 16,500 km on the current set of tyres, and was hopeful I would be able to get away replacing just one or two tyres. However, I did some Googling, and found a number of strong recommendations that for an xDrive equipped car, the difference in tread height between tyres should be no more than 2 mm, and that all four tyres should therefore be replaced simultaneously.

The tyre dealer agreed that the left rear was not repairable. To my surprise, the right rear had also lost a lot of tread - with the inside part of the tyre having tread that was just a little above the wear indicator. The front tyres were better but had lost more than 50% of tread too and one of them had two punctures - and after some thinking, I decided to replace all four tyres. Was disappointed that these tyres lasted me just a little more than half the distance and half the time my first set did.

Michelin run flats in my size (245/50/18) were not available, and after the bad experience with my second set of Pirellis, I decided I wanted to change brands. So went in for Michelin P4STs. Had a good experience with P3STs on my Superb - so hope this set works well. Am taking a risk without run flats but I have a space saver in the boot, and so hopefully should be ok.

This year is turning into a very expensive one with this car - what with the brake pads, battery and now the tyres. The car will also have its first paid oil service in less than 2100 km - so yes, 2022 is a high maintenance year despite relatively low running.

[iliketurtles]

Originally Posted by Hayek

This year is turning into a very expensive one with this car - what with the brake pads, battery and now the tyres. The car will also have its first paid oil service in less than 2100 km…

Bummer to hear, but best to put this behind you and look at it as a payment towards future peace of mind. Touch wood, it’s all smooth sailing from here on out.

I remember the Pirelli’s being problematic for me too on my Jetta, and the Michelin’s I replaced them with were absolutely fuss free in comparison. It was the exact same story on the 3’er as well.

I love the Pirelli’s from a performance perspective, but they’re just too soft for Indian conditions and vagaries. I’d wager it’ll be a smooth ride for you with the Michelin’s henceforth. Happy driving!

[el lobo 6061]

Originally Posted by Hayek

However, I did some Googling, and found a number of strong recommendations that for an xDrive equipped car, the difference in tread height between tyres should be no more than 2 mm, and that all four tyres should therefore be replaced simultaneously.

What would happen with difference is more than 2 mm and we replace only 1 tyre?

Originally Posted by Hayek

To my surprise, the right rear had also lost a lot of tread - with the inside part of the tyre having tread that was just a little above the wear indicator.

This be due to alignment issue. Faced it on my X1.

Originally Posted by Hayek

The front tyres were better but had lost more than 50% of tread too and one of them had two punctures

You could have the puncture repaired and retained them. xDrive be more rear biased which is why front tyre be having more tread. RFT dont last more than 25,000 Kms. Pirelli RFT have more life compared to Bridgestone RFT.

Originally Posted by Hayek

I decided I wanted to change brands. So went in for Michelin P4STs. Had a good experience with P3STs on my Superb

Micheline P4ST is showing at Rs. 22,000/tyre. Could have also gone for Vredestein ULTRAC VORTI for Rs 17,000/tyre or even MRF Perfinza CLX1 for Rs 15,000.

Made in India tyres cost are still reasonable whereas imported tyre cost have gone through the roof.

I intend to use Yokohama Earth1 in 225 55 R17 size once I finish tread of the Brifgestone/Pirelli combo I'm currently running on X1.

You can have a look at Tyre Market Website.

I hope you got the alignment checked post installing new tyres, preferably from BMW Workshop? Else it will lead to faster tread wear.

You can also rotate tyres every 10,000 Kms for longer life.

How is the comfort now with Michelin? Since non-RFT tyres give more cushy ride.

[Hayek]

Originally Posted by el lobo 6061

What would happen with difference is more than 2 mm and we replace only 1 tyre?

Am told it leads the xDrive to detect slippage when there is none which could lead to it wearing out - which would be a much bigger cost item.

This be due to alignment issue.

You are probably right

Micheline P4ST is showing at Rs. 22,000/tyre. Could have also gone for Vredestein ULTRAC VORTI for Rs 17,000/tyre

May not have been a bad option - but have always been a Michelin fan - would have gone for Michelin RFTs if they had been around. Too early to tell on comfort