[Chethan B G]

Congratulations Ganesh! Excellent choice there! What a lovely detailed Ownership report! Enjoyed reading! Thanks for sharing!

Car looks dashing to say the least! Wish you a very happy and safe motoring!

May I ask the price you could get for the Jetta?

[graaja]

Originally Posted by Chethan B G

Congratulations Ganesh! Excellent choice there! What a lovely detailed Ownership report! Enjoyed reading! Thanks for sharing!

Car looks dashing to say the least! Wish you a very happy and safe motoring!

May I ask the price you could get for the Jetta?

Hi Chethan,

Thank you for the kind wishes

I got 13L for the Jetta.

[vishy76]

Congratulations on the car Sir!

The GT looks smashing in this blue. Can't wait for the M-sport suspension. Will definitely make the car a complete package for both you and your family.

A lot has been said about the alloys and I agree. BTW, why has BMW even bothered to offer this design on the facelift? They could have continued with the alloy design on the pre-facelift 330i sedan. (Karan561 owns a white 330i with those alloys)

I would suggest you get them plasti dipped in gun metal grey. Will go well with the chrome delete you have done and improve the side profile even further.

Man, is it really that difficult to find an upgrade to the Jetta? Although I have a manual Comfortline.

Wishing you all the very best for all your ventures with this car.

Regards,
Vishy

[Varun_HexaGuy]

Congratulations on the car, sir (though a bit late)!
The 3GT is an amazing proposition and an all-rounder of that segment, more so in the 30i disguise. Wish it came with the same Straight-six 30i engine from the E90 3-series.

I do hope that the M-Sport suspension would make a lot of difference to the drive experience making it a perfect all-rounder.

Wishing you many more miles and happy smiles with the GT.

Originally Posted by vishy76

A lot has been said about the alloys and I agree. BTW, why has BMW even bothered to offer this design on the facelift? They could have continued with the alloy design on the pre-facelift 330i sedan. (Karan561 owns a white 330i with those alloys)

Ananth, D-BHPian Karan561 owns a 328i (F30) which came shod with the alloys you're referring to.

Varun

[Prathiiik]

Amazing review of an Amazing car Sir!

Congrats on the beautiful 3 GT Sir. I’m a huge fan of this car primarily due to it’s practicality. The sporty nature of the 3 series sedan combined with the practicality of an SUV makes the GT. And yes, I’m a huge fan of it’s looks.

Eagerly waiting for your review of the M Sport suspension on your car.

Congrats again! Glad I could be a part of your purchase decision. Wishing you many more years of happy motoring with this one.


Regards
Prathik

[nikhil_pon]

Congratulations Sir, great choice. Nice upgrade from the VW Jetta. I appreciate your attention to detail in this thread and it will serve as a super reference for other planning on 3GT. I some how feel it is underrated car, should have sold more for the options and practicality it offers.
Do you have to pay extra for the donut spare wheel/ tyre? Is there any option to fix it under the dicky carpet as placing on top eats up some amount of space. Looks like there is only ample space for some tools.
In terms of ground clearance this car has bit more clearance than other BMW sedans. What is your opinion on bit bad rough roads and unscientific road humps we encounter in our daily rides. Did your car bottom scrape during these situations?

[graaja]

Originally Posted by nikhil_pon

Congratulations Sir, great choice. Nice upgrade from the VW Jetta. I appreciate your attention to detail in this thread and it will serve as a super reference for other planning on 3GT. I some how feel it is underrated car, should have sold more for the options and practicality it offers.
Do you have to pay extra for the donut spare wheel/ tyre? Is there any option to fix it under the dicky carpet as placing on top eats up some amount of space. Looks like there is only ample space for some tools.
In terms of ground clearance this car has bit more clearance than other BMW sedans. What is your opinion on bit bad rough roads and unscientific road humps we encounter in our daily rides. Did your car bottom scrape during these situations?

Thank you for the kind words

I did not have to pay for the spare wheel. That came standard with the car. Though there is space below the carpet area for placing tools, I doubt if there is room enough for a spare wheel. In the 5 series, they had exactly done this - placed the spare below the carpet area. Maybe if we totally open up the present compartments under the carpet and redesign to fit the spare, it may be possible. But as the car comes with run flats, I just have removed the spare wheel from the boot and am carrying a tire inflator for those emergencies.

The ground clearance is just fantastic. I have not had any scraping issues even in jumbo speed breakers. The car feels almost like an SUV. If only the suspensions were a little bit stiffer with less bounce, this would have been the perfect balance.

Update on the suspensions:
I have received an official quote for the suspensions from the dealership. The total cost works out to 2.5Lakhs - 2Lakhs for the suspension components and 50K for installation. I am trying to negotiate in bringing down the installation cost a little bit - but there may not be much room I guess. Will know more this week. The things I have to do to keep warranty intact!

I had also asked for a quote for installing the Advanced Eye dashcam. For that I have received a quote of 41K.

Will update the progress on these two installations soon.

[graaja]

5000 KM Up:

The car completed 5000 kilometers about 10 days back.

The engine has opened up nicely. As I have mentioned earlier, the car indeed has dual personality. It can cruise easily at 100kph with the RPM hovering at 1200 making absolutely no noise (other than the noise from the tires), and can go crazy with that explosive power delivery in sports manual mode. A few observations below:

Fuel Economy:
In the first couple of months, I used to track the fuel economy using the tank fill method. Surprisingly, I get better FE in city than on highways. In city I always drive in the EcoPro mode and even in heavy traffic (in Coimbatore standard), I get 11 to 11.5kpl.

The highways is a different story though! On the highways, I have been getting an average of 9.8kpl to 10kpl in mixed conditions (lot of cruising, some spirited driving and some heavy traffic). The best was around 11kpl on a long highway drive cruising at 110kph most of the time. The worst I have got is 8.5kpl while driving the car in sports mode on a 100km drive.

In summary, if FE is even of very small importance, this is not the car to drive. Yes, I can extract a very good FE in EcoPro mode, but then why do I need a 252bhp petrol car? These days, I have stopped tracking FE and just drive it as the situation warrants, and enjoy the smooth and explosive power deliveries.

Brakes:
During the run-in period, I had a feeling that the brakes were not as sharp as they should be for the power the engine was putting to the wheels. Compared to the Jetta, I felt they were a little spongy. But now the brakes have settled nicely and have become quite sharp and powerful. I am absolutely satisfied with the stopping power of the car now. The brake response is different in different drive modes as well, with the sharpest response in sports mode, which is fantastic.

One thing that needs to be mentioned is the unusual amount of brake dust. Forget spirited driving, even regular driving in two lane roads with heavy traffic results in lot of brake dust. This could be because of various factors like the weight of the car, the power, and the way the car quickly accelerates. I have a feeling that the brake pads may need frequent change maybe every 20K to 25K kilometers. My Jetta at 49,500 kilometers still had 5,000 kilometers of life on the brake pads.

BSI Package:
I had already taken the 6 years extended warranty package (Repair Inclusive package in BMW terms) at the time of delivery of the car. As my running is between 12K to 15K kilometers a year, I was thinking of not going for the BSI package.

However, seeing the brake dust and inputs from some 3 series owners who had their pads replaced at 20K to 25K kilometers, I thought it would be better to go for BSI+ package which covers all oil services, air and oil filters, spark plugs, brake pads and discs and one set of wiper blades every year. Only wash and wheel alignment and balancing are not covered which I can always get done outside.

I will be taking the 3 years / 40,000km BSI+ package which costs 1.35 Lakhs. Later I plan to extend this to 5 years / 60,000 kilometers package which costs 2.9 Lakhs (I will have to pay the 1.55 Lakhs difference for the extension).

Suspension Upgrade:
The upgrade to the M sport suspensions is still pending. As I had updated in an earlier post, the dealer has all the parts ready to order except the springs. For some reason, the part number for the springs is not showing up in their data base. The service manager is in communication with BMW to find out the part number of the spring that matches the struts of the M Sport suspension setup. Once he receives this information (hopefully within a week or 10 days), I will be placing the order for all the components.

That is all I have for now.

[deepfreak15]

Originally Posted by graaja

5000 KM Up:
Brakes:
One thing that needs to be mentioned is the unusual amount of brake dust. Forget spirited driving, even regular driving in two lane roads with heavy traffic results in lot of brake dust.

Could also be the pads breaking in. Though not an apples to apples comparison, one set of OEM pads on my polo had insane amount of dust build up even in city driving and wore out real quick.

[the_skyliner]

Originally Posted by graaja

In summary, if FE is even of very small importance, this is not the car to drive. Yes, I can extract a very good FE in EcoPro mode, but then why do I need a 252bhp petrol car? These days, I have stopped tracking FE and just drive it as the situation warrants, and enjoy the smooth and explosive power deliveries.

Absolutely, correct. Don't bother too much about the FE and just enjoy the car. There is no point in tracking FE religiously when you are driving a beast.

Originally Posted by graaja

Brakes:
During the run-in period, I had a feeling that the brakes were not as sharp as they should be for the power the engine was putting to the wheels. Compared to the Jetta, I felt they were a little spongy. But now the brakes have settled nicely and have become quite sharp and powerful. I am absolutely satisfied with the stopping power of the car now. The brake response is different in different drive modes as well, with the sharpest response in sports mode, which is fantastic.

I too had similar experience initially. The brakes take some running to settle in and then they are decent enough. 320d's brakes are definitely better than GT. As you said, could be because of the additional weight of GT.

Originally Posted by graaja

BSI Package:
I had already taken the 6 years extended warranty package (Repair Inclusive package in BMW terms) at the time of delivery of the car. As my running is between 12K to 15K kilometers a year, I was thinking of not going for the BSI package.

This is enough.

Originally Posted by graaja

I will be taking the 3 years / 40,000km BSI+ package which costs 1.35 Lakhs. Later I plan to extend this to 5 years / 60,000 kilometers package which costs 2.9 Lakhs (I will have to pay the 1.55 Lakhs difference for the extension).

I would not recommend this. With extended warranty, the chances of you ending up spending more than 60k per year on regular service and wear & tear parts replacement are very, very slim. And even if you do end up paying 60k per year, it will be still cheaper than BSI package.

Cheers!

[graaja]

Originally Posted by deepfreak15

Could also be the pads breaking in. Though not an apples to apples comparison, one set of OEM pads on my polo had insane amount of dust build up even in city driving and wore out real quick.

Usually, the pads break-in in about 500 to 1000 kilometers. In my case, even after 4000 km, I find this high brake dust. Maybe it is just the way the pads have been designed - I read some articles that mention that the amount of brake dust depends on the friction material used in the pads. So, it is quite possible that the dust does not directly indicate the life of the pads. Will know only when I get the brake pad wear indicator warning on my instrument cluster.

Originally Posted by the_skyliner

I would not recommend this. With extended warranty, the chances of you ending up spending more than 60k per year on regular service and wear & tear parts replacement are very, very slim. And even if you do end up paying 60k per year, it will be still cheaper than BSI package.

Thanks a lot for the inputs.

I did this rough calculation. A regular oil service could cost anywhere between 25K to 30K. So, considering 5 oil services , it could cost about 1.25L to 1.5L. Also, with the conditional based servicing, many BMW owners have reported oil service requirement even at 10,000 kilometers.

Regarding wear and tear items, I understand one set of brake pads for front and rear cost 40K. As my driving involves lots of acceleration and braking especially in two lane roads which require lots of overtaking, I am assuming that I may need 2 sets of brake pads in the 60,000 kilometers which would be about 80K. The OE wiper blades cost 7000 and 5 replacements would smount to 35K. That makes it 1.15L for brake pads + wipers.

If brake rotor replacement does not come up in 60K kilometers, then BSI+ will work out to be expensive. However, if the brake rotors need replacement, that could work out to be an expensive affair and that is when I think BSI+ would pay for itself. Even if BSI+ turns out to be say 20K more expensive than regular service, I thought the peace of mind of not to worry about any payments for the next 5 years could make it worth.

What is your experience with service costs and wear and tear items in your GT? How many oil services have you done and how much did each service cost? Did you have to change the brake pads? If yes, when did they need replacement and how much did they cost? These information will be very helpful (will check your ownership thread as well as you may have documented this).

[the_skyliner]

Originally Posted by graaja

What is your experience with service costs and wear and tear items in your GT? How many oil services have you done and how much did each service cost? Did you have to change the brake pads? If yes, when did they need replacement and how much did they cost? These information will be very helpful (will check your ownership thread as well as you may have documented this).

Haven't had servicing of GT yet as it is planned in June. iDrive is showing some 4k kms to go before servicing but as it will be competing one year in June so will get it done then.

For my earlier car 320d, it was in the range of 25k - 30k including replacement of front brake pads once.

I am not saying that BSI is a bad choice, just that it isn't VFM and same money can be utilised to pay for servicing and stuff on a yearly basis.

[graaja]

Originally Posted by the_skyliner

...
I am not saying that BSI is a bad choice, just that it isn't VFM and same money can be utilised to pay for servicing and stuff on a yearly basis.

Hi, Thanks for the update.

Initially, even I was not planning to go for BSI and was planning to just pay as required.

But when I got the quote for the suspension upgrade and dashcam installation, one thing I found was the service charges are based on number of hours and the workshop has some freedom in setting the number of hours. BMW would set a maximum limit for each job (which would be on the higher side) and the dealer on their discretion can reduce this.

For the suspension and dashcam jobs, I found that the quoted number of hours from my dealership was a little on the higher side compared to some other installations in other cities. Though they have promised me that they will reduce this when they do the actual job, I don't want to be in a position to be scrutinizing every line item in the invoice every time I take the car for service, and end up negotiating.

That is when I decided it is worth the peace of mind to take BSI+ even though I may end up paying a little more. With BSI or BSI+, there are only a very few exclusions like wheel alignment/balancing and car wash and detailing which I will always ask them not to do.

I have measured the brake pad thickness and will be measuring the thickness again in another 2000km. That will give me an approximate indication of how frequently my car will need brake pad change. Based on that I will decide between BSI or BSI+.

PS: The Odo is at a little less than 6,000 kilometers now and the car is already showing a service requirement in 5000 kilometers which would fall at 11,000 kilometers. As I keep driving this may come down further to maybe 10,000 kilometers.

[Santoshbhat]

Originally Posted by graaja

Hi, Thanks for the update.

Initially, even I was not planning to go for BSI and was planning to just pay as required.

My advice : Avoid BSI. The asking price is too high and there is no benefit in going for it.

BMW's service costs are fairly reasonable and I don't think the dealer can take you for a ride just like that. You have the backing of BMW and you can always involve them.

My X3 (currently at 33,000kms) has been to the service centre 4 times. 3 times for oil change service and once for rear brake pad change. Service costs have been something like this
26,500 + 21,000 + 22,000 + 32,000 = 1,01,500.

It will undergo one more service in about 3,000 kms. Assuming that front brake pads too come up for change by then, it may cost me about 45,000 for oil change + brake pads. So that's about Rs.1.45L in about 3 years. Mind you this includes Rs. 1,800 x 4 = 7,200 for wash, Rs. 4,500 for WA and WB which I got done once and about 5,000 for extras like diesel additive and air freshners, all of which are outside BSI scope. So the services included in BSI + package have costed me about Rs. 1.30 lakhs. The asking price for 3 years/40,000 kms BSI plus at the time was Rs. 1,39,461/-. If you factor in interest @7% p.a. that's another 15k. Simply put, I have saved Rs. 25k by not opting for the BSI pack. .

If my experience with the X3 is anything to go by brake pads have decent life. IMO in 40,000 kms, your pads will need replacement only once.

I don't get why people associate BSI with peace of mind. I am someone who is not at peace when someone takes a large sum from me upfront. I like to have the luxury of receiving the service or product and then paying. You pay for what you get. When you pay upfront you are at the mercy of the service provider and not the other way round.

[graaja]

Originally Posted by Santoshbhat

My advice : Avoid BSI. The asking price is too high and there is no benefit in going for it.

BMW's service costs are fairly reasonable and I don't think the dealer can take you for a ride just like that. You have the backing of BMW and you can always involve them.

My X3 (currently at 33,000kms) has been to the service centre 4 times. 3 times for oil change service and once for rear brake pad change. Service costs have been something like this
26,500 + 21,000 + 22,000 + 32,000 = 1,01,500.
...
So the services included in BSI + package have costed me about Rs. 1.30 lakhs. The asking price for 3 years/40,000 kms BSI plus at the time was Rs. 1,39,461/-.
...
If my experience with the X3 is anything to go by brake pads have decent life. IMO in 40,000 kms, your pads will need replacement only once.

Thanks a lot Santhosh, for the inputs with cost break-up. This data is exactly what I was looking for.

I have not yet finalized the deal. There were two things that led me to think about BSI+ - the possibility of the dealer charging high and the short life of the brake pads (from the high amount of brake dust).

I have actually put the decision on hold for another two months. I have taken a measurement of the brake pad thickness. I am going to measure again in another 2000 kilometers and only after assessing the rate at which the brake pads are wearing, I will make my decision.

Thanks a lot, once again for the detailed cost break-up!

Oh. The fun of owning a BMW