Well it's been over a year and one month exactly since i got the car, should have put up a report last month itself but like they say, better late than never
The one year birthday gift: I treated her to exterior and interior detailing at Rhyme & Rhythm (GTO's reference) in Colaba. Was reluctant to send the car to them as most often I have got such jobs done at my premises itself. Nonetheless it was well worth it as they had an interior dry cleaning machine which was not easily transportable. I had been using armor all leather cleaning solution and vaccuming the interiors on a monthly basis or so, inspite of which the grey leather was beginning to show slight shades of brownish tinge due to dust and dirt. Grey is not the easiest color to maintain, lesson learnt !
However once the car was back i was very satisfied with the job done, the leather looked completly new so did the every corner of the car. The exteriors were in good shape already but the waxing,etc did add that extra shine. Although the key scratch that was made by a jealous onlooker in the past could not be removed by their wet sanding technique, but it's not very noticeable anyway.
Overall Performance: A year on and I still haven't gotten the urge to plonk any of the plenty powerbox/remap options available, although they deliver excellent results. Even after reading such good reviews on these magic boxes from BMW forums, I still don't have an urge clearly show that the car keeps me satisfied well ! The torque surge keeps bringing a smile to my face and so does the handling, even though it runs on dunlop runflats that don't have good handling characteristics as per consumer surveys.
BMW transmissions have a learning mode where in it adapts to your style of driving after learning it for a few thousand kms. Most often the tranmission gets lazy after it locks the driving style so I reset the tranmission as per the 25 second trick and voila it feels like new, downshifts in a flash, smooth as butter, lets you stay within gears longer. And also makes the DS mode back into lunatic mode.
Usage/FE: I believe in buying cars to enjoy and use them to the fullest rather than treat them as show piece. This car is the most widely used out of all the 4 cars we have here. It shuttles us between Bombay-Pune via the expressway every fortnight or so. And used extensively within the city too.
City with traffic 8.5-9kmpl Highway 13-13.5kmpl
Of late I have noticed a slight increase in FE.
Problems: The part most have been waiting for
Couple of months back I noticed that the car was beginning to release smoke from the exhaust which i had never noticed till date. Now being a diesel it is understandable that there would be some smoke evident as i have seen new S320CDi's,Q7,X5 etc discharge some smoke during downshifts too. But my problem was worse and unacceptable. The car left a small cloud of smoke at barely 2000-3000 rpm !This was noticeable only at night when you look on the left rearview mirror while the car behind has its highlights on, in the day it would go unnoticed. I sent the car to Infinity where I had gotten the 1st service done too. The service advisor informed that there defiantly would be something wrong as such a problem should not occur and blamed it on poor diesel quality/adultration, i flatly denied it as i fill up from a reputed company owned HP pump. They did a detailed check and traced the problem in the turbo, there was some oil found in it which was causing the smoke. Was told that it is a very minor oil leak found and can be rectified but for my satisfaction they would replace the entire turbo/intercooler assembly. I asked them to go ahead with the replacement as I didnt want to wait for the problem to reoccur. The problem was solved to an extent but i wasn't content.
Thats when i decided to contact Maverick, he explained that because of our traffic conditions the car runs on rich fuel mixture due to idling. And advised me to floor the car once in a while to get rid of this. I sent the car to him and he found that one of the components that should have been replaced to get rid of the oil had not been done, which was replaced shortly. The problem is nearly solved now but there is a little discharge of smoke under hard acceleration at times.
Other problems, my dad hit a pothole at high speed on the highway so I had we had to replace one run flat tire for 20,000rs .. ouch ! Another crime he committed was jumping a speed breaker, but this was not at much speed, resulted in one of the front left suspension arm joint snapping off. Had to get the car towed to Navnit. Sushil informed that this problem occurred on several cars especially the 3 series as it had a recall of these parts sometime back.
Lastly, squeaky brakes !! Got them cleaned and the problem stops but it comes up again. Its not always there but mostly when the brakes are hot they get loud and at times they are silent. Brake pads and rotors will be changed during the next service so I will wait till then.
Cost/Service: All of the above mentioned problems besides replacing of the tire was replaced free under the BSI+R warranty.
I got the first service done at Infinity motors which went off well and the car felt more refined and open after the first service, but them not being able to rectify the black smoke problem made me switch to navnit.
I should have made the switch long back as the service quality at Navnit has been excellent and ofcourse the peace of mind that a Team-Bhpian is looking over your car is the most comforting factor. Navnit motors has been very professional and extremly helpful at all times even taking in special requests on an urgent basis if required. They give you no reason to argue over issues and are focused on keeping the customer happy at the end of the day.
Opting for the maintenance plan has made the ownership experience hassle free and smooth, dealers too give you an edge once they have the car covered under this.
Phew!! Over and Out ! Pardon any errors, lazy to proof read