In Pictures: A BMW 320d, 330i & M340i head out on a fun Sunday drive

A 200km Sunday morning drive with a mix of rural roads and small hilly roads on the onward journey and fast six-lane highways on the return journey.

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Service Update and a Sunday Drive with Friends!

After the monsoon drive through Chikmagalur (described in earlier posts in this thread), the oil change requirement in CBS dropped to 800 km. I had one more drive planned after that, to Thanjavur, and given the nice fast roads on that drive, I wanted to take my 320d there. That was another 800 km to 900 km drive, and unfortunately, it was way too close to the remaining oil life of 800 km. CBS had created a similar dilemma for me in the past too, and every single time in the past, I decided to play it safe and let the servicing take priority over driving plans. I have never exceeded any CBS requirement. The car is always serviced well in time.

This time, after some deliberation, I decided to play it safe and let service requirements take priority over my driving plans. Thus, I ended up driving my Thar to Thanjavur instead of the BMW.

Anyway, that decision turned out to be wise because the 800km oil life immediately dropped to 700km the next time I started the 320d. The Thanjavur drive ended up being 850km, which would have meant I would have most certainly returned with an oil change overdue and CBS throwing warnings on the dashboard. I was happy I avoided that.

The CBS told me that I needed to change the engine oil at 700 km:

EGR Cooler Recall: Just about 2 weeks ago, I received a recall letter from BMW (by speed-post! - very surprised to see this old-fashioned mail and not an email notice) related to EGR Cooler checks/replacement to avoid a potential fire hazard. This is a global recall and happening since 2019 or so. I received a similar recall in 2019 (in the first round of global recalls), and at that time, they had actually changed the EGR Cooler in my car. I was surprised to see another recall on exactly the same issue now, and was keen to get this checked by BMW at the earliest!

I made an appointment at Navnit BMW and asked them to take care of the oil change as well as this EGR Cooler recall.

My car the BMW Navnit BMW for servicing:

Advantages of NOT having BSI: From my experiences, I have started preferring not opting in for BSI and rather using the "pay as you service" model. Below is the latest example of what I mean.

CBS was showing "Brake Fluid Change" as the next service requirement (this is typically done every 2 years) due in October 2023. Thus, if I had the BSI, they would have done only the oil change now (which was due now) and asked me to come back in 2 months for the brake fluid change. During my BSI period, I had plenty of occasions when I had to visit the service centre multiple times for such CBS requirements. However, now that I was paying for the service and there was no BSI, I asked them if they could change the brake fluid along with the engine oil. The service centre happily agreed and I changed the brake fluid too now (2 months in advance of the CBS requirement), and saved myself another visit to the service centre in just 2 months' time.

Thus, in the end, that day I ended up doing a comprehensive service and check-up! They changed the engine oil, oil filter (this is not changed in every service, and only changed when it is really required to change based on some measurements), air filter, AC filter and brake fluid. They also did the endoscopy check of the EGR Cooler (as per the recall campaign) and certified that the EGR Cooler is fine. They also did complete underbody checks, checks of all the suspensions, and other checks (battery etc.). My car passed all the tests and was certified to be in fine condition. The total bill for all of this was about Rs. 30k. The service bill is slightly higher than what one would expect from such a routine service, but at least the service experience was great and the car feels perfect again!

Overall, I had a great service experience at Navnit BMW. I am very happy with my service advisor and the overall service experience there.

All OK after the service and a comprehensive check-up:

After the service, my routine there is a test drive by my trusted test drive expert at Navnit BMW. This expert person drives my car every time after any work on the car, and he knows my car well. He took a test drive and confirmed that the car was absolutely fine and in ship shape.

The car is now at 87,400 km and still runs absolutely fine and is in ship shape! I love this car for both the driving experience and the reliability! While service costs can be a bit high, what compensates for that is the great driving experience and the great service experience too. Timely and proper maintenance is the key here, and I feel that with timely maintenance, the car can still run much longer.

Sunday Drive with Friends:

I was itching to go for a nice drive after servicing the car. Thankfully, on Sunday morning, such an opportunity came. We did a nice Sunday morning drive with my close friend @robimahanta (driving his BMW M340i) and another friend (who is not a forum member yet) who was driving his BMW 330i M sports (G20).

We drove on some local roads and some small rural roads and reached a point known as "Tri-State Point", a location where the borders of three states (Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh) meet. There are some nice small hills and some hill drives around this Tri-State area, and we enjoyed driving around there and taking photos of the car. This turned out to be about a 200km Sunday morning drive with a mix of rural roads and small hilly roads on the onward journey, and fast six-lane highways on the return journey.

The three 3-ers on a Sunday morning drive:

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