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430d - 6 months into ownership.

5K views 6 replies 5 participants last post by  marco_polo 
#1 ·
A bit of background
Had a manual E82 120d for 2 years (the owning of which lead me to this forum), then switched to a E86 Z4 3.0si what I drove for a short but sweet 12 months - then in 2015 with a first time house purchase looming and needing to free up money; sold that, and for the grand total of £3,000 treat myself to a mk5 1.9tdi Golf Plus (yes I got ridiculed for it), but I also got my every penny's worth out of it - the rear seats got folded down in April and didn't come back up until September during the height of house renovations. So, coming from a mk5 Golf Plus with over 100k on the clock what got washed once a year and used to scrape through every MOT, even your average family Ford Focus would have been an improvement for my next motor.

Purchase
I'd been saving since selling the Z4, and after driving the Golf Plus for 3 years got used to the practicality of a 5 door hatchback; so much so that I was keen on the idea of another golf, and after months of looking at all the options on the table, combined with Jeremy Clarkson's Top Gear review of a M135i vs Golf GTi - I was sold. I had put a deposit down on a GTi with the intention of purchasing the next day, only to receive a call a couple of hours later saying the car was sold, it was a case of one salesman blaming another, and I was pretty pissed off - but if it wasn't for that I'd be driving around in a Golf GTi right now, no doubt. I decided to take a step back and reassess the entire market, look at what else I could get for my budget, a car that gave me the biggest bang for my buck. Besides, 20k for a four-cylinder front wheel drive hatchback is too expensive in the grand scheme of things. I just couldn't see it.

Was never keen on the idea of finance or leasing, mainly after my friend leased a mk7 Golf R on release for the steep side of £400 a month, "it's closer to £500 than it is £400" was the most I got off him. Only having to hand the keys back after 36 months with nothing but a final bill to show for it - not for me, no thank you. I found myself toying with the idea of going back to BMW, the two I had in the past were both brilliant, so why not I thought - I was innocently browsing the BMW approved used listings and the next thing I know I was on the phone to BMW Colchester regarding a 430d on a '64 plate with 43,000 miles on the clock, fast forward and I was being sent videos, fast forward a little further and I was negotiating on the price. Managed to negotiate a little, but not as much as I would have liked - two weeks later on a Tuesday morning the car was being delivered to my house all the way from Colchester to Teesside. I was confused when the delivery driver was knocking at my door at 8:30 in the morning, but over a cup of coffee and signing the paperwork he explained he'd set off at 4am - now it made sense.

Spec
All in, the 430d set me back £19,500, comprising of an £11,000 cash deposit and topped up with a £8,500 bank loan. This meaning the repayments were a very comfortable £150 per month with the option to overpay as and when, or, not at all. £19,500 is a lot of money you might say, and I agree it is, but just yesterday Chris Harris posted a story on his Instagram reviewing a one litre polo with a list price of twenty-six-thousand-pounds. So with that in mind, just under twenty doesn't sound quite as bad for a 48 month old 3-litre BMW 4 series. About the 4 series, it was s-drive, alpine white, with 19" alloys, red leather interior, heated seats, all-round parking sensors, harmon kardon speakers, and with the business media package? The one with the larger screen anyway.

6 months in
That was back in September, and here I am in March. Thoughts? I have a few:
The first, it's not as good on fuel as what I was hoping for or what the figures suggest it should be. Calculated myself, I'm averaging 34.6mpg. But my short journeys are probably the attributing factor to that; a 9-mile dual-carriage commute to work driven however my mood pleases me. But even so, taking the current £1.30 vs £1.20 difference between diesel and petrol it gets me thinking I might have been more suited to the latter. If my man maths is correct, the 7.5% difference in price between the two fuels means my 34.6mpg would equate to 32mpg in a petrol for an identical cost.

And something to further support that my driving circumstance are perhaps more suited to petrol is the fact that the needle on the temperature gauge doesn't quite reach 100°C (normal operating temperature) before I arrive at work meaning I turn the engine off. Because diesels take longer to get up to temperature than petrols, right? Which is a concern. A concern that all these short journeys will lead to premature DPF failure. But on a positive note, a recent weekend break to the opposite end of the country seen an enormous improvement in economy; setting the cruise control at 70mph resulted in a 600-mile range before the fuel light came on. That's a genuine 50+ mpg. Very impressive for a 6-cylinder motor. And its cruising ability is exceptional, for example, in 8th you need to be travelling at 90mph before the revs reach 2,000rpm.

Going back to BMW has refreshed my mind and put me in a state of PTSD about how terrible run flat tyres truly are. The terrible ride quality, the terrible grip, the terrible noise, and the quite frankly dangerous tramlining are all reasons why I'll be switching to normal tyres once the 6mm tread on these has gone, and the sooner that happens the better. Since we're on the subject of tyres, it's worth mentioning that in November I purchased a brand-new set of mud and snow rated tyres, Goodyear Ultra Grip Performance Gen 1's to be exact, and 17" rims to suit. The little bit of snow we had in January and February was a good sample of their ability but not a proper test, and think I'll now have to wait till next winter to find out if my investment has been worthwhile.

In comparison to previous cars I've owned, it is noticeably not as fast as my old Z4, the 0-100mph time on paper is only 1.2s slower, but the difference feels much bigger than that. My thought is that the 4 series is so refined compared to the rawness of the Z4 that it just simply doesn't feel as fast. Don't get me wrong the 413ft/lbs of torque is very nice, and I love the aggression and speed of upshifts from the 8 speed ZF gearbox when in sport mode. The auto box combined with the torquey engine makes a journey from A to B bordering on effortless -the perfect lazy mile munching commuter's car, which everyone needs from time to time when they aren't in the mood for a spirited drive. But on another note, I am sorely missing the driver interaction of a manual, I never thought driving an auto would be so emotionless and feel so detached - my driver experience now consists of three basic inputs; right pedal to go faster, left pedal to go slower, and a big wheel in the middle to steer. I'm not even joking.

6 months of this and I've concluded that if you're buying an auto, unless it's a supercar, the significance of whether it drinks petrol or diesel is less relevant than it would be for a manual - because, and there is no doubt about it, driving an auto takes away the feedback, it takes away your response and it takes away the satisfaction. So why does it matter if your car revs to 7,000rpm or 4,000rpm? Yes, it may sound nicer of course, but the revs don't really matter - they're not your concern, because all you do is plant your right foot and the car calculates and does everything for you. An auto is not the choice of the driving enthusiast.

Future Plans
In the near future I'm looking at tinting the rear windows, but only moderately, I don't want it looking like a drug dealers' choice of transport. Which I think is very easy to achieve with it being a white BMW. I've already had my summer set of wheels powder coated anthracite so need to be very careful with this one.

Also looking at the possibility of a custom remap once the warranty expires. I've had cars custom tuned on rolling roads before. But I'm a little skeptical of this as I'm planning to keep the car for many years to come and don't want to jeopardise its long-term reliability. It's not the engine I'm worried about, it's the ZF auto box. Its hefty price tag and inability to change basic components of the drivetrain is what concerns me; if the remap takes its toll on the drivetrain it won't be as straightforward or as cheap as a new clutch & flywheel on a manual is what I mean here. Although a bit of research reveals my gearbox is the ZF 8HP70 which means its capable of handling 700nm of torque. The engine is currently putting out 560nm so that suggests there is tolerance for an increase, so not entirely sure why I am so concerned.

The other option rather than a custom remap, is a PPK (power performance kit) fitted by BMW themselves. Now I'll be honest, as of a month ago I had never heard of these, but from what I've read on other forums this will set you back well over £1,000; it comprises of an upgraded intercooler and a brand-new ECU for warranty safe and 'BMW approved' power gains. I've rang 2 different dealers in the north east regarding fitting a PPK to my 430d which was met by nothing short of sheer confusion at their end of the phone. One service advisor's response was "will you be supplying the parts?" Needless to say, neither called me back.



 
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#2 ·
Hi Jony,

Thanks for that, very informative...I'm waiting for the 340i tourer to come out!
 
#3 ·
Very nice car, a friend of mine has the 330d and has been impressed (he does a lot of motorway driving) but as you mention the short journey MPG was a surprise to him - I did mention it was a 3 litre 6 cylinder engine no matter what the fuel especially giving it some beans.

He had a custom remap on his a month or so ago up to nearly 320bhp and 500ft lbs of torque, in the dry it really is a capable machine! but pretty much pointless in the wet :lol2:

I had a look at the 4 GC myself last year (need 5 doors) but I couldn't only really stretch to the 420d or 420i and with it being used for short commutes and weekend fun only neither seemed like a good option.

LT
 
#4 ·
I appreciate the time it's taken to read my big rant :lol2:

The 4 GC is somewhat of a rarity in my opinion as adding the 2 extra doors doesn't sacrifice on looks. Which can't be said for most other cars.
 
#6 ·
It's a very good question, and one I've asked myself many times :lol2:

I do the occasional long trip where I get the benefit of a diesel, and is hopefully enough to keep any would-be DPF problems at bay.
 
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