Be Excellent To Each Other

What we used to keep under stone at end of road for whichever person was using their car that day.

How much for three months?

Are the cars that unreliable to warrant such a thing?

Hey Caveeeeeey

Fucking love that.

Well the chap who has the E60 M5 considers £150 per month very reasonable, but then again they are absolutely notorious for having all sorts of fearsomely expensive things go wrong with them.

On a wider note BMWs as a whole are considered to be 'troublesome', often it's nothing too major, but if you pick any model that's a few years old and look at the sort of 'known issues' list, you'll often find a list as long as your arm with regard to all the problems it's known to have and you'll have to be prepared to pay for if (when....) they go wrong. (Cooling systems are often a weak point.)

If I do end up going for that M135i, I'll pay the £500+ year for a Mondial warranty, as I'd have an expectation that the car could randomly cost me at least that much at any time for a repair to something or other. (Whereas I just wouldn't even consider it with, say, a 5 year old Honda. But then again Hondas never break.)

If I had put £500 a year to one side when I bought my BMW five years ago then as well as any repairs it would have paid for all the servicing and tyres and everything else it's gone through in that time. They aren't going to be losing money on these warranties. As long as you can afford a big bill if it does come in then this seems like a pretty bad bet to me.

They definitely lost money on the ones that were attached to my two M5s

The first one was in the workshop for all sorts of minor niggles while I had it (including a heated seat element that was overheating and literally burning my leg) but the big one was that the engine packed in about 2,000 miles after I sold it and needed to be completely rebuilt at what would have been £8-£10K without the warranty.

The second one was absolutely faultless for me, but the guy that had it after me would have had to pay £7K about 3 months after he bought it had it not been for the warranty.

I think, generally speaking, they just hope that people aren't savvy enough to take out a warranty or renew one that they have on it when it's purchased. They can be quite particular about handing them out too - if the car hasn't got a full BMW service history and been serviced exactly when it needed to be, chances are they'll refuse you.

I assume that some warranties are "loss leaders" though, as you're right, they wouldn't offer them if they weren't profitable. I assume that the more reliable cars in the range subsidise the least reliable ones to an extent.

@Hearthly
The warranty isn’t a nice to have, it’s essential. This is an expensive, complex, very high performance BMW that’s a complete unknown quantity, but because it’s an out and out super hatch you can bet it has been thrashed to death for a good few, or all of its five years. This isn’t some slow, cheap old junker you’ve had for years and know it’s been looked after; by all means ditch the warranty after the first year (assuming you’ll keep the car that long, which let’s be honest is extremely unlikely).

£500 is a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of the car, and the cost of potential, even likely repairs. Just look at it as adding £40 a month to the runnning cost, and enjoy piece of mind.

He'd be buying it from a dealer anyway. There is such a thing as being over-insured.

And do they do monthly warranties

The dealer should carry risk if it is selling cars that lunch themselves and they want the margin. The customer should not have to.

I totally agree Mali, but sadly independent secondhand car dealers can have a, ahem, less than optimal after sales response if thing go wrong, especially badly and expensively wrong. You ain’t gonna necessarily get a BMW approved repair and parts, that’s for sure. That’s just a reality; if you buy BMW Approved Used you will get a meaningful warranty but you’ll likely pay much more for the car in the first place. Them’s the breaks.

For me, the bet is clear cut, but it’s not my dice roll. (To be fair I am very cautious in situations like this)

I am meant Hearth getting one as he only has a car 2/3 weeks.

Not only that, but any warranty that you get from an indie dealer will be of the "you pay for the work and then claim it back afterwards, but we'll fight tooth and nail to not pay out" variety.

BMW never quibbled about anything on the warranties I've had (even with the 530d GT, which so far has had two door handles and a parking sensor replaced under warranty) - they just get on with it.

Hah, my indie dealer wouldn't pay out because they hadn't done the work themselves. The clutch burnt out 30 miles from Southampton and I had to get it towed to my parents' house and fixed there.

I'm confused. Can you buy a BMW from an independent dealer and then go to BMW themselves and get a warranty? Or is it just you can extend it if it's already got it?

Provided the car meets the requirements, you can buy a warranty from BMW at any point during the car's life.

Certain levels of cover become unavailable at certain points (I think after 100,000 miles you can no longer get comprehensive cover, for example)

Buying a used BMW from a BMW dealer will mean it's an Approved Used car, and will come with a 12 month BMW AUC warranty on it (which, for all intents and purposes, is as good as the comprehensive one) - and it's often possible to extend that to 24 months (and sometimes beyond!) when haggling during purchase - I wangled an extra year on mine.

If you buy a used BMW from another dealer, then it will either come with a warranty supplied by the dealer (which will be a "pay now claim later" type) or it may come with the remaining term of a BMW warranty on it. The initial manufacturer warranty is transferrable from owner to owner until it expires, and the paid-for BMW warranties can also be transferred in some circumstances too.

Got a first offer from the mini dealership that lost my number plate- £1000.
Given that GT14LEX is for sale for twice that I’m going to hold out for more.

Friends of ours flew to Belfast and bought their X5 from there as it had the BMW warranty (and was cheaper, too, apparently). Their S3 also has NI plates so I assume that was another economic purchase.

Anyone else cleaned a variable vane turbo with Mr Muscle? Tempted to give it a go as it's straightforward enough to do from the EGR end but there are other voices on the internet saying it can fuck you over down the line (can munch the seals).

Warranties! Where's you sense of adventure Cavey?

I really need to be not watching videos like this....

Harris reckons the M135i craps all over the Audi RS3. Better on the road, massively better on the track, and beats the RS3 in a drag race.

Didn't see the car today as couldn't be bothered driving into Douglas and the bedroom seemed a more appealing destination with Mrs Hearthly.

I shall wander over at lunch tomorrow, the dealership is only about a 5 minute walk from work.

Plenty of people on BRISKODA do it.

Yeah plenty of people do it, there's a fair few sucking air in through their teeth though...

Fuck it, I live for automotive adventure!

Makes your car smell like a clean oven too.

My brother has one. It's mental.

The new one so it's 322bhp.

That's the same as the one I'm (TOTALLY NOT) looking at, isn't it? In terms of engine power output, at least.

Watching the Harris video it was astonishing to see how much better sorted the BMW was on the track, where the Audi was just understeering like fuck the whole time.

GT1 is the name of a race series, or could be stylised as "GTI" so would suit a Golf GTI driver called Alex - that'll be why it's higher valued.

TD14LEX doesn't really have the same "cachet" I'm afraid, even for a Golf TDI driver. Most **14LEX plates are selling for £250.

Personally I'd take the £1,000.

RWD versus AWD innit?

My boss once loaned me her old S4 (2004 model) for a couple of days to see if I wanted to buy it, and it was a horrible understeery mess, as many AWD cars can be.

Pistonheads are running one of these as a long termer, which they bought second hand and have spent money on the suspension, as apparently it isn’t “great” on the road when you’re pushing on.

The one thing I'm very mindful of here is I don't want another track car, as bonkers and brilliant as the Type-R was, it just wasn't an everyday car at all. I honestly prefer the Leon, most of the time and in most scenarios, to the Type-R. If I had a 'free choice' - (i.e. no cost implications, just choose the car I want) - keep the Leon or go back to the Type-R, I'd keep the Leon.

The thing I'm liking about the M135i which seems to be consistent across all the reviews, is that it's an entirely usable car as a daily driver, but has got some serious credentials when it comes to spirited driving.

As such I wouldn't be looking to modify anything about it that diminished its day-to-day usability. (Or indeed to modify anything TBH, it's not something I'm a fan of on a conceptual basis.)

Epace p240 dropped off for a couple of days testing then to be swapped for a disco sport for a couple of days. Yeah baby!

I think the mods they made were all about everyday usability, insofar that they criticised the standard set up for having dampers which were too stiff, making the car a bit too skittish on the road when pressing on.
https://www.pistonheads.com/regulars/ph ... leet/36846

Surely the fact the BMW is a three door means you can discount it from your list. There's no shortage of cars to choose from, and it sounds like getting a 3 door would get your bollocks in seriously hot water from the get go.

Admittedly, this kind of logic may indicate why I drive a 1.2 Skoda Yeti.

Ahh right fair enough, just read the piece, quite an interesting read cheers for the link.

However, the vast majority of my driving is done between Ramsey-Douglas on the mountain road, which is part of the TT circuit and thus has to be maintained as a racetrack quality surface. Admittedly once you get off the TT circuit (all 37 miles of it for the whole thing) road quality can be, ahem, 'variable', but what I'm aiming for here is a car that isn't as manic as the Type-R, but still retains some reasonable driving credentials on a decent surface. (The only road I'll ever really go nuts on is the mountain road, which has no speed limit and is completely devoid of people/houses/etc, everywhere else I drive in quite a pedestrian manner.)

Fuck, in my head I've already bought the M135i, fucking cars. Maybe it'll burst into flames during the test drive and give me a easy excuse not to buy it.

Powerslide it into a ditch.

I reckon I can charm my way around it.

Quick round the block. Goes like stink. The Kodiaq is more comfortable, however. Which is...a weird thing to say.

Can't believe you're even considering RWD for commuting over the mountain, mate. You gonna get the bus every other week between December and March...? The number of BMWs I saw abandoned on the Creg back road, and even on the coast road the other week. Embarrassing.

The 1 series is also hideous and has no room in the back, and has a shit boot. Did I mention it's ugly? But then, you did have a Tyre R so you're obviously not hung up on looks!

Get a Golf R

Flis, he won’t have it by the time we’ve finished our mini eggs!

You're worried about him still having it by Christmas?
There's optimism.

Ah now I understand zardoz's post. I initially assumed he was in some strange mini egg eating clique with flis.

I'm actually feeling slightly guilty about taking the piss out of Hearthly, so lets think of this as a challenge.

What cars can we come up with (for about £20k?) that will be sufficiently gadgety, reasonably brisk, look decent and have space for the family.
Maybe we can find something that will be a keeper.

or wait until they get a 5 door one in

That's pretty much the current Leon isn't it?

If it was the 2.0 Petrol instead of diesel, it wouldn’t be far off.