[F31-340i]

Originally Posted by saml666

Ha ha, it was a dog ... the only thing it did well was look brown and go in a straight line. Was great passing a new Porsche Carrera at 120, poor bloke never saw it coming pics here and video here

That's no dog - it looks & sounds brilliant! Was it impossible to make it go round corners well? Princess Anne would have loved it either way.

The interiors on these were never the best though were they...

[Mr Singh]

Originally Posted by saml666

SO8, Mr Singh

Well, having tried one yesterday I think I can just about live with one sadly the one I saw seemed to have very varied paint quality. Front plastic and doors were quite textured while finish on front wings was glassy. I'll check a few more out but as far as the drive goes .. yep ... awesome, most pleased . I'm also going to look at 335i cars but at a slightly lower budget to compensate for the fuel cost. We'll see ...

Unfortunatley BMW paint finish is dreadful, doesn't matter if its a SE or an M Sport they have orange peel. If its glassy in places and orange peel in others you can bet it's been painted. The glassy flat surface will be the painted surface which will either have been done with a real top end gun or flatted and polished to a mirror finish (3m Trizacts are commonly used)

If the colour is the same and theres something in the history which tells the story of the paint/repair then nothing to worry about. Otherwise it could be smart repair or non recorded accident damage.. in which case questions must be asked.

I dislike the BMW finish that much i'm going to give my car a full wetsand when the weather perks up next year. Luckily for me its something I do quite alot

[Number55]

I have owned my "07" 330d m sport for about a month now. My reason for the 330 over the 335 was puerly i wanted a manual. Previously owned a e46 m sport as my daily driver.

Every thing people have said about the 330 is true, a very accomplished and quick day to day car with good economy.

I am still undecided about the runflats.

What i would say is be prepared to travel and walk away from cars, i looked at a few that traders informed me were in good condition and well looked after. Also that turned out to be not the spec they were saying and were in poor condition.

With you wanting a auto you have a lot more choice so stick out for the spec and condition you are after. Happy hunting.

[saml666]

Originally Posted by ///ajd

That's no dog - it looks & sounds brilliant! Was it impossible to make it go round corners well? Princess Anne would have loved it either way.

The interiors on these were never the best though were they...

Never the best???? What?????????? It's brown .... what more could anyone want!?!?!?!?!?!? <<< SARCASM ALERT (keyboards often don't convey such things that well)

...ha ha, I did love the old thing and loved the interior but only for it's kitsch quality. It was, as they say in the trade, s**t.

Yep, you're spot-on, cornering was not on the agenda in any way. Nor stopping. To be fair, I converted it to use discs at the rear and fitted 4-pots up front. It had good shocks and was only let down by the dreadful american tyres but by then I'd moved-on.

Fun ... in an ugly way

Originally Posted by Mr Singh

Unfortunatley BMW paint finish is dreadful, doesn't matter if its a SE or an M Sport they have orange peel ....... I dislike the BMW finish that much i'm going to give my car a full wetsand when the weather perks up next year. Luckily for me its something I do quite alot

Blimey To be fair the seller seemed absolutely down the line ... I just couldn't get my head around the possibility that such a car could get anywhere outside the factory with paint like that. I couldn't buy it without seeing a few more first. Will be interesting to compare....

Thanks again folks,
Sam

[SO8]

My last two BMW's have all 'Orange Peel' ... as did the others I looked at - obviously the way forward !

[Sir_Pigley]

Originally Posted by Number55

I have owned my "07" 330d m sport for about a month now.

Any piccies of your car? Interested to see which one you bought as I have been watching the manual 330d market for a while now.

[Number55]

Originally Posted by jdcampbell

Any piccies of your car? Interested to see which one you bought as I have been watching the manual 330d market for a while now.

Bought from South Yorkshire...Only thing missing from my wish list was leather. However now i have it i quite like the alcan interior.

Paint is all factory apart from the front bumper.

[Sir_Pigley]

Originally Posted by Number55

Bought from South Yorkshire...Only thing missing from my wish list was leather. However now i have it i quite like the alcan interior.

Paint is all factory apart from the front bumper.

I think I saw that for sale. It wasn't one that was for sale for very long I don't think.

It is quite easy to pick up a complete leather interior for about £600 - £700 and very easy to change over (fold flat system in the rear makes it considerably more tricky).

[Number55]

Originally Posted by jdcampbell

I think I saw that for sale. It wasn't one that was for sale for very long I don't think.

It is quite easy to pick up a complete leather interior for about £600 - £700 and very easy to change over (fold flat system in the rear makes it considerably more tricky).

Think it was for sale for about 3 weeks, yeh i did check out the price of leather trims, this one has the fold down rear seats, but still not realy a problem if i wanted to change.

[saml666]

Well, I don't know if anyone else saw it but on Saturday a blue 330d Msport touring with 52k cropped up on Autotrader... At just under £13k it seemed very well priced. The dealer sells Rolls/Bentleys etc and this car was just taken in to keep a client happy ... good enough for me.

They were great, it got 4x new tyres, front pads, a service and MOT ... And it confirmed my suspicion that the blue car I saw last weeked had had a really shoddy re-spray (read first posts). Glad I walked away ... because last night after a bit of train/tube hassle I did battle with London rush hour traffic to bring home a really smart 330d.

Whilst going through paperwork with the dealer I found a receipt for insurance work carried out by a BMW main dealership ... a quick call to them confirmed that it had a brand new engine at 21k due to sucking in water in a flood. No sign that the car itself got flooded, and being a one-owner car if they were happy to do another 30k after the repair thats good enough for me to be happy with it's condition.

So, all in a bit of a bargain ... I hope(!) ... I'm always a bit tense for the first few weeks with a new-to-me 2nd hand car.

Now investigating options to connect iPhone ... it has iDrive but possibly not armrest USB, not a big priority though. Thanks for the feedback all.

Cheers
Sam

[Mr Singh]

Nice! What age is the car? sounds like same spec as mine

I just fitted a Dension Gateway 500 to make my ipod work. Will work just the same for an iphone. Check if it has a CD changer if so the installation is easy, otherwise theres a guide in the technical section that Moar and myself have filled with lots of info.

[saml666]

Originally Posted by Mr Singh

Nice! What age is the car? sounds like same spec as mine

I just fitted a Dension Gateway 500 to make my ipod work. Will work just the same for an iphone. Check if it has a CD changer if so the installation is easy, otherwise theres a guide in the technical section that Moar and myself have filled with lots of info.

It's an '06 reg ... very pleased with it so far.

I paired it with my phone using bluetooth so appear to be able to make and receive calls hands-free now. But it doesn't seem as though there is any provision for music streaming as standard, is that right do you think?

Hands free is the main thing I need working so I'm sorted there, I can live with the aux socket for music but it would be nice to be able to control the ipod site of the iphone via idrive .... aye aye aye

[Mr Singh]

Thats right, it won't allow you to play music unless you have an interface.

I would go down the route of a Dension Gateway 500. Get yourself an ipod as the lead from the Dension is short and the ipod ends up living in your boot. I'm sure you would rather have your iphone near you when your driving and not plugged in the boot lol.

The Aux thing will do your head in after a while unless you don't mind sticking to it playing a set track/playlist etc..

You will have to get some pics up when you get a chance