[obi604]

ive decided to start up a car buying thread on the advice of another member........so as to stop having multiple threads and annoying yee all ( sorry about that )

Anyways, after lots of to'ing and fro'ing and checking this and checking that and upon advise from lots of people on this forum ( thanks for all the help everyone by the way ) , I now have it narrowed down to these 3 cars :

- 2007 BMW 320D Saloon Automatic ( very few of these in Ireland )
- 2007 BMW 520D Saloon Automatic ( a few of these in Ireland )
- 2007 BMW 320D Coupe Automatic ( very very few of these in Ireland )



I would only buy the model that is PRE effecient dynamics..........firstly due to budget and secondly due to reliability

So to kick off : in an ideal world, for a diesel BMW thats 5 years old with roughly 60,000 miles, how many services **should** it have got over the years so that it would be in decent order now

[Sligo1]

Hi!

Mines a 2008 manual with about 50,000 or so miles (80,000km) and ive had it service probably 5 or 6 times. But the model with pre-efficient dynamics might be different. I think they usually say you need to have a car serviced about every 10,000 miles (but i could be wrong).

[Blazer]

Have a 2007 BMW 520D manual and it's been serviced every year.
You should at least see a minimum of 5 services depending on mileage and in fairness I'd be looking to see oil changes every 12-15k kms rather than the usual service interval of 25kms.

With 100,000km or so on the clock I'd expect 4 services minimum.

[obi604]

Originally Posted by Blazer

Have a 2007 BMW 520D manual and it's been serviced every year.
You should at least see a minimum of 5 services depending on mileage and in fairness I'd be looking to see oil changes every 12-15k kms rather than the usual service interval of 25kms.

With 100,000km or so on the clock I'd expect 4 services minimum.

I wish I was buying my car from you Blazer : ) Have looked at a couple with 60,000 miles and in 5 years, only 2 services - which at the end of the day will probably present me with problems down the line as they havent had regular services.

[Blazer]

Originally Posted by obi604

I wish I was buying my car from you Blazer : ) Have looked at a couple with 60,000 miles and in 5 years, only 2 services - which at the end of the day will probably present me with problems down the line as they havent had regular services.

Those guys probably went by the BMW service intervals.
However everyone on any bmw forum has said to ignore it and change oil+filter every 12-16k km to avoid turbo issues etc..
Better safe than sorry I say
Did you go to a BMW garage etc?
I bought mine from there and with 72k miles on the clock it had done 4 services from what I can remember.
If they're private sales etc ask them did they get an Indy to do oil changes between services?..That's what the majority of people do. Well at least I hope they do

[obi604]

Originally Posted by Blazer

Those guys probably went by the BMW service intervals.
However everyone on any bmw forum has said to ignore it and change oil+filter every 12-16k km to avoid turbo issues etc..
Better safe than sorry I say
Did you go to a BMW garage etc?
I bought mine from there and with 72k miles on the clock it had done 4 services from what I can remember.
If they're private sales etc ask them did they get an Indy to do oil changes between services?..That's what the majority of people do. Well at least I hope they do

Havent been to a beemer garage yet as none of them have the car I want within budget and mileage etc.

Ive been asking sellers all that about the oil etc.
However, it seems to be when buying a car and you ask the seller questions ( be it private or a dealer ) , they dont really like answering them and some of them dont have a clue of the answers. I guess some people just drive cars and dont ever really worry about servicing / oil / filters etc

[obi604]

one particular car im looking at was on sale by a private seller for roughly about 2 months on carzone ( ad is still up there ! )

the seller obviously got sick of trying to sell it..............and the same car is now on sale at a dealers for a grand dearer ( surprise surprise )

Would this put anyone off ? i.e the fact that the private seller had the car up on carzone for 2 months and couldnt sell it ?

2 things on why private seller could'nt sell :

(1) maybe it was just the fact nobody wanted this particular car
(2) maybe people went to see it and it wasnt up to scratch ( dodgy engine or something )

thoughts

[Blazer]

have you a link to the ad?

[obi604]

Originally Posted by Blazer

Those guys probably went by the BMW service intervals.
However everyone on any bmw forum has said to ignore it and change oil+filter every 12-16k km to avoid turbo issues etc..
Better safe than sorry I say
Did you go to a BMW garage etc?
I bought mine from there and with 72k miles on the clock it had done 4 services from what I can remember.
If they're private sales etc ask them did they get an Indy to do oil changes between services?..That's what the majority of people do. Well at least I hope they do

Originally Posted by Blazer

have you a link to the ad?

is that allowed ? i.e to single out a specific car

[miller50841]

Originally Posted by obi604

is that allowed ? i.e to single out a specific car

Yes once your not selling

[obi604]

Originally Posted by Blazer

have you a link to the ad?

Original private seller ad :

http://www.carzone.ie/search/BMW/3-S...t?channel=CARS

And now the dealer ad :

http://www.carzone.ie/search/BMW/3-S...t?channel=CARS

[miller50841]

Thats mad how much in price difference can see they have been driving around also and can tell you without a doubt that they will do nothing to that car but maybe clean it.

[Jimbob 83]

I wouldn't pay 16 grand for that if i didn't have a penny, i would buy a 840i or a Corrado and spend the rest on sweets and lucozade and and books about science

[miller50841]

One main problem is the car is not a 2008 and therefore has higher road tax so would be worth waiting and getting a 08

[obi604]

Originally Posted by miller50841

One main problem is the car is not a 2008 and therefore has higher road tax so would be worth waiting and getting a 08

yeah but the 08's have that that effecient dynamics sh1te - which is supposed to be troublesome