BMW 330e

mickdw

carsfan wrote: »

Don't know if anybody else still interested but I got a test drive in this today.
I thought it was a very impressive package overall for some drivers. Not good if you're a high motorway miler as diesel still better but for a lot this could be good. Very quick and smooth acceleration and cool in town on electric power.
BMW have 23 Irish orders for July apparently.

You didn't happen to see how many miles it would do on all electric?

vintagevrs

carsfan wrote: »

Don't know if anybody else still interested but I got a test drive in this today.
I thought it was a very impressive package overall for some drivers. Not good if you're a high motorway miler as diesel still better but for a lot this could be good. Very quick and smooth acceleration and cool in town on electric power.
BMW have 23 Irish orders for July apparently.

Any more impressions from it?

MaceFace

Where did you get a test drive?
Seriously looking at one but not till I take it for a spin.

Leonard Hofstadter

carsfan wrote: »

Don't know if anybody else still interested but I got a test drive in this today.
I thought it was a very impressive package overall for some drivers. Not good if you're a high motorway miler as diesel still better but for a lot this could be good. Very quick and smooth acceleration and cool in town on electric power.
BMW have 23 Irish orders for July apparently.

Thanks for this. That's encouraging to hear there's been some takers. I'd say there'll be even more next year as the model becomes more established and more people are aware of it. For most people, it makes a lot of sense, especially with the way it's priced - it's cheaper than a 318d automatic after all.

The simple fact is that without these cars there is no way any of the premium German makes can get through the EU's CO2 rules, not even diesel will be enough to get the fleet average down to 95 g/km by 2020 and 75 g/km by 2025. If they start to increase in popularity then we'll definitely see a move away from diesel.

Voodoomelon

23 is quite an impressive number for initial orders, considering the irish motoring public and the something of a leap of faith required to pull the trigger on electric.

I'd really like to go for the tech myself, but the 3 series just isn't for me.

carsfan

You won't get more than about 15 to 20 miles on all electric and the climate control/ heated seats reduce this.
The car I drove was one that the dealer got brought down from bmw Ireland so I'm sure if a potential customer was interested any dealer could do the same.
The car was a mineral white sport model with black 18" alloys and black mirrors. Loads of kit on it, electric seats, pro nav, surround view cameras etc.
The ride was very good, firm but not too hard at all.
Boot space is ok. Bigger than a golf but it doesn't come with folding rear seats which the genius recommended speccing to increase flexibility(350 euro).
The car always starts on electric and in auto mode and then transitions to petrol when/if required. If you floor it you get combined engine and e boost and it picks up very quickly, faster than my golf gti. The handling was good, normal 3 series and steering was light but firms up at speed.
The genius was saying that you should look at it as 2 cars in one. A performance car when you want it and an eco car in urban settings. When you input a destination in the nav and put it in auto mode the car works out in the route where to give you electric/ petrol or a combination.
The sales guy says you're getting 330 performance with 320 economy at 318 prices thanks to the grants. He obviously would say that though.

stesaurus

Saw my first one today in the flesh. 161 D heading towards Dublin on the M11. Whoever it was wasn't worrying about saving range anyway. Nice car! Anyone from here?

Idbatterim

Bigger than a golf but it doesn't come with folding rear seats which the genius recommended speccing to increase flexibility(350 euro).

It would be moronic not to get folding seats for E350! I had to get something into the brothers E39 5 series the other day, we both just assumed it would have folding seats, it didnt, pain in the ass, wed have taken the E46 instead otherwise, lesson learned...

The genius was saying that you should look at it as 2 cars in one. A performance car when you want it and an eco car in urban settings. When you input a destination in the nav and put it in auto mode the car works out in the route where to give you electric/ petrol or a combination.

Id agree with that, bloody hell my 325 ci 2.5 petrol does 0-100 in claimed 7.2, this is doing it in 6 flat. You are going to burn 99% plus of new cars sold off the line Id imagine...

MaceFace

All going well, I will be putting in my order this week for a July delivery

Subject to test drive and "appropriate" cash discount...

mickdw

MaceFace wrote: »

All going well, I will be putting in my order this week for a July delivery

Subject to test drive and "appropriate" cash discount...

Any word of them doing a 430e or 440e

MaceFace

Boom. Order placed. Expected delivery mid to late July.

vintagevrs

What did you go with?

MaceFace

vintagevrs wrote: »

What did you go with?

M Sport, Tanzanite Blue, interior comfort and Professional media package. Few extra pieces including harman/kardon stereo. Sun protection glass.

Got it for a splinter under 50.

Beats the 1.6l Mondeo I currently drive lol

carsfan2

mickdw wrote: »

Any word of them doing a 430e or 440e

They are struggling to meet demand for the 330e apparently so can't see them putting it into the 4 series for a while.
It would be easy to make it a 40e as it is the same hardware as the x5 40e with the power in the petrol engine turned down. there are plug in ecu's available already to up the power from 252 hp to 314hp and torque from 420nm to 505nm.


I have one on order too for July. Looking forward to it

Voodoomelon

MaceFace wrote: »

M Sport, Tanzanite Blue, interior comfort and Professional media package. Few extra pieces including harman/kardon stereo. Sun protection glass.

Got it for a splinter under 50.

Beats the 1.6l Mondeo I currently drive lol

Sweet, that was my colour choice too when inquiring. How were they on the haggling front, did you have a trade in?

Ardennes1944

61k CHF here for an Msport

GavMan

MaceFace wrote: »

M Sport, Tanzanite Blue, interior comfort and Professional media package. Few extra pieces including harman/kardon stereo. Sun protection glass.

Got it for a splinter under 50.

Beats the 1.6l Mondeo I currently drive lol

Great colour.

Well wear

carsfan2

Tanzanite blue is a gorgeous colour. It takes a bit of minding to look its best.
Twice the price of regular metallic too.

Did you test drive the white sport model 330e with the black wheels?

MaceFace

I did not trade in my existing and pushed for a 5% discount which I got. Not sure how good BMW are for haggling, but I have heard that 5% was a good target so that's what I went after.

The funny thing is I don't recall the colour of the car I test drove. Think it was a mineral grey, but it was a standard model, so was not concerned about the visuals - apart from how much of the boot I was losing - answer: very little.

Foreign Sports

carsfan2 wrote: »

They are struggling to meet demand for the 330e apparently so can't see them putting it into the 4 series for a while.
It would be easy to make it a 40e as it is the same hardware as the x5 40e with the power in the petrol engine turned down. there are plug in ecu's available already to up the power from 252 hp to 314hp and torque from 420nm to 505nm.


I have one on order too for July. Looking forward to it

Are you getting a good trade in on the GTI?

What persuaded you to go with the 330e over an R?

carsfan2

I am getting a reasonable deal I think on the gti.
They are giving me 7.5 k less than I paid for it as a trade in and it will be 18 months old with about 25k miles on it when they get it.

After driving the 330e I was impressed and for the same price as the R I can get one with a nice spec.The 330 is faster than the gti and will be cheaper to run for me. I reckon the running costs will be way lower than the R would be.
Obviously it's a completely different car to an R, not as fast or stuck to the road but it handles nicely and is plenty quick.
I also figured the R would be too like my gti to justify a change so wanted to give something different a go, as well as getting 7500 rebate from the government at the same time.

2angelsdh

Hi all, following this thread a few months now. I recently bought an x5 40e msport trading out of a 418d Gran coupe msport. I've done 7k and every time I drive it I'm chuffed I took the jump. These phevs are the business. I do circa 4000 klms per month . The whole point of these cars is their a 3 in 1 - first Eco city car fuel miser , secondly long distance cruiser ( major watch out there is a compromise here though with the small fuel tanks on most phev ) and thirdly and best of all- this things accelerate in the real world like motorbikes ! Weight doesn't matter any more . There are a couple of pains in the hole too - poor parking at ev stations blocking access especially to a large 4x4 , Chargers jamming up and having to ring ecars to be released etc. And obviously picking up a cable that's been lying on a manky rainy soaked street for 2 hours ! ( good gloves are a must !) I took extended test drives in golf gte , outlander phev , 330e Lexus Rc merc hybrid etc I've literally driven them all . I'm the kind of person that loves a seriously quick car sometimes but not all the time and hate filling up and high day to day running costs . All the cars I drove bar x5 only hold circa 45l petrol. X5 holds 85l meaning a legitimate 850 km plus range depending of charging. If you don't charge the x5 it uses the exact same real world fuel as the 30d but the draw back here though is the more expensive petrol cost. €103 fill cost petrol compared to €90 on diesel. You make this up in two days of ev city driving though . Depending on where I am, doing short hops in areas with good charging availability- I've gone as much as 1800 klms between fill ups with very little hassle. You nearly feel smug :-) dont be afraid of these cars they are brill watch the cvt type gearing though it's noisey and very heavy on fuel. In my opinion only bmw and Vw have the phev approach right.

Marcusm

2angelsdh wrote: »

Hi all, following this thread a few months now. I recently bought an x5 40e msport trading out of a 418d Gran coupe msport. I've done 7k and every time I drive it I'm chuffed I took the jump. These phevs are the business. I do circa 4000 klms per month . The whole point of these cars is their a 3 in 1 - first Eco city car fuel miser , secondly long distance cruiser ( major watch out there is a compromise here though with the small fuel tanks on most phev ) and thirdly and best of all- this things accelerate in the real world like motorbikes ! Weight doesn't matter any more . There are a couple of pains in the hole too - poor parking at ev stations blocking access especially to a large 4x4 , Chargers jamming up and having to ring ecars to be released etc. And obviously picking up a cable that's been lying on a manky rainy soaked street for 2 hours ! ( good gloves are a must !) I took extended test drives in golf gte , outlander phev , 330e Lexus Rc merc hybrid etc I've literally driven them all . I'm the kind of person that loves a seriously quick car sometimes but not all the time and hate filling up and high day to day running costs . All the cars I drove bar x5 only hold circa 45l petrol. X5 holds 85l meaning a legitimate 850 km plus range depending of charging. If you don't charge the x5 it uses the exact same real world fuel as the 30d but the draw back here though is the more expensive petrol cost. €103 fill cost petrol compared to €90 on diesel. You make this up in two days of ev city driving though . Depending on where I am, doing short hops in areas with good charging availability- I've gone as much as 1800 klms between fill ups with very little hassle. You nearly feel smug :-) dont be afraid of these cars they are brill watch the cvt type gearing though it's noisey and very heavy on fuel. In my opinion only bmw and Vw have the phev approach right.

Did you look at XC90 T8 PHEV?

carsfan2

Looks like you researched the whole phev market extensively.
There's a huge price difference between the golf and the x5 so I guess fuel economy/ price wasn't a factor.
Presume you got a good deal on the x5 coming from another bmw.
does it take long to fully charge?
Do you have a home charging station or do you just plug into normal socket?

2angelsdh

Marcusm wrote: »

2angelsdh wrote: »

Hi all, following this thread a few months now. I recently bought an x5 40e msport trading out of a 418d Gran coupe msport. I've done 7k and every time I drive it I'm chuffed I took the jump. These phevs are the business. I do circa 4000 klms per month . The whole point of these cars is their a 3 in 1 - first Eco city car fuel miser , secondly long distance cruiser ( major watch out there is a compromise here though with the small fuel tanks on most phev ) and thirdly and best of all- this things accelerate in the real world like motorbikes ! Weight doesn't matter any more . There are a couple of pains in the hole too - poor parking at ev stations blocking access especially to a large 4x4 , Chargers jamming up and having to ring ecars to be released etc. And obviously picking up a cable that's been lying on a manky rainy soaked street for 2 hours ! ( good gloves are a must !) I took extended test drives in golf gte , outlander phev , 330e Lexus Rc merc hybrid etc I've literally driven them all . I'm the kind of person that loves a seriously quick car sometimes but not all the time and hate filling up and high day to day running costs . All the cars I drove bar x5 only hold circa 45l petrol. X5 holds 85l meaning a legitimate 850 km plus range depending of charging. If you don't charge the x5 it uses the exact same real world fuel as the 30d but the draw back here though is the more expensive petrol cost. 103 fill cost petrol compared to 90 on diesel. You make this up in two days of ev city driving though . Depending on where I am, doing short hops in areas with good charging availability- I've gone as much as 1800 klms between fill ups with very little hassle. You nearly feel smug :-) dont be afraid of these cars they are brill watch the cvt type gearing though it's noisey and very heavy on fuel. In my opinion only bmw and Vw have the phev approach right.

Did you look at XC90 T8 PHEV?

Yes a super machine too. Huge inside and looks great . Drive wise and sporty looks were leaning me towards bmw , then Volvo attempted to rob my 142 4 series for circa 38k !! - there was a 10 k diff between bmw and Volvo ! Bmw has better connected stuff too , there is alot of subscription services on the Volvo that are free for a few years on the bmw and a buddy in the know also told me the Volvo service costs are quite high versus a service pack in the x5 . Bmw just makes more sense and as I mentioned earlier there is something funny in the hybrid drive train where bmw and Vw place the electric motor in the gearbox making it fast but smooth and taking away mechanical effort from the engine where are Volvo and Mitsubishi have the electric motor driving half the car - so taking a share of the weight . It's just not as good to drive.

2angelsdh

carsfan2 wrote: »

Looks like you researched the whole phev market extensively.
There's a huge price difference between the golf and the x5 so I guess fuel economy/ price wasn't a factor.
Presume you got a good deal on the x5 coming from another bmw.
does it take long to fully charge?
Do you have a home charging station or do you just plug into normal socket?

I've an earthed socket outside my house and I leave it plugged in all the time and just leave the plug for the car handy so as I come and go I have it ready to charge. It's a bit better that faffing around with cables all the time. Some of the charger stations have their own cables too so dead handy. Real life charging takes about 3 hours at home on the move of you have it plugged in for about 2 hours it will charge fully. There's an app bmw do which give remote functions etc so you can check on charge status away from the car.

In terms of price my x5 was 93k new , I got it 4 months old with 9,000 klms on it for 81k asking price , with my trade in I had to give 30,500 with mine . It was a stretch to pay that much for a car I had had to be sure I was going to be happy !! All x5 seem to lose about 10-12k in year 1 when they are sub-100k models ( the dearer ones lose even more ) so it was a fair deal to me and far far better than the competition were offering. Btw - the performance stats on these things are misleading - 0-60 times etc look brisk but not fast what they hide though is that you can hit 160 km/h about 3 seconds later at full chat. They're last gen 911 quick ! The golf gte is a far faster car in full gte mode than a gti - it's just a shame that didn't handle the torque steer and wheel spin tendencies better. 330e is far and away the best 'normal' size hybrid out there . And the bmw guys are selling buckets of them. Thousands are ordered in the uk where phev is taking off in a big way.

carsfan2

Sounds like you are a very happy owner.
Amazing difference in value of your old car though.
I'm looking forward to getting my 330e even though I enjoy my current car a lot. The smooth easy performance is as much of a draw for me as the economy side of things.
I am considering applying for a free charging station from the ESB if they are still available although I don't know if it will be worth having over 3 pin plug.

These type of cars are going to get more common but I reckon all electric a la Tesla will eventually supersede them.

2angelsdh

carsfan2 wrote: »

Sounds like you are a very happy owner.
Amazing difference in value of your old car though.
I'm looking forward to getting my 330e even though I enjoy my current car a lot. The smooth easy performance is as much of a draw for me as the economy side of things.
I am considering applying for a free charging station from the ESB if they are still available although I don't know if it will be worth having over 3 pin plug.

These type of cars are going to get more common but I reckon all electric a la Tesla will eventually supersede them.

For the leafs and those types you deffo need charging station . For the bmws I don't thing there is much advantage vs the install costs. Another point to note - the public charge cable is not standard in a bmw - make sure you tell them it has to be . It's 240 as a spare part !!

The tesla is lovely , was in one at the SEAI show this year . But on a 13amp socket it's takes 7 hours ! We have no super chargers here yet so a long way to go.

Best of luck with the new 330e I'm sure you will be thrilled with it.

2angelsdh

carsfan2 wrote: »

Sounds like you are a very happy owner.
Amazing difference in value of your old car though.
I'm looking forward to getting my 330e even though I enjoy my current car a lot. The smooth easy performance is as much of a draw for me as the economy side of things.
I am considering applying for a free charging station from the ESB if they are still available although I don't know if it will be worth having over 3 pin plug.

These type of cars are going to get more common but I reckon all electric a la Tesla will eventually supersede them.

For the leafs and those types you deffo need charging station . For the bmws I don't thing there is much advantage vs the install costs. Another point to note - the public charge cable is not standard in a bmw - make sure you tell them it has to be . It's 240 as a spare part !!

The tesla is lovely , was in one at the SEAI show this year . But on a 13amp socket it's takes 7 hours ! We have no super chargers here yet so a long way to go.

Best of luck with the new 330e I'm sure you will be thrilled with it.

Marcusm

2angelsdh wrote: »

Yes a super machine too. Huge inside and looks great . Drive wise and sporty looks were leaning me towards bmw , then Volvo attempted to rob my 142 4 series for circa 38k !! - there was a 10 k diff between bmw and Volvo ! Bmw has better connected stuff too , there is alot of subscription services on the Volvo that are free for a few years on the bmw and a buddy in the know also told me the Volvo service costs are quite high versus a service pack in the x5 . Bmw just makes more sense and as I mentioned earlier there is something funny in the hybrid drive train where bmw and Vw place the electric motor in the gearbox making it fast but smooth and taking away mechanical effort from the engine where are Volvo and Mitsubishi have the electric motor driving half the car - so taking a share of the weight . It's just not as good to drive.

I think the XC90 is 15k or more cheaper than the equivalent X5 due to lower VRT and it qualifying for the greater rebates. That together with 100bhp more and (IMO) better styling would have swung me to the Volvo.