Getting To Know About Bmw

[MkX]

Guys,

What are the differences between BMW 316i , 318i and E36 .. is E36 / E30 different model?

Also what about the parts availability , performance and maintenance cost. Also i got to now that E36 manufactured up to 1999 since it came in 1992. Is it same model?

thanks

[VVTi]

Guys,

What are the differences between BMW 316i , 318i and E36 .. is E36 / E30 different model?

Also what about the parts availability , performance and maintenance cost. Also i got to now that E36 manufactured up to 1999 since it came in 1992. Is it same model?

thanks

Wiki it machang... Google BMW 3 Series... Simple.

For parts availability... there are few shops that deal in used body parts. For mechanical parts, my advise is to stick with genuine brand new parts. Don't skimp on them and you will be blessed with long use. Cut a few corners and you will end up with a lemon.

Maintenance is how you do it... you can go full on and get Prestige to service it and not have to worry about anything or you can get a local 'expert' to screw it up for you in style. Also service intervals are high.. so by the time you just finish paying off the Credit card for your earlier service, it will be time for the next one.. .

Performance varies on the engine size, transmission type, fuel type ete etc.

Edited May 23, 2010 by VVTi

[MkX]

Wiki it machang... Google BMW 3 Series... Simple.

yes I did.

So E21 up to E93 is the different generations of BMW 3 series. And E36 generation has variations from 316i , 318i , 320, etc.

Now what is the most commonly available in Sri Lanka? and easy to maintain.

[VVTi]

Now what is the most commonly available in Sri Lanka? and easy to maintain.

That would be the E36 318.... but there is no such thing as easy to maintain. Its easy to maintain if you keep it at home all the time only. They are aging and they need a close eye on everything from Door Handles to drive train to electrics.

Most of the ones out there are heavily used, badly maintained and have more than 3-4 owners on average. Many people cut corners when it comes to these and these short term remedies catch up with you sooner or later.

If you are getting one, check for one that has a good service/maintenance history, check the owners, mileage. etc.

[LaZyBoY]

Hijacking your thread for a bit MkX, if I may.. just wondered what the current market is like for a 530d? Would it be easier to live with day to day and maintain than a 525i, for example?

[MkX]

Guys what are the things normally change at BMWs service indicator. Oil.. what filters? and any other things? what is the service interval 318 has?

[Devinda_Z]

Hijacking your thread for a bit MkX, if I may.. just wondered what the current market is like for a 530d? Would it be easier to live with day to day and maintain than a 525i, for example?

I'm guessing the Petrol will be easier to run once the miles get high

but the 530d is bound to be more frugal

E39 pre face lift 520 & 525i's should not be in the 2.7 - 3.5 Mn range and facelifted cars in the 4-5.5 Mn range for the petrols

Diesel E39 525 tds's from 3 - 4 Mn for 65- pre face lifts & upto 6.5 Mn for a 530d is my estimate

[LaZyBoY]

I'm guessing the Petrol will be easier to run once the miles get high

but the 530d is bound to be more frugal

E39 pre face lift 520 & 525i's should not be in the 2.7 - 3.5 Mn range and facelifted cars in the 4-5.5 Mn range for the petrols

Diesel E39 525 tds's from 3 - 4 Mn for 65- pre face lifts & upto 6.5 Mn for a 530d is my estimate

I was under the impression that the Diesels are perceived to be very expensive to maintain etc. and thus have a (though possibly unjustified) lower market value than their Petrol counterparts (?)

[Devinda_Z]

I was under the impression that the Diesels are perceived to be very expensive to maintain etc. and thus have a (though possibly unjustified) lower market value than their Petrol counterparts (?)

hardly,

as is the norm, Diesels are more expensive - possibly on the basis that they are better on juice

[MadMMX]

Hi guys,

Just my exp - been using e46's for over 4 years now - the experience it pretty good.Had a diesel 320d and now a 318i. Yes the maintenance is a bit more than the jap cars but the service interval is pretty decent - for diesel once in 14000km's or once a year and for the petrol facelift - once in 25000 or once a year.

Service at prestiege isn't too expensive - filter + synth oil is about 12k. every other service u need to replace the pollen filter about 4k locally or about 2.5k from uk and the airfilter - about the same price as the other filter.

Parts - prestige kills you ! Much cheaper to get your parts directly from a uk dealer - expect 1/6 to 1/8 of the prestiege price for genuine bm parts. Haven't used any oem german parts myself. Prefer to be safe.

On running costs the 320d takes the cake. Extremely economical and used to do 600km's on a super diesel tank, Of course the services were a little more expensive. The 318i facelift is also pretty decent giving from 8.5 to 9.5 depending on your driving style. There is a no bs economy meter on the clock to tell you what your economy is !

Well it does help if you have a working BMW DIS (factory diagnostics) at home That way the agents can't screw you on their cockeyed diagnostics. The cars are pretty good at diagnosing their own problems without having to have basses to experiment and remove and put parts into it.

@VVT - am detecting a bad experience - care to share ?

Cheers,

Madmmx

[rangerover]

How much would a reasonable condition BMW E46 Facelift (english number) cost. a 318i?

[VVTi]

Errr..... anyone referring to me... ?

Nope, no complaints with 'ma woman!

Purring like a cat. Last week changed the rear hub bearings and the training arm bushing. No brainer actually. Small differential hum taken care of by changing the diff oil at PitStop. (Castrol 90, fcty recommended) and voila!

[MadMMX]

Ah actually was wondering if you had any comments about the people who did the maintenance on it

[VVTi]

Ah actually was wondering if you had any comments about the people who did the maintenance on it

Ah.... well, before I bought mine, I made a call to the local.. ahem... expert. He shot down the car without even having seen it, I suppose. Then I find out 2 days later that he has sent someone to take a look at it. By that time I have already reserved it.

Also I have heard from a few 'former' clients that this person takes unsuspecting deep pocketed people for a ride and change parts that are not even broken and replaces them with his own stuff.

Now in adverts for BMWs when I see the phrase 'Maintained by so and so' I laugh.

So no, I do not have personal experience with the expert becasue I have chosen to take my chances with my own known crew. So far nothing has gone wrong and I am also part of the repair crew..

I have the manual with me also , so its not rocket science.

But I do believe that Prestige is actually one of the best agents around considering the way they handled some of the issues I had and their advise was spot on. ( As Mr. Sylvi would say,) I have Experience with A*W, Toyota, and DIMOs) and Prestige is by far the most pleasant to work with.

Mr. Peiris, the Service Manager is a true professional and always willing to help you. Soft spoken and never tries to BS you. At least that's how it has been with me, becasue I got the car with a whole file full of Prestige bills and maintenance records.

Also when it comes to parts and pricing, I would say the difference is not that bad,

For instance, my Trailing arm bushes were not available with them, but they are priced at Rs.5400+VAT each. I got them from a place in Cotta road (OEM) for Rs.3900 each. SO no big difference IMHO.

[VVTi]

Adding further

I have replaced/done the following since purchase last year.

Front Hub racers. Rs. 15k

Rear Hub racers Rs. 7k

Fixed leaky AC condenser 1 Bottle MENDIS Gal + 6 beers + chasers + 700g of R134.

Broken Sunroof WD40, Grease and a few cotton swabs. (expert estimate was Rs. 40K).

Replaced few busted light bulbs Rs. 500 (including reserves I keep with me)

Replaced ATF at Prestige (Esso LT71141) Rs. 26k all incl ( good for 100k Kms)

Oil/Filter Service at Prestige with fuel and air filter Rs. 25K. (3 more Service Indicators green LEDs to go)

So, the total cost in first year of ownership of a 14 year old BMW, Less than 100K.

I am into my second year and so far, hopefully... nothing. Tyres might have to replaced. But that's about it.

Compare this to my P11... cost about 150K the first 6 months to put it in good nick

[MadMMX]

HI, Good info. I used to maintain my Diesel BMW with the said chap and that was my first experience with BM's - there was a little trepidation with using prestiege at the time as I only had heard of them and not actually done anything there. Subsequently when I got the petrol it was actually the said chap who suggested that since the car was quite new at the time that I should go to them. Never had any major issues with him but since I stay in Colpety the drive up to Kelaniya was pretty tedious and I also after doing a lot of research lined up my spares channels directly from UK - which I find is extremely cheaper for genuine stuff direct from a BMW dealer there. Also have had pretty decent experience with Shavi and his advise is quite sound. Also since then have done extensive research into the subject and now have the BMW DIS (the diagnostic system that they use in prestiege) and the programming module fully operational on my home pc. This really helps as diagnostics becomes that much easier for the smaller parts and it allows me to re-code the accessories into the car without having to take it back to the agents for recode. This is really cool and give you a lot of freedom when adding the infinite gadgets that are available to fit on to the car.

Cheers,

Druvi.

[VVTi]

HI, Good info. I used to maintain my Diesel BMW with the said chap and that was my first experience with BM's - there was a little trepidation with using prestiege at the time as I only had heard of them and not actually done anything there. Subsequently when I got the petrol it was actually the said chap who suggested that since the car was quite new at the time that I should go to them. Never had any major issues with him but since I stay in Colpety the drive up to Kelaniya was pretty tedious and I also after doing a lot of research lined up my spares channels directly from UK - which I find is extremely cheaper for genuine stuff direct from a BMW dealer there. Also have had pretty decent experience with Shavi and his advise is quite sound. Also since then have done extensive research into the subject and now have the BMW DIS (the diagnostic system that they use in prestiege) and the programming module fully operational on my home pc. This really helps as diagnostics becomes that much easier for the smaller parts and it allows me to re-code the accessories into the car without having to take it back to the agents for recode. This is really cool and give you a lot of freedom when adding the infinite gadgets that are available to fit on to the car.

Cheers,

Druvi.

Great stuff... any chance of a poor mortal having access to the DIS... and will it run on Linux/Ubuntu?

[MadMMX]

Great stuff... any chance of a poor mortal having access to the DIS... and will it run on Linux/Ubuntu?

Sure - dis works fine but you need to use it on a virtual machine using vmware. You also will need an Ediabas / Inpa cable available for about 20 dollers off ebay. Not difficult to put together at all. The software was a bit of a pig to get it running but the effort is all worth it. Let me know if you wanna give this route a try.

Cheers,

[MkX]

Guys this thread is getting realy useful for someone like me.

How about the performance - acceleration and handling of 316i / 318i compare to other japanese 4 door saloons.

[Ripper]

Guys this thread is getting realy useful for someone like me.

How about the performance - acceleration and handling of 316i / 318i compare to other japanese 4 door saloons.

IMHO...those two models don't have enough displacement to carry all that weight really fast. a good jap 1.8 litre should be able to keep up if not even take one down.

But generally speaking...euro cars have stiffer suspension and all the other little things to give you a better driving experience over the average jap sedan

IMHO... something like a Mazda 3 should be far superior to even the 318i...

the 318i has got 103horses according to wiki and the mazda 3 even at 1.5l gives you 109horses

I've driven VVTI's 325 and with the 2.5litre powerplant...and a heavy foot...that thing rockets

So my personal opinion is that if it's a bimmer....you need a bigger engine under the hood to really move and have the whole BMW experience.

[MkX]

IMHO...those two models don't have enough displacement to carry all that weight really fast. a good jap 1.8 litre should be able to keep up if not even take one down.

But generally speaking...euro cars have stiffer suspension and all the other little things to give you a better driving experience over the average jap sedan

IMHO... something like a Mazda 3 should be far superior to even the 318i...

the 318i has got 103horses according to wiki and the mazda 3 even at 1.5l gives you 109horses

I've driven VVTI's 325 and with the 2.5litre powerplant...and a heavy foot...that thing rockets

So my personal opinion is that if it's a bimmer....you need a bigger engine under the hood to really move and have the whole BMW experience.

Feul consumption, maitanence cost comes top in the list for me. Thats why I am looking at 318i / 316i. Need to see the power to weight ratio of these as well I guess.

[Ripper]

Feul consumption, maitanence cost comes top in the list for me.

somehow i don't think that's BMW territory mate.

[Bugatti]

IMHO...those two models don't have enough displacement to carry all that weight really fast. a good jap 1.8 litre should be able to keep up if not even take one down.

But generally speaking...euro cars have stiffer suspension and all the other little things to give you a better driving experience over the average jap sedan

IMHO... something like a Mazda 3 should be far superior to even the 318i...

the 318i has got 103horses according to wiki and the mazda 3 even at 1.5l gives you 109horses

I've driven VVTI's 325 and with the 2.5litre powerplant...and a heavy foot...that thing rockets

So my personal opinion is that if it's a bimmer....you need a bigger engine under the hood to really move and have the whole BMW experience.

Yup.. agree with Ripper. After driving that 2.5 ltr... a 318i feels under powered. So I guess, the minimum config should be at least a 320i ...?! (if you wan't to experience something)

[MkX]

somehow i don't think that's BMW territory mate.

Yes I know. Haven't taken any final call. still the feasibity study

[danielhenry31]

Its maintenance is simple if you keep at home the whole time only. It is aging and they need to close all the door handles train electrification drive. Most of them are out of a crowded, poorly managed and have more than 3-4 hold on average. Many of these shortcuts and when such short-term solutions to catch you sooner or later.