Advice: BMW 325 CI '01

henry hill

Hi folks,

Looking for some advice on a BMW 325 CI '01 75K Auto...
I have the option to buy for 13K-15K off a friend who's looking to get rid for genuine reason. I currently have 1.4 '00 Golf, which runs well and hasn't given hassle so not sure if getting this BM a risk.

Anyone have this car? (Happy with it?)
How much did you pay?
Expensive to run? (Insurance? Tax? Petrol?)
Had any problems with it? (Expensive to fix?)
Easy to sell down the road?

Any comments would be much appreciated

Thanks

Eoin

I think that's the same engine that's in my 525i. It's a lovely engine, though quite thirsty. I'm getting about 22.5 MPG at the moment, also in an auto. Don't know if it would be much better in the 3 series.

Tax is easy to look up, and insurance will vary wildy from person to person, so asking for opinions on those two costs is quite pointless.

It may be a hard one to shift. The big engine will put a lot of people off who just want the badge, and would be happy with a 318ci. The auto box could put off people who think that they aren't "really" driving a car unless it's manual.

Seth Brundle

Eoin, is that 22.5 just urban mileage?

Eoin

kbannon wrote: »

Eoin, is that 22.5 just urban mileage?

It's about 50% motorway, and 50% city driving. Of the city driving, half of that again is after rush hour.

Seth Brundle

That really is crap - you should be getting 50% more with your car.

kdevitt

kbannon wrote: »

That really is crap - you should be getting 50% more with your car.

Agreed - my M3 is doing better than that.

Eoin

Official figures say 27MPG, which I imagine is under the most optimum conditions. I'd say it being an auto knocks off a couple MPG as well. That said, I never reset the MPG when I got the car, and it's been going up very slowly since I got it, so my figures may be a little lower than real life.

Andrewf20

Road tax = 899euro a year.

unkel

eoin_s wrote: »

That said, I never reset the MPG when I got the car, and it's been going up very slowly since I got it, so my figures may be a little lower than real life.

So you never measured it yourself then?

Fill it up to the brim, reset mile counter, drive until nearly empty, fill it up to the brim. Divide miles on mile counter (before reset) by gallons needed to fill it up. Repeat a few times for better accuracy

As the others said, with your mixture of driving, you should be getting better MPG unless you have an extremely heavy foot. That said, I haven't managed 22.5MPG myself in nearly a decade

Eoin

It's still probably around 23 MPG max. Like I said, official figures state 27MPG for the auto 525, so I wouldn't expect to be getting much closer to it. Being honest, I just try and not think about it too much, it's not why I bought the car.

unkel

eoin_s wrote: »

Being honest, I just try and not think about it too much, it's not why I bought the car.

Hear, hear!

Anyway, to put things into perspective, the difference between 23MPG and 27MPG at 10k km per annum costs less than €20 per month in petrol...

Eoin

unkel wrote: »

Hear, hear!

Anyway, to put things into perspective, the difference between 23MPG and 27MPG at 10k km per annum costs less than €20 per month in petrol...

Feck that so, will continue to have fun with it, and not let the kickdown or sport mode get too rusty.

Eoin

Just checked parkers.co.uk and the 325ci auto has an official figure of 29MPG, so only 2 better than the 525i auto.

Imperator

Talk About Moderators HighJacking a thread......

Anyway back to OP, thats a brilliant car. You will find very little wrong with it. Is it a sport. To be honest you really want a sport. They look better, Handle like they are on rails, and will be easier to sell. Plus you might be lucky and have one that has DSC. As for the price tho, That seems a bit expensive for a 01 2.5litre bmw. I think id be looking closer to 12 coming from 11k. But i could be totally wrong.

MarkN

An SE won't handle majorly different - you'll find they don't put engines like a 2.5 petrol into their cars and then skimp on suspension and other things. So an M sport is more of a cosmetic thing.

I know someone who had a 325ci SE for many years and he loved it, I think about 250 miles from a tank around Dublin was the norm IIRC.

Eoin

Imperator wrote: »

Talk About Moderators HighJacking a thread......

In fairness it was hardly irrelevant, given that we were talking about the same engine and also an auto.

MarkN wrote: »

An SE won't handle majorly different - you'll find they don't put engines like a 2.5 petrol into their cars and then skimp on suspension and other things. So an M sport is more of a cosmetic thing.

Will the suspension not be different in an m-sport model?

RobAMerc

As far as I know the 325 is only mildly quicker than the 320 and significantly thirstier.

Neither is particularly torquey.

They have a great chassis though.

eoin_s wrote:

Will the suspension not be different in an m-sport model?

M sport suspension is a €400 option which means different settings or perhaps different shocks all together - but it is not a totally different suspension set up.

BMW don't do a lot for €400.

rebel.ranter

eoin_s wrote: »

It's still probably around 23 MPG max. Like I said, official figures state 27MPG for the auto 525, so I wouldn't expect to be getting much closer to it. Being honest, I just try and not think about it too much, it's not why I bought the car.

I'm averaging 29MPG in my 525i, it tipped over the 30MPG on a recent run from Cork to Wexford. I did have a very heavy right foot though so it might be better if I was a little more restrained!

MarkN

eoin_s wrote: »

In fairness it was hardly irrelevant, given that we were talking about the same engine and also an auto.



Will the suspension not be different in an m-sport model?

As RobaMerc has said, it's a drop of about 5mm or something but a lot of the bigger engined BMWs even in SE form get a sports suspension, it's a lot newer but the 335i is one that gets a sports suspension on whatever spec level.

Eoin

RobAMerc wrote: »

As far as I know the 325 is only mildly quicker than the 320 and significantly thirstier.

Parkers has it as a second quicker to 60 than the 320ci. The 323 isn't as quick though.

@rebel.ranter, I've yet to bring it on a decent road trip, so looking forward to seeing what the consumption is like on the open road.

rebel.ranter

eoin_s wrote: »

Parkers has it as a second quicker to 60 than the 320ci. The 323 isn't as quick though.

@rebel.ranter, I've yet to bring it on a decent road trip, so looking forward to seeing what the consumption is like on the open road.

I did try a run with a less heavy foot & it was around the 36MPG for quite a sustained period. When I'm just using it to get in & out to work (urban driving) it will go down to 22MPG over a sustained period.
Once I got 96 MPG!! for a mile of driving!!

RobAMerc

eoin_s wrote: »

Parkers has it as a second quicker to 60 than the 320ci. The 323 isn't as quick though.

@rebel.ranter, I've yet to bring it on a decent road trip, so looking forward to seeing what the consumption is like on the open road.

I was talking about real world - but to be fair I should have said FEELS only marginally quicker.

walshy123

too expensive in my opinion. offer 11k

henry hill

Thanks for all the replies.

Got an insurance quote of E1150 from AXA ... but i'll have to double check it with them, seems v low since i'm paying 1100 at the mo for the Golf. (3yrs full licence, 1yr no claims on own policy, 2yrs named no claims, no crashs or points)

Quinn rejected me out right and quoted me E1900 for a 318CI 01. I gav a 15K evaluation on both.


-> From peoples experiance would you say that this BM / BM's in general are reliable?
-> Are parts much more expensive if things go bad? (incomparison to the Golf say)
->Would this model require any particular type of extras in a service?

Thanks

Eoin

RobAMerc wrote: »

I was talking about real world - but to be fair I should have said FEELS only marginally quicker.

It wouldn't surprise me - there seemed very little difference between the 525 and 528, so I could imagine it's the same in this case (once we're talking about the 2.2 320).

RobAMerc

Hey OP - for not a lot more money you could have an 03 320 later model cabrio with only 49k miles,recent fbmwsh, leather elec seats too !

(Warning : this is a shameless plug for my own car )

Elessar

RobAMerc wrote: »

Hey OP - for not a lot more money you could have an 03 320 later model cabrio with only 49k miles,recent fbmwsh, leather elec seats too !

(Warning : this is a shameless plug for my own car )

Also shamelessly plugging the 320ci - Unless you are a speed demon the 2.2 is an excellent choice (good especially past 3k rpm). I have no experience with the 325 but on my 01 320ci I get about 22 mpg with all urban/city roughly 280-300miles to the tank.

Get yourself one with full sports leather, it really is the business.

jayok

I've a 03 325Ci M-Sport Auto.

Getting about 23/24 MPG around town about 36-38 MPG on a log run. The auto box is nice, but for some reason not quite a tight as our Automatic Accord. The M-sport suspension can be a little rough around this pot-holed town esp on 18". But it's lively enough and smooth enough for a daily drive.

From a service POV I use AC car sales and my last services was for:

1. at 64k miles: Oil, Sparks, Filters (oil and pollen), Coolant Replace, Brake Fluid replace, front bushing about €700 all in

2. at 73k miles: Oil, Filters (as above), Front Brake pads headlight alignment about €300 all in.

So servicing can add up - but don't buy one to skimp on getting things done right.

listermint

henry hill wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies.

Got an insurance quote of E1150 from AXA ... but i'll have to double check it with them, seems v low since i'm paying 1100 at the mo for the Golf. (3yrs full licence, 1yr no claims on own policy, 2yrs named no claims, no crashs or points)

Quinn rejected me out right and quoted me E1900 for a 318CI 01. I gav a 15K evaluation on both.


-> From peoples experiance would you say that this BM / BM's in general are reliable?
-> Are parts much more expensive if things go bad? (incomparison to the Golf say)
->Would this model require any particular type of extras in a service?

Thanks

Just got a 318 Ci late '01 from the UK. Delighted with my purchase. Not sure on the mpg yet havent bothered my ass doing any calculations yet. I like it the 2.0 litre engine is quite punchy and considering its a 4 pot. Cant fault it. Just did a service today myself , the guy had only changed the pads to pass mot never bothered full service so i reflected that in my offer .

The engines are pretty much bullet proof as long as they are looked after service regularly and you treat it with the love and attention it deserves. Parts wise it shouldnt cost you much more than VW should be very similar. Depends on if your gonna pull up the hood yourself, even dealer shopping around will save you plenty of cash. Dont believe just because its a main dealer thats were you have to bring it. Some of them can shaft you on parts and labour.

As for the insurance got a a decent quote from axa for 660. which i thought was super as Quinn had quoted 1200..HA! average quotes were around 900 mark.

Im delighted got all the spec i was after, looks great, drives great and runs like i want. :cool:

henry hill

Had a look at the car during the week and think i might go for it

13K - dat a good price, see them for about 14-15k? Don't think its taxed tho!

Looks like insurance is gonna cost 1500 (24yrs 3yrs full licenc 3 years no claims- 1 on own policy the other on named)

What would you think??