Buying advise... 640d M Sport Coupe UK import! Please help!

Polomurf

Hi All,

I'm finally looking to buy a 2012/2013 640d M sport coupe in January and I can't wait!!!
I will be importing the vehicle from the UK to Ireland - this part is ok I know everything I need to about the importing process.
I was hoping someone out there could be of some help with a few questions I have about buying this beautiful coupe.

I have little to no expertise when it comes to negotiating or haggeling sale prices of cars and I'm very unsure how UK car dealers advertise their prices, do they advertise their prices above the expected sale price? If so roughly by how much generally?

The Cars currently in my price range are between 13,995 and 14,999 advertised on autotrader. The mileage ranges from 80-140K miles depending on listing. Note Max budget for this car is £15,000 I'm afraid and I will be paying in full with cash so no finance or trade in to deal with.

# How much can I expect to haggel/take off the sale price from a dealer in the UK and the same if a Private sale?
# How much do car prices drop in January? Does it take a while for dealers to update their prices?
# What would be too high mileage you would walk away from for a 5-6 year old 640d? I'm considering a 2013 one with 117K miles but the mileage has me double thinking?!?
# Any optional add-ons you think is an absolute must for this BMW? I've read some reviews which say the reverse camera is essential? But to me it just sounds like stabilizers for people who can't park/drive properly....
# Any tips for when inspecting\checking the car?
# Not really car related but on the off chance you might be able to help, do any of you know the cheapest ferry company to transport car from UK to Ireland?

Best case scenario and what I would love to happen is to get a 2012/2013 640d M sport coupe with around 80K miles for about £11,000. Do you guys think this would be realistic in January 2019?

Thanks in advance for all your help and replies!
Polomurf91

MarkN

It’s a very long and wide car, I would be taking all the parking aids you can get. I don’t think you can even get a 6 without the reversing camera anyway.

Obviously the lower the miles the better, once you start getting to 60,000 miles things will start to wear. A serviced one should be good though even with bigger miles (many of which could have been motorway anyway). Tyres are the biggest ongoing cost, the 20” rims look the part on them and a tyre is €300 a corner if you stay with run flats.

Soft close doors, heads up display, HK system, glass roof would all be on my list if buying in the U.K. I’m assuming you’d want M-Sport, seats and steering wheel etc all look better with it.

There’s was a mild facelift in 2013 and then in 2015 it got a proper LCI with the digital clocks etc in the dashboard.

Tonnes of torque, €390 road tax and in and around 40mpg, what’s not to like.

Most dealers would have priced their cars now for January, there’s certainly no huge overnight drop coming on Jan 1st anyway but buying straight as you are will always mean you can negotiate the best deal.

Rear seats are useless once you’ve anyone with legs attached to their body.

California Dreamer

UK dealers rarely will drop much beyond £50/100 believe it or not despite what you might see on Wheeler Dealers. They are more likely to let you walk away with your cash that drop 'hundreds'.

Having doing a significant amount of research into these cars and the various options that were/are available for them, there is a couple of things I would consider important in any example:

VDC - Variable Damper Control, particularly so with a coupé, allows for the ride to be adjusted based on the drive select system, think more plush in comfort but more spry in sport or sport +. Swapping away from run-flats apparently makes a huge difference in terms of making the ride overall less harsh, though Mark has a significant more miles done in these cars than I, so could perhaps weigh in on that. The majority of newer cars on auto-trader tend to have this specced, though I am not sure how true that remains when you go down the years, worth looking out for certainly.

If you can find a car with the comfort seats they are certainly worth having, hugely adjustable (and a nicer quality leather I believe).

Adaptive Headlights are also a nice option, but certainly not a must have and may not have been available on examples of the years you are looking at.

Beyond the above, any other options I would look at as a bonus honestly, nothing you would be sorry you never had, being close to the top of the BMW range the cars are very well specced from factory.

Good luck with the purchase, I am doing the same thing myself come next year, though I'm looking at Gran Coupé models personally.

Leonard Hofstadter

Good luck trying to get much of a discount in England, you'd be doing well to get a few hundred off really and some might not offer anything off at all even at those prices.

Also, some garages have 'admin' fees which are not included in the asking price, and yes, they will expect you to pay them. If you're lucky that might be your 'discount'.

Make sure they're au fait with the exporting process as well, usually they're OK with it but they may not be.

In my experience English car dealers are just as likely as our ones are to chance their arm or tell you nonsense, obviously that varies from dealer to dealer just like here.

The good ones there (i.e. the ones with loads of five star reviews on AutoTrader or Google) will be very straightforward and honest, but you still need to ask the right questions just like you would here.