520D 2008

[Murty]

Hi, Looking into buying a 520D mainly for commuting (2008 with 100k miles - has full service history with BMW garage) - this is with a main dealer and comes with the 2 year BMW warranty. I have never owned a BMW before and choosing between this and Audi (A4 - I know should be comparing against A6 but prefer the A4)

just a couple of rookie questions ..

Is it better to pay the extra (about 2 to 3k) to buy from main dealer and get the warranty ?
What is the performance and handling like in comparison to Audi A4?

any words of advise before I buy?

Thanks for any advice - really appreciate it !

[kceire]

Hi, Looking into buying a 520D mainly for commuting (2008 with 100k miles - has full service history with BMW garage) - this is with a main dealer and comes with the 2 year BMW warranty. I have never owned a BMW before and choosing between this and Audi (A4 - I know should be comparing against A6 but prefer the A4)

just a couple of rookie questions ..

Is it better to pay the extra (about 2 to 3k) to buy from main dealer and get the warranty ?
What is the performance and handling like in comparison to Audi A4?

any words of advise before I buy?

Thanks for any advice - really appreciate it !

Paying extra for warranty - only you can decide. If your not comfortable buying privately then it's a sure bet. The warranty is worth circa 1200€ over the 2 years also and you can continue it if you want.

Handling and performance is better than the A4 in my opinion also. The Audi probably has better mpg though.

[Valdelisbmw]

Hi, Looking into buying a 520D mainly for commuting (2008 with 100k miles - has full service history with BMW garage) - this is with a main dealer and comes with the 2 year BMW warranty. I have never owned a BMW before and choosing between this and Audi (A4 - I know should be comparing against A6 but prefer the A4)

just a couple of rookie questions ..

Is it better to pay the extra (about 2 to 3k) to buy from main dealer and get the warranty ?
What is the performance and handling like in comparison to Audi A4?

any words of advise before I buy?

Thanks for any advice - really appreciate it !

Paying extra for warranty - only you can decide. If your not comfortable buying privately then it's a sure bet. The warranty is worth circa 1200€ over the 2 years also and you can continue it if you want.

Handling and performance is better than the A4 in my opinion also. The Audi probably has better mpg though.

probably need to compare 5 series with A6 ,and 3 series with A4 . i dont think A4 does better mpg ,and last i would never sit in Audi after BMW !!

[Pentea]

I went from 5 series to a4 , big mistake , a4 is not half of the car the e60 was , and except for the mpg i can't say any other good thing about the a4 , and as for warranty it's well worthed

[Murty]

Thanks for the advise, really liked the drive of the 520d - read so much about the timing chain in this version over the last day I am now a little nervous - the dealer said has not been done but should be covered in the warranty but nothing in writing to confirm that.

[kceire]

Thanks for the advise, really liked the drive of the 520d - read so much about the timing chain in this version over the last day I am now a little nervous - the dealer said has not been done but should be covered in the warranty but nothing in writing to confirm that.

The timing chain will,be covered in your 2 year warranty and it will also be covered under the BMW QE Program which replaces them free of charge in all affected cars with the N47 engine. Many have got it done for free, myself included.

[bugs]

The timing chain will,be covered in your 2 year warranty and it will also be covered under the BMW QE Program which replaces them free of charge in all affected cars with the N47 engine. Many have got it done for free, myself included.

hi can you advise me I approached bmw and asked for help with this and was told no help would be given --some goodwill/ part payment of a 6000-00 euro invoice was available to those who had already given bmw a great deal of money however no goodwill was available to me .
I have not been contacted by bmw with any offer of help --what happens those who had to get this done privately at their own cost as a result of the refusal by bmw to help at the time . regards bugs

[kceire]

hi can you advise me I approached bmw and asked for help with this and was told no help would be given --some goodwill/ part payment of a 6000-00 euro invoice was available to those who had already given bmw a great deal of money however no goodwill was available to me .
I have not been contacted by bmw with any offer of help --what happens those who had to get this done privately at their own cost as a result of the refusal by bmw to help at the time . regards bugs

If you replaced before the QE came out then I think your out of luck. I'm not sure what BMW are doing nowadays as there's not much hype about it anymore, are they still offering fixes for it?

We got ours done despite not having full BMW history, but we did have a documented service history with independents.

[Murty]

Thanks for that - thats great to know.

I have never owned a BMW before so can I ask a couple of really rookie questions (coming from people trying to put me off buying) - what is the handling like on motorway in rain? is it really that bad?

Ice/snow - i get a fair bit of ice on rural road during winter - understand it will be a little more difficult but as bad as people making out (cant go out..)?

anything else someone knew to BMW should be aware of ?

thanks again !

[kceire]

Motorway in the rain- handles the same if not better than most cars, depending on if it's SE or MSport. In all fairness of you doing 120kmh on the motorway, doesn't really matter what car your driving, there all the same.

Snow/ice - I hear that argument all the time, I drove my BMW's in all our snow spells, mine were auto too with larger rear tyres (MSports) and I had no issue. others will have issues, drive to the conditions, don't listen to people who try drive as normal in the snowy conditions.

I'm sure there much much better cars for the snow and ice also, but you can't have a car for every weather spell......unless your @[Andy] !