Another What Car thread

[dergside]

You should have seen John Roche's face a couple of years ago when I suggested just such a thing when the torque convertor on the e39 530i was throwing a wobbly. The words that followed reinforced the message that his face had led with!

[Big H]

TBH - re-reading your original post D, a late F10 520d M-Sport as you said absolutely makes sense.

They are a lovely car indeed and the M Sports have aged will imo - the Touring's more so !

You have other cars to fulfil weekend/sunny summer days duties so put the tax/fuel savings into one of them. It also won't depreciate massively and will be a relatively easy sell on in a few years time (unlike some of your other suggestions)....

[Big H]

BTW - a work colleage brought in a sensible mileage 2016 520D M Sport (manual) from Sytner earlier this year and had it cleared for c. €16k - he said they were excellent to deal with !

[ecooney]

BTW - a work colleage brought in a sensible mileage 2016 520D M Sport (manual) from Sytner earlier this year and had it cleared for c. €16k - he said they were excellent to deal with !

That seems like seriously good value. I've checked Styner website just now and their cheapest 2016 520D is £17.5K. Around £14K for a 2014-2015.
He did well to clear one on Irish plates for €16K

[dergside]

...... (unlike some of your other suggestions)....

You may have a point there!

[Big H]

He did well to clear one on Irish plates for €16K

True - as it was a manual, they had it sitting around for a while so were eager to shift it on. The exchange rate was very favourable earlier this year too remember.

It may not have been exactly 16k, but certainly started with €16,XXX

[Mark]

To me, it seems little sense to move to an '08/09 - yes mentally the tax will feel like a great saving but you'd be moving from cars that you know well to an unknown and I bet the ROI is 5-7 years when considering the tax difference!

The 530i & 630i that you have are very hard to replace without spending considerable sums. I, too, convinced myself that I'd be happy with a 520d - one test drive later and I realised how wrong I was. I test drove a 141D 530d wagon which was a fantastic car but it would have cost me over €2500/year newer to change and to go from petrol to a diesel with similar mileage.

The ONLY BMW that is not diesel, is reasonably desirable and the man maths seems to work on is getting a 67 or 68 plate 530e M Sport and there are tons for sale. If you can find a good deal on a 68 plate, the vrt is pretty much the same price as 67 plate due to how they value it. A late 2018 can be had for €28/29k landed which I feel is great value.

Otherwise, a Lexus GS300h worked from a man maths perspective!

[dergside]

Mark - I know exactly what you mean about the 520d thing. That's what concerns me a little. Its why I ended up with this 530i in 2015, having spent the previous 9 months in a very nice spec f10 520d SE. In fact the proceeds of the 520d bought both the e60 and e63.

The thing is that as time progresses, and car lifecycles move on, an equivalent age/mileage but more desirable (M-Sport) spec costs significantly less than both the 520d cost in 2014 and the combined cost of equivalent models of the other cars.

Experience, with both the current 530i and more than my share of other bigger engined cars over many years, says that the 530i, or equivalent, does and will pretty much continue to use the car allowance I have. That's not especially a problem, that's what the allowance is for, but when you calculate, on the same basis, that a 2016 520d M-Sport would use just half of it then you have to stop and think if there is any rationality in the older cars, or you are putting a huge premium on the user experience of the bigger engines cars.

And then you find something like this - https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...ice-asc&page=4

[James Bond Junior]

36% VRT and E2350 per annum tax. You'd want to really want it....

https://www.pistonheads.com/classifi...coupe/10431171
6 Series? E750 a year tax is reasonably palatable.

[dergside]

You'd want to really want it....

I will admit that the 550i example was a bit tongue in cheek.

I should point out though, that in 2010 the RRP for the SE here in Ireland was around €95k and the options on this example would probably add €15-20k to that. With VRT paid the price on the road represents about a 15% residual value. Anyone think that this car is 85% used?