Ownership Diary - F11 530d SE Touring

Thanks chaps - Spain was great. A bit too short, but lovely to have got away with the other half and enjoyed some sun.

As nothing in my life (apart from the girlfriend) is very straightforward at the moment, it was fairly obvious that the 5er would continue that theme!

I had expected to be collecting it from Sytner Chigwell today. Sadly that will not be the case. I got a call this morning to tell me that the suspension airbags are on back order from Germany and not expected in until end-June! Thankfully the Mondial machine has kicked into play and at 4pm I will be picking up a 3er which will be mine for the next 3.5wks. A pain in the backside in one way, but very welcome assistance from Enterprise with the replacement car.

Will cost Mondial a fortune. Warranties are indeed the way to go and with the motorhome looking like it's going to cost me dear, I'm very grateful this one is covered!

 

Well, it's been a strange couple of weeks. Firstly feeling like I'm being bummed from every direction and now things going strangely right!

Yesterday afternoon I got confirmation I would be put into a 5er courtesy car after complaining about the state of the 3er I was given. Yesterday evening I saved a boys life following a stabbing in Central London. And this morning I just heard from Sytner that my car will, in fact, be ready for collection this evening - the parts arrived ahead of schedule and have been fitted and roadtested. It's ready to go!

Just need the Mercedes dealer to finally come up trumps with their new diagnostics and reduce my sizeable bill and I'm on a home run!

Good to hear from you mate. All ok - the camper thread is in the VIP Chat Room (available to members as I didn't want to post private stuff on a public forum before the divorce was through) but as @edthefed says, there is a similar but much longer running thread on Pistonheads if you want to take a squizz over there.

 

Thanks mate. Yup, your memory serves you well! I'm a Community First Responder with East of England Ambulance Service Trust (EEAST).

CFR by Spuffington posted Jun 7, 2018 at 1:41 PM

 

91,200miles - 38.9mpg

The 5er continues to march on with no further issues. I've missed the Brake Fluid service (back in July! ) but I've had very few days where I've actually been in the UK to get it done and waiting to have the rear discs and pads done at the same time given they've only got 1k miles left on them, according to iDrive.

I was slightly concerned upon jumping back into the 530d last night at STN following two weeks spent behind the wheel of my Uncle's G31 530d that the F11 would feel old and I'd want to change. The G31 is certainly superior in every single way - it feels more spacious, luxurious, sprightly, refined, modern etc. But there was something so wonderfully familiar and comfy about setting into the Comfort Seats and wafting back in my car. It feels like a comfy, well worn-in pair of slippers that you'd do anything to ensure were never thrown away!!

Now that's not quite going to be the case with the F11. Its fate very much will depend on 1) what Mondial come up with for a warranty cost in February and 2) exactly what pattern of usage I have for it once I have transferred to Germany. I'm mulling whether it might end up getting sold and I just rent a car upon my return each time. We'll see how things pan out in Q1 2019.

But for now, she's running beautifully. Needs a battery since there are frequent Battery Discharge messages when I hop back in and fear it'll die before the winter sets in - this also provokes what feels like a slight rough running when the message is triggered. But at all other times, she's just fine and dandy.

Given the uncertainty in my private life as to whether I settle in Germany for the rest of my days or whether we come back to the UK at the back end of 2019, no big decisions regarding replacements will be made. That means this car will outlive many others which have been in my fleet. It's already past the 18month mark - quite an achievement for Spuff motors. Ok, so this one is living in an environment of Spuff austerity, but I'm very pleased indeed that I chopped the Yeti in for it and settled on a sensible and practical replacement for the long journeys I've been doing as well and providing me some form of motoring self-respect when everything else has been lost courtesy of the divorce.

Long may she continue to perform and be "relatively" inexpensive to run!

 

Thanks @Verbarthe I’m coping pretty well all things considered. I was on the verge of a breakdown in August prior to the house sale going through, but that has now completed and the pressure has been released. I have a good woman supporting me and that helps enormously.

Re: the young lad - I’m in Court giving evidence at the attackers trial in three weeks. He’s being tried for GBH with intent.

Anyway - back to the car.....

Only 1k miles on since I last put the proverbial pen to paper, but worthy of a quick update:

92,360miles, 39.2mpg - 82p per mile

So first thing’s first - the mpg has jumped. This is by virtue of the fact she’s now firmly being used for pretty much exclusively motorway use. Upon resetting the trip computer today and them embarking on a 50mile run from Woodford to Cambridge, it was obvious the reason behind the increase when in spite of a good few miles of hard urban stop start before getting onto the motorway, the trip computer steadily climbed to 52.6mpg by the time I came off the M11 after pretty much sitting on the cruise control at 70mph indicated (as is now usual for me). Not bad for a 3 litre straight six. By the time I shut her down, the trip was showing 50mpg.

Anyway - the reason for this last journey was simple - the Brake Fluid change was overdue by 2-3 months, the brake pads had 600miles left on them according to iDrive and the rear discs had a very pronounced lip - I assume they’re the original discs, so time for a change. It was booked into Sytner Chigwell BMW and I dropped it off at 8am and headed into London on the tube. When booking it in, I asked if the battery could be investigated as I was getting recurrent error messages when left for 2-3days at a time and I had the service pack @Cotswold BMW Ed had dispatched to me over a year ago when I thought I’d do my own interim service - I asked them to do this and steeled myself for a “no” but was very happy with the “yes” which came back.

So - job sheet for the day and my expected bill:

- rear discs & pads
- new battery
- oil service labour
- and when the CitNow video came in and showed me the rear tyres were at 7mm and fronts at 8mm, I asked them to swap the wheels over whilst it was in the air to keep them wearing evenly. Duly done.

So you can imagine my surprise when I turned up to collect the (very nicely valeted) car to find the bill was “just” £516.

Clearly I got BMW Value Servicing, but it turns out there was a fault with the battery and it was replaced under warranty. That saved me nearly 300quid and they did the oil service for 38+VAT and the wheel swap for nothing!

So I am one happy happy right now. The only thing I have to worry about is the MOT in January and maybe and end of warranty check in February and at that point I will have to make up my mind on the extended warranty. I’m 90% sure I’ll buy a one-off comprehensive warranty for the year and run it until that expires before trading it in.

I got soooooooooo tempted by 9month old, 6k miles 630GT on the forecourt at £33.5k that I was just minutes from phoning them to get me a px price and do a deal. A quick chat with my girlfriend and she said that whilst she’s no problem with me buying a new car, I should think about the fact I use my current one just 8days per month and the rest of the time it’s sat on the road outside my parents house gathering dust. Yes, I do a lot of mileage when I’m back, but is it really worth the depreciation for such little use. Much better to continue running the current one (relatively speaking for peanuts) and then looking at our options in late 2019 or 2020 when we’ll likely move back to the UK full time.

The voice of reason had spoken. As much as I would love a new car (and the 6-series GT really does do it for me in spades - perhaps a 640i GT is the way forward), it really would be a waste of money right now.

Instead I have been in touch with and decided I will be leaving my 530d with Simon at Cambridge Concours for his Enhancement Detail and really get the car looking good, which will keep my interest in her for another 15months or so.

But so far - happy motoring and really do love how this car does everything soooo well.