Second Hand Bmw

[dezy1801]

Looking for some advice from BMW owers as I have been contemplating buying one of the following cars either a 320iSE, 325i,330i or a X3 I have been looking at cars from 2008-2011. The kind of car is not the advice I am looking for but in general what BMW service centres are like if there mechanics are well trained and capable of actually servicing or repairing the car.

Another thing I have been thinking about is where is best to buy from I have looked at the BMW Premium Selection which gives a one year warranty with the cars and they tend to be a bit more costly than buying from a dealer off one2car website which is also where BMW market there second hand cars.

I look forward to any input,

Dezy

[JAS21]

I got mine from Europa, quite a big MainDealer. They were always helpful and service guy was good.

My view would be get a premiun selection ... Buying elsewhere could be a bit risky.

You will loose a lot of money when you sell. I had a 520d from new. ... In five years lost a bomb. The new 3-series will crash 2nd hand prices.

I now have a top of the range truck and would never go back to a car again. Dont get treated as well though when I go to park at a good hotel though.......

If you buy get the diesel

[dezy1801]

I got mine from Europa, quite a big MainDealer. They were always helpful and service guy was good.

My view would be get a premiun selection ... Buying elsewhere could be a bit risky.

You will loose a lot of money when you sell. I had a 520d from new. ... In five years lost a bomb. The new 3-series will crash 2nd hand prices.

I now have a top of the range truck and would never go back to a car again. Dont get treated as well though when I go to park at a good hotel though.......

If you buy get the diesel

Thanks for your reply JAS, I had a top of the range truck and now an SUV both Mitsubishi and also currently have a middle of the range toyota truck (for farm) but just fancy something different and I think I agree with you about buying from BMW would be best option due to the service history with the car.

I know I will lose money on the car but never keep anything more that 3 years before changing for something new and the loss on the second hand BMW does not look to bad if its something between 50-100k a year I could handle that as thats what I will be looking at losing from my SUV if and when I sell it.

How did you find the service centres?

[JAS21]

I got mine from Europa, quite a big MainDealer. They were always helpful and service guy was good.

My view would be get a premiun selection ... Buying elsewhere could be a bit risky.

You will loose a lot of money when you sell. I had a 520d from new. ... In five years lost a bomb. The new 3-series will crash 2nd hand prices.

I now have a top of the range truck and would never go back to a car again. Dont get treated as well though when I go to park at a good hotel though.......

If you buy get the diesel

Thanks for your reply JAS, I had a top of the range truck and now an SUV both Mitsubishi and also currently have a middle of the range toyota truck (for farm) but just fancy something different and I think I agree with you about buying from BMW would be best option due to the service history with the car.

I know I will lose money on the car but never keep anything more that 3 years before changing for something new and the loss on the second hand BMW does not look to bad if its something between 50-100k a year I could handle that as thats what I will be looking at losing from my SUV if and when I sell it.

How did you find the service centres?

I think Europa only now have one dealership. The top person in the service department is the owners daughter and her english is obviously excellent and she was always very helpful and reasonable knowledgable.

The guy we always dealt with was good. I will say that several times the car came back with a tiny problem ... usually computer not reset correctly but they always sorted it quickly.

I can't say how they compare with other dealers but I was always happy with any outcome. And they always gave me 1st day tickets (VIP Day) for the motor show. This year I went with the truck manufacturer, didn't feel it was right to ask BMW as it had now gone.

I do think that you will loose considerably more than 100000Baht a year. My car was immaculate, yet in the end I had to let it go to a car dealer. My five year old car was up against the likes of a new Camry. I saw plenty advertised way above my price but still couldn't sell it privately.

Anyway enjoy ... the diesel is quick

Edited June 22, 2012 by JAS21

[steveromagnino]

BMW tends to drop quite heavily once the BSI runs out (BMW service free until 5 years/100k) but if just outside that, you can find some quite reasonable cars that may then drop the sort of amount you hope for (50-100k per year).

The premium selection are somewhat superior in terms of piece of mind, but you will struggle to get the sort of deals that you can get via tents. Tent margin from what I know is anywhere from 80-180k per car, so you can be quite aggressive in asking for a lower price; also the mags and any aftermarket stuff is worthless but certainly nice to have so you can negotiate all that away. Also, you can get a 3rd party to check the car out, most tents will allow and arrange if you are serious to buy. If you are able to buy the same car 200k cheaper for a bit of extra work...well I would consider it worthwhile. If you can strike the jackpot of a private seller (which isn't one2car but some of the other sites) you may do even better again.

You need to look at the timing of the models; the 3 series will likely drop a little more as the new ones become more prevalent, so I would be thinking you are better to go for the earlier cars of the 2005 - 2012 E90 generation, because they are already a generation old when you buy, so 3 years from now, they will be the cheapest of the 1 generation old BMWs still. 2006/7 or late 2008 facelift is the sweet spot; 50-70,000km should be around 1 - 1.3m baht and make sure it is ex millenium/Barcelona/BMW Thailand etc not a grey market one (matters when you come to sell it although not many grey market 320s I suspect). No real difference between a 2006 and a 2008 feature wise for the e90 unless you get the facelift which I think was end of 2008 for Thailand. Note to check the manufacture date; many cars are '2008s' but you check and it's really a 2006 first registered 2008.

Of the models you name, a more standard one like the 320i or 320ise 4 door is probably the safest pick from a losing value point of view, and marginally less likely to have received a huge thrashing than the 325 or 330 which were far more expensive new and also likely to be made more obsolete by the new direction from BMW in going towards the 4 cylinder turbo type set ups and away from big 6 cylinder motors. If you are paying 1.2m, the previous owner would have lost something like 1.3m in 6 years (about 200-250k per year) as the tent has some margin. Bear that in mind; when you come to sell it you will be selling it the same way; as a tradein or to a tent.

You can lean a bit more heavily on the tents than BMW premier selection; not sure how much piece of mind you get with 1 year/20,000km if you intend to own for 3 years. If you finance, you can lean on the tents more than paying cash it seemed to me when I was looking around. I guess you know financing you will need to pay VAT on top of the price (even for BMW premium selection) whereas you buy new, VAT is included in the price. A low mileage premier selection often has a longer peice of mind clause; that would be maybe worth something (but you never get something from nothing with a popular car like a Beemer, at least not from the big yards).

Mechanics; it is interesting dealing with a mini; the specialist mini workshops claim that Millenium and the other big dealers are mostly about show and markup, and they are the real experts in maintaining minis - cost wise Sooper Garage would be less than Millenium but bear in mind Millenium has a monopoly on Mini sales now which isn't the case for BMW; if you buy a grey market BMW, Mini or anything else, then the number of workshops with the ability to handle every type of repair is probably lower but there are still yards that can do good work and have the equipment.

BMW are pretty more costly to maintain than a Japanese car but the computer systems are quite decent for telling the mechanic what to fix; Millenium and other authorised BMW dealers carry plenty of parts...personally I don't think you will have a problem with the standard of work; you may however be surprised that it isn't cheap.If in doubt, go take a look at A Motors, Sooper Garage, and others, and ask if they do work on BMWs; I think you will find them pretty capable also.

Look at a ton of cars at the tents....there are plenty in good shape never pranged to choose from. And you will start to get an idea of exactly what you want (colour, brown interior, after market wheels, how many kms, etc etc).

[dezy1801]

Jas/Steve

Thanks for the information its very much appreciated.