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      04-11-2012, 03:27 PM   #1
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UK rules ok !

Hi, just wanted to be the first to post on the Uk forum!

Take delivery of my F30 320d ED tomorrow morning. (12/04/12).
pics and review to follow.....
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      04-12-2012, 01:43 AM   #2
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Excellent purchase. Post pics when u get it.
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      04-17-2012, 07:09 AM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by f30 320d ED View Post
Hi, just wanted to be the first to post on the Uk forum!

Take delivery of my F30 320d ED tomorrow morning. (12/04/12).
pics and review to follow.....
Congrats. Be sure to post some pics and let us know what you think of the car!
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      04-17-2012, 03:33 PM   #4
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Just spotted this new section myself so thought I'd make my mark. Not got an F30, doubt I'll be ordering one either, but reckon every new owner will be well chuffed with theirs as they certainly seem to be receiving high praise. Will certainly be looking out for the coupe version in a year or so when it's released.
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      04-18-2012, 04:26 PM   #5
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Looking forward to pics of a 'real' F30 rather than magazine reviews. Not got or ordered an F30, having traded down from an E93 to an R56 Mini a couple of years ago, but when I can afford it I aim to trade up again!
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      04-23-2012, 12:36 PM   #6
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Congrats on your new 320D look forward to the pics and review, current i have e90 330D M sport and R56 Cooper S, before this had e46 Touring M Sport , and in 1988 had e30 320Se with full M tec kit, still miss it yet
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      04-26-2012, 01:17 PM   #7
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BMW F30 320d efficientdynamics review.

OK UK guys! As above got my F30 on 12th April so I am writing this as the car is two weeks old. Best part of 1000 miles under my belt now so I thought that would give a fairly balanced review taking into account familliarisation and different driving conditions etc.

Firstly a little background detail. it is a company car, so the specification choice was limited within my company guidelines. That said I was fairly happy with the specification level of the car and the goodies it came with. It is a bog standard 320d efficient dynamics with no extras.

My previous car was an Audi A4 2.0 tdi SE 140. It was awesome so the BMW has a hard act to follow.

First impressions. Exterior. The colour is Sapphire Black Metalic. It looks great in this colour and has a very high qualty finish. Other things to note on the exterior....????The main thing is that the car looks 100 times better from every angle than it does in any of the sales literature or press pictures. Everything about it looks better and it does have an obvious quality about it.
The rear / rear qtr view is it's best and it does look quite muscular even with the Style 206 - 16" alloy wheels. the wheels fill the arches OK and dont look lost like they did on the E90 versions. I had high hopes that the decent amount of sidewall rubber will add to the ride comfort that is often criticised in the 3 series. more later.....
2 weeks on and the exterior view still appeals and it looks great after a couple of washes. (it has not stopped raining since i took delivery). Chrome tailpipe is big and beefy, little eyebrows over the headlights are quality, no chrome around the door windows (all black) looks excellent. The front end looks great, the much talked about bonnet line is un noticeable and in general it looks wide and very well balanced. 10/10.

To be Continued............
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      04-26-2012, 01:40 PM   #8
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Continued......

Interior:- Good remote car key thingy! big and easy to use. Whilst the keyless driving is "cool" there is, quite frankly, nowhere to put your key. for the last 22 years I have managed with it in an ignition barrel, now I have to get used to it being in my pocket or rolling around on the passenger seat. Forgive me for my language but I just dont go in for the wank fest that these little gadgets create amongst BMW owners. You just have to read some of the comments on this forum to see people spend hours on end walking about with an erection at the thought of being able to change the colour of the ambient lighting in the footwell. Get a life, get a fucking grip!!! Rant over.
At first sit in the seat all seems good and again you are struck with the feel of quality. Coming from an Audi a4 I am used to quality and this doesn't dissapoint. My Audi was a 56 reg and probably designed a good few years before that though. BMW are getting close but overall the Audi is of a better quality in terms of overall feel, layout and general materials they use. The seat is frankly rubbish. Whilst I am able to adjust it to my desired position easily you still get a feeling of sitting on the car rather than sitting in the car. Being part of the car is what makes it "the ultimate driving machine" I feel the BMW fails on this point and this is probably its most serious failure.
The dashboard, i drive and switchgear:- All of good quality and easy to use. I have had no need to use the manual whatsoever and a few little tips were easily picked up on the i drive on screen user manual. My phone connects fine via the bluetooth and works as it should. the radio / cd is decent quality sound but lacks punch at volume. The bass easily distorts the ordinary speakers. I stress this is at high volume, normal and fairly loud is fine and is of good sound quality. The Audi was better and 7 /8 year old design. I have downloaded all of my ipod contents to memory stick and this is just a plug and play thing that works great. You can search by song title, artist or genre just like on your ipod. It lacks a shuffle / random function. Steering wheel controls are all good feel and in the right place. These are better than the Audi A4. Swithching between radio / CD / Aux, volume control all very good and evrything seems to have a dual function. Telephone answer / end on steering wheel also good. Cruise control on this car is by far the best cruise control system I have ever used on any vehicle I have driven. Absolutely perfect and 10/10 in this area. Lit indication of the speed it is set etc around the perimeter of the speedo and in the main dash display. Cruise contol excellent, fantastic, much better than the Audi!!. Not forgetting brake assist on the cruise control, what a weird feeling that is...strolling along at 70mph, roadworks (average speed cameras) approaching...whack it down to 50 mph and it slams the brakes on and settles at 50mph. i recommend gradually reducing your speed and not using this method....!!

To be continued...............
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      04-26-2012, 01:52 PM   #9
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Continued........

By the way I am typing this on an ipad so excuse the dodgy lack of capital letters and miss spellings. I'm not illiterate just in the hands of Apple Inc.!!

Automatic wipers, excellent, automatic lights excellent (which is just as well as I dont like using the light switch). It looks like it was stuck on as an afterthought and may fall off again if provoked!
Heating / Air conditioning all good and works well. the only bug bear being that the vehicle always starts in ED mode and the heating / cooling does not work to capacity in this mode. you have to switch to comfort or sport for any fan speed.
Whilst I'm on the subject the car is very different in sport mode as opposed to ED or comfort mode. i use all the modes to be honest and they are all good. The kick you get when switching to sport mode is bigger than you would think and caution should be excercised if you are mid corner!
Putting all your music on a memory stick is a must as the glove box is tiny and wont hold many cd's. The user manual is kept in the boot for this reason. the boot is big and the golf clubs fit fine without having to take my driver out of my tour size golf bag. The boot opens with the key fob and this has proven to be useful. You cant open the boot if the car is locked though.
To finish the interior comments i have the Move cloth in Anthracite. it looks nice and it appears durable, only time will tell. The dashboard shape and overall feel of the interior is very nice. One last thing, night driving is a pleasure, the interior is a very nice place to be at night.

To be continued.................
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      04-26-2012, 02:06 PM   #10
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Continued..........

Driving "The Ultimate Driving Machine"....
I was brought up in Mk2 Escorts and am no stranger to rear wheel drive. I am able if not a little wreckless and would happily ban all front wheel drive vehicles from the road. The uninformed tell me..."whatch out on the corners in that", "take your time in the wet" etc etc. Honestly, without putting a jinx on myself but you would have to drive like an utter wanker to spin one of these off the road. the handling in wet or dry conditions is very very stable and very reassuring. Even pulling out of junctions turning sharply in wet conditions in sport mode and being "enthusiastic" is barely enough to light up the DSC on the dash. With this turned off the car is still immensley solid on the road and honestly you would have to be a dick to loose it. This is an absolute credit to the car it has fantastic traction.
The handling on corners is very balanced and feels very stable. Adjustments in mid corner are possible with no chance at all of upsetting the traction. On the motorway this is easily the most balanced and stable car I have ever driven. My Audi was brilliant, this is fantastic. 90mph feels like 60mph. No wind noise, no road noise, no engine noise, no stress. If anything it feels a tad heavy at speed, this is obviosly much better than it feeling light. I did a 270 mile round trip on motorway 99% and it was an absolute pleasure.
Power...loads of it in Sport mode. Ample in the others. No problems here.

Overall....I'm very happy. I'm even starting to not miss my Audi !

Once again, sorry for the ipad spelling and capital letter issues. i'm not a motoring journalist (obviosly) and this is just a quick 20 minutes typing as it came to the top of my tiny little mind.
Would I get one of these cars? Yes, too bloody right I would!!

Any questions, please ask!!!
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      04-26-2012, 02:08 PM   #11
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Final thoughts...(my tea is ready).....

Bad things...The seat, the steering wheel is too thin, the speakers could be better.

Good / best things...Power, handling, quality.

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      04-26-2012, 02:21 PM   #12
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Oh, nearly forgot...

Fuel economy.

I have achieved 77.2 mpg over a 16 mile journey. this is in ED mode and being very very careful The car only had 40 miles on the clock when I did this so it will only get better.
Normal driving in ED mode can easily get 60mpg
in comfort mode town driving will see 50mpg and longer journeys 60mpg is possible.

Most of my driving is done in Sport mode (if the traffic allows) I can drive with no regards whatsoever to any fuel cunsumption and even in city type traffic I can average 46mpg. Any heavy traffic jams would see a reduction in this but it would be very hard to average less than 46mpg with any style of driving. i am quoting this as my car is now and that is with 423miles on this tank of fuel with mostly city / A road driving.

Keep smiling...
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      04-26-2012, 04:25 PM   #13
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Thanks for the review - very helpful.

Pics would be great when you get the chance.
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      05-01-2012, 01:46 PM   #14
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Just thought I would add to this post, just been told today my new 3 series will be delivered to me on the 29th May, 4 weeks to go. First ever BMW so not knowing what to expect.

Will be going from a Vaux astra hatch sri will be sad to see it go as it's been a belter from day 1, 90k on the clock and not missed a beet. Hope the beemer lives up to it.
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      05-02-2012, 06:11 PM   #15
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@ F30 320d ED. What a fantastic review, I had forgotten this was here! I haven't even time to read it all right now but will continue later. Heroic, thanks!
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      05-03-2012, 11:01 AM   #16
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Great review
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      05-08-2012, 03:26 AM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by f30 320d ED View Post
Bad things...The seat, the steering wheel is too thin, the speakers could be better.
Thanks for the detailed review.

I am a (company) driver of a '10 320d ED and am intrigued by the changes made on the current model. Your negative list is interesting as they were my thoughts prior to placing an order (went to a couple of dealerships for a look round/sit in cars/demo)....I ordered the sport steering wheel, sports seats and HK surround system so effectively negated the concerns I had. FWIW I also opted for servotronic steering on my current ED and find it very good.

I'm umming and arring between the new ED and the new Sport model for my next car....the lesser tax & trade up costs for the ED still have it ahead yet the Sport still intrigues me.

I'm stuck as to whether speccing the variable steering and adaptive suspension (for either model) would be worth it or would be a waste of time/a fad.
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      05-10-2012, 05:26 AM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by f30 320d ED View Post
Final thoughts...(my tea is ready).....

Bad things...The seat, the steering wheel is too thin, the speakers could be better.

Good / best things...Power, handling, quality.

Great write up; interesting to hear your thoughts.

Doesn't help you too much but your negatives would be solved with the 'not released yet' M Sport model plus speaker upgrade. Or obviously anyone buying from new could add Sport Seats and Sport Steering Wheel. A simple speaker upgrade also ticked on the options list sorts out the tunes. On an SE model car these three ticks would be essential in my opinion but appreciate you had no choice but may help future buyers.

I'm sure you'll have many miles of easy/trouble-free driving so don't let the short negatives list spoil things.

Look forward to some piccies at some point.
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      01-10-2013, 04:43 PM   #19
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Fantastic review - this has really helped me as I have an ED on order and due in March. I'm also a co. car driver so limited on the options so this real world review is just what I was looking for.

I'm hoping mine comes with DAB as I hear that this is an addition to 2013 cars (although reviews on here for DAB look to be lukewarm)
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      01-10-2013, 05:00 PM   #20
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It should come with it. But don't quote me on that

TBH I always thought DAB in a car was pretty poor but that was based on a couple of Minis I had for a while and I'll admit a certain amount of user error. Park in a place with good strong DAB reception (eg city centre) and tune/store your stations. I've done that and not lost a signal once. Previously I was having half arsed attempts at tuning whenever I remembered, hardly got any stations and then just gave up.

And thanks for resurrecting this thread. Interesting to read the OP's thoughts.
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      01-10-2013, 07:31 PM   #21
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Well resurrected...
Ive had my 320d ED with a selection of extra's since dec 28th and love it. Will post my own review when I can and its not the middle of the night! Awesome cars.

Very quickly now, DAB gets bad press but I did it good. In fact good enought that I only have bothered to tune one FM frequency and that's only cuz they don't transmit in DAB!
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      01-11-2013, 04:52 PM   #22
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Thanks for the tips - look forward to the review Sladester.

I read a really positive real world view here - http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/our-cars/bmw-f30-320d-ed/

Looks like he was underwhelmed when he got the car to test but loved it in the end.
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