[focal]

wow...great utility!

[Richbot]

Just passed 5,000 miles. Averaging a little over 23mpg in mixed driving, best tank so far has been 27.2.

Couple issues: glovebox rattle in cold weather and threw a code for the dsc/abs temperature sensor on a very cold day. I cleared the code a couple weeks ago and it hasn't come back so whatever.

[FunRevn]

Thanks for sharing... I will place an order for ED summer delivery for an 335 Msport. How do you like the CR interior. The black look very nice by the way.

[Richbot]

We like the red a lot. It's bright but that was the point. Have almost 6k on it and it is holding up very well on the drivers seat

[lmcq784]

The CR is gorgeous. Love it. If you wear jeans a lot, it will darken… but we cleaned it off with some Leatherique cleaner! Good as new

[x-m4n]

Originally Posted by Richbot

Photo comparison of our jogging stroller

Great pics - great colour combo.

[Richbot]

Bump. 15,000 miles, computer called for a first service a little after 11,000 miles. Still averaging in the 24mpg range in 50/50 mixed driving, impressive for what it is. Best tank so far was 27.5.

No complaints that aren't applicable to all of the F3x cars (generally, IMO, not put together as well as our E90's were, I have yet drive an F30 without a rattle of some kind). The black trim below the windows should be metal not rubberized plastic, it has to be conditioned often to keep from going brown and looking crappy, and the front rubber windshield trim thingies are peeling up at the trailing edges. Every time I see a shadowline-equipped F30 in the wild it has the same problems. Come on BMW. if you don't turn this around this may be our last new one.

But if you're looking for new cars you should probably buy one if you have one or two kids instead of whatever it is you're thinking of buying. Unless it's an RS7 or an E63 wagon, I guess those would be ok.

[KneeDragr]

Do you still have that rattle in the glove box? Put a strip of felt tape where the box meets the door, I did that in my Honda and the rattle never returned. Ive fixed a few rattles with felt tape - its good stuff.

[bhanvadia]

great car... I too just got GT in Imperial Blue color, with saddle brown interior.

[Richbot]

Glovebox is fine now, but have had intermittent rattles from center armrest, rear door card, rear seat tether anchors (the ones we have never used), b-pillar trim, and dash trim. Just does not have the solidity I have come to expect from a new BMW.

For contrast over 84,000 miles or so, our e90 335xi had nothing, and my E90 M3 which has 64000 on it has picked up one about 20,000 miles ago from the aluminum trim around the center vents which i was able to fix pretty easily with felt.

[Richbot]

Still a bit rattly, but it seems to have stabilized and is not getting worse.

Recently hit 41000 miles.

It is proving to be just as reliable as my E90M, and so far the only thing that has gone wrong has been a radio head unit freakout, HU was replaced under warranty. The E90M has had exactly 4 unplanned maintenance repairs in 84,000 miles: a #5 ignition coil, had to clean the steering angle sensor to fix a DSC code, the washer fluid pump cracked and started leaking, and the DSC off button wore out and broke. Two of those happened under 50,000 miles just before the warranty period ran out, so if this one makes it to 50k without any further issues, which it should do sometime early next year, it will soon officially be the most reliable BMW over the first 50k I will have owned. That group has included E90M, E90 335xi, E46 and E36 328's. Progress!

On consumables, the car doesn't look like it will cost me any money anytime soon unless ew get a nail in a tire. The Continental 225/50-18 runflat summer tires the car came with as part of the increased top speed limiter/oil cooler/summer tire option, which appear to be a very low-production tire and I have not been able to find for sale anywhere, have more than 29,000 miles on them and are probably going to last another 15-20k. Pretty amazing wear. Front and rear brakes are also not even close to half worn. Mileage has steadily improved and now is pretty consistently 24-26mpg commuting, and have had a couple 29mpg highway tanks, making it every bit as efficient as my 328's were, with an extra 120hp and 700-800lbs of weight. Remarkable.

That said it's also the rattliest, heaviest, worst handling, of all of the BMW's I have owned, but it has other redeeming features like being completely effortless to drive thanks to numb, light steering and a long wheelbase, a great ride also likely thanks to the wheelbase, and extreme baby hauling capability. Overall I give it 5 stars out of 5 for its intended purpose as a do-it-all anti-SUV, and 3 stars as a sports sedan. Maybe more like 2.5 stars. It really does drive more like a 7er than a 3er. Other than gobs of power and a good engine noise there's not much to get excited about dynamically. Unless it snows, then it will do snownuts with the best of them

Now that they are starting to come on the market used and I have had a good experience, I am recommending these cars to friends as babymobiles. I can't think of a better kid hauling package that does it all but still keeps you out of an SUV. It's a good feeling rolling up to a kids' party watching people get one or two kids out of a minivan, Tahoe, some sort of Merc/BMW/Audi/Acura SUV or one of those GM Acadia/Traverse Wall-E people mover pods in something that could do 150mph all day long if you asked it to on the way to Disney World

[Richbot]

49,600 miles - SES, drivetrain malfunction, drive moderately, looks like an injector crapped out while driving on the highway but we shall see. Also getting in tank fuel pump tsb while it's in there. Just squeaked in under warranty, at dealer now. Symptoms were Smoke, sounded like it was down a cylinder and no boost with big idle vibration and vibration under load/misfires

The 335xiGT just got demoted below the E90 M in long term reliability. M has 95000 miles and has never had an issue that would strand the car. If I had continued driving the F34 in this condition it would have fried the cats and eventually probably would have caused an engine failure so I count it as a pseudo stranding.

New Pirelli RFT summers about 3000 miles ago. Otherwise all original everything but fluids.

EDIT: Resolved with new #4 injector. Dealer also performed the in-tank fuel pump service bulletin.

[Richbot]

Just did the front brakes with Stoptech street performance pads (a very decent street pad if you want no drivability compromises) because the stock pads are terrible, at 55,xxx miles.

Still had plenty of life left but the pad transfer and grooving on the poor rotors, which also still had 1mm+ of life remaining except in the grooves, was awful, started getting a braking vibration about 10k miles ago and tried all my tricks to get it to go away to no avail. All gone now. BMW really crapped the bed with the pad material choice on these F3x 4-pot calipers. Bring back the dusty Textar pads. I used to swear by OEM pads and still do for E-series cars and maybe they're still good for the cars using floating calipers like most of other BMW's still do, but not on the base 335/435/340/440i brakes, bleh

That said, the giant brakes on regular BMW's complete with factory brake ducting continue to be massive overkill, if not for the pad transfer issue these would have gone to 80,000 miles before the sensor went off. Rotors measured 29.4-29.7 (28.4 minimum) Still had 6mm of pad material left and 2-3mm until the sensor was in contact with the rotor. Rears still have tons of life left and with the vibration gone, I'm going to let the sensor eat itself before I replace.

Otherwise, the car still has no issues other than squeaks and rattles, and is still a fine baby mobile appliance thingie

[Crashnbrn5]

Originally Posted by Richbot

Just did the front brakes with Stoptech street performance pads (a very decent street pad if you want no drivability compromises) because the stock pads are terrible, at 55,xxx miles.

Still had plenty of life left but the pad transfer and grooving on the poor rotors, which also still had 1mm+ of life remaining except in the grooves, was awful, started getting a braking vibration about 10k miles ago and tried all my tricks to get it to go away to no avail. All gone now. BMW really crapped the bed with the pad material choice on these F3x 4-pot calipers. Bring back the dusty Textar pads. I used to swear by OEM pads and still do for E-series cars and maybe they're still good for the cars using floating calipers like most of other BMW's still do, but not on the base 335/435/340/440i brakes, bleh

That said, the giant brakes on regular BMW's complete with factory brake ducting continue to be massive overkill, if not for the pad transfer issue these would have gone to 80,000 miles before the sensor went off. Rotors measured 29.4-29.7 (28.4 minimum) Still had 6mm of pad material left and 2-3mm until the sensor was in contact with the rotor. Rears still have tons of life left and with the vibration gone, I'm going to let the sensor eat itself before I replace.

Otherwise, the car still has no issues other than squeaks and rattles, and is still a fine baby mobile appliance thingie

Dude...THANKS for all the amazing updates that nobody seems to care about. But I do. Thanks for sharing. I lease, approaching 30k miles soon. I have went threw 1 set of front rotors, 1 set of front brakes and 1 set of rear brakes, also the left headlight needed to be replaced because it was pointing down with no fix. Other then that. Wonderful.... Plus my car has been tuned since 8k miles. Has about 340hp to the wheels and 415 lbs of trq. Thing is a beasttttt

[Richbot]

My biggest failure as a human is not convincing my wife to do some stuff to this car now that the warranty is gone and it's only worth about $25k on trade at best, a few mods won't make much of a dent anymore. If we keep it through 80k like our last 335 it's going to be worth even less...meaning more likely to end up being my beater and more likely to get a turbo upgrade...lol

[Richbot]

Epilogue:

Bye felicia

You were a good family car

But you're no E63

At just under 68,000 miles, the car was still on the original rear brakes, I never did need to change them. Nothing broke between my last update and this one. I changed the oil twice. The dealer noted a few niggles on the last inspection but nothing show-stopping.

Good car, but wifebot has upgraded

Was offered $17k by two different dealers and traded it to save the hassle

It may not have had a lot of personality or been particularly pretty, but BMW got a lot of things right with this car as a modern car for modern car people who have stuff to move and don't want to SUV like everybody else

[yippy77]

Thanks for this great thread Richbot. I have really enjoyed your status updates and unbiased real takes on the GT, it’s capabilities and it’s weaknesses.

I also previously had an E90 335xi and it was just wonderful, my favorite car to drive ever but eventually life and all it’s practicalities kick in. My son is a top junior golfer and packing the E90 trunk for long weekend tourneys away became a serious chore! It was like a freaking jigsaw puzzle having to fit everything in the right order. At the time my wife had an Acura MDX which had great room but...I just hated driving it. Tried X3 and X5 and they were not a whole lot better. Drove a buddies 535 GT and really liked it - apart from the price and “distinctive” looks. Eventually came across the 3 series GT and it seemed to tick all the boxs. Bought a 2015 328xi GT earlier this year and after getting used to the significant handling delta compared to my E90 335xi I have been very happy. As others have said it’s a great cruiser and still handles better than the majority of other cars on the road. My only complaints was that I wished I had found one with sports seats and that the base sound system is less than impressive..

So fast forward to this week. My wife’s MDX is just about done. I managed to persuade her that she would really like my current 328xi GT so I could go and get a more recent 335 GT. Ended up finding a fully loaded 2016 335 GT with M Sport in black sapphire with 20k miles. Love it so far.

So we are now a 2 GT family There are definitely differences between them over and above the obvious engine delta. I will do a separate 328 vs 335 thread over Thanksgiving and post some photos.

[bigjamesdean]

Originally Posted by Sp82

congrats!---I still cant get over the shape of the GT's...not a fan at all...in pictures or in person, something just isnt right with the back---but as long as you like it--thats all that matters! enjoy it!

What they may lack in beauty they make up for in utility and comfort

[Richbot]

It's the shape of the future with modern sedans all going fastback for aero, I think they look cool but wifebot never warmed to it. It's the most comfortable riding car we've ever owned and that includes the mercedes that replaced it.

The utility was great but honestly I can count on one hand the number of times we loaded it above the cargo cover. THe rear seat space was the biggest draw and it delivered bigtime, the space for the 2year old's convertible behind me in the e-class is significantly smaller than in the 335gt, both in my preferred driving position, and would not be able to do rear-facing in the merc behind me without compromising my seat position whereas the GT had juuuust enough space to do it. Not much short of a 7-series sized sedan, full-size SUV or crew cab pickup can pull that off

The least-useful design feature - frameless doors. MAN I do NOT miss those. I can get the kids in and buckled in the merc without smashing my cheek against the side of the car and/or banging my head!

It's a great do-it-all car. I recommend the 6-cylinder cars to anybody who will listen

Total maintenance/repair tally:

Broken stuff:
- Head unit (warranty)
- One high pressure fuel injector (warranty, at 49000 miles eek)
...I think that's it

Maintenance/wear items:
- Free maintenance first 50k
- Did a set of front brakes out of warranty/maintenance
- Two sets of run flat summer performance tires, second set mostly dead at sale
- One set runflat winter tires, down to 6-6.5/32" tread after 4.5 seasons
- Couple oil changes and filters

That's like winning the BMW lottery

BTW if anybody wants a cheap set of winters for a GT, let me know, they'll fit the 335 without Msport brakes and the 328 (Tire Rack SE17, you can see a picture on page 1, tires are usable for 1-1.5 seasons depending on your needs

[washufiddyfo]

Thanks for the continued updates @Richbot while you owned the car. I always think it's funny on forums when people make jokes about posting on old threads...one of the biggest benefits of a forum is finding information that others can use!

Totally with you on the rear seat space, I was shocked at how big of an SUV we would need to get to offer the same rear-facing car seat utility for seat positioning. I do get a pretty solid arm workout tilting a high-percentile baby in the right position to get into the seat, but it's not an everyday baby car for me, just as needed.

Between you, me, and my mother, we must have accounted for a good chunk of F34s in the STL area; I've only seen one other one in the wild. I'd be interested in your tire set, esp given location, but I've got the m-sport with the 18s (400m).

[sspade]

ssshit is sssssickkk!

Honestly... good for you and the family. These are great vehicles and you have an excellent and dare I say- rare example. I secretly want one of these but dont have the family to necessitate it... yet (God willing).

Enjoy the shit out of it and naturally, treat it well.

[Richbot]

Originally Posted by washufiddyfo

Thanks for the continued updates @Richbot while you owned the car. I always think it's funny on forums when people make jokes about posting on old threads...one of the biggest benefits of a forum is finding information that others can use!

Totally with you on the rear seat space, I was shocked at how big of an SUV we would need to get to offer the same rear-facing car seat utility for seat positioning. I do get a pretty solid arm workout tilting a high-percentile baby in the right position to get into the seat, but it's not an everyday baby car for me, just as needed.

Between you, me, and my mother, we must have accounted for a good chunk of F34s in the STL area; I've only seen one other one in the wild. I'd be interested in your tire set, esp given location, but I've got the m-sport with the 18s (400m).

Hey there neighbor! I've not seen another black on red in the STL area, but I've seen a beige on beige, a melbourne red one, an estoril one, and a couple black and silvers here and there. Only a couple 335's mostly 328's and one white M sport 340i. And I don't think I've ever seen your gray one

PMed you about the wheels. If yours doesn't have the upsized blue MSport brakes, these will probably fit your car just fine. DOuble check with Tire Rack to make sure (they still sell them). THey're posted on STL craigslist if you want to see what I want for them (not much) and then you don't have to worry about swapping snow tires between wheels and marring up the nice factory wheels

I hear you on forums. I'm just a signal trying to drown out the noise...