[RoundRound]

Hello,
So perhaps it's time to replace my loved but ageing Jaguar S-type (2000 model!).

I'm thinking of getting a hybrid and the 330e F30 looks great. I'd love to hear from people who own the car of their impressions. I a few specific points I'm interested in are:

1. How well does the electric drive part works?
Any frustrations with it? I'm assuming I'll use it almost exclusively when driving in London (20 mph speed limit in many places).

2. How firm is the ride, may of the models I see are Sports M with the sports suspension and large (18",19") wheels - roads around here are really bad and let's face it's it'll mostly be used for school trips etc.

3. How easy/hard is it to upgrade the sound system? Especially concerned about
how to add a 'proper' Pioneer/Alpine Car play HU if at all? I'm an audiophile so it's important for me...

4. With the new 3 series right around the corner is it reasonable to expect prices of 2017 cars to drop of sharply? Should I wait?

Any other feedback is welcome - thank you!

[enotech]

I bought a 2016 330e a couple of months ago.

I'm loving it, although it's not perfect.

I mainly use it to drive locally, and I'm not overly impressed with the electric range. On a full charge, the phone app says I have 33km range. When I get into the car, by the time I'm out the driveway, the dash tells me I have about 25km range, and my girlfriend lives about 9km away - I usually only get to there and back on a full charge, which is not what you see in the advertising material.

The actual mileage is pretty good. My last tank got me just over 800km, and I refilled it with about 42litres.

Sorry for all the metric values - I'm an Aussie.

Driving around on electric is pretty smooth and completely silent, and there's plenty of torque, but I have a complaint (which is probably more to do with the selected driving mode). If I'm running in Eco Pro mode and I'm waiting at a busy intersection, it can be a bit dangerous, because I'll see a small break in the traffic and put my foot to the floor to jump in, but the car takes that as a signal to run on the engine, and there's a pretty significant delay, which is pretty scary when there's oncoming cars. It's worth noting however, that if I have the car in sports mode in the same situation, it's surprising and scary just how powerful the car is. I did it the other day in sports mode, and I lost traction briefly and cornered so hard and fast that I hurt my back!

I have the sports line (but not the "M"). I love the feel of how it drives, and I describe it to my friends as being "tight". My previous car was a Holden Commodore. I could drive along the road and wobble the steering wheel from left to right an inch or two, and the car would just keep going straight. The BMW however, if I do that, the whole car will "wobble" as commanded by the steering wheel. I have to go a bit slower over speed humps now, because the BMW is slightly lower and firmer than the Commodore, but that's OK - I love the feel of it, and it takes the corners nicely. With that said, it's still way more comfortable as a ride than my last car. It doesn't feel "rigid" like you'd expect a sports car to be. I consider it more of a luxury car.

I'm a gadget man and I'm crazy about all of the gizmos this car comes with - I love it.

Happy to answer any other specific questions you might have.

[RoundRound]

Thanks mate,
much appreciated!

A few more questions, if I may:

1. Do you have the 'sports suspension'? I'm kinda worried about that with 18" wheels and London 'quality' paving, can get jarring overtime...

2. Is it possible to fully charge the battery on petrol engine power alone? I though I saw somewhere it will only charge to about 60% then stop...

3. Do you happen to have Carplay? I wonder how using it influences the car's navigation interfaces (supposedly using the normal navigation the car knows about hills in advance etc)

4. Lastly, I'd probably upgrade the audio system at some point, probably replace the speakers and add proper amps - I'm guessing this will adversely effect the battery capacity?

Thanks, Mate

[enotech]

Originally Posted by RoundRound

Thanks mate,
much appreciated!

A few more questions, if I may:

1. Do you have the 'sports suspension'? I'm kinda worried about that with 18" wheels and London 'quality' paving, can get jarring overtime...

2. Is it possible to fully charge the battery on petrol engine power alone? I though I saw somewhere it will only charge to about 60% then stop...

3. Do you happen to have Carplay? I wonder how using it influences the car's navigation interfaces (supposedly using the normal navigation the car knows about hills in advance etc)

4. Lastly, I'd probably upgrade the audio system at some point, probably replace the speakers and add proper amps - I'm guessing this will adversely effect the battery capacity?

Thanks, Mate

1) The 330e actually comes with 19" wheels. If you're wanting to know how it feels on your type of roads, I think your best bet is to go to your local dealer and ask for a test drive. That's what I did, and it confirmed for me that I really wanted one.

2) I've never fully charged the battery using the engine, so I'm not sure. I've read in other threads that if you're in sports mode, it'll charge the battery more and charge it faster, but whether it charges it completely or not, I couldn't say. I think there's the trade-off of the hit you take with fuel economy when charging off the engine and the saving you'd make by subsequently running on the battery you just charged. My driving habits are to generally charge the battery whenever I'm home, and then mainly drive around in Eco Pro mode. It usually runs on battery as much as it can until it runs out. After that on Eco Pro, it'll use it's "smarts" to charge the battery and run off battery when it deems suitable based on an economical approach. According to the other threads, there are many variations of how people tend to drive, all with different results.

3) Carplay is a big issue for me. I'm quite annoyed by this, although it's something I should have checked before my purchase. Because I got a late 2016 model, apparently mine isn't late enough. In "very" late 2016 (I think November), they switched from the NVT system to NBT EVO. You need EVO to be able to have Carplay, and apart from some 3rd party retrofits discussed in these forums, there's pretty much no option, so I'm stuck with not having Carplay, which really annoys me. There are also several other options that aren't available unless you have EVO. If it's important to you. Check first! Regarding the navigation when using Carplay, my understanding is that it doesn't integrate with the rest of the car. For example, it doesn't show anything on the HUD like the built-in navigation does, so I'd say it also wouldn't link in with the Eco Pro side of things.

4) My guess is that unless you're really pumping out some thumping subwoofers, you probably won't notice much difference with your battery. From my understanding, just about everything in the car that's electric will work from the battery and drain it to some degree (for example, when I'm running my seat warmers, I think the battery drains quicker, but they'd probably draw a fair amount of current, so that's understandable), so it probably won't matter much. I could be wrong though.