…bring it on!
Misc
430d 5k miles
That’s me 10 weeks in to ownership and I should tick past 5,000 miles done since picking her up at some point tomorrow.
Thus far I’ve managed to only skud the splitter once!
Anyways, last weekend I was participating in the 3hr C1 Endurance race at Rockingham so a good chance for the car to stretch its legs and do some distance work.
I wound up taking my kit and another one of our drivers’ stuff down as well. I’m convinced the boot on this is smaller than my e46, will need to check the stats. Still, it all fitted in and there wasn’t any danger of it sliding about.
On a side note, when I’m just taking my instructing helmet to the circuit for a weekend shift, the cargo net is brilliant. No more stuffing jackets on top of my helmet on the back seat to stop it flying about!
Friday I was heading down after work, then got a last minute call to pick up some graphics for the racecar from over in Edinburgh, this changed the route plan so I ended up going all the way down the A1 [previously, would have been doing M74 – M6 – A66 – A1M].
A1 was the usual for a Friday afternoon, plenty of trucks and people bumbling along but I wasn’t particularly in a rush, but then I got near Newcastle and a truck was broken down on the dual carriageway just after the Metro Centre
– For those familiar with the area, from the junction on the A1 with the A19 right through to where it becomes the A1M was done at a maximum of 20mph, more often 5-10mph
– For those not familiar with the area, 14.6 miles took me an hour and 20 minutes
After that the road was largely clear all the way to Rockingham to meet the team. Sorted a few things out with them setting up the pop-up etc for the weekend then headed off to our hotel in Kettering. Few hours sleep, returned to the Rock, did our race and at half 5, headed home along the exact same route, as I was now dropping off one of our drivers in Edinburgh.
Journey stats:
– Outbound: 347 miles, average speed 51.6mph, consumption 52.8mpg
– Return: 349 miles, average speed 58.7mph, consumption 52.6mpg
I refuelled half way home on the return leg and the actual brim-brim mpg calculation showed 51.4mpg over the 588 miles, exactly what the trip computer said. [I use the vehicle stats on the iDrive for journey to journey fuel economy and average speed, reset the instrument trip computer at each fill up]
Thoughts:
Driving up the A1 at night was the first time I have used the adaptive headlights: WOW! I know some people like them, some people don’t, I thought they were absolutely brilliant. Its not the twistiest of roads but the beam aiming in to the corners was useful and it was amazing to watch the beam adapt to remove sections to avoid dazzling oncoming cars.
I really need to update my satnav. The recent A1M sections are just far enough away from what was the A1 to confuse the satnav and give you a constant chirp of “follow the road in the direction of the arrow” and “make a U-turn where possible.”
It’s a seriously competent cruiser this car. The armrests seem to line up better with my body shape than my e46’s ones. In fact, in the e46 I largely used the window ledge for my right arm and nothing for the left, on this, both armrests are perfect position to use both. The seats are nice and supportive, think I’d fit the back bolsters a touch better if I trimmed a few pounds right enough.
Still the highest economy 430d on Fuelly although there’s a new entrant with a 2017 car that’s nipping at my heals.
2 months today I’ve had the F32, about 3200 miles done under my captaincy. I’m not going to lie, it took a while to settle in to, perhaps unsurprisingly given I’d spent 10.5 years settling in to its predecessor!
Immediately noticeable is the size difference, but not particularly any weight difference. In kerb weight terms, there’s 50kg added beef on the 4 series. When you consider that’s adding an extra 2 cylinders and an autobox in addition to the physically bigger stature of the car, that’s really pretty impressive. Took a while to figure out where the front of the car was as the front end seems more bulbous than the E46, same for placing the passenger side with the higher beltline and bigger haunches. One thing that is noticeable and will not go away, the rear visibility is way worse than the E46, not Lotus/Lambo letterbox territory but definitely worse than my trust old 3 coupe.
I’m enjoying the shift to automatic as well. I still use the paddles for some engine braking when required, or when having fun, but the 8HP ZF box is every bit as good to live with as I had expected from various stints driving cars equipped with it round the track.
When required, the turn of pace is brisk. I’m not going to say fast, its also not that big a step up from my 320Cd which was remapped [167hp/ton vs 140hp/ton respectively], but it’s a lovely smooth delivery and ridiculously fuel efficient when not being hustled along. Currently the most fuel efficient 430d being tracked on Fuelly…
At the beginning of the year I started looking for a replacement for my E46. A little over ten years after setting out to buy a 330Cd and coming home with the 320Cd, this time I was 100% focussed on a 430d. Why a 430d given the legend of the BMW 35d engine and the current feelings towards diesels? Well, lets expand on that…
30d vs 35d: I have no doubt whatsoever the 35d engine is a phenomenal power unit and mappable to hilarious numbers whilst retaining good fuel economy figures, but there is a rub, xDrive. I don’t dislike 4 wheel drive per se, it’s a very useful feature on a car at times, but there’s 2 main issues; I do ~20k miles a year all funded out my own pocket and the 35d with xDrive is >10% worse on fuel & even MSport spec cars with xDrive come on SE spec springs hence ride ~30mm higher.
The ride & ride height is probably the biggest issue, I like stiffer sprung cars for when I’m enjoying a drive. The standard ride height looks like you could smuggle people across the border tucked in your wheel arches and that combined with the softer springs doesn’t do much for CofG or handling. Yes there are lowering springs available to rectify this, however;
– BMW didn’t raise the ride height for the sake of it, its to protect the transfer case on the transmission and with bumpy country roads and never ending speed tables around, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to risk smashing the transmission
– Do you really want to buy a new car knowing full well you need to modify it to properly like it?
The fuel economy issue I could probably swallow tbh, extrapolating real world numbers, the difference would be in the region of £300 a year which isn’t much, although it is the wife’s Christmas present budget several times over…
Don’t you care about the environment though? Why replace a dirty diesel with another dirty diesel? Why not buy a hybrid / plug-in hybrid / electric car?
Well, contrary to the bile spewed forth in the media, diesels are still very good for certain use scenarios. My usage profile is massively tilted towards extra urban use, in fact I’m sad enough to know just under 88% of my driving is extra urban. At higher speeds, hybrids are less efficient than in a low speed, stop start, urban scenario.
Plug in hybrids would potentially be a better solution, there is the geek element of me that really likes the concept of energy regeneration and I always use as much engine braking and reading the road to minimise braking anyway, its just wasted energy after all. The problem comes from my typical destinations. My driving routine is very predictable, again, over 80% of my journeys are the same week in week out, and next to none of them have a charger at the destination. I could top up each night no problem, but during the day there’s no facility to top up.
What about pure EV? Most of my use would be covered by an EV with 100 miles range, but finding a pure EV I would actually want to drive is the bigger issue. I like coupes, always have, indeed, if the 330e had been a 430e, there’s every chance I would have man-math & rose tinted away the tales of random drivetrain faults etc I read up about and taken the plunge. On the pure EV front, there’s next to nothing out there. The Tesla Model S is coupe shape[ish], but its also double the budget, looks are meh and trim materials and panel fit are nowhere near the price point its sold at.
I have no doubt my next car will be PHEV or full EV. Right now, for my tastes, usage profile and budget, a diesel is the best solution.
So on to my new car. I didn’t really mean to buy it.
As I said, at the start of the year I was looking at buying a 430d. My spec was pretty specific:
Model: 430d in 2WD
Trim: MSport
Colour [in order of preference]: Mineral Grey -> Estoril Blue -> Sapphire Black
Must Have Options: 4 pot / 2 pot brake upgrade, Pro Nav, Harman Kardon, 19in wheels [which translates to MSport Plus spec]
I was looking at cars up to 3 years old and under 30k. Start of February I was ready to pull the trigger, had a chunk of savings, topped up with a personal loan, had found a car and arranged to buy it. Finished work at noon on Friday as always, scarpered out to my car, out the carpark by 12:01, pointed the nose south and lit the afterburner. 270 miles later, just after 4pm I rolled in to the car park at the dealers to check out their black 430d MSport Plus. Problem, it wasn’t their 430d, it was a friend of someone in the dealership and they were selling it sale or return for them. I have nothing against that, it can work out nicely for all involved. What I do have an issue with is a car that’s been poorly prepped with manky barrels on the wheels, muck and leaves all over the shop under the bonnet, one side of the boot soaking wet, condensation in both taillights and both front tyres missing any discernible corner tread where the car had been battered through tight roundabouts. Pretty pissed off to say the least at this point, not helped by the salesman suggesting as it was still under its original BMW warranty I could get them to look at the boot leaking and taillight condensation problem after buying it, this of course after telling me they all do that [taillights] and it must have been the jetwash [boot seal]. Return of holding deposit agreed, off to find a Tesco for a snack and some diesel to return home. 10pm, home after 10 hours and 550 miles of wasted time.
I went with main dealers after that, a few cars came up but also went quick. Missed out on 3. With my wedding pending and the decision to sell my flat, I decided to park the new car search until I had sold my flat. Then a mate got a 430d in stock…
Older than I had been after, by 1 year. Higher miles than I had been after, nearly 3 times the mileage in fact. Within budget, actually £8k / 30% cheaper than the other ones I had been looking at. Also came with carbon front splitter and rear spoiler, sunroof and a ton of other options [spec’d one on the BMW website the other week to the same spec, less the carbon spoiler and splitter, £49,945!]
Deal done. Determined I’m getting this one to quarter of a million miles…
The window seals on the car have not aged well, in addition to that, the boot seal was always terrible. As a kid I washed the car for my dad once and the entire boot got soaked when I was a little too enthusiastic with the pressure washer.
Given that, and the drivers side window being stuck down, it had to be a waterless wash to get the dirt and dust off, letting me get a look at how the paint is underneath.
Bit of YouTube research and I was good to go, the detailer’s favourite: quick detailer spray and a micro fibre towel (or two)
The dirt was proper stuck to the paint, hence I went a bit heavy with the QD spray but it all came off quite well in the end. Used 1 microfibre for the dirt removal, folding regularly to minimise the amount of dirt getting wiped over the paint. Then used a second microfibre to buff off the residue and clear out some of the more fiddly bits.
I appear to have entirely skipped pictures during the process since I was mucking about videoing it.
Also have the glass a going over with glass cleaner on a jay cloth then buffed with another microfibre.
Here’s the video of the process/stages: