General Comments:
All in all a nice car, spoiled by niggly faults and reliability issues.
In the end, I got rid of it simply because it cost me the earth in fuel. I only managed 30mpg ever and that was driving really gently. For a 2.0 with 150bhp, it should've been much better than this. Apparently the 2.5 gives the same mpg and that has 192bhp. Also, considering the fuel economy, it wasn't particularly fast either. You had to thrash it to make it go and that made the mpg terrible. I think the weight of it has something to do with this as it comes in at 1450kg. Not light.
Otherwise the engine is extremely smooth and silky with a gorgeous sound to die for. It also looks lovely under the bonnet.
Quite comfortable and I never had backache from long journeys, and the rear seats on the coupe fold down making them quite practical.
Handling is pretty good for a car this size. Not 100% chuckable, but confident in the bends. RWD means it can be a bit hairy in the wet/ snow, but light years ahead of the E30 in terms of grip and stability. I never lost it once. The Coupe comes with Mtec suspension as standard, and to be honest I'd say it needs it.
Otherwise they're lovely to drive. Very involving and satisfying, yet relaxed and sophisticated. BMW know what they're doing in this department it seems.
Overall, for a BMW it shouldn't have had as many niggly faults and expensive failures. Also the fuel economy was terrible considering the lack of power. A shame really. I now have a 1993 318iS. This only has 10bhp less, yet weighs about 140kg less too. It goes just as well, albeit with a tad less torque in the mid range and delivers 36mpg easily. Much better. Just a shame the engine isn't anywhere near as smooth or as good looking. And it doesn't sound as good too.
If you can afford it, get a 325i without a doubt. They have the power, and can deliver the same mpg as lesser versions.
21st Sep 2005, 19:40
My old 1992 320i SE saloon would struggle to ever achieve 30 mpg, even cruising along the motorway. Driving it stupidly gently, I could get the computer average up to 28, but "normal" driving would see 24-25. Appalling in my opinion for what isn't exactly a quick car, and for what, even by today's standards is a fairly advanced engine.
Refilling and calculating mileage against fuel used would tally with the computer figures, so it's not even as if the fuel computer was broken.
I had niggly problems and quality issues too. I bought it off my old company at 4 years old with 94,000 miles, a careful driver from new, and a full BMW history. 94,000 well maintained miles should be nothing on a BMW, but I ended up replacing so many parts over the next 20k that I cut my losses and outed the car. Very creaky inside past 110k too.
Not the quality machine I was expecting by a long chalk, and prices for genuine parts are an absolute joke!