W212, w204, 250 or 350 CDI efficiency?

[markjay]

Really like the i3, much nicer than the ugly present electric BMWs imho. But I cannot charge at home so will not be in an electric car until street charging is a reliable and easy thing.

Agreed - if we did not have public chargers where I live, I wouldn't have gotten my EV.

 

[Gazwould]

I like BMWs but I could not play Russian roulette with their appalling fragility at higher miles (timing chains, flaps, turbos, goodness knows what else)

The N47 certainly got a reputation along with others , thankfully it's the updated B47 .

 

[philnewmerc]

The N47 certainly got a reputation along with others , thankfully it's the updated B47 .

If you could recommend a diesel 6 cylinder BMW engine that doesn't self destruct at 100k miles and can be had for <£8k I'd be grateful to know, cheers

 

[philnewmerc]

Cruising Autotrader I see that Audi A6 V6 diesels 2012/13/14 era are very good value, cheap to run, and pretty fast . Anyone know of any disadvantages or weaknesses?

Never seen myself as an Audi driver. I'd have to start flashing my headlights at people to move over. Not really my style .

 

[Gazwould]

Honest John is a really good source of information .

And I remember the A6 of that time not doing brilliantly in reliability surveys that were possibly warranty claim based .

 

[markjay]

...And I remember the A6 of that time not doing brilliantly in reliability surveys that were possibly warranty claim based .

That's not easy to do.

Owners can only report how many days their cars were off the road getting repaired under warranty, but the actually details of what was done to the cars when at the dealer are often vague - dealer's don't like sharing information regarding warranty repairs.

You get more accurate info when you ask owners of out-of-warranty cars about repairs that they actually had to pay for and know what's been done.

 

[Gazwould]

 

[Will]

If you could recommend a diesel 6 cylinder BMW engine that doesn't self destruct at 100k miles and can be had for <£8k I'd be grateful to know, cheers

It’s six cylinder and a BMW but not diesel unfortunately

Only Wagons | Got my wagon yesterday… mercedes m104 turbo fitted. | Facebook

Got my wagon yesterday… mercedes m104 turbo fitted.

www.facebook.com

 

[philnewmerc]

Well looks like I'm going to be able to find out if the claimed 47 mpg on the C350 CDI is realistic as I've just bought one . I'm hoping the first brim to brim mpg figure starts with a 4... but we will see. First impressions are it feels very well made (compared with a previous w203) and pretty quick at half throttle (460 lbft of torque... not far off CLS/E55 territory!), which is what I like. When the V6 started up from stone cold and was so quiet I thought that's it I'm not looking at any more 4 cylinders! Not certain the sports seats are as comfy as I'd hoped but I suppose the real test of that will be a 2 or 3 hour journey not a 35 min commute to work.

I did briefly look at beemers again, but one glance at all the "engine knocking" / "new timing chain" ads at just 100,000 mile or so made me think again.

Thanks for all the advice.

 

[st13phil]

Well looks like I'm going to be able to find out if the claimed 47 mpg on the C350 CDI is realistic as I've just bought one .

Congratulations! Does it have the adaptive suspension option (it's a switch on the dash)?

First impressions are it feels very well made (compared with a previous w203)

Funny you mention that. When I had my W204 I was given a W203 as a loan car when it was being serviced and I thought the W204 felt much more "substantial".

Hope you enjoy it after all the effort

 

[philnewmerc]

I don't think so. Anyway, here's some pics