Three Months with the Beemer

I once read somewhere that you should never ask the owner of a new car if it is any good, because they will explain away any flaws the vehicle might have in order to convince themselves that they did not buy a lemon.

For this reason, I hope three months will be enough that I be taken seriously about my "new" BMW.

I like

The 100 Kilowatt 280 Newton-Meter power plant really is lovely. 100KW might not sound like much, but it is the torque that makes this vehicle fun to drive. Overtaking requires a bit of planning because you need to get the turbo up to speed, but it is certainly nice not to have to shift down if you need to overtake swiftly. I no longer need to use the slingshot method to maintain speed up a hill, just turn on the cruise control and feel the torque. It also has lots of rear legroom and it is incredibly fuel efficient. On a recent long distance trip to the Karroo, with four passengers and their luggage, we obtained an incredible 6.37 l/100km.

I don't like

After the aforementioned long-distance trip, I found that the boot is in fact SMALLER than my previous car (98 Toyota Corolla). This came as a bit of a surprise, as the car is a hefty 4.5 meters long and required a substantial reorganisation of my garage in order to fit. This is the bit that disappoints me most. It is easy to stall the engine and every time I do this I am still a little surprised just how easily you underestimate the amount of shove needed to pull off on a small incline. This Turbo-Diesel doesn't have much power below 1000RPM. Combined with a sharp clutch, it tends to catch you off-guard. The sound system is adequate but nothing spectacular, I'd say that the no-frills aftermarket install in my wife's Toyota Tazz sounds better.

Things I had to fix

Anyone who's bought a second-hand vehicle knows that there are always a few things you have to take care of that the previous owner just didn't bother to do. On the very first day the instrument panel indicated that my right rear tail light needed replacement, but an inspection found nothing wrong. Some internet research showed that this is a common problem caused by bad grounding on the tail lights, something easily repaired by just adding an additional ground wire.

I also found that the tyres were mismatched: Although the car came with four Bridgestone Turanzas, two of them were ER30's and the other two were ER300's. This would normally not be a problem, except that they weren't on the same axle. At this point I thought I'd fit the "new" ER300 spare in the boot with one new additional tyre, only to find that the spare has a nail in it and needs repairing (the previous owner obviously forgot to fix it). A new Bridgestone Turanza tyre will set you back about R1050, although less expensive tyres are available, starting at around R850. This seems about par for the course, and given the size of the tyre (205/55R16) I suppose I shouldn't be surprising that these are about double the price I payed for 175/65R14's on the Toyota.

Conclusion

I do not regret buying this vehicle at all. For pure driver-involvement, driving my Wife's Tazz is more fun, but for getting to far-away places in an effortless manner it certainly doesn't disappoint. I do however plan on replacing it with something with a bigger boot, as my family often travels long distances with quite a bit of luggage, and this will only get worse when the first kid arrives.