BlkKnight

I'm thinking of picking up a 528i 2012 (2ltr turbo 4 pot) for about 22k +/-

Just struggling with finding a decent one as their is a shortage of decent petrol ones in the UK.

I'm looking for a nice executive car with toys, 0-60 7 seconds or thereabouts with plenty of room for family & decent boot. Must be comfortable on the motorway.

My daily commute is a 6 mile round trip through country roads, and every three weeks I do a 500 mile round trip up north.

I'm shying away from modern diesels due to their over engineered engines (with associated problems) & the likelihood that the government will start to tax them really heavily!

MPG is a consideration, but not the end of the world.

What alternatives are out there?

john banks

Vast majority will be diesel of anything of this class except the top end performance versions which are a different budget. I ended up buying my first diesel because of lack of selection of petrols.

Look out for ride quality on these and the similar A6 which both have some very dubious ride quality depending on suspension/wheel options.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Point to note about diesel complexity and problems.

Sadly new petrols are getting to be an issue too.

The BM petrol units are high pressure direct injection - in addition to the high pressure pump and injectors, they have NOX sensors and multiples of oxygen sensors as well as Turbos. And that's before getting to the other stuff that's already existed....coil packs, variable valve lift, variable valve timing, electronic throttle bodes and the array of position, temperature, airflow and pressure sensing etc.

I'm not saying don't buy one, just keep it in mind that going petrol doesn't necessarily mean 100% reliability. the N20 lump is a bit too new to highlight any issues which we already see on the diesels - The N47 obviously has well known issues...but its been around since 2007 and bar the well publicised timing chain and the odd pressure pump, its an otherwise solid lump. Contrast that to the BMW/PSA prince petrol engine....which also has the similar issues (just its easier to change the chain on these if its caught before it fails ).

Just like the N43 petrol lump which is now showing up with issues and appear to have a reputation worse than Subaru's EJ25. I've come across a few of these with issues and well, to be honest - I haven't been able to properly fix them. Not that I can't, just the last thing I'm going to do is replace over £1K of non-returnable parts with doubt that it'll totally fix the problems. I'm honest enough to admit that I will not throw parts at a car if I'm not confident the problem will be fixed. This is just one unhappy engine which not even BMW dealers are capable of 100% sorting without blindly throwing a load random parts at it without actually identifying the root fault and just hope the problem goes away (all at the customer's expense, unless under warranty). I wouldn't dare try doing the same.

lozgti1

Do think Mercedes are unnecessarily messy and glitzy.Certain newsagents favourite car..

Really difficult.5 is lovely car with little competition

Matteeboy

A slightly older 535i? The six pot engines are superb, especially the N55 engine (same as mine with slightly less bhp). I agree about diesels - anything after about 2007 seems to be so prone to failures, they are actually bloody useless.

The N55 engine has a good track record; six cylinders are so much nicer than four!