1 hour ago, Jaco2k said:

Never heard anyone call a 3-series "big and roomy"

...ok, the one I drove was a couple of years ago and might that the new generation is bigger than the previous.

The Octavia has slightly more room in the rear and a slightly bigger boot, not a lot more! In the front where it matters if your of any  height its inferior for the driver. 

 

I am not biassed or envious. I have a VRS amongst others. Been a good car but no class leader, it’s a Skoda.   

The E36 and E46 are a million years ago. The F30 is far bigger l, about the size of a E39 5 series.  Not sure  about E90 as it’s a BMW I detest, dam ugly thing, BMW’s shaky years. Yes an Octavia has slightly more  room in the back if your over 6 foot to make use of it, Just a fact isn’t it and probably it’s biggest selling point in its class if it’s important to you. The Boot size was very important to me couldn’t give a dam about room in rear. Just wish they did do a GTi estate to get some better quality 

Edited 13 November, 20187 yr by teescom09

I drove a 2015 320d for 18months instead of my Octavia TDi & I have to completely agree with Donny.

It was absolutely aweful car in every respect & I couldnt wait to get my car back!

 

The engine was Noisy (especially Inside the cabin) & rough, the gearshifter shakes all the time like something out of 50-shades-of-grey.

The iDrive was horrible & the Entertainment unit often reset on its own.

The navigation didnt have the "auto-zoom" from the Octavia so you always had to take your eyes off the road to adjust the zoom manually.

Rear-wheel drive isnt very good for everyday driving especially when the road is wet or there is snow/slush.

 

The material quality was better but it had an equal number of rattles like my Octavia.

The BMW was ok for motorway munching when your are only driving in a straight line but take it into a city & the gearbox, clutch and drivability was laboursome.

 

The only benefit over my vRS was that the front seats would fold flat for trips to Ikea etc

When I look at the list prices here for comparison I can have 2 Octavias for the price of a BMW so my next car will definatly not be a BMW (unless they start selling the i3 for 1/3 of the price).

 

 

Edited 13 November, 20187 yr by Gabbo

10 minutes ago, Gabbo said:

I drove a 2015 320d for 18months instead of my Octavia TDi & I have to completely agree with Donny.

It was absolutely aweful car in every respect & I couldnt wait to get my car back!

 

The engine was Noisy (especially Inside the cabin) & rough, the gearshifter shakes all the time like something out of 50-shades-of-grey.

The iDrive was horrible & the Entertainment unit often reset on its own.

The navigation didnt have the "auto-zoom" from the Octavia so you always had to take your eyes off the road to adjust the zoom manually.

Rear-wheel drive isnt very good for everyday driving especially when the road is wet or there is snow/slush.

 

The material quality was better but it had an equal number of rattles like my Octavia.

The BMW was ok for motorway munching when your are only driving in a straight line but take it into a city & the gearbox, clutch and drivability was laboursome.

 

The only benefit over my vRS was that the front seats would fold flat for trips to Ikea etc

When I look at the list prices here for comparison I can have 2 Octavias for the price of a BMW so my next car will definatly not be a BMW (unless they start selling the i3 for 1/3 of the price).

 

 

Not rising to that one. Unbelievable Can’t stop laughing

17 minutes ago, teescom09 said:

The Octavia has slightly more room in the rear and a slightly bigger boot, not a lot more! In the front where it matters if your of any  height its inferior for the driver. 

 

I am not biassed or envious. I have a VRS amongst others. Been a good car but no class leader, it’s a Skoda.   

 

I feel the F30 3 series is equally as cramped in the rear, certainly for headroom. It is a little longer, but not by much. The octavia is roomer in every way.

 

As Gabbo has put above, the Idrive system is bad. Having easy buttons (Radio, Nav, Media, Settings, etc) on the dash makes things a safer choice. Also the best thing with our sat navs is we get free updates. £450 was what they tried to charge my Dad for an update. A single update.................that's criminal. Add in the horrific servicing charges and I still scratch one's head as to why my old man chooses BMW.

18 hours ago, GoneToBeemer said:

 

Good point - if it was pre MY15 it would have the older 184ps engine which sounds like its being fuelled with gravel. The later 190ps engine was night and day different in terms of refinement. 

 

Even though the current 3 is getting dated, the quality of the interior far surpasses that of the Octavia. 

 

I must admit though (I only had the 150ps engine in my L&K) but it was quite smooth for a Diesel, but I did find the Octavia suffered from road noise and on anything other than smooth motorway the ride was poor (joys of torture beam).

 

Still though, bang for buck you couldnt argue with the amount of kit you get for the money! Just depends on what you want & need at the time. 

Next door neighbour bought a 420D M Sport for £35,000 4 years ago brand new and still has it. However when he starts it up or drives past my house I know instantly who it is because his 190PS diesel engine is so rattly and damn noisy it's definately not the ULTIMATE DRIVING MACHINE unless you like wearing a race helmet for every journey. And I have 4 years worth experience of listening to it. Hope he buys a petrol version next time as it replaced and equally noisy 320D with the 184PS engine, both sound as bad to me.

I drive system is bad. OK  yep

 

You get free updates from BMW

I don’t have any problem headroom in the back of a F30 3 series. You will find  free updates expire! 

 

F30 has more leg room and far more  comfortable for the driver 

 

Your old  man is intelligent obviously, agrees with 99% of motoring experts 

 

 

 

 

Edited 13 November, 20187 yr by teescom09

5 minutes ago, shyVRS245 said:

Next door neighbour bought a 420D M Sport for £35,000 4 years ago brand new and still has it. However when he starts it up or drives past my house I know instantly who it is because his 190PS diesel engine is so rattly and damn noisy it's definately not the ULTIMATE DRIVING MACHINE unless you like wearing a race helmet for every journey. And I have 4 years worth experience of listening to it. Hope he buys a petrol version next time as it replaced and equally noisy 320D with the 184PS engine, both sound as bad to me.

So is skoda diesel for some reason sounds worse in a skoda than a vw obviously sound proofing.  But generally agree with you on diesels.

1 minute ago, teescom09 said:

I drive system is bad. OK  yep

 

You get free updates from BMW

I don’t have any problem headroom in the back of a F30 3 series. You will fins tour free updates expire! 

 

F30 has more leg room and far more  comfortable for the driver 

 

Your old  man is intelligent obviously, agrees with 99% of motoring experts 

 

 

 

 

 

It's never been free as far as he's been told. Unless it's something which has been introduced on newer models.

2 minutes ago, tunedude said:

 

It's never been free as far as he's been told. Unless it's something which has been introduced on newer models.

Free and done automatically with BMW connected. My free VRS updates expire soon. And they are a pain in the arse to do.

7 minutes ago, tunedude said:

 

It's never been free as far as he's been told. Unless it's something which has been introduced on newer models.

Didn’t you say it was a E90? That is an old car now and doubt any updates were free back then, at least he has sat nav most others back then didn’t 

Edited 13 November, 20187 yr by teescom09

1 minute ago, teescom09 said:

Didn’t you say it was a E90? That is an old car niw and doubt any updates were free back then, at least he has sat nav mist others back then didn’t 

 

There's never been any free updates for the sat navs on his car. It's always been a chargeable update.

I love some of these comments and can only determine a lot of it is not based on any actual experience. I went from an Octavia VRS mk2 FL diesel with DSG. The boot size was great due to the depth but also made the interior noisy as it amplified the road noise. The damping from the suspension wasn’t great and it would roll in the corners due to the rear end. The DSG was nice having last driven a 4 speed Pug auto. The build quality wasn’t what I was expecting with soft paint that chipped easily, interior panels that creaked, drivers seat creaked in the lowest position where I wanted it so needed to raise it to stop the noise. Materials were ok but the fixings cheap hence the creaking. MPG was poor only getting just over 50mpg when driving very carefully, the Mondeo it replaced would do around 60mpg and it was 8 years older. 

If got rid of the Octavia after I started getting electrical problems and got a 320d M Sport.  The interior space is smaller but not hugely and everyone who I’ve had in the car rates it better than the Skoda even though there isn’t as much rear leg room as the front sears are contoured at the rear for knees. The boot isn’t as big as the Octavia and being a saloon not as useful either but it’s still a good size boot with lots of under floor storage. 

The handling, ride comfort, refinement, performance and economy of the BMW are much better than the Octavia by a wide margin, this is even with 19 inch run flats. The 8 speed auto on the BMWs are a benchmark on how smooth and responsive a gearbox should be and make the DSG seem clunky. As for running costs it is cheaper than the Octavia to service even through a main dealer due to longer service periods and no cam belts to change. As I can easily achieve 60+mpg now even when doing autobahn speeds it’s cheaper too. Rear wheel drive isn’t the big issue everyone makes it out to be. In the wet it has huge amoaunts of grip, push it hard and it is more likely to understeer than the back end break free. I use winter tyres on all my cars so never had an issue and during the last snow past many cars stuck in the road. 

I’ve not driven the O3 so can’t compare it to the 3 series but it would have to be a big jump up on the previous model to even compete never mind better it. 

I drive bmw 330d's x drives at work. Im in them for hours on end so feel I can give a fair comparison to my personal 2014 vrs tdi.

There are good and bad points.

The good. 

The 330d engine is excellent. Brilliant performance and economical if you drive it that way.

The sport auto gearbox with paddles is also superb. Best auto I've driven.

Not so good,

X drive system is not permanent 4 wheel drive. Drives pretty much as a rear wheel drive car until it loses traction by which time it can be too late. Aquaplanes quite easily.

The bad,

The basic seats are very poor and extremely uncomfortable. They give me terrible lower back pain. I am aware that the m sport seats are much much better as I used to have these on a 330i I used to own.

Space wise they are poor. With my seat in its position for me to drive (im 6"2) there is little to no room in the rear. Much less than my vrs.

The boot is tiny in comparison to my vrs estate. Im also comparing that of a 3 series touring.

I have just started driving the latest 530d. This is a massive step up in quality over the current 3 series. Lets home that the new 3 series out next year also sees a step up in quality.

On engines, ive also driven the 320d. This sounded very agricultural and I would not of bought my tdi Octavia if it had sounded that bad.

After hours in my uncomfortable small 3 series I actually much prefer to get into my own vrs. 

This is possibly to do with the cheap basic seats in my works car but also because they are much lower to the ground getting in and out of. Really not good if you suffer with your back (which i never used to until we started running 3 series bmw's back in 2009).

One more thing, I bought mine pre registered with 50 miles on the clock for 21k.

The equivalent bmw or audi at the time was 30k+.

Ive just been offered 12.5k for mine with 38000 miles on it. Not bad depreciation at all for 4.5 years use.

Edited 13 November, 20187 yr by jimmyp2

The main issue with 3 series saloon, compared to a 3 series touring or GT is the boot opening size.

 

My dad's E90 saloon does have a good size boot but it's awkward trying to get anything big through into it. You can just about squeeze a decent size suitcase into it, but not much more.

 

That's were the Octavia triumphs. A boot with a space able to be easily accessed.

That is because it’s a hatchback. If you compared the 3 series GT boot opening it’s just as useful. 

3 minutes ago, CWARD said:

That is because it’s a hatchback. If you compared the 3 series GT boot opening it’s just as useful. 

All the GT BMW's are pig ugly though, they didn't seem to learn much from the COMPACT hatchback.

I’m not a fan of the GT either but just using it as an example of a hatchback. 

2 hours ago, shyVRS245 said:

Next door neighbour bought a 420D M Sport for £35,000 4 years ago brand new and still has it. However when he starts it up or drives past my house I know instantly who it is because his 190PS diesel engine is so rattly and damn noisy it's definately not the ULTIMATE DRIVING MACHINE unless you like wearing a race helmet for every journey. And I have 4 years worth experience of listening to it. Hope he buys a petrol version next time as it replaced and equally noisy 320D with the 184PS engine, both sound as bad to me.

 

Quiet as a mouse in my G30 520d.

 

If his 4 series is 4 years old it’s most certainly the 184ps N47 engine. The newer 190ps didn’t come in until 65 reg onwards as a rule. Simple way to tell is the newer version has twin tailpipes, the older has only one. 

Edited 13 November, 20187 yr by GoneToBeemer

55 minutes ago, CWARD said:

That is because it’s a hatchback. If you compared the 3 series GT boot opening it’s just as useful. 

Only things that might be bigger or cheaper are being compared as though it's makes it better 

53 minutes ago, shyVRS245 said:

All the GT BMW's are pig ugly though, they didn't seem to learn much from the COMPACT hatchback.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, 3 series GT s ugly compared to an Octavia? just the front end alone equivalent to beauty and the beast  Then again people actually buy Jukes 

7 hours ago, teescom09 said:

The 3 series is (IMAGE ASIDE) : Far far far  better quality. Same for handling which is at a level beyond compare in every respect, looks a 100 million dollars better  (not difficult, to be fair)   and so much more desirable the gulf is massive. Won't deteriorate and mark as quick as the Skoda. The 3 series is a big and roomy car! Same length as the Octavia within mm and slightly wider also with a big boot, it is a saloon!  Virtually  the same size as the old E39 5 series! The driving position of the 3 series is vastly superior too, im 6-2 and cannot get  comfortable in an Octavia VRS, constantly adjusting things. Knees wrapped around steering wheel or cannot reach it as the peddles are too close to the steering wheel!   The Octavia IS a cheeped down Golf and in estate form, actually no bigger. Given the choice I would have got a Golf GTI estate without question, probably should have got the Leon Cupra in hind site. Gold R estates at the time were impossible to get on a decent deal.   It is what it is, but to say it's anywhere near the level of a 3 series........ you get exactly what you pay for and you might be surprised at the deals you can get on new 3 series, on PCP can be cheaper as they have better interest rates and the right models have better retained value. 

 

But why get a 3 series diesel or diesel anything (apart from vans or 4x4's) for that matter? Get the 320i or better the 330i (4 cylinder). Admittedly the 6 cylinder diesels are good but he 6 cylinder petrols are even better. 

I found  the driving position  terrible and very cramped and the steering wheel didn't have that much adjustment. 

1 hour ago, jimmyp2 said:

I drive bmw 330d's x drives at work. Im in them for hours on end so feel I can give a fair comparison to my personal 2014 vrs tdi.

There are good and bad points.

The good. 

The 330d engine is excellent. Brilliant performance and economical if you drive it that way.

The sport auto gearbox with paddles is also superb. Best auto I've driven.

Not so good,

X drive system is not permanent 4 wheel drive. Drives pretty much as a rear wheel drive car until it loses traction by which time it can be too late. Aquaplanes quite easily.

The bad,

The basic seats are very poor and extremely uncomfortable. They give me terrible lower back pain. I am aware that the m sport seats are much much better as I used to have these on a 330i I used to own.

Space wise they are poor. With my seat in its position for me to drive (im 6"2) there is little to no room in the rear. Much less than my vrs.

The boot is tiny in comparison to my vrs estate. Im also comparing that of a 3 series touring.

I have just started driving the latest 530d. This is a massive step up in quality over the current 3 series. Lets home that the new 3 series out next year also sees a step up in quality.

On engines, ive also driven the 320d. This sounded very agricultural and I would not of bought my tdi Octavia if it had sounded that bad.

After hours in my uncomfortable small 3 series I actually much prefer to get into my own vrs. 

This is possibly to do with the cheap basic seats in my works car but also because they are much lower to the ground getting in and out of. Really not good if you suffer with your back (which i never used to until we started running 3 series bmw's back in 2009).

One more thing, I bought mine pre registered with 50 miles on the clock for 21k.

The equivalent bmw or audi at the time was 30k+.

Ive just been offered 12.5k for mine with 38000 miles on it. Not bad depreciation at all for 4.5 years use.

Must have scraped the barrel to find two good points 

 

X drive is permanent awd, 40/60 split with the abilty to 100% to either end, according to the specification I have. If you want x drive for whatever reason.

 

The word cheap referring to a BMW then referring to a Skoda in the same sentence?

 

You can get an unused pre reg oil burner VRS now for under £21k

 

12.5K for a 4 year old oil burner. Would have snapped their hands off! Way OTT or the car you are after is. . My little over  half as old  (desirable?) 2016 VRS 230 SE Estate with the same mileage has been valued at £13290! Was nearly £28K . Thats about £6.5k per year lost.

Edited 13 November, 20187 yr by teescom09

8 minutes ago, donny1972 said:

I found  the driving position  terrible and very cramped and the steering wheel didn't have that much adjustment. 

The VRS ? Yes same as me but not that bad.

Edited 13 November, 20187 yr by teescom09

Owned F20 that had quite a few issues from new.

 

Ended up with two different f30's to use for over a month.

 

The f30 having more legroom than an Octavia? No way. The longtinudinal layout means you share the footwell with the gearbox. One of the f30's was a manual, due to the cramped footwell the pedals are offset and that gave me back ache every time I drove it.

 

Build quality is nothing to write home about. Our f20 was in for replacement seats due to rust and this was an issue on the f30. As well as the easily scratchable silver trim, brittle lower plastics and the plastic seat backs. Oh and flaking exhaust tips and rattles.

 

The BMW does have nicer driving dynamics and the ZF gearbox is the best available but the N47 2.0Diesel sounds like it's from an old transit van.