I've always had a thing for BMW's, to be specific the 5 series. 3 is cheap and over rated, 7 over priced and too big, the 5 has always been BMW's finest car.  I owned a couple of E34's and loved them, so refined and hewn from granite build.  Then I had kids and got all sensible and have been running practical cars for years, but I always watched the generations of 5 come and go, came close to buying an E39, skipped the E60 but really coveted the F10 from early on. I drove a few and finally got my hands on one last year, a 2014 518d Luxury with some nice options. Looked a million dollars, and despite the detuned 520D engine was still quick and good enough for my style of driving.  The car came with a 2 years warranty, was low mileage and really was a beauty.  After wanting one for years I was delighted.

BUT, there were issues.  

 

Firstly, having coming from a Passat petrol (1.4tsi 120bhp) the shift to diesel was an real eye opener, like a tractor at idle by comparison. I had to switch off the Start/stop as the transition between on and off was so dramatic, and while very quiet at speed, you had to get there, which meant the engine droning and clattering away.  It always felt at odds with the rest of the car, which screamed luxury and refinement. I think the engine has no place in that car, others may differ.  

 

There were other issues, a failed head unit, oil leak, and corrosion on the doors (a known issue) resulted in warranty work that would have cost €3000. Add to that an issue with water ingress (also a know issue) and the ticking bomb of potential timing chain failure, well, it was all a bit disappointing. You had this feeling of 'what next?'.  Online forums did not inspire confidence either. The car was also heavy and felt it, the ride was merely average, it never smothered the road as the E34 did, blame run flats and bigger wheels. I loved certain things, the styling, the interior is sublime, the Oyster interior was light and beautifully designed, the solidity of everything you touched. It is BMW's best ever interior IMO.  But it wasn't enough, the engine, the future of big diesel cars, and potential future running costs killed it for me.

 

After less than a year, it was time to kiss the dream goodbye, move on and dump diesel for petrol. I was lucky, sold it to the first chap who looked at it.  I don't blame him, she was a thing of beauty.  But what car has the space, performance, comfort, sense of solidity BUT matched with realistic repair and running costs?  The 5 series is almost impossible to better. 

 

The answer was sitting in my driveway. My wifes 2016 Superb 1.4tsi ACT SE.  She far preferred her car to the BMW, and I don't blame her.

 

So I bought a 2015, same as hers but a manual.  And I absolutely love it. The engine is SO sweet, reminds me of past 6 cylinder BMWs for smoothness. It is so much more refined than the BMW, you wouldn't know it was running at idle. It suits the refined nature of the car perfectly. The Superb is far more spacious, rides much better, smothers cats eyes and never feels unsettled like the BMW.  I appreciate how much lighter it is too.  The 5 you were always aware of getting up to speed, then slowing that mass down. The doors shut with a nice thud and everything inside feels solid as a drum.  It has little of the interior design flair or luxury of the BMW, but it is only an SE.  But it has everyhting you need, and ACC is a joy.  The Infotainment in the Superb is also more intuitive than iDrive, which itself is a very good system. It looks like it will be cheap to run (touch wood), I'm putting new discs and pads on the front which will cost €180 fitted, the BMW would have cost €700 for the same job.

 

So there you have it, sometime your dreams and press hype result in poor choices.  The BMW was a folly that despite really wanting to love it, I never did.  With a straight six under the bonnet I've no doubt it is a different animal entirely. But the petrol Superb is a better package that I enjoy every time a fire up that silky, silent engine, and waft off down the road. How VW let Skoda make a car this good I don't really know.

 

I'll be keeping this one for some time.

 

Thanks for reading!

Totally agree with you bought a Superb 1.4Tsi new in April 2016, manual SE with a few options including SAT NAV for just over £23,000. Many people who sat in that car were amazed by the space and refinement and surprised by it's performance (only 1,320kg). For wafting on my commute it was nigh on perfect with 700-740 mile range on every 66-70 litre tankful. Solid average over 16,000 miles (one cheap service) was just over 50mpg impressive for such a large petrol car. Change of jobs allowed me the funds to buy my dream current car and unlike your BMW 518D I have not been disappointed but blown away by my Vrs245's wide range of abilities and it never ever leaves me with any desire to change it because it ticks every box and at 1,370kg still much lighter than anything currently similar on the market nearly 18 months and 19,200 miles after I bought it. On the 2.0 litre BMW idle noise you are spot on. My neighbour bought a BMW 420D new in November 2014 and everytime he starts it up in his drive I can hear it from anywhere in my house despite the double glazing, what a clattery racket that thing makes (he must be stone deaf by now).

Edited 29 January, 20197 yr by shyVRS245
MISSING WORD

The new 5 series tourer looks tremendous.

 

I'd miss the space though.

 

(and I cant afford one)  

55 minutes ago, shyVRS245 said:

On the 2.0 litre BMW idle noise you are spot on. My neighbour bought a BMW 420D new in November 2014 and everytime he starts it up in his drive I can hear it from anywhere in my house despite the double glazing, what a clattery racket that thing makes (he must be stone deaf by now).

 

A pal was waiting outside his house for me, said he heard me coming long before he saw me!  The last time he was in my car he asked if my Passat was an EV it was so quiet.

 

The icing on the cake was the Superb was £12,800 with 15k miles on the clock. Unreal value.

1 minute ago, Steviedakota said:

 

A pal was waiting outside his house for me, said he heard me coming long before he saw me!  The last time he was in my car he asked if my Passat was an EV it was so quiet.

 

The icing on the cake was the Superb was £12,800 with 15k miles on the clock. Unreal value.

That was good value think my trade in was £17,600 back in August 2017 with 16K on the clock.

I can appreciate what you're saying from our own recent experience.

 

Back in November i was looking to get out of our 2015 diesel Touareg R Line and into something petrol with a decent performance/economy compromise, Automatic and 4wd.

 

As this presented a fairly rare setup (at least with our criteria) we went to look at the current 5 Series (G30?) in 540i X-Drive flavour as they look pretty smart, and as we still currently own an E39 528i which we have loved and pampered for nearly 5 years and is built like a bank vault, it seemed a great possibility.

 

Suffice to say, for the circa £15k plus our Touareg which was valued at £22k, the "feel" and the build quality were both lacking. Bearing in mind these cars with some options were over £60k a year or so previously.

 

In the end I remembered that Skoda did the Superb with just such a drivetrain combination, albeit a 4 cylinder rather than the 6 cylinder of the BMW, and went and viewed one, and two days later, collected it!

 

1. Build quality noticeably better.

2. Performance on a par.

3. Significantly less cost to change.

4. Newer car.

5. Much more space.

 

Two months on, we are very pleased with the choice, and it's difficult to keep the mileage off of it as it is just so lovely and easy to drive.

An honest write-up. A BMW with all these issues? Who would believe it. Not implying BMW's are cars that fail more, I could easily have one if there was the right model for me this time round, but in the present day they are just normal cars with similar potential failures (or worse in some cases, especially considering their cost) to the ones a few individuals enjoy complaining endlessly about in this forum (except in a Skoda they are much cheaper to fix), in the mis-belief that they are "Skoda exclusive".  Long gone are the days that the premium the top brands commanded meant higher reliability, go into ownership with such expectations and you are in for a surprise, the game is different nowadays...  There are similar examples with Mercs, Audis, Volvos, you name it.

But the point here is I think how exceptional value the Superb is, whichever way you may look at it. I don't even speak about those insanely low prices (used) those are just unreal.

Volvo is recalling 219,000 cars globally due to a potential fuel leak, with 30,777 UK models affected. The fault relates to 2015-16 model year diesels and a fuel line could crack and leak fuel into the engine bay. The V40, S60, V60, XC60, V70, XC70, S80 and XC90 are included.

21 minutes ago, shyVRS245 said:

Volvo is recalling 219,000 cars globally due to a potential fuel leak, with 30,777 UK models affected. The fault relates to 2015-16 model year diesels and a fuel line could crack and leak fuel into the engine bay. The V40, S60, V60, XC60, V70, XC70, S80 and XC90 are included.

 

But surely I would prefer to take the risk of fuel leaking into the engine bay, or door corrosion, than having scorched rear discs (that don't affect braking performance), that is something I just can't accept   Anyway, let me not de-rail this any further.

I have to agree, the value of the Superb is so good! I had a 2012 Avensis D4d Tourer, I loved it, but it was slow, thirsty and the interior was dated, even though I had a top spec one with the big glass roof, perforated heated leather etc. When I was due to change (December 2017), I looked at all sorts. BMW, Mercedes, Audi, VW, Ford, Jaguar, Toyota and so on. None of them were screaming "buy me". I drive over 50k a year as I'm a touring musician, admittedly I've only done 24k in mine in the year, and a fair amount of that is social milage, but I share with one of my band members who drives an 09 Passat Highline. 

In the end, I found a 66 reg MY17 SEL Executive (With options too), 2.0 TDI 150 manual. And it's the best of the lot I'd driven. The Merc couldn't really handle it's own power, was a bit skittish in the damp (okay I run winter tyres and it had summers on, but it was mild!), the interior felt cheap and it didn't really shout quality. The infotainment system was obtrusive, it felt cramped (C Class estate), and it rode very harshly. BMW 5 series I drove on a 65 plate, the interior was lovely, definitely above the Superb, but it wasn't as big as I expected (I need a BIG boot), and I knew all about the engine timing chain problems. Turned up at Skoda dealer initially looking at an Octavia L&K DSG estate, and whilst the salesman was just wrapping up a job (Darryl at RRG Rochdale - top guy!), he suggested I looked at Superbs too. Sat in one in the showroom as was immediately sold. The size, the comfort, the equipment, and it looks great.

 

He took me out in a 16 plate Silver one, SEL Exec, no options, and as a passenger first (me and band mate share the driving so it had to be good as passenger too), I was sold pretty quick. Drove it, and it the ride comfort was fantastic. The Mondeo and XF estate were probably a little sharper to drive, but when I'm getting into a car at 11pm to drive 3 - 4 hours plus, the last thing I want a car to do is to 'excite' me. The Superb fit the bill perfect. The power delivery was great, the gearbox is great (admittedly, my only regret is not splashing out for the DSG). Got back to the showroom, we'd roughly talked numbers on the test drive and it was around £100 a month more than I was initially looking to spend, and £140 a month more than I was paying on my '12 Avensis! But, I was sold and I've never looked back. Darryl was actually kind enough to do the numbers on a brand new one with everything I wanted (was way over budget and my insurance was more - I'm only 26 and anyone in the entertainment industry gets majorly shafted on insurance), so he did the numbers on the Business Grey '66 model. I didn't drive that one, but it was same engine and gearbox. I sat in it, and noticed it had loads more on it such as park assist, which I never use but the 360 sensors are handy!), phonebox, tri-zone aircon (keeps drinks in the armrest ice cold), rain sensor (I don't use it, I just LOVE the frameless mirror design) and a couple of other things I can't remember off the top of my head. It had only done 4k miles and was owned by Skoda before me as one of their manager cars, so registered in Oxford to Skoda UK. Also the colour was better, as I took a page out of my band leader's book who drove a BMW 318d in grey, and it got washed only when it was serviced, and you wouldn't tell. I have a guy who properly sealed it and safe washes it, and it did 10k between it's last wash and I didn't even know!

So after a year with it, am I still happy? Definitely. Like any car that does the mileage, it's going to have things that need doing. In 12 months it's had two services (variable). Expenditure on it includes three Pirelli Sottozero tyres - lost one to a screw and then it had run flat damage, and then I lost TWO to pot holes. Luckily paid for by local council, meaning a brand new pair for this winter! Expenditure which I wasn't expecting, the air con needing a service at two years - my dad's 16 reg Toyota from new has never been suggested it had this, so was a bit surprised. Was £150 when the dealer first offered it, decided to wait as air con was performing fine, and just had it done at the last service, this time for £100, so I imagine lots of people complained and the price came down! The one I wasn't expecting was the rear discs and pads needing to be replaced at 18k due to scoring. Could happen to any car, but I've never had to do that! Front discs were also done at 27k, but I had them done by the garage that put my winter tyres on and saved £100 or so! Another issue which is a pain is I've got a creak from the front suspension over bumps, especially when cold. Already searched and it looks ARB related. Last service a couple of weeks ago, they greased around it... hasn't worked. Got it back in and they removed the bushes and greased them properly, kept it overnight and checked it out. Was fine for them, I've been out and it's just as bad, so it's going back in ASAP to be rectified. Luckily, it's under warranty, and I get that these things happen. The technician said 9 times out of 10 the greasing sorts it... looks like I've got the unlucky 1. But, top marks to RRG Rochdale again. Yeah it's a pain having to take it back, but they keep me informed, I request they don't wash it (don't want my ceramic coat stripping off!) and they make sure they stick to that and they insist if it's not right, get it back in.

 

With regards to that BMW reliability though, credit where credit is due, my bandleader had a 60 reg 318d. SE spec, nothing fancy, but he drove it all over the place. Full BM history, serviced 3 times a year on the nose... the timing chain got as far as 250 - 270k before it let go, and that was the first (and last) major issue the car had. Fair play to it! He's got an Astra now... let's see how that fares! 

So, in a year's time, what am I going to change to? Skoda's still high on the list! I wouldn't even entertain BMW now.