How many miles will a BMW 5 series 530D do?

[Churchill]

Tell me about it, if they're anything like those ghastly rattly underpowered and insufferably noisy 2CVs, which a friend recently gave me a mercifully short lift in.

Why on Earth would anyone want to drive bangers like that these days, when there are so many quieter and more reliable and cheaper cars around?

Because that car has character.

[darmstadt]

Because that car has character.

Correct and not only that, they're nice and easy to maintain and cheap to run and can be lots of fun (maybe not on a motorway.) There was a problem on early ones as because they had only two cylinders, sometimes the timing would go awry and the engine would run backwards which means you would have one forward gear and 4 reverse. I can't remember if it was this or the Dyane but the French fire brigade had them for forest fires and they were fitted with an engine in the front and rear with a swivel seat so that they could go up narrow forest tracks and when it got to dodgy, instead of reversing or a 200 point turn, they would disengage one engine, turn the seat and engage the other and just drive off

[BigRed]

I've had a Citroen C5 for 7 years, done 130k been great, but then I had lots of engine management system errors and electrical faults. Basically wrote it off because it was only worth around £2000 and was costing me a fortune. All modern cars are write offs when the engine management system starts giving problems due to failed sensors, corroded wiring etc. Landrovers, 2CVs etc. will go on for ever because there is little to go wrong.

I did a degree in mechanical engineering and worked for an aerospace company originally, should have become a car mechanic.

[the_rangdo]

Called up Rochdale Williams (Next to that garage place). Charge £225 + VAT. isn't that a bit excessive!

Try Hillside BMW in Heywood, only about 5 mins drive from Williams.

Good indy garage.

Rear brakepads for my 530, Williams £230-ish fitted, Hillside £120 for the same genuine pads.

[doodab]

The 2CV AND Renault 4 were designed for the people of rural France. They are unglamorous, agricultural, reliable and easy to maintain. Most other French cars do away with the latter two attributes, a very few manage to avoid the first two as well.

German cars feel nice, some are reliable, some less so, this is largely to do with the level of technical sophistication, and not cheap to run.

The Italian cars worth having are rich man's playthings.

Japanese cars are the most reliable, not the most glamourous or stylish.

The only reason to buy a 10 year old high mileage car is to get something quite grand with a massive engine and a propensity for making your local mechanic considerably richer. In that market segment I'd go German as there are more cut price specialist garages around. You don't see specialists in French cars because not enough of them last that long to make a viable business, and Japanese cars are easily maintained by local garages.

Personally I'd spend a bit less and save the difference for all the new bits you'll have to fit. My Audi has new brakes, clutch, cambelts costing as much as the car itself but for half your budget I have a car that's 30% new

[tranceporter]

Scrap that. How about getting a Mazda 6 MPS @OP? I have one, and its a great car. Unless you are a dieselhead...

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

The 2CV AND Renault 4 were designed for the people of rural France. They are unglamorous, agricultural, reliable and easy to maintain. Most other French cars do away with the latter two attributes, a very few manage to avoid the first two as well.

German cars feel nice, some are reliable, some less so, this is largely to do with the level of technical sophistication, and not cheap to run.

The Italian cars worth having are rich man's playthings.

Japanese cars are the most reliable, not the most glamourous or stylish.

The only reason to buy a 10 year old high mileage car is to get something quite grand with a massive engine and a propensity for making your local mechanic considerably richer. In that market segment I'd go German as there are more cut price specialist garages around. You don't see specialists in French cars because not enough of them last that long to make a viable business, and Japanese cars are easily maintained by local garages.

Personally I'd spend a bit less and save the difference for all the new bits you'll have to fit. My Audi has new brakes, clutch, cambelts costing as much as the car itself but for half your budget I have a car that's 30% new

I like your analysis though a bit broad. I have had a golf for several years and it certainly ain't no fun to drive!

[DimPrawn]

2 cars i'm looking at:

9 years
11 years

Just caught this bit.

Okay, we are talking about bangeromics here, your budget must be about £3K tops?

At this price point, you are looking for reliability, cheap to maintain and reasonable fuel consumption.

Which probably means you should be looking at Japanese...

Honda Accord Saloon Executive 2.2 i-CTDi
Mazda 6 2.0d TS2
Nissan PRIMERA 2.2 dCi T-SPEC
TOYOTA AVENSIS 2.2 D-4D T4


All are going to be more reliable, newer and overall cheaper to run.


I think a Beemer at that age and that price could be a costly mistake.

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

Just caught this bit.

Okay, we are talking about bangeromics here, your budget must be about £3K tops?

At this price point, you are looking for reliability, cheap to maintain and reasonable fuel consumption.

Which probably means you should be looking at Japanese...

Honda Accord Saloon Executive 2.2 i-CTDi
Mazda 6 2.0d TS2
Nissan PRIMERA 2.2 dCi T-SPEC
TOYOTA AVENSIS 2.2 D-4D T4


All are going to be more reliable, newer and overall cheaper to run.


I think a Beemer at that age and that price could be a costly mistake.

going to see this one today:

BMW 5 SERIES 530d SE 4dr Auto 3.0 LEATHER SPORT SEATS 2004

I am looking for performance, long-distance comfort and reliability..... a few of my friends have BMWs that are well over 100k and they are still going strong.

The idea is to find a BMW that is in pristine condition and with either relatively high mileage and newish or low mileage and oldish....

[sasguru]

going to see this one today:

BMW 5 SERIES 530d SE 4dr Auto 3.0 LEATHER SPORT SEATS 2004

I am looking for performance, long-distance comfort and reliability..... a few of my friends have BMWs that are well over 100k and they are still going strong.

The idea is to find a BMW that is in pristine condition and with either relatively high mileage and newish or low mileage and oldish....

Sorry but you're not going to get reliability from a £5K, > 100K, 10 year old BMW.