UKC

Hi All,

I am thinking of changing my car. The two options I'm considering are a 2008 BMW 320d and a 2011 Skoda Fabia vRS.

They cost roughly the same to buy (about £6-7k). However, I've not owned a BMW before, is servicing and general maintenance costs significantly higher for BMWs than Skoda / or VWs?

As both cars are over 3 years old, I wouldn't use a BMW/Skoda garage for servicing. If anyone has experice of the running costs for either of these cars, it would be interesting to compare.

Cheers,
E

In reply to Eann:

All my BMWs have been older (current one a lot older) and they have been ridiculously reliable. Some BMW parts are expensive but I have found some to be cheap as well. I used to joke with the parts guys at the local dealer about escaping with change of a tenner but that has lapsed now that the oil filter for mine has gone up to £11.

I have yet to meet somebody that wasn't pleased with their 320D and some tell me they keep forgetting how to fill it up! There is a huge trade in good quality BMW parts outside of the dealer network, high quality parts info on realoem.com, and several really good specialist BMW internet fora.

The engine and the electrics are often the items that suck money if faulty so look for good evidence for the engine being good and check the electrics all work.

In reply to Eann:

Dant do it bruva!

http://www.reliabilityindex.com/manufacturer

In reply to Eann:

The BMW may cost you the car again - search for Cam chain failure on BMW. It effects cars of the vintage your looking at with the N47 engine but does also effect another one of their engines that I cannot remember.
I was looking at a host of cars including the 320d touring. After reading all of the failures and the cost of the engine rebuild I decided against it.

In reply to Eann:

Beemers dont have to be as expensive as people think.

Ive owned many - my last 520 needed front disks and and pads and the main dealer was trying to charge £480. I complained and got it down to £420. I have a trusted grease monkey who I have used for decades now and I would trust him with anything. He charged me £260 inc VAT for the same job using OEM parts from the same manufacturer which manufactures the parts for BMW but without the markup.

Usual stuff really, make sure you look after her, regular servicing, well checked before you buy and she should serve you well.

In reply to Eann:

We had the dreaded cam chain failure in our 120d. Ours is an 07. I think the 08's onwards are not affected. Worth checking. Luckily ours was mostly covered by BMW as the car has full dealer history but it still cost us £600. It would have been a 4-5k bill otherwise.

We've also had a turbo failure and air con pump fail but all under the 1 year warranty we got as a used approved car.

Touch wood it's been trouble free for a good while now and s lovely car/engine.

Would I get another BMW? Yes, but I might get an approved car from a dealer again.

In reply to Eann:

My mate reckons he could lease something comparable for what it is costing him in repair bills to keep his 320 on the road.

In reply to Eann:

Having just been to the Dentist for a check up, I am now going to ring the my local BMW dealer to see if he does dental work since even at his rates it must be cheaper.

In reply to Eann:

If you want pleb traffic ahead of you to melt away as you approach from behind then buy a BMW. Skodas lack the cred and magic of a BMW.......

In reply to Trangia:

Do you know what year his 320 is?

In reply to Trangia:


A benefit I hadn't even considered! Cheers

In reply to faffergotgunz:



Interesting stuff. Skoda beats BMW here, hands down.

In reply to sleavesley:


I'll investigate, thanks!

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:




The usual brake stuff is easy to source cheaply. The standard BMW pads are very good quality but you don't need to compromise stopping power for pennies because you can buy textars or jurids elsewhere at reasonable prices. The trade in BMW suspension parts is huge since a lot of owners are very picky about this aspect and so there is plenty choice and some reasonable prices.

In reply to Eann:
'I'll investigate, thanks! '

yes do so. I have a 2008 118d se and it worries me. I bought it in december 2015, bmw did a quality enhancement recall on them to check if it needed replacing, which they started to quietly shelve towards to end of 2015, the seller contacted BMW to check if this car had been recalled to be told it didn't need to as its batch wasn't affected, which I now think was bull on the part of BMW. The QE recall has now ended so BMW will not without a fight sort any issues with the timing chain.

The other issue is the good old DPF, unless you are doing huge miles I think the oil burner is not worth the bother now, unless you want performance of course, the other option I didn't consider but now wish i had was the 116i, 58 mpg on a run.

Are skoda engines affected by the VW fiasco?

In reply to Eann:

I have a BMW (petrol), Mrs B has an Octavia (TD). Both great but very different, the Beemer is quite old now and has been inexpensive to maintain.

Both of them have a few potentially expensive weak spots, but both are probably better in this respect than most other cars.

Make sure you do all the research before test driving and if you decide on the Skoda just buy one. If you test drive both you will buy the BMW

In reply to Eann:

I've not run a Skoda but my 320D costs no more to run than my Mondeo did, I think most makes are similar as long as you avoid the main dealer network, certainly for a car the age you are considering.

In reply to andrew breckill:
The Skoda engine in the Fabia is a twin-charged 1.4 petrol. The supercharger does its thing at low revs, allowing a larger turbo to take over later on. It's good for 180bhp. It only comes with a DSG auto-gearbox too.
Had this same set up in an Audi A1, and it was a really fun motor. Real MPG averaged around 39/40mpg, but it absolutely drank oil. With such a complicated engine and a equally complex auto-box I wasn't sad to get rid.
Ironically, I swapped it for a Skoda Octavia Scout TDi, which IS affected by the engine recall!

In reply to Andrew Lodge:


That's good to know, cheers!

In reply to Removed User:



Correct.

In reply to Eann:

if you want something cheap to run and solid a 2011 2.0 passat estate is a good car.

I had a 2012 bmw 320ed (8 speed auto) and it was super cheap to run, no problems 65+ mpg motorway weekdays and pottering within the m25 at weekends. I found it impossible to get comfortable in the BMW so have binned it and now have an audi a6 which is great on the motorway

In reply to Eann:

also a bit of a curveball but you'd get a top spec honda civic 2.2 cdti (ex) for that money.

A great car super cheap to run and honda reliability

In reply to arctickev:



Honda definitely win on reliability. Thanks!

Servicing costs on my late 2012 BMW are no different to those of my VW golf which I ran from 2003 (new) till I got rid of it last year.

No other costs except tires to compare on but my garage said I wouldn't see a real difference except the BMW has a service indicator which implies stuff should be done as and when, rather than together.

I'll do it when it pops up.

BMW is a lot more fun to drive

In reply to IMA:


Good to know, thanks!

In reply to Trangia:


Bizarre the stereotyping of BMW drivers nowadays, maybe a few decades ago this was true, but it is now the 5th most popular car in UK based on sales and therefore with such a wide cross section of 'BMW drivers' that most stereotypes are now completely nonsense.