It's taken me a while to get round to this but here's the new car:

It's a 56 plate on 57k, 330i Auto. Not much in the way of options tbh, but crucially has the nicer lemon leather and heated seats.

I'd seen 2 cars, 1 in Shrewsbury at a dealership and this one in Exeter at an independent. Only difference was the dealership one had Nav and AUC, oh and was £3k more!

Given the distance to this one I only really want to make 1 journey, and that would be to collect it. So I employed the services of our forum superhero Mr Flew, as he was relatively equidistant between the two and would be able to give me a clear comparison of the relative condition.

In short, everything about this car suggested it was in much better condition. It was a massive bonus having Dave go and see both and hear his honest opinion of each. In the end it was an easy decision - Nav & AUC along would've always been difficult to justify paying £3k for, but given the car wasn't in the condition I'd have wanted, I did a deal on the one in Exeter.

Beyond that it was easy. I already had deals on the table from either so it was just a question of agreeing a time to take the Clio down and collect the BM.

By way of a comparison, we did a steady (indicated) 80 on the way down in the Clio, with virtually no interruption to progress and the OBC reported 30.2mpg. On the way back, stopping in to see Dave, and enduring the tail end of rush hour traffic the BM returned 28.2mpg (OBC).

I'll hapily take that given the relatievly low mileage I do (<10,000mi). On the very stop/start 8mi commute I'm currently doing that's dropped to about 22mpg, where the Clio was returning 24mpg.

Loving the car so far. It's a much nicer place to be especially on cold mornings - it gets warm quicker, has the heated seats, and doesn't kangaroo down the road for the first 5mins. Changes are smooth 99% of the time, and goes much better than I expected as everything I'd read suggested they were highly strung and need to be revved. When you do nail it it sounds I've already left a few 1's up the road outside work.

Only niggles are:

1: Tramlining - even worse than the Clio.
2: The rear passenger door pin doesn't drop for some reason, although it does lock.
3: There's a broken plastic flap around the boot catch - although I don't understand what purpose it serves.
4: It seems to leave the light lit on the gear selector when locked - do they all do this?

I'm going to treat myself to some darkline rear lights and a full boot-liner seeing as the condition is so immaculate. It will get filthy if I don't as it's going to be used for lugging bits of house to the tip when we start ripping out bathrooms and toilets etc.

Does one ever get bored of booting it out of junctions?

Updated December 17, 2012 at 5:05 PM

FINALLY!

Looks good. Liking the interior/exterior colours

Swervin_Mervin said...

Only niggles are:

1: Tramlining - even worse than the Clio.

Runflats?

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You Sir, are rude, arrogant and selfish. And so is your son.

"Der Wagen" aber "das Auto" - ich denke...

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Pilouil
Citroen C3 1.4 HDI 69.0424 bhp

pilouil said...

"Der Wagen" aber "das Auto" - ich denke...

I did check but apparently Der neue wagen means "the new venture"

Marv - yes. They will eventually be replaced with non-rft I think. Would be interesting to see if that sorts things out at all.

Swervin_Mervin said...

I did check but apparently Der neue wagen means "the new venture"

Apparently you'll get the correct "the new car" if you put the W in upper case as required (with google translation anyway).

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Pilouil
Citroen C3 1.4 HDI 69.0424 bhp

It's the only car you'll ever need. A mate at work has a 330i coupe and that's lovely so I expect this is too, with the bonus of being somewhat more practical.

My 320 noticably tramlined on rfts. Never tried it without those tyres so can't compare I'm afraid.

Congrats!

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I like it a lot, congrats!

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Kintegra y0!

Nice. I always prefer the touring variants of saloons.

The gear light is meant to stay on.

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Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.

Petrol ftw, particularly after my review of the diesel version

The light next to the gear lever stays on until the car goes to sleep, so probably 15 mins or so. Have a look some time after you've parked and check for yourself. If you re-start it before it's gone to sleep it'll remember whether your heated seats were on, etc.

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[OO=[|]=OO]

Ta chaps. I've also just remembered that the only other thing I really would've liked is the smoked rear windows. I think they set the car's exterior/interior colours off better, and just generally improve the looks of the estate. Oddly I don't like the smoked glass on the saloon or coupe.

I'm in 2 minds as to whether to go chav and de-chrome the grill as well. I know it'll offend some

Was interesting on Sat when my sister's fella popped round - in an E46 330i Touring Auto 150k on the clocks with tan leather, c2001. Great condition. And now a mate of mine is looking at 3s and 5s to switch to next year from his A3 tdi S-Line.

Dechroming the grill will just make is look like a 330d

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Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.

lovely, enjoy it

Thats spot on Mike, nicely done Just the sort of motor I'd prefer, practical, swift enough and with a bit of class about it.

Looks lovely

Good work - another shonky 3 series on the forum! The puddle ruins your number plate blanking though!

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Cheers

Rich

Engines are good, revvy and muscular looks lovely enjoy it.

Mito Man said...

Nice. I always prefer the touring variants of saloons.

The gear light is meant to stay on.

i do as well

very smart car in a great colour combo

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WIBBLE

Rich B said...

Good work - another shonky 3 series on the forum! The puddle ruins your number plate blanking though!

Doh!

I knew I'd done well when, 1hr into the journey home, the wife decided it would be the perfect car to hit the continent in. It's only taken me over 10yrs to convince her that you don't have to fly everywhere to have a great holiday.

Good work, Mike. We need another Cat & Fiddle run: Octavia TDi vs Leon TDi vs BMW 330i

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NotoriousREV said...

Good work, Mike. We need another Cat & Fiddle run: Octavia TDi vs Leon TDi vs BMW 330i

That's worth doing for the hilarity of it alone.