ChiHonda

I drove a couple 335d yesterday and wow what a machine. It has a 3 liter twin turbo inline 6 with 425 lbs ft of torque. Only offered in the US for a few years ending in 2011. The torque was amazing even compared to my old tuned 135i. Very linear power delivery and good throttle response for a turbo. It felt more like V8, a very big, powerful V8. It’s the right size for a sedan—they only did a sedan. The 6 speed auto is shiftable but slow. I imagine on twisty you could pretty much leave it in 2nd or 3rd with the torque curve being so wide. I love manuals but when there’s so much torque changing gears isn’t that much fun anyway. The steering on the E90 3 series feels like just the right amount of weight and very precise.

I’m a little dubious about the reliability and I won’t take off the green stuff to make it reliable—a “delete” as the community calls it.

I’m going to test a ‘14 535d today. It has similar speed and power numbers with the 335d. It has the ZF 8 speed. The 5er is a class up and a generation newer. It promises to be a whole lot more luxurious and techie though those aren’t my priorities.

Any experience with these cars I’d love to hear.

vader1

I have no experience with either car. I do hang out a bit on Bimmerfest and F30 boards and just about anyone who owns a Bimmer diesel is in love with the thing. When they look to replace it, they want another one.

My experience with modern BMW is mixed. My car is quite nice, but a little boring for me, and I miss having a manual daily driver. The ZF 8speed is a good transmission, pretty much the standard now days and very quick for a non-dual clutch. The only issue I have with the transmission, and is perfectly normal operation, is in cold weather when you first start the car you will feel like the transmission is slipping in its first shift and you can get a real hard shift or two, but this behavior lasts about a quarter mile and then goes away.

My particular model, and not a worry on anything you are looking at, has a failure rate for timing chain tensioners (engine goes BOOM!) that was large enough for BMW to extend warranties on 4cyl models to 7/70 on the affected cars. Which is kind of good, but if you were a person who keeps a car beyond 70,000 you'd want to drop $2k on a chain swap with the new parts. I have never kept a car that long but was considering it on this one so it ticks me off a bit. It is basically on any car with the turbo 4 from about the 2012 model year to mid 2014 model year, and all get the extended warranty.

But other than that, you will find an occasional complaint about an issue, but it seems that the overwhelming number of people are getting really good reliability out of modern BMW's. There are some very vocal people who got burned in the past but the cars seem to be fairly trouble free. I have had one hiccup in the nearly 40,000 miles and that was one boot up of the nav went wonky and it took a restart of the car to get it straightened out. Otherwise not a single hint of a problem and my car is loaded with pretty much everything.

My only advice to anyone looking is always the same, pick out your car from the order sheet and Euro Delivery if you buy new. The experience is totally worth whatever hoops you have to go through to make it all work out. Most fun trip I have ever had, and I have had a ton of fun travel.

white98ls

My sister had one for 3-4 years and loved it. Regularly got 36mpg in the Minnesota cold. I drove it and it struck me as an outstanding DD - the torque is frankly overkill and a lot of fun to dip into, and it has nice steering.

I don't think she had much trouble at all with it, although she bought it new. Only reason she got rid of it is she wanted an SUV, so she got a last-gen X5 CPO'd with the same diesel engine, which it sounds like has also been reliable.

WolfpackS2k

It's a shame that all of the newer BMW diesels have a considerably smaller, and less powerful, engine.

white98ls

It's cool for an enthusiast, but frankly for "normal folks" it's way overkill. 425lb/ft at 1,750rpm. The F30 diesel has a 2.0L I-4 with 180hp/280tq, which is still plenty and delivers significantly better mpg - 32/45, which is awesome. As much as I love the deep well of torque of the I-6 diesel, for an everyday car/commuter I'd probably rather go with the 4-cyl as it matches the mission of the car better.

Chibo

I owned a 2011 MSport 335D with a tune. Run. Far. They are terribly unreliable, mostly due to all of the emissions equipment the US cars have. They also do not get very good gas mileage, unless you do a ton of freeway, and even then a modern Civic will outdo it (which was not the case when they were new) -- or, hell, a new GTI will beat it gas mileage wise everywhere.

white98ls

Well, in fairness, you had a tune on a car that already had 425lb/ft stock... aren't your expectations a little high? A Civic is an economy car after all.

Chibo

Maybe. I bought a 2016 GTI after I sold it -- quicker and better gas mileage. Sorry, really bitter over that car. It was great on paper, but time in the dealership added up to nearly a year over the 4 years I owned it. Parts were very frequently backordered for months from Germany. Oh, and the recurring carbon build up issue that more or less requires removing the head to properly clean since there are two sets of intake ports in the head that are difficult to clean.

S2020

got a taste of German car last year: A6. Quite impressed. When this car is traded in, likely getting an M5, E63, or S6 next.

white98ls

Sorry to hear that, that's awful! Can you still lemon a car at that point?