Advise on wheather to order a GTI or 135i

[ROO1]

I wont go into the pro's and cons as that has been done to death on here, so facts only;

1. You will get one in circa 8 weeks.
2. I got £5.5k discount, so 17% and some have got upto 20%.
3. Insurance was only £100 more for me than GTI.
4. MPG of low to mid 30's is easily achievable if you drive at the speed limit. The auto mpg figure is even higher at 37 I think. However if you hammer it everywhere, it will be low 20's.

No chance you will be getting close to £250 p/m on PCP though with only £1k deposit, even with a hefty discount...

The car is a hell of a lot of fun though!

Which dealership groups gave the best discount?

[Phil 117]

Decided to go with GTD today. I'll have to suck up the lead time.

Just to confirm what deal I got; I presume other dealers could do it if pushed.

The car I've bought is GTD DSG 3DR in Tornado Red with a reversing camera and dynaudio.
List Price: £27,390
Discount @ 17%
Price: £22,754

A trick for everyone: On the PCP, I have opted for 5k pa. I will do 15k pa, but as the residuals on the GTD are stupidly good, this works out cheaper. GFV's for a 3 year old GTD with 45k is £13,000, one with 15k is £16,000. £3,000 Difference. 30,000 miles @ 7.2p excess mileage charge = £2,160. So £840 cheaper. If I do less that 15k, I will obviously save more!

So price at £22,754
Deposit: £1,000
Balance £21,754
Price after interest: £24,549
GFV @ £16,000
Difference = £8,549
Over 35 months: £244.27p

What a deal.

[Phil 117]

I am considering adding on a Winter Pack tomorrow, mainly for heated seats. As it's not leather I've not thought it essential. Are the warm washer jets any good in the winter???


And no, there's not a Honda I would want. Xenon's was a must for me, and you have to get a top of the range Civic. Not the best engine either. Their PCP is rubbish also as they set their GFV's really low so high monthly costs...

And also, I know you used to be able to do this with some cars, can you pick it up from the factory to avoid a 4 week delivery.

[mark@vorny.co.uk]

Nice choice.

I moderate on a couple of BMW forums so have a tendency to like the bigger engined ones, despite the fact I don't have one currently. The engine in the 135i is a belter, I had an earlier twin turbo version of the 335i mapped to 382bhp and it was awesome, but the car itself was for ever being towed away with a malady of some sort (unrelated to the mapping.) The move to a single turbo on the '35s' has resolved a lot of underlying issues, but the reliability is not a patch on a Golf.

Just something for you guys to consider when faced with a similar choice 

[ROO1]

Decided to go with GTD today. I'll have to suck up the lead time.

Just to confirm what deal I got; I presume other dealers could do it if pushed.

The car I've bought is GTD DSG 3DR in Tornado Red with a reversing camera and dynaudio.
List Price: £27,390
Discount @ 17%
Price: £22,754

A trick for everyone: On the PCP, I have opted for 5k pa. I will do 15k pa, but as the residuals on the GTD are stupidly good, this works out cheaper. GFV's for a 3 year old GTD with 45k is £13,000, one with 15k is £16,000. £3,000 Difference. 30,000 miles @ 7.2p excess mileage charge = £2,160. So £840 cheaper. If I do less that 15k, I will obviously save more!

So price at £22,754
Deposit: £1,000
Balance £21,754
Price after interest: £24,549
GFV @ £16,000
Difference = £8,549
Over 35 months: £244.27p

What a deal.

Which dealer? As you aren't too far from me

[Phil 117]

Which dealer? As you aren't too far from me

Just Listers in Worcester.

I don't know all the details of it, but it might be going through their fleet department at Listers Nuneaton to get the maximum discount possible, but yeah, Listers.

[Rob916]

Which dealer? As you aren't too far from me

Just Listers in Worcester.

I don't know all the details of it, but it might be going through their fleet department at Listers Nuneaton to get the maximum discount possible, but yeah, Listers.

cracking deal and you won't be disappointed with the car, definitely choose the winter pack and for the money keyless has been my best extra !

[Pinky 1959]

Did you consider a demonstrator gtd ? You can pick it up from the factory and I think you get a tour there as well .

[Bill_the_Bear]

Hi Phil,

Apologies I haven't had time to read all the replies here just now so if its been mentioned before sorry.

I'm not sure the 135i is suitable for you to be honest.  Do you mean the 135i or M135i?  You mention running costs, in particular insurance and fuel.  Insurance isn't too bad, certainly no more than a GTI, but I'd guess its more than a GTD for a 20 year old.  Check it out on a comparison site.

Fuel on the other hand... will be costing you.  Since having the car a month I'm getting 28mpg.  It will probably pop up to 30 but no where near the 50 you mention for a GTD.  Because I love the car so much I've also been driving it about twice as much, so my fuel bill has around doubled from when I was driving a Fiesta!  Now this does depend on your driving (obviously) since I've been making use of the power and also a lot of town centre driving/gridlock.  When I'm cruising on a motorway the economy is much better, more than 50mpg.  Below is a pic of mpg data when I tested out the different modes.  Sport was heavy acceleration, comfort was city driving, and Eco Pro was motorway.  On the motorway it ranged from about 45 to 70 (70 was going down a slight hill I suspect).  At one point the mpg maxes off the chart but I think this is an anomaly, possibly due to the start stop system, but I can't remember exactly.



If you are looking at a GTD wouldn't you consider the equivalent diesel rather than a petrol?  Massive discounts were on offer for the M135i making it cheaper than what I had ordered but I'm not aware of what they offer on other models, its probably a lot less  .  The best thing was the lead time was just 4 weeks, but again I don't know if this applies to models other than the M135i so you'd have to check.  The dealer I used (Elms Cambridge) had literally hundreds of cars in stock and they are making offers to shift some right now, obviously you could have one on a very short time-scale and there is a big choice of spec.

While the M135i is a class above the GTI (125i being the direct comparison?) I wouldn't say the same about the diesel line-up and I'd rather have a GTD than a 120d to be honest!  A 3-series might interest me because of the saloon shape, but I've no experience so can't offer advice on the 3.  From what you've said so far I'd say stick it out with the GTD.  Can you cope with the higher price of the GTD and the long wait, that is the question?  I'd recommend asking a few questions at babybmw to see what deals you get and what costs you can expect for the various models.

Here is my detailed review of the M135i if you're interested.  Feel free to PM with any questions.
http://www.babybmw.net/viewtopic.php?f=74&t=53135

[matchboy]

Loving your mpg in Sport mode Bear - clearly nailing it, love it!