BMW 4 Series

This car is somewhat comfortable, but in my experience the features and ownership experience don’t justify the ~$95,000 price point. Range / interstate travel: As an EV, interstate driving became a major frustration. In real-world conditions, I found the effective range to be around 280 km per charge depending on conditions. On a Melbourne–Sydney… Read more

trip, charging stops, limited charger availability and queues made the trip blow out significantly — in my case it took around 17 hours, including roughly 8 hours spent charging/charging-related delays. That made long-distance travel impractical for me.

Charging experience: 0–99% charging takes roughly 70–80 minutes in my experience, and charging slows down noticeably as it approaches 100% (it’s not a simple “0–80%” story). Even on fast chargers, the maximum charging speed I personally saw was about 90 kW, and it dropped quickly as the battery level increased.

Features vs price: For the money, I was surprised at the lack of some “basic” driver-assistance features I expected to be standard, such as active lane keep assist / lane-centering style assistance (at least in the way it’s implemented in many other cars). Having to pay substantially more for higher trims/options to get what feels like a more complete package is hard to justify.

Reliability / major failure: The biggest issue for me was reliability. Within the first year, the car suffered a sudden failure while driving and stopped on the road with multiple warning messages, degraded braking and acceleration, and what I believe was a serious safety risk. It had to be towed to a dealership and was diagnosed as a DSC unit failure. The process took around three months to resolve, and I was only provided a courtesy car after escalation (supplied through SIXT, a basic Kia).

Depreciation: Depreciation has also been a concern. Based on what I observed in the market and the buy-back discussions I had, the value appeared to drop sharply within the first year, which is something buyers should consider. (About half the original price)

Overall, between the real-world range limitations, slow/variable fast charging, missing features for the price, the major breakdown and the after-sales experience, I wouldn’t purchase this model again.

Loving looking car. Poor on coarse chip roads – If you live in a rural area with allot of typical coarse chip roads do not choose an alloy wheel with run flat tyres. The noise level is on par with a Toyota Corolla (not a joke). Apart from the noise, the car drives really well, very comfortable and handles excellent. The engine is of course a masterpiece. For me though, when you’re spending… Read more

$130,000 plus the noise level is unacceptable with run flat tyres. I should stress that on smooth pavement it is very quiet.

Build quality was one of the best, I put four stars for cleaning and maintenance because despite the individual paintwork, I found bugs etc very easily stuck to the paint.

2 years 60,000 loss – Started of paying 135,000 for an X6, bought from Coastal BMW, spent over 12 months trying to get faults on vehicle repaired, eventually was exchanged for the series 4 convertible, and was told the value the same. 2 years down the line, tried to exchange my vehicle and have been advised I have lost over 60,000 on my vehicle, buyer beware, any vehicle but BMW Show details

Snapper Rocks Blue Rocks! – My latest car is a BMW430i Convertible in the gorgeous Snapper Rocks Blue, a colour created by one of the brilliant minds at BMW visited the Gold Coast and was inspired by the ocean hues he saw from his apartment overlooking, you guessed it, Snapper Rocks. I have already had two close encounters with people not giving way and those brakes work… Read more

extremely well. I usually drive in economy mode, which adds about 15% to my mileage. I regularly get positive comments about the colour, which for me, was love at first sight.

Best Driving Car for a Blonde Lady! – I am blonde, so have every right to state the above. I know nothing about car maintenance, but do a lot of driving, so this is certainly the BEST car for me! The car parks safely for me, in Cruise mode it identifies the safest driving distance from the car in front, it brakes for me if I am not quick enough, the on-board computer notifies me of… Read more

low tyre pressure or low washer fluid levels or anything else that needs attention before the situation gets serious. This is the safest vehicle I have ever driven in my 35 years of driving experience. I transport my 81 year old mother to numerous weekly medical appointments and it is so quiet and smooth she falls asleep! I love it.

Shockingly horrendous experience you will love - dealership excuses on top of never-ending defects – All the defects photos/videos are in the following link if interested: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jmPA8R6TAF5dZIn064of_0YpZuPFX_-k Customers should not be the QA for BMW. A bit of context - Bought a new built 4 series gran coupe in delivered in 2016 Nov. The car has been driven and looked after with care. There is no rough… Read more

driving on the car.

Straight away within the first 2 weeks the car had a broken camera in the front bumper (which caused the camera view error in the screen). A little after waiting for the replacement for part and the repair, the entire control module broke. For instance, the GPS placed me on top of a rail load and even center of a lake for once in the navigation screen. You can't set location or use navigation. The voice control did not work. The SOS Emergency Call failture light is constantly visible and cannot be dismissed. We as customers are not your QA team. Do your homework before delivering a defect product to us.

It also seems like this is a habit for the dealership such that whichever they touched, something else broke. Shortly after weeks of waiting part again and replacing the control module, I noticed something else broke: Window Rubber Seal (one of the passenger side) was deformed and not aligned to the dot matrix on the window. Screen menu missing a menu item where it can receive security code from BMW website or BMW App. Even after fixing these, there are two occasions where they did not even check the car after the repair and the SOS Emergency call failure light was still on! What a waste of time having arrived in dealership and got told to come back the next day.

All these happened within the first three months. You began to wonder when the next defect is going to popup? I have expressed this issue with the sales manager however he said refund was not possible. From his words, he thinks it is reasonable that 1 in for example 10 cars may have defects. Although provided with a loan car, every trip I still need to allocate time from work and spent 40-60 min drive depending on traffic to the dealer twice a day to arrange the warranty repair/service. In addition, I don't know whether this defect discovery pattern is going to go on any longer. Even one of the rain wiper has a friction related noise issue after 5 minutes in operation. For now the defects just seems endless.

Not long after the control module fix and before the first year service, there is a serious squeak noise from handbrake when you try to step out from the car right after you park the car and pull up the handbrake. I have recorded video showing the noise to service manager during the first service. These guys at service are a joke. They did not even bother to diagnose the problem, instead they applied lubricant all over the window/doors seals. This seemed to be an easy thing for them to do because they didn't want to put in any effort. Not only this did not fix the issue, the window being frameless have greasy lubricant marks all over as the inner side of the window touches the rubber/seal. It still has residue even after you wipe clean it. It took me 5-6 times to clean each window rubber/seal before the marks are less apparent.

Shortly after the service, I realise the noise problem is still apparent. I don't think anyone will disagree that this is not under warranty. I have emailed asking the Service Manager [name removed] why the issue still persisted. I was told to bring the car to dealership again and have it checked. Never was I told verbally or in writing that I will be charged for a diagnostic. Only was I told AFTER I arrived to the dealership, in addition to that there was no loan car even though I asked for one. That was a good morning completely wasted being stood up.

If you do end up buying a bmw, I wish you good luck. They will be your best friends, but only up to the moment you purchase the car. Just be extremely careful with these guys especially things to do with warranty as the contract never says how exactly it should works. Because in reality it is up to the dealership to say you can claim it or not. They always make it sound like as if they are doing you a favour and help you but yet they don't provide evidence. They won't even bother to provide in writing or email why it is not entitled to warranty. I have asked the service manager to provide in writing on particularly why the squeak noise issue was not fixed under warranty and why there will be extra charge to diagnose the problem, he did not even bother to reply. It has been over two months and still haven't heard anything from. How hard could it be? What is the point of Warranty if it is useless?

It is obvious the dealership and BMW Headquarter are in the same bed together. Dealership is making them money. Would they sacrifice the beneficial relationship when someone brings them money? Go figure. Please don't even try to get your hopes high and bother with ACCC. Reality is unless it is a critical failure which stops the car from driving, you might begin to have a case and slightly stronger ground.

After all these experience and all the time, energy and effort wasted, I just wish I have bought a Toyota instead of this car. And this is what I am prepared and intend to do now: take a huge loss and sell the car to someone who wouldn't mind the problem. All of this seems like an expensive joke from Germany. Even if you have time to spare and can live with the issues, you eventually just become exhausted in dealing all these crap.

BMW 430 great car – Just purchased a BMW 430 and love all the features especially the virtual rear camera, it makes parking and reversing so easy. The car drives smoothly and is fuel efficient.  Show details