530i vs 550i

KiLLRoYza

Active member
I also made 15km return trips daily for a month or two with my diesel and they don't like it much.

Look, this isn't easy, but for this purpose I actually wouldn't recommend the 30d. It's a very, very different story if you will be taking the car on longer roadtrips though.
 

Barkie

Member
I have comfort seats and HUD on my 2005 550. must say that both of these is great! If I get out of the 550 into my 330 it's like sitting on a brick:smilebounce:
 

Rotinaj

Active member
Steph745 said:
Rotinaj said:
Steph745 said:
550i all day as long as it doesn't have "niceties" like Active Steering, EDC dampers, or Dynamic Drive. The valve-stem seals on the n62 motor have already been mentioned by others,labour is the killer on that repair.

Those things are all standard on the V8's?


550s are usually high spec, likelihood is it'll have at least one of those three. Get the VINs for both cars and run them through a BMW VIN decoder to see the spec sheet.

EDC dampers might run you up to 20k a corner...
Overhaul of the Dynamic Drive hydraulic system could run +R10k and that's excluding a damaged steering pump and stabilizer bars...
You could probably bear the brunt of Active Steering woes, and many 530s have it anyway.

IT IS STANDARD EQUIPMENT ON A 545/550.
 

Solo Man

Well-known member
There was a guy here in our part of the world that wants to sell his 2008/2009 530d auto motorsport (was my car before) with about 190k kms on the odo for about R135k. White with black upholstery. Good buy! I would rather go for that as i used to get 16km/l on the 4000km road trip i did with it just before i sold it. Had bought my present 530d manual so sold the auto.


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Do not know why they always come out sideways or upside down! Mods, please help!
 

Budleigh

Member
Solo Man said:
There was a guy here in our part of the world that wants to sell his 2008/2009 530d auto motorsport (was my car before) with about 190k kms on the odo for about R135k. White with black upholstery. Good buy! I would rather go for that as i used to get 16km/l on the 4000km road trip i did with it just before i sold it. Had bought my present 530d manual so sold the auto.


img_0915_9123138012.jpg
img_0918_6573152267.jpg



Do not know why they always come out sideways or upside down! Mods, please help!


How do you find the manual, compared to the auto?

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
 

Solo Man

Well-known member
Sorry about the price, had a look at the advert and see that he wants R139k. Car has on 186k kms. Guys name is Jacques at 082 445 5600 I think it was advertised on the local Facebook page


The manual 530d is an aquired taste. I use it mainly for long distance traveling and to tow my smallish caravan (which i want to sell now). It has a lot of torque so when it is in sixth gear i tend to stay there except if i find that it labours which i avoid at all costs. I normally only use the first five gears in town. We live in a sort of suburb of Hermanus with an 80kph limit going into town and there is not a lot of stop/go in town as traffic normally seems to flow, except during weekends and holidays. I like to be in control of the gearbox as on the auto i sometimes wanted it to stay in gear longer or change up into sixth which it tended not to at 60 or even 80 sometimes. I try and drive economically. Currently the obc is on 15.9km/l or thereabouts and that is with some town driving as well as n trip to Somerset West and driving around there. But that is what i would have gotten with the auto as well. I want to add that i have removed the cat, blanked off the egr and removed the swirl flaps on all the cars i have or had, including the 2008/9 E60 530d motorsport mentioned in my previous post, so no worries about flaps breaking off and getting into the engine. Btw., on my present car, when i got it at about 160k kms the one swirl flap was already half broken off and stuck sideways in the inlet manifold. I had caught it just in time!!!
 

xpack

New member
Was a tough one but i pulled the trigger and bought a 530i, waiting for payment to clear and il pick her up. Pics will follow soon
 
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