E85 ownership as a year round daily driver

S

spillynam

Member
 Hampshire
Hello,

I'm new to the forum and looking around for my first Zed which will likely be bought when the days start getting longer next year. I am doing my homework first though so was wondering: what are some important things to keep in mind with daily driving an e85? My current mileage is 13000 miles a year +- 2000, so pretty steep compared to a lot of folks on this forum.

I am looking to get a 2.5i, 2.5si or 3.0i (3.0si is a little out of the price range for me 😢).

I'm especially curious about soft top issues and how frequently they occur, as I don't want to get rained on with the roof up if I can help it.

Any info or advice is greatly appreciated!
 
Around town fuel consumption and the cost of road tax are the big ones for me. Luckily I only do around 4500 miles a year but if I was doing what you are planning I'd be looking elsewhere. Mines showing 23mpg average over the past few months but that includes one long trip out. Stay at 65 on the motorway and it'll do over 40mpg. I think my around town is probably just over 20 which is sadly where most of my driving is these days.
Roofs are not an issue and are well understood by various members on here.
 
Big motorway miles, my 3.0 coupe will do about 38-39mpg with cruise control.

Around town stop start 22mpg.

Have owned my car since 2015, use it every day.

Servicing is key, old cars suspension will probably wear out soon if it hasn't been done.

Then depending on wheel size, tyres on the rear.

Great cars, cost of fuel made me cry a little this morning at £1.68
 
There is a very well priced 3.0si here (4.5k). I know it's earlier than you were planning to buy, but maybe worth a thought?

M

FOR SALE Thread 'BMW Z4 3.0SI 2006'

IMG_0727.jpeg Selling this on behalf of a friend who is not a forum member.

It’s a 2006 3.0SI with 103k miles on the clock. It has the style 108 alloys, brakes in good condition all round. Heated/electric memory m sport seats. Has had a fair bit of work done by myself including; new front shocks, springs, drop links, air filter, wipers, pollen filter, rocker cover gasket, side reflectors from BMW. Will be getting an engine flush, oil and oil filter change shortly. I will also clean out the vanos solenoids and check that they are operating correctly.

It did have some damage to it as shown...
 
TriggerFish said:
There is a very well priced 3.0si here (4.5k). I know it's earlier than you were planning to buy, but maybe worth a thought?

M

FOR SALE Thread 'BMW Z4 3.0SI 2006'

IMG_0727.jpeg Selling this on behalf of a friend who is not a forum member.

It’s a 2006 3.0SI with 103k miles on the clock. It has the style 108 alloys, brakes in good condition all round. Heated/electric memory m sport seats. Has had a fair bit of work done by myself including; new front shocks, springs, drop links, air filter, wipers, pollen filter, rocker cover gasket, side reflectors from BMW. Will be getting an engine flush, oil and oil filter change shortly. I will also clean out the vanos solenoids and check that they are operating correctly.

It did have some damage to it as shown...
Click to expand...
Trust me you have no idea how much I've tried to figure out how to pull 4.5k out of my 2.5k car in order to buy this one. Unfortunately I'll just have to wait a few more months until I've got enough safety net to buy one outright and be able to catch any little problems that come up in the first few months.
 
Rockhopper said:
Around town fuel consumption and the cost of road tax are the big ones for me. Luckily I only do around 4500 miles a year but if I was doing what you are planning I'd be looking elsewhere. Mines showing 23mpg average over the past few months but that includes one long trip out. Stay at 65 on the motorway and it'll do over 40mpg. I think my around town is probably just over 20 which is sadly where most of my driving is these days.
Roofs are not an issue and are well understood by various members on here.
Click to expand...
My mileage is 90% motorway as I travel 50 miles round trip 5 days a week for work and about 42 of those miles are on the motorway, so I'd expect to get a comfortable 32 - 34 mpg which is very workable within my budget. To be honest I'm set on a Zed, I had my taste of an efficient diesel in my F20 118d, and that's the last diesel I'll be buying for a while!
 
Ilogik said:
Big motorway miles, my 3.0 coupe will do about 38-39mpg with cruise control.

Around town stop start 22mpg.

Have owned my car since 2015, use it every day.

Servicing is key, old cars suspension will probably wear out soon if it hasn't been done.

Then depending on wheel size, tyres on the rear.

Great cars, cost of fuel made me cry a little this morning at £1.68
Click to expand...
How important is cruise control in getting this sort of mpg? I understand it can be retrofitted but I'd prefer to get a car with it spec'ed from factory if it is vital for good mpg on motorways.
 
spillynam said:
Trust me you have no idea how much I've tried to figure out how to pull 4.5k out of my 2.5k car in order to buy this one. Unfortunately I'll just have to wait a few more months until I've got enough safety net to buy one outright and be able to catch any little problems that come up in the first few months.
Click to expand...
Fair enough, just wanted to make sure you'd seen it.

That's a very sensible approach, too. Can't say I blame you for waiting at all!
 
My 3.0Si Coupes were only ever fun cars so probably 90% on A roads or Motorways, and very rarely in rush hours. Over 22K miles my average mpg was between 32 and 34.

I only ever used cruise when there were average speed cameras!
 
Mr Tidy said:
My 3.0Si Coupes were only ever fun cars so probably 90% on A roads or Motorways, and very rarely in rush hours. Over 22K miles my average mpg was between 32 and 34.

I only ever used cruise when there were average speed cameras!
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thankfully i work 8-4 so i avoid all the rush hour traffic! its good to hear that the 3.0si can get 32+ mpg. Out of curiosity, how often do you find your cars need to be out of commission to be worked on? obviously i would be relying on this car to get me to work and i understand they’re getting old now so things often need replacing / fixing. Wouldn’t want that horrible situation of being under your car on sunday while the sun is setting to be too frequent 😅
 
The only time either of mine was out of action was when the electric water pump died on my first one at 60K miles - it overheated in less than a mile. But my second one seemed to be on the original pump when I sold it at 91K miles!

But the pre-facelifts don't have an electric water pump and you tend to get some warning when a mechanical one is getting tired. Having said that in every other way the facelift N52 engine is fantastic, which is why my 330i daily has one. FWIW It has averaged 32.8mpg over 25K miles, probably because it doesn't tempt me to hustle it as much.
 
I've been using my 2007 E85 2.5si as my daily driver for over ten years now and have done over 100K miles in it since I bought it.
My daily commute is about 25 miles (12.5 there and 12.5 back) which I think is a good mileage for the engine to get warmed up properly.
Never had any problems with water ingress from the roof but I did relocate the roof motor to the boot pretty early on as it had stopped working.
Apart from the regular service requirements, most of my visits to the mechanic have been to do with age related parts needing replacement, especially plastic components and dried out gaskets, membranes etc.
I try to keep on top of the problems as they arise.
It's a real pain when you have to catch the bus to work when things go wrong as I did last week when the coolant expansion tank decided to break apart, but worth every penny when your Zed is up and running and fixed once again 🙂 :thumbsup:.
 
Mr Tidy said:
The only time either of mine was out of action was when the electric water pump died on my first one at 60K miles - it overheated in less than a mile. But my second one seemed to be on the original pump when I sold it at 91K miles!

But the pre-facelifts don't have an electric water pump and you tend to get some warning when a mechanical one is getting tired. Having said that in every other way the facelift N52 engine is fantastic, which is why my 330i daily has one. FWIW It has averaged 32.8mpg over 25K miles, probably because it doesn't tempt me to hustle it as much.
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Right now i’m looking across the market on both this forum and autotrader, I’ve noticed a pretty hefty price difference between prefacelift 3.0i and 3.0is. Obviously the dream for me is a 3.0is and I’ll have one at some point, but do you think a decent 3.0i or 2.5i at the ballpark price of 2.5 - 4k would be a good middle car while i save for a good example 3.0is? or should i wait a little longer and pull the trigger on an is later down the line
 
There is quite a jump in the values of 3 litre facelifts over pre-facelifts. Rarity may be part of the reason (less than 700 manual E85 3.0Si models came to the UK) and the Sport models had the desirable M-Sport seats as standard that were rarely chosen as an option on the pre-facelifts. And a 3.0Si is as good as it gets with an E85 unless you get into Alpina or M territory!

Given your commute you might want to avoid a pre-facelift 2.5i as they only had a 5 speed box, the 3.0i had 6. But a facelift 2.5Si (NOT a 2.5i facelift) was only 13bhp down on a pre-facelift 3.0i and will be a 6 speed.

IIRC you're going to the Ace on Saturday so get chatting to some owners for their thoughts. I'll be there anyway.
 
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