Initial thoughts on G31 520d M Sport touring

[E39mad]

Quick summary of the car: bought from John Clark BMW Aberdeen so comes with 12 month AUC. Built in July 2020 it is one of the earliest facelift (LCI cars) and is in a fabulous colour combination of Bluestone metallic with ivory Dakota leather. The following options were all factory fitted:
Comfort pack: Comfort Seats, Comfort Access, Heated Steering Wheel, Extended storage contents
Technology Plus Pack: Driving Assistant Professional, Drive Recorder, Harman Kardon sound, Head Up Display, Wireless charging, gesture control
Parking Assistant Plus with 360 degree cameras
Sun Protection Glass

LED lights, reverse camera folding mirrors and larger 12" display were all standard on LCI cars.

I wanted a well specced car and didn't want any wheels bigger than 19" so this car ticked all the boxes and many more. The price was cheaper than I could find anywhere else by a long way so a deal was done.

Car had 22700 miles on collection and now up to 24000...eek. This is the return trip from Aberdeen, a trip to Newton Stewart and another to Cheltenham. Whilst the majority of these were motorway miles there was also plenty of A road and small amount of B road driving.

The car has mild hybrid technology and the mpg is above expectations. Two long runs of 59 mpg including one to Dumfriesshire 4 up and fully loaded. A couple of runs at 55mpg where traffic was heavier and/or wet weather conditions. I would say it is 10-15% more efficient than my old F11.

The ride generally is very good considering it does not have adaptive suspension. A couple of B roads unsettled it but not too drastically. Currently running Pirelli P Zeros which I may change to Michellin when the time comes. The handling is superb and the steering good but has the typical BMW electric "none feel" assistance.

The tech is unbelievable. The radar cruise control works extremely well whether on a free flowing none congested motorway or in a hold up. You can chose between radar cruise or you can add driver assistance which is brilliant in traffic jams as effectively drives the car for you as long as you keep some pressure on the wheel. You can adjust the distance to the car in front by 2 to 4 car lengths. Haven't enabled automatic changing lane yet by indicating but might try that soon. Loving the HUD and Android Auto so choice of BMW or Google Maps/Waze.

The 360 cameras allow for a blind spot warning in your wing mirrors when a car is either side of you. Also liking the heated steering wheel which I thought would be a bit of a gimmick but actually is very pleasant and it's not been that cold yet.

The gesture control is something that I may disable.

The parking assistant is amazing. Our Air BnB in Cheltenham had a tight undercroft parking space which was just wide enough for the car so twice let the car reverse it out the same way it came in...clever stuff and avoided an early scrape.

The Comfort Seats appear to be a slightly different design than in our early F11 and whilst very good don't appear to be quite as comfortable. The Dakota leather is not as supple as the Nappa in the previous car. The rear seat backs can be placed vertically to increase the boot space whilst leaving the tonneau cover in place which is useful for us carrying a mobility scooter and dog on occasions.

Bought a boot liner with a protective flap for the bumper and looking at rear seat covers for the hound. Otherwise it will stay as is.

Overall I am delighted with the car. It's a big improvement on the F11. Looking forward to driving it to Southern Spain for a month in January.

 

Edited November 6, 2023 by E39mad
Photos added

[E39mad]

Don't know why this site loads my photos upside down! 

NOW SORTED

Edited November 6, 2023 by E39mad

[Matthew]

Nice spec and colour combo. I thought comfort seats meant Nappa leather, maybe that was just the G32 and I love the comfort they provide. 
 

Gesture control, I only use it for skipping tracks but use it very often. 
 

For pictures upside down, if you’ve taken them on the phone, while it may right the pictures for phone screen viewing, once transferred they retain their original orientation so they need to be saved as copies once righted and then uploaded. 

Edited November 6, 2023 by Matthew

[E39mad]

Yes that used to be the case. Nappa is/was an optional extra on facelift G31's. I think Nappa came with the Comfort Plus Pack which includes ventilated and massaging seats plus heated rear seats.

[E39mad]

Just filled up with Esso derv at £1.56/litre - took almost £100 to fill. Previous fill at Newton Stewart was £149.9 at a Shell!!

It had done 768 miles and still said it had 90 left in the tank. That equates to 55.8mpg average. Very pleased with that. The long term average on the F11 was around 44mpg.

[E39mad]

5 weeks and in and around 2000 miles done (that will thankfully slow down massively over the next 5 weeks!) is a good place to review how the car is performing for us:

First of all the positives:

MPG - it's a 520d so it should be good and it is. So far it has averaged over 56mpg which is amazing for such a big heavy car. I believe that the mild hybrid technology is responsible for some of this efficiency. Motorways are run in Eco Pro whilst A and B road are in Comfort mode. Sport has been used on a number of occasions.

Build quality - you can get somewhat blasé being used to BMW's having had a good number of them but nothing in over 3 years and almost 25000 miles squeaks or rattles in the car. The dashboard and finish are as good if not better than the F11.

The looks - the pictures don't do the car justice. It looks really good in the metal and possibly other than the choice of an expensive individual colour the Bluestone metallic looks fabulous with the sun protection glass and partly black alloys. I would say it is more grey than blue but the summer months may prove different. The colour is predominantly pre-facelift and was dropped shortly after the LCI cars came out. I haven't seen another facelift in the same colour for sale. It hides the muck and dirt well. Friends have commented positively on the colour combinations too. We are not a fan of dark interiors unless there is a panoramic roof (one of about 5 options not ticked by the original owner) so the light coloured leather compliments the colour perfectly for us.

The options - the original owner ticked a lot of options of this car. My favourite is the Technology Plus Pack which in addition to the fabulous Head Up Display and HK speaker system provides Driving Assistant Professional; basically radar cruise control with the option of autonomous steering input. For Britain's busy motorways it can take a lot off pressure (tiredness) off you. I was very reserved about using it initially (didn't use it all on the 370 mile 1st journey back from Aberdeen) but once used a couple of times and tweaked to suit the traffic conditions each time I would say it is a major additional safety feature. Other options of note are the 360 cameras and built in drive recorder, and the heated steering wheel. The options not ticked were massaging and ventilated seats (it does though have memory Comfort seats), sunroof, towbar, laser lights and M Sport Pro Pack which I didn't want because of the 20" wheels (see below).

The space - the boot is bigger and there is more rear legroom than the F11. Whilst not as big inside as a Skoda Superb Estate (friend has a 6 month old one) it does the job for us of lugging kids to Uni, a mobility scooter for my wife and our dog without issue.

The not so positives:

Not many here; in fact only one: the ride can be choppy particularly upon East Cheshire's poor A and B road surfaces. We specifically went for 19" over 20" wheels on the M Sport following reviews of owners and I think I would find the 20"s unacceptable. BMW don't offer adaptive suspension on the LCI 520d in the UK - a strange decision considering the state of our roads and you can get it on a 320d! The ride is good on motorways and decent A roads. I don't think the Pirelli RFT's help either. I find them slightly noisy, unacceptably so on the concrete sections of the M27 at the weekend. I may need to play around (reduce) tyre pressures a little or change to Michellins when the time comes. The ride doesn't ruin the car but it could be better.

A quiet time (thankfully) between now and early January when there is big trip to southern Europe. Time to get it cleaned up and ready.

Overall it is a superb car. Fast enough, supremely efficient and good looking with enough toys to keep the majority of people happy. I would say they are somewhat of a used car bargain if you can find the right spec for you.

Edited November 27, 2023 by E39mad

[E39mad]

Update on the car: we are now just over 6 months and 7200 miles with our G31 520d. The car turned over 30000 miles yesterday.

The car has been faultless and continues to excel particularly on long distance runs. Came back from Portsmouth recently (240 miles) and car did over 60 mpg with an average speed of 57 mph.

The 19" summer wheels were put back on the other week. It could do with a detail later this Spring/Summer and the leather cleaning and nourishing but that is being picky as still looks great but will do it for my own piece of mind.

It's booked in for an oil and filter service with BMW on May 20th together with a vehicle check.

Shame they don't offer a diesel variant in the UK in the new model.

[Sjl]

Nice looking car, very similar spec to my LCI G31 540, which came with non RFT tyres and a canister of gunk ….  The ride and handling is vastly better with these compared with the previous F11 535D on RFTs. Think dropping your RFTs would sort your ride out.

[E39mad]

9 hours ago, Sjl said:

Nice looking car, very similar spec to my LCI G31 540, which came with non RFT tyres and a canister of gunk ….  The ride and handling is vastly better with these compared with the previous F11 535D on RFTs. Think dropping your RFTs would sort your ride out.

Thanks - the car continues to excel. Unfortunately had to come back from Cornwall yesterday and got caught in numerous the M5/M6 car parks. The driving assistance professional was superb in stop start traffic taking away a lot of the strain and just having to touch the wheel every so often to keep it activated. 60 mpg on the way down and 57 on they way back despite the stop start nature of the journey.

Would still have liked the softer leather especially for longer journeys but it doesn't diminish how great an all round car it is.