The 406 Replacement

[waue1978]

I'd decided to sell the Pug a while ago, but had spent the past couple of months mainly looking towards the other side of the PSA group focusing largely on 2.2 C5s, but also got sidetracked onto Xsara Picassos as the wife actually liked the one we looked at.
On flicking through the diesels with under 100k for less than £3k something cropped up that I had been wanting for years (since I had a petrol one in 2005) & I put a half hearted bid in at just over the start price. At the auction end I had been the only bidder (hope it isn't a bad omen) & on Thursday 5th April 2012 I drove this back from Leicester:



Wheels are 17ins with 235/45 x17s on:







One small dent in front of the n/s/r arch:



Small patch of rust on the corner of the bootlid. Not impressed that I missed it when inspecting the car, but not the end of the world as I already know where I can get another clean bootlid in Biarritz Blue from a Sport that is being broken. Shame he's already sold the bumpers from it...



Boith front lights have condensation, but the covers are removable & can be dried out - had to do this on my first E39. Also looks like somebody may have messed about with the front bumper as the bottome grills don't sit quite right:



Interior not too grubby, but missing a set of mats (the ones in there are all odd):





Rear cupholders missing from below the vents, but I'll be fitting the small cubby hole instead as the cupholders are a bit fragile anyway:



Look at the size of that:



Just over 81k with service history, but due a service (& swirl flap removal if fitted) as last one was Feb 2011 at 73k. 2 columns of dead pixels in the computer display, but strangely enough one of them has started to appear again today, so these may come back eventually:



If not though, I can always just use the display on the TV screen - shame I got this after they turned off the analogue signal. Here's what I managed to get on the way back from Leicester at steady motorway speeds:




Not managed to go to town on the outside yet, but got the hoover, cloths & sprays in there Friday after I'd finished cleaning out the 406 & it's made a bit of an improvement:







Now the 406 is sold I'll have to see what this is like to live with on a daily basis. 184bhp, 288lb/ft an auto box & rear wheel drive will at least make it interesting. May not be as economical as the Pug, but it'll be interesting to see how the fuel + maintenance costs of this one work out by comparison. When we worked out the difference between this & the 523i we bought my father I was only £400 up over 2 years.

[lozz]

looks lovely that mate,
nice colour,

that bit of a scab on the boot lid wouid repair easily,
body shop wouidnt charge much to repair something that small iwouidnt think, work out cheaper than Replacing the full lid,

ibet that can catch pidgeons

[waue1978]

looks lovely that mate,
nice colour,

Everyone was shocked to find it was blue when I got it back as they reckoned it looked black on Ebay. I like the way the light hits it - should polish up nicely.

that bit of a scab on the boot lid wouid repair easily,
body shop wouidnt charge much to repair something that small iwouidnt think, work out cheaper than Replacing the full lid,

Might check it out during the week. The bootlid is £65 (including carriage) & it comes with the Sport lip spoiler plus I can then resell my bootlid. Somebody looking to replace a more severely damaged one (that isn't as finicky as me) will probably at least get me £20 back on it. If a bodyshop can do it for under £50 I'll do it, but there is also the chance that the rust can come back.

[plod]

Looks nice mate, and you've scrubbed it up well

Id get the sport bootlid mate and sell yours like you say

I was quite surprised at how good on fuel my mates E61 530D is on fuel for such a big car

[midsdaz]

Nice tidy motor for its age u done well The only down fall is to a BMW is there sh*t in the snow

[waue1978]

The only down fall is to a BMW is there sh*t in the snow

That's certainly the impression you'd get from watching most of them when it's snowy, but we had heavy snow down here in 2010 before I bought the 406 & I was using my Dad's old E34 520i with no problems. In fact I had to be deliberately heavy footed with it a couple of times when I was trying to chew up a bit of the snow from the ungritted roads outside our house.

[midsdaz]

I suppose it does help if u no wat ur doing all u see round here is BMW abandoned on the side of a road it's funny to watch them there first reaction is to boot it

[grasmere59]

That car is itching for a set of hella angel eye headlamp replacements and a pair of celis rear lights.A 16:9 monitor would update the dash.The pixels will come and go with the temp of the weather,mine loses the temp display on the right hand side of the mfd somedays and on others it's as clear as day.Have a look at the bootlid closing adjustment as they tend to "bounce" of the rear panel if there not adjusted right on the stops when people slam them shut and then that causes the rust at the corner of the lid to grow where it's been contacting the rear panel.

[waue1978]

Now 2 weeks since the 406 went (the day after it was advertised) & I now have an idea of what the 530d is like to live with. First impression is that it is not a car for pottering around town in. Doing my short, cold start town trips I am only getting 19mpg (BMW claimed urban figures for a 530d auto are only 24mpg anyway) compared to the 30-35 I was getting from the Pug, so we're looking at an extra £1000 in fuel over 8k each year now, but I did spend that just in maintenance in the first 18 months of 406 ownership, so not writing off the Beemer yet. £120 got it fully serviced last Monday & the guy that did it said all looks very good all round. All he could fault it on was the condensation in the headlamps & the battery seemed a bit low - Dad has a spare battery in the shed if we need it anyway. The dead coluns of pixels seem to be taking it in turns at the moment, but this does at least support what Grasmere previously stated.

General driving is strange. Not sure if it's the autobox or the engine, but it really doesn't feel like a diesel. There is plenty of grunt low down, but it doesn't seem to tail off like the HDi did. There really isn't much to keep up with it at the moment (& before you say it, 19mpg was all I got taking it really steady around town - where this seems to pay off is that your fuel economy doesn't suffer when you press on & sometimes it improves it).

In all honesty, I'm really not sure how long I'll be keeping it (hence the private plate still being on retention). Part of me wishes I'd kept the Pug for the 35mpg & practicality of the big boot, but the fact that in over 2 years it never gave me a straight MOT pass really did disillusion me with it. In the 2 years that I had the Pug & my Dad had the 523i, I was only £600 up from having the Peugeot compared to the 20mpg 523i & that was just counting maintenance, not my upgrades. If I'd been unlucky enough to get caught for the clutch & DMF that saving was wiped out.


Anyway, while I have got the Beemer, I'm going to at least look after it. Weather hasn't help up well enough to get her properly cleaned up, but I did manage to get 10mins in the jet wash over the weekend to blast out 12 years of mud & sh*te. It really does bug me that people don't clean these areas properly - this is why so many cars start to rust around the wheelarches.


It also managed to stay dry enough just long enough to clean behind another little muck trap:





It's only a 5min job to pop the rear lenses off most cars & then you can have it like this:





& just to highlight why it is time well spent:



Thankfully, it isn't too bad & can be rubbed down & banished, but if it had been left, this isn't a bolt on panel like the bootlid is.

[OdinEidolon]

Looks a lovely motor that! I do not like beemers usually, too expensive to buy and mantain (here at least), but that's what I'd go for if I had to. Not an auto tho.

Have you tried it on twisty roads and motorways? What does it feel like in the first scenario and what mpgeeeees does it return at a steady 70mph?

[waue1978]

Looks a lovely motor that! I do not like beemers usually, too expensive to buy and mantain (here at least), but that's what I'd go for if I had to. Not an auto tho.

Have you tried it on twisty roads and motorways? What does it feel like in the first scenario and what mpgeeeees does it return at a steady 70mph?

I had always said that if I got another 5 series I was going to have an auto. In hindsight though, I think the economy on a manual would be a lot better. A friend has an auto 523i & we worked out that he gets 13mpg doing the same type of running as I do compared to the 18-20 that my father gets - & neither of them hang around.

On the twisty roads it isn't too bad, but I am quite mindful of the wide tyres. They do give plenty of grip, but the downside of that is that it wouldn't be as progressive as the standard wheels would be if it started to break away. I drove it back from Leicester which was pretty much motorway & dual carriageway all the way & the computer showed just under 40mpg from 70-80 with it well overdue a service. I don't think 45mpg is out of the question on a run & with pipe & slippers driving it may hit 50, but round town I can't see it getting far over 20mpg.

[OdinEidolon]

I guess compared to a 406 on twisty rads it wind hands down?

[waue1978]

I guess compared to a 406 on twisty rads it wind hands down?

Overall, yes, although over a long distance the 406 might catch up while I'm filling the Beemer's tank up...

[OdinEidolon]

I guess compared to a 406 on twisty rads it wind hands down?

Overall, yes, although over a long distance the 406 might catch up while I'm filling the Beemer's tank up...

Is the beemer the 184bhp or the 204bhp version?

[waue1978]

184bhp, 288lb/ft an auto box & rear wheel drive will at least make it interesting.

The 200+ versions were the facelift ones with the funky "angel eye" lights & that would have been a lot more expensive than this was. Can be remapped to over 200, but there's enough there for now. Want to try to avoid spending too much on it to make up for the mpg deficit.