F31 D3 buying advice

[hooneybadger]

Agreed that the spec isn't the best, but the black wheels are easily remedied if you're fine with the white car.

Happy hunting, anyway!

[Davey_A]

Agreed that the spec isn't the best, but the black wheels are easily remedied if you're fine with the white car.

Happy hunting, anyway!

What’s the big omissions on the spec? Seems ok to me.

[Davey_A]

Thanks for keeping an eye out for me HB, I had seen this one but not too keen on white with black wheels!

Playing Devils Advocate… in your first post you mentioned you were new to Alpina. The pool of cars you’re looking at is less than 100 I believe. Strike off a number that haven’t been well cared for, others with spec omissions you may desire that cannot be retrofitted (everyone wants a pan roof), perhaps mileage, say sub 100k miles (that some people seem to insist on), and the amount of cars should they even come up for sale is crazy small. Black wheels can be sorted!!!

[hooneybadger]

Agreed that the spec isn't the best, but the black wheels are easily remedied if you're fine with the white car.

Happy hunting, anyway!

What’s the big omissions on the spec? Seems ok to me.

White car with black wheels. The actual spec list looks good from the previous post.

[AdrianP]

I agree that there isn’t a huge pool of cars to pick from and there are likely to be compromises, but I would rather wait as I’m in no hurry and spend my money on a car in a colour I like with an interior I like. I know I can get the wheels refurbished, but I’m not a fan of black or white cars, which may make it a long wait!!

[hooneybadger]

I agree that there isn’t a huge pool of cars to pick from and there are likely to be compromises, but I would rather wait as I’m in no hurry and spend my money on a car in a colour I like with an interior I like. I know I can get the wheels refurbished, but I’m not a fan of black or white cars, which may make it a long wait!!

Haha fair play, will stay tuned into your hunt!

[AdrianP]

Haha, I hope I won’t keep you waiting for too long

[AdrianP]

Just seen this advertised.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details ... um=ios-app

Unfortunately I’m not in the Country for a couple of weeks, so can’t take a look and black isn’t my ideal
colour, but everything else looks really nice.

[Davey_A]

Just seen this advertised.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details ... um=ios-app

Unfortunately I’m not in the Country for a couple of weeks, so can’t take a look and black isn’t my ideal
colour, but everything else looks really nice.

Is that missing the HK? Doesn’t mention it, can’t see it…

[AdrianP]

I think you’re right….no HK mentioned and you can’t see in the pics.

[scott-o]

I was in this situation back in July but i had a small window of opportunity to find a car and ideally didnt want to spend much more than £20k. I ended up with a pearlescent white car that had black grills and wheels but it had the bits i would want spec-wise, including the Drexler differential, HK audio, wide screen etc.

I paid £16,250 for the car but it was in worse fettle than i expected when i viewed it and i've spent around £3k sorting it out to where i wanted it to be, i knew this was the case when i viewed it but the owner wouldnt budge much on the price to help that side of things but beggars cant be choosers, generally, so i took it. It was higher mileage than i'd have liked too but you could tell it was a good car underneath, good service history and prior enthusiast owners etc. as well as recent replacement dampers/ service. 3 out of 4 tyres were wrecked though, front discs and pads needed doing, they were really bad, acceleration sensor on the shock was knackered, wheels needed a refurb (great excuse to go sparkle silver!), i fitted chrome grills, had the car detailed inside/ out including ceramic coating, new boot badges, new door sill kick plate etc. I'm fully taken by the car, its a fantastic thing and im glad i didnt walk away at the time (i nearly did).

I suppose what i'm suggesting, long story short, is that i'd not be put off by paint/ wheel colour as the cars themselves are just great!

[hooneybadger]

I was in this situation back in July but i had a small window of opportunity to find a car and ideally didnt want to spend much more than £20k. I ended up with a pearlescent white car that had black grills and wheels but it had the bits i would want spec-wise, including the Drexler differential, HK audio, wide screen etc.

I paid £16,250 for the car but it was in worse fettle than i expected when i viewed it and i've spent around £3k sorting it out to where i wanted it to be, i knew this was the case when i viewed it but the owner wouldnt budge much on the price to help that side of things but beggars cant be choosers, generally, so i took it. It was higher mileage than i'd have liked too but you could tell it was a good car underneath, good service history and prior enthusiast owners etc. as well as recent replacement dampers/ service. 3 out of 4 tyres were wrecked though, front discs and pads needed doing, they were really bad, acceleration sensor on the shock was knackered, wheels needed a refurb (great excuse to go sparkle silver!), i fitted chrome grills, had the car detailed inside/ out including ceramic coating, new boot badges, new door sill kick plate etc. I'm fully taken by the car, its a fantastic thing and im glad i didnt walk away at the time (i nearly did).

I suppose what i'm suggesting, long story short, is that i'd not be put off by paint/ wheel colour as the cars themselves are just great!

Fair points all round, Scott! I feel it's time we saw some pics of your wagon!

[AdrianP]

I was in this situation back in July but i had a small window of opportunity to find a car and ideally didnt want to spend much more than £20k. I ended up with a pearlescent white car that had black grills and wheels but it had the bits i would want spec-wise, including the Drexler differential, HK audio, wide screen etc.

I paid £16,250 for the car but it was in worse fettle than i expected when i viewed it and i've spent around £3k sorting it out to where i wanted it to be, i knew this was the case when i viewed it but the owner wouldnt budge much on the price to help that side of things but beggars cant be choosers, generally, so i took it. It was higher mileage than i'd have liked too but you could tell it was a good car underneath, good service history and prior enthusiast owners etc. as well as recent replacement dampers/ service. 3 out of 4 tyres were wrecked though, front discs and pads needed doing, they were really bad, acceleration sensor on the shock was knackered, wheels needed a refurb (great excuse to go sparkle silver!), i fitted chrome grills, had the car detailed inside/ out including ceramic coating, new boot badges, new door sill kick plate etc. I'm fully taken by the car, its a fantastic thing and im glad i didnt walk away at the time (i nearly did).

I suppose what i'm suggesting, long story short, is that i'd not be put off by paint/ wheel colour as the cars themselves are just great!

Thanks Scott, looking forward to seeing your car. All good points. Unfortunately 2 cars, which I would have looked at, have been for sale when I’ve been out of the country and they don’t hang around long! I know there’s not many, but fortunately I’m in no rush and I’m prepared to wait.

[churchie386]

In my opinion, there is nothing inherently specific when looking at a used, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, ... hand Alpina F31 D3 over a BMW F31/30 330d/335d of the same vintage. All the same checks and rules apply. Ownership records, services records, bills, receipts, recent work, pending work, the owner, the location, etc. Most are over ten years old, many over 100K (and some much more!), some have had body work attended to (rust on arches, gravel rash, or accident repairs). As is often said, buy on condition. The thing to consider it that the Alpina parts are more expensive (not necessarily by much) and less readily available than its BMW cousin. Alpina parts can be ordered through BMW dealers and usually take 6-8 weeks (I had to order a pair of rear springs because one cracked ... to be expected on a car of that age).

Options, now that's really down to personal choice. For me:
19 inch wheels are better than 20 inch on UK roads.
Sunroof, when the screen is back it lets in more noise. I have it closed 95% of the time.
HK audio, wasted given the amount of road noise the tyres generate. These are not quite cars on many UK roads.
Pro Nav. Mine didn't have it and came with the smaller screen too. So I simply added a wide screen form the Pro set up (needs to be coded) and a CarPlay MMI kit, now I have Waze, BBC sounds, Apple Music etc; do you really want a ten year old BMW navigation system?!
Lumbar support is good on long journeys. Memory seats ... more to go wrong and how many people will drive the car besides you?
Parking sensors and camera. Mine only has rear sensors and these work 'in arrears' i.e. the beeping seems to be 5-10 secs behind the action! Front would be useful as would be a camera.

If buying privately get a 'BimmerLink' app and OBD-Bluetooth to pull up the faults/errors on the car, check the battery health, DPF health, ...

If buying from a dealer (any dealer!) expect that any used multipoint checks will be scant at best. In my opinion, those selling cars don't like to look too hard, because what they find tends to cost them money!! They'd rather the warranty (usually not up to much on a ten year old / 100,000 mile car) steps in or the buyer forks out.

If you see a car you like - and there aren't many F31 D3 out there - ask about the car here in case someone knows of it. They are very good cars, but like anything of that age etc, go in eyes wide open.