Car of The Week: BMW 525i Review

Ok I am back from my holidays so it is about time I get to updating my little blog and what better way than with an actual road test. I give you the BMW 525i.

Let me begin with a confession; the E39 BMW M5 is a car on my vehicular bucket list, meaning naturally this weeks car, the flame surfaced E60 didn't draw me in as much as it's classically proportioned predecessor. However that was a worryingly long time ago, 2004 to be exact and since then the years have been favourable to Chris Bangles shake up of the 5 Series. The car manages to pass as a modern sedan and dare I say look more interesting than the current 5 series that replaced it in 2010. The passing of 11 years also means that the 5 now represents an affordable way into BMW ownership and I've been driving a 525i variant to see if this one time ugly duckling is worth your dollar.

How does it drive?

Driving is probably the best thing to start with given BMW's persistence that they make the ultimate driving machine. And I think one word can sum it up; smooth. With the gear selector flicked into D the straight 6 goes about the duties of moving the E60 effortlessly, there are no vibrations, no rattles and no intrusive noises, just a surge of power under your right foot to get you where you need to be. The car feels tightly screwed together as well, with nicely weighted controls and steering which the more committed you become gives greater and greater feedback. Being rear wheel drive means there's a nice balance to the car too, the front wheels unhindered by weighty drive shafts point exactly where you need them, the rears providing the shove to tuck the nose into corners and propel you out the other side onto the next one.

It's no drift car

However don't expect any hooliganism from the 5, it's no drift machine, there is a lot of grip on offer and quite frankly you'd have to be doing something entirely stupid to lose control of one. I drove it partially in the pouring rain and never once saw the traction control light flicker or feel anything other than total stability. I didn't find the 160kw 525i particularly quick though, yes the rain might have meant I was being very gentle on the throttle, but when the car did kick down I never felt like it could send the scenery outside spiralling backwards. If it is speed your after I'd suggest a torquey 530d or beefier 540i V8. Never the less the smooth quiet progress offered from the 525 still makes it an appealing car.

What's it like inside?

Inside the 2009 car I drove everything had worn very well and like the exterior had aged well too. The dash layout is clutter free, just the A/C and radio controls reside in the centre console and the dials behind the 3 spoke wheel are big and clearly visible. The whole cabin wraps around the driver helping keep up that ultimate driving machine persona too, with lots of leather and in the case of the car I drove swathes of grey wood grain trim on the dash and doors. More traditional wood grain was also available from new. Moving onto seating and there is room for 5 adults to squeeze in, but 4 is far more comfortable. The back proving to be quite spacious with ample head space should one have a particularly vertical hair cut. Up front though is where the 5 really shines, with electrically adjustable supremely comforting seats. These help aid a level of ride quality I wasn't quite expecting, maybe I'm too used to stiffly sprung Audi's, but the 5 series composure over bumps and undulations came as a pleasant surprise.

What can go wrong?

The idrive system was my biggest bug bear, it's getting a bit old and given it was never highly thought of, now in the age of tablets that can replace your laptop it feels clunky, unintuitive and slow. E60's have their fair share of mechanical and electrical gremlins too, any Google search for faults will through up a myriad of issues. The car I drove though had only had issue with rear parking sensors not always working and tyre pressure warnings coming on unnecessarily. So not too bad and hopefully given the age of these cars now a lot of the possible faults will have already been fixed by previous owners and all you'll need to do is regular maintenance to keep the car in fine fettle.

The E60 5 series BMW, a fine and dare I say unconventionally handsome sedan. Time has been kind to a car that divided opinion a decade ago and now thanks to prices starting at as little as $9000 the mid size offering from BMW represents a well built, composed and comfy second hand driving machine.

Go get yourself one

This car caught my eye for a couple of reasons, firstly for a private seller the pictures are rather good, shows they put some effort in and no doubt want to showcase how well cared for their car is. Secondly that $2500 repair bill means $2500 you don't have to spend fixing it and everything should be in tip top condition. 

2005 BMW 525i, $13500 

Volvo V60 Polestar day 3, what have we learned

Another day with the V60 done and I've got to say for a self confessed VW nut the Volvo is really growing on me. Today saw me tackle something more sedate than a 500+ km drive, a simple trip to the shops, here are my thoughts.

Wagontastic

1. Firstly the Polestar is rather good at just being a Volvo wagon, no real surprise there but its good to know that even with 258kw of oomph the boot will happily take half a dozen shopping bags and a couple bags of compost. I'm not convinced its the biggest boot though, the styling of the car definetly affects its functionality.

First taste of the pace

2. The second thing I learned, is if you want excitement on the drive home from the shops the Polestar delivers. Finding a twisting route back I got my first taste of how well the V60 can hold onto the road when you start to push it, naturally this wasnt great fun for the boot full of shopping, it slid about a fair amount but good golly was it fun for me. I'll go into more detail about how the Polestar drives in my final review but if today was anything to go by the Germans performance arms have reason to be worried.

Useful interior

3. Lastly the interior, it is full of useful cubbyholes for daily use, not the most riveting aspect of a car I'll agree but it is useful to know theres a place to store your phone! Namely the little tray behind the floating centre console, nicely out of your line of sight so you don't get distracted when driving. The deep alcantara trimmed arm rest storage pocket inbetween the seats with USB and AUX sockets is also a useful place to keep valuables out of sight.

Tomorrow I'll be taking the big Swede to the beach, with a real test for its boot on the cards, can it swallow a surf board? Come back tomorrow to find out.

The Volvo V60 Polestar review is coming

Hello readers, I'd like to take you way back to December 2014 for a moment when I wrote about my plans for the blog in 2015.  One of the main things I wanted to achieve and that I wrote about then was to do car reviews, I wanted to share my passion, knowledge and critique of cars new or old with you guys out there in the hope I might influence someones car buying decision.

Real car reviews 

Well over the last few weeks you might have noticed that some of my feature cars I've actually driven and this coming week my blog is going to celebrate a milestone. For the first time a major European car manufacturer has agreed to lend me a car to review for a whole week and that company is Volvo.

What to expect

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Volvo in advance and tell you the readers that I will be updating the blog daily for the whole time I have the Volvo V60 Polestar on test, think of it as a 7 day, how is it to live with diary. I'm very excited about whats to come and hope you are too, this is the start of something big for TheGearbox.      

Car of the Week Review: Volkswagen Polo A03

This week I'm picking a small car and going back to basics with something that for me has always felt a cut above the rest, the Volkswagen Polo A03 or as it's known in Europe the 6n2. And for the first time I've actually been behind the wheel of this weeks car, so today will mark my first proper review on TheGearbox.

A bit of background

The 6n2 was a development of this, the 6n 

Released in 2000 the 6n2 Polo was a thoroughly reworked and facelifted 6n Polo a car which dated back to 1994 in Europe. In Australia I should add that the Polo was known solely as the A03 for its whole production run (1996-2001). Remaining relatively unchanged under the skin 6n2's main differences were sharper styling and a whole new interior which helped usher the Polo into the 21st century. Visually the 6n2 looked like a 6n that had lost some flubber and toned up. In my eyes the gym time was a success and helped the Polo look more at place in VW's increasingly upmarket range of cars at the time like Mk4 Golf and B5 Passat.

How does it drive? 

Power and there's not a lot of it, only 55kw, comes from a 1.4 litre 16 valve 4 cylinder. In Europe this engine was also offered in the Mk4 Golf and it really struggled to move the Golfs considerably heft around, in the Polo though it feels much more at home only having to deal with 1021kg. Inside the driving position is a little high but you can move the wheel around in a bid to counteract this. The seats themselves are comfy although not very supportive, but your hardly going to go tackling a rally stage in one so that doesn't really matter. Long suspension travel ensures the ride is good and the MacPhearson struts up front mean the Polo hunts out apex's well. The gear sticks a bit light and vague around neutral but it slots into gears nicely enough and feels good with a golf ball like knob on top. By no stretch of the imagination is the Polo quick though, but by stirring the gears and using the little steering wheel to point the Polo exactly where you want to go some fun can be had in the otherwise serious little German.

   

Whats it like inside? 

The 6n2 had a much improved interior

The trouble with small cars of this era is that in my experience at least, no matter how well they might drive, they always feel a bit cheap. It doesn't matter what manufacturers do the materials just aren't up to scratch. In fact many are just plain scratchy and horrible, and while yes I understand this is usually due to keeping the sale prices low it really isn't acceptable. The Polo though is a model which has always bucked this trend and the 6n2 stepped it up a level. The materials in the cabin feel hard wearing and although there is plenty of plastic inside it feels solid not cheap and brittle. From experience there are also very few squeaks and rattles, impressive given that even the youngest cars are now 14 years old. Two binnacle's one for speed the other for revs are the standout of the revised 6n2 dash and they are lovely, especially at night when illuminated by VW's red onto blue colour scheme of the late 90's early 00's. They also sit behind a lovely thin, simple 3 spoke steering wheel. Space wise, front seat passengers get lots of room to move but the back seats are only good for taking people short distances. Despite it's practical 5 door layout I wouldn't fancy being in the back seat for a long journey. As far as insulation goes, the quality fit and finish of the interior helps to keep most road noise out but some does seep in, especially wind noise, at highway speeds. Standard equipment was pretty basic, but expect air con, front fog lights, 15 inch alloys and a CD player.

Running costs, whats likely to go wrong? 

As previously mentioned even the youngest of this generation Polo are 14 now so age related things such as rubber bushes, engine hoses and belts may be perishing and in need of changing. Paintwork and headlight plastics too might also be showing signs of over a decade in the Aussie sun and be needing some attention. Mechanically the 1.4 is a simple engine so with regular servicing should be fine and with quite a few Polo's finding homes in Australia the cost of getting one fixed shouldn't be wallet emptying. In saying that though if you really fancy saving money and are a capable D.I.Y mechanic there is an abundance of parts for the Polo on Ebay UK that sellers can ship down under for very little money. To buy a whole car you won't need to spend much either, you'll see from the car I've chosen below, but to get a good one there's no need to spend more than $5000. Combined fuel economy of 8.6l/100km is reasonable too.

To Conclude 

At this price point I think the Polo is an excellent second hand buy and a much more appealing proposition than something like a Yaris. Made from quality materials, robust mechanical's and finished to a high standard the Polo also happens to be a fun car to drive, as long as your not expecting hot hatch levels of performance.

And here's one I found earlier   

Yes it's from a dealer but wow is it cheap, low km's and appears to be in reasonable condition bar a few visible scratches and a dent just under the back window I'd be very tempted to go have a nosey around this 2000 Polo if I was in the area.

2000 Volkswagen Polo 16v, $2,999




Image credit: australiancar.reviews

Round Up

2014 is almost over folks and you might have noticed that TV shows and news bulletins are filling their airtime with yearly round ups of all that has gone on over the last 365 days. So not wanting to miss out I figured I'd do the same for my blog. The only catch being I've only been doing this for 6 weeks. Not to worry though, consider this my month a bit a review instead! Have I achieved what I set out to do so far?

My main aim,by drawing on personal experience, was to show people new to Australia and Australians alike that buying a European car in Aus didn't need to be expensive nor difficult. Second to this was to show people some absolute automotive crackers for sale, cars that some might have thought were only attainable in Europe. All this would be mixed in with a little bit of news and some reviews. As of yet there have been no reviews, no one wants to give me their car quite yet! However some will come in the new year, I have given you readers out there some new car news though, so expect that to continue. 

What I am most proud of though is my car of the week feature, a chance for me to do my favorite thing, search the classifieds for lovely, reasonably priced European motors. Since November I've shown people everything from hot hatches, German super coupes to bonafide classics all for under $20,000 in almost every state in Australia. Which given a brand new Kia Cerato could set you back that if not more, the chance to own something a little more interesting is a tempting proposition. 

Plenty S3's out there for under 10k

Or how about becoming a driving god in an M3 for under 20k?

Now I know that there are some flaws with my reasoning, lots and lots of people pick a new car for the security they offer, things like reliability and warranty's. So for this I offered a comparison between some brand new Asian and European mid sized hatch backs. And low and behold a Skoda Octavia turned out to be one of the cheapest new cars you could buy in Australia, with French manufactures like Renault and Citroen offering 5 year plus warranty's on their cars. Since writing that piece though manufacturer offers have changed but I will say if your in the market for a new car right now, Volkswagen are offering the new Polo for under $16,000 and a big new Jetta for $19,990 (that's Kia Cerato money by the way). I'll be sure to do more comparo's like this in the new year.

Octavia is cheaper than you might think, it's just a Golf in Czech suit don't you know

My final thought of the year though, if you still need a bit of convincing about acting on my car of the week feature is this. You want the reassurances a new, reliable Japanese car can give you, especially in a country as vast as Australia, fine, I totally get it. You budget $20 to $30k for it, also fine. But how about opting for a model or spec below, an S instead of an SE for instance, who really needs a rear view camera anyway? With that extra wedge of cash you've just saved go get yourself a European weekend warrior! A two car garage is always better than one in my book.

One of these in the garage for the weekend maybe?

Thanks for reading thus far, Happy New year everyone!