Archive for the ‘BMW’ Category
Free Motor Car Reviews
I lead Motorcars Offer Free Motor Car reviews and advice for you before you purchase a car. If you cannot find a review on the vehicle of your choice, e-mail us on the e-mail address given at the bottom of the page and we will assist you promptly.
You can read reviews on every single car available in South Africa on our website. You will notice that we follow a somewhat different approach to most other car-reviewing websites. We do not simply give you a short summary or marketing pitch about a certain model; quite the contrary. We believe that our audience is intelligent and want to know the story behind the story and the truth about a car.
People use our website to make purchasing decisions, so it is our top priority to provide them with the honest truth and to point out the weaknesses and strong points of a particular model. Our reviews are offered as a free service and they are compiled by a motoring expert that gives his frank views on each vehicle. The reviews do not get sponsored or paid for by vehicle manufacturers and are objective reviews based on facts and expert opinion.
To this end, we strive to dash misconceptions and expose propaganda to bring you the truth. The truth is that many diesel cars are not worth their salt because:
- They are more expensive to buy
- They are far more expensive to maintain
- The break down a lot more frequently and are more unreliable than petrol cars
- Diesel engines have a very narrow power band and only really produces usable power between 2,000 and 4,000 r/min
- Diesel engines have to driven with a view to maximising their reliability, requiring a change in driving habits
The only thing that offsets all these disadvantages is their fuel economy and although diesel vehicles can easily be 25 percent more economical than petrol cars, in practice you may often find that you have to travel well in excess of 100,000 km simply to recoup the extra money you had spent on a diesel model. By the time 100,000 kilometres have passed, many of the other unreliability gremlins that tend to afflict ageing diesel cars rear their heads and some people never end up actually saving money.
Replacing diesel injectors and the fuel pump may exceed R40,000 in many diesel cars, putting you back so far that it becomes impossible to ever save money by “going diesel”. Therefore – as we frequently point out in our reviews – buy a diesel vehicle only if you are always covered by a maintenance plan or extensive warranty and if you are going to sell it on before the plan expires.
Diesel cars’ troublesome reliability record is also becoming known all over the motoring industry and it has started to affect diesel cars’ resale values. So you also stand to lose more money when selling on the diesel. If you really have to, buy a used diesel car with several extras with less than 15,000 km on the odo and with motorplan coverage to at least 100,000 km. Then sell it before the 80,000 km mark and you can benefit from the fuel economy without paying the prohibitive maintenance penalty.
Still, it is more likely to break down next to the road than a petrol car… This is not the type of thing you will read anywhere but we believe it is our duty to dismantle the romanticism around diesel and show you the pros and cons so you can make an informed purchasing decision. There is certainly a place for diesel and the lusty torque delivery and exemplary economy are utterly exploitable in certain situations, but you need to be aware of the pitfalls if you are to circumvent them.
We list the key specifications of each model in its review too, from the engine power and performance to the taxable CO2 emissions. However, bald figures can only tell you so much, so we endeavour to bring the cars alive in the review, so you can get a feel for what they are really like to drive; intangibles like positive handling, steering feel or the engine or gearbox characteristics play an important part in what it actually feels like to drive a vehicle, irrespective of what the figures say.
The current trend is toward downsizing of car engines, which means that an increasing number of manufacturers are using smaller engines with turbochargers to achieve what was previously only possible with a larger engine. We are all aware of fuel consumption figures thanks to high oil prices and our average fuel consumption figures noted in our reviews are real-world figures and not the ridiculously optimistic European Cycle figures normally quoted by the manufacturers.
The manufacturers’ quoted fuel consumption figures are almost never achievable in South Africa, where our cars are normally driven hard and has to work for their living, amidst high temperatures and the thin air of the Reef. In this vein, the power loss an engine experiences at high altitude is far more relevant here than in most European countries where the large cities are close to sea level. A naturally aspirated car develops about 18 percent less power in Johannesburg than in Durban or Cape Town, whereas a turbocharged vehicle usually does not forfeit much more than five percent.
Smaller, turbocharged engines – in line with the current downsizing trend – are therefore normally far stronger at altitude than naturally aspirated engines that may otherwise match them for power at sea level. What is more, a small engine with boosted induction is far more economical too. Therefore, we support the downsizing trend and where cars use this technology to achieve an advantage over rivals, we duly not it in our reviews, especially because the majority of South African cars are driven high above sea level.
However, even these engines are made to look far better than they are by manufacturers quoting fuel economy figures derived from the European Cycle, which is not achievable in South Africa. In fact, you can usually add about 25 percent to the EC figure to arrive at a realistic overall consumption figure for a locally driven vehicle. Our average fuel consumption figures are as accurate as possible, giving you an overall figure for a car driven in a mix of highway and town driving under local conditions.
There are also full-lenght articles on our website on diverse issues. In this vein, we discuss warranties, service plans and maintenance plans in detail and inform you about all the “tech speak” in the industry, while presenting the information in a concise and clear way. The bottom line is that there are distinct differences between warranties, service plans and maintenance plans and you have to be aware of these, or you might get a nasty surprise, next time your car plays up.
Of course, there are not many really bad cars left on the road today and you can drive virtually any vehicle your heart desires if you are clever and well-informed at buying time. That is to say, some cars are best bought new and others are best bought used. There are several factors to keep in mind when shopping for a car and these may include:
- What will you use it for? Is it a family car or a sports car?
- What are your most important priorities? Price? Economy? Reliability?
- How long do you intend to keep it?
- What type of mileage are you going to cover per year?
- How are you going to pay for it?
A good rule of thumb to determine which cars will retain their values relatively well is to look at new vehicle sales. The top sellers are most in demand and will retain most of their value, because everybody wants them, whether they are new or used. They are the best options if you are going to buy new. Niche models shed their value far more quickly, even if they are from some of the top selling brands. These cars are often better bought used.
Whether you buy new or used, you can drive the car of your dreams today, as long as you venture into the exercise with your eyes wide open and your homework done. As always, let the buyer beware!
Our reviews also carry pictures of every vehicle and as time goes on, we will add more pictures and even videos for you to view about your favourite car. Should you require a review on any make or model please email us for assistance.info@ileadmotorcars.co.za
