First of all Merry Christmas!

Some of you on here may know me, others won't. Hope you are all fine and enjoying trouble free motoring (may have come to the wrong place to say that!)

Anyway, since leaving the fold as its known of ownership its been 2 years of ownership (left August 2014) I will say though that the BMW X1 I own now has been really reliable, given me zero issues and has got me out of the hole that the L322 put me in financially..... However and all I can say is.....I really miss owning my 3.6 TDV8 VSE 2007 L322! The X1 doesn't have that wow factor, never has done. I look at L322's each time they go past and do wonder how much trouble theirs is giving them if any at all. Still, regardless of issues I miss it big time!!!

I had to give some form of feedback on what post ownership is like. Nothing compares to it, nothing ever will. The reliability issues aren't great but maybe there are some out there that don't have any problems.

Enjoy your vehicles, sit proud in them and think of me in my X1 if you pass one and think 'he wants my car' then laugh as you pass by on air suspension that feels like soft clouds....

Have a good Christmas everyone.

Maybe you should give them another try ?

+1

Had my 3.6 since October and done 4000 miles. Nothing compares full stop. Best car I have ever driven bar none. Love it. Still have my old car but it has just sat in the garage in spite of being cheaper to run, go on, buy another...you know you want to..

All cars are money pits. The idea is to keep that pit shallow. Balance between £/$ per mile and smiles per mile is personal. Most fun car for me was a 63 midget. Never sure if it would start or break down. Cost me because I new nothing about mechanics. Most reliable/fun/cheap to fix - my 95 jeep wrangler 4.0. The Fullfat I feared owning but doing lots of research they are no different cost/reliability than any other car assuming you don't use the dealership.

Unnecessary quote removed

I'm not sure that I agree that they are no different in terms of cost/reliability issues! I think in a way I was disappointed that it's almost a blind acceptance that FFRR's have problems and owners (not all) just put up with the issues and accept poor standards.

However, that said I understand why people put up with it. Nothing beats it

If you want to talk about a money pit the L322 is not top of the list TBH. A good amount of them are trouble free, you were probably just unlucky. I had 4 of the L322s, one utter nightmare, one average nightmare and 2 faultless.

My L405 is worse than any of the L322s ever were but this is all on warranty.

The X1 is a decent average car with fairly respectable residuals and BMW build quality. But a FFRR it isn't, never intended to be. And it has Solihull build quality - roughly equivalent to that of a cereal box.

The trick to owning a FFRR with X1 running costs is to get a good car from the start and become handy on the spanners. Oh and buy an IID tool. I still don't understand why people put a car in to a garage to have brakes done, they're simple to do at home. Same thing with a lot of the niggles, diagnose with IID, fix the issue and reset the codes. About the only thing I won't do at home is oil changes. By the time I've done it all and taken the waste oil to the recycling centre I might as well get the oil change done by the garage and get a stamp in the book.

Case in point. Wife's Aston DB9 front brakes. Dealer quote £850. Pads kit cost £165. 40 minutes a side for me. You do the maths if you want but basically for a little over an hour of my time I saved £685.

Totally agree with you to be fair and everyone has excuses why not do to the work on their own. I also purchased a lot of the replacement parts myself and went to an independent. However when the CV boot joint went and the front suspensions strut I simply couldn't learn how to do that work in time for the car to be back on the road when I needed it. Again its excuses but with a child under 2 at the time I couldn't get the time to do that type of work.

I bought a cheap IID tool - which maybe that's where I went wrong as it told me pretty much jacksnizzle! I'm not defending myself for not doing my own maintenance but i'm also not saying I couldn't now if that makes sense....

I've just read a few of the L405 issues from this site and its alarming but it wouldn't stop me wanting or getting one (price permitting )

The point of my post was to really check in and say hold onto your L322's or L405's as they are simply unbeatable.
Its an itch I will definitely be scratching again given the crazy low price of the 3.6 TDV8's in the for sale section!

Must say that my previous MY57 3.6 was fairly reliable over the 7 years I had it, apart from the battery issues. Oh and the alternator. And probably the brakes, and a little of the air suspension. Think that was it. Apart from the key getting locked in the ignition, and the air-con not working, or the pre heater, it was fine really.

In all honesty though it served me really well and had no disastrous or long running issues. At present my MY11 is faultless, will do all I can to keep running them well into retirement until the money runs out. No body told me there would be days like these

L Reg dark purple/burgundy sort of Disco
R Reg very red disco
Bright Silver disco TD5
Sort of bright girly powder blue disco TD5
Gone (a while back) 1999 P38 4ltre Autobiography. 13 miles to the gallon, 10,000 miles to the engine
Gone MY06 RRS HSE Rimini Red
Gone MY10 RRS HSE Purple
Gone 2007 TDV8 Vogue OF Stornoway Grey (In Love again)
2011 4.4 TDV8 Vogue Baltic Blue
MY66 VOGUE TDV6 3.0 Red

I find (touch wood) maintenance cost reasonable ,after owning a tvr tuscan for many years the servicing / parts and labour cost seem reasnable.
Tvr service was never less than £700 and genrally £1200 after bits and bobs.
Clutch £1500 last 20000 miles
Only two seats and always unreliable.
And these prices are ten years old, Full fat 4.2 Sc
Full fat vogue 4.4 petrol
Jaguar XJR super charged
Porsche cayenne
Tvr tuscan mk1
Bmw mini cooper

I joined this site a couple of months before buying my L322 and to be honest it almost put me off buying one reading all about the problems. But I nevertheless purchased a MY 2011 4.4TDV8 Autobiography with a full dealer service history and 52000 miles on the clock. It has not missed a beat. The only problem I have had is a the leather on the passenger door card creaking (very annoying though) and the folding side mirror pivot needing a drop of oil. I have covered 12000 trouble free miles in seven months. The car is booked in for service with my local Indy for mid January, I will post if it turns out to have a catalogue of faults.
I would say buy carefully, maintain diligently, use regularly and drive the engine with assertiveness. Oh....and keep your finger crossed. But defiantly buy another FFRR.

I totally hear and agree with the comments made. I wasn't so much saying it's the maintenance that annoyed me more the constant breakages. My local independent was great to be honest and I think going for one next time I'll probably use any garage that I know is good. There was a slight reluctance to use any because well it's a specialised vehicle really.

It did cost me a lot to maintain so next time I'll look for a low mileage supercharged or a 4.4 like you have.

Maybe coming on here wasn't a good idea lol!

No cars are trouble free. And it's all relative. These were expensive vehicles new and as such come with commensurate running costs.

However I also think it depends on the diligence/OCD tendencies of the individual owner. For example my car will go in to the garage or under my spanners for minor maladies, so stuff gets fixed before most owners would even notice an issue. But take my old man for instance, he reckons his Hilux runs perfectly and has had no problems. This is despite the AC doesn't work, the gearbox doesn't shift properly and it was ssing fuel over everywhere it went for months. Faultless!

The thing is that there are hundreds of FFRR which run "perfectly" for their owners, 🙈🙉🙊. Ignorance is bliss. There is nothing that can't be fixed with a hammer😜😜
FFRR 4.4 SDV8 Autobiography Santorini Black.
Fiat 500x 1.4 multiair Lounge 2015
2010 LR D4 Commercial 2.7 TDV6

Like Northernmonkeyjones said. Some cars have things go over time and some wait until 200k miles and go at once.
http://nypost.com/2014/12/29/the-record-br...ion-miles/

I can see your point, perhaps it was just owning it at the wrong time. Very difficult to do get anything done with young kids & having to rely on the vehicle.
Reading & reports made me think twice initially, but having now owned the L322. I love it.

I also miss mine, but I don't miss the dreaded FFRR bong or the constant worry of when or where it's going to spit out the dummy, lunch the gearbox or die a death in the middle of nowhere.

I keep looking at FFRRs for sale but at the moment I can't bring myself to venture down that route again