[Axe77]

Originally Posted by abhinavsureka

Any other things to watch out for in the 3GT?

My car is now at about 56,000 kms (give or take) - October 2015.

Earlier this year, the driver side window when rolled up and down made a creaking noise - some motor inside was giving way. It cost in the region of 17 - 18k to replace from BMW official A.S.S.

The arm rests can blacken but I got those changed aftermarket.

I guess do inspect sensors etc if they're affected. They do give way periodically.

Other than that I have had no extraordinary issues with the car whatsoever.

Other periodic maintenance over the last 6-1/2 years is detailed out in this thread. You could scan through the thread for other watch out points.

On a general note, do check health of things like battery (mine is still original IIRC), tyre life, life of brakes (pads and discs both); suspension condition etc.
Perhaps also ask BMW to do a full check up of the car even if its on a paid basis.

Good luck.

[abhinavsureka]

Originally Posted by Axe77

My car is now at about 56,000 kms (give or take) - October 2015.

Earlier this year, the driver side window when rolled up and down made a creaking noise - some motor inside was giving way. It cost in the region of 17 - 18k to replace from BMW official A.S.S.

The arm rests can blacken but I got those changed aftermarket.

I guess do inspect sensors etc if they're affected. They do give way periodically.

Other than that I have had no extraordinary issues with the car whatsoever.

Other periodic maintenance over the last 6-1/2 years is detailed out in this thread. You could scan through the thread for other watch out points.

On a general note, do check health of things like battery (mine is still original IIRC), tyre life, life of brakes (pads and discs both); suspension condition etc.
Perhaps also ask BMW to do a full check up of the car even if its on a paid basis.

Good luck.

Thankyou for your inputs

We got the GT home yesterday. Will post pictures soon

[astrik.treks]

Originally Posted by abhinavsureka

Thankyou for your inputs

We got the GT home yesterday. Will post pictures soon

Congratulation on the new buy. Its a beast !

Take care of some niggles that I have faced in the past and apparently it is a design flaw.

When you open the boot (electronic), whatever water gets accumulated in the side channels pour right inside the boot. Once I had my laptop inside and the water dripped directly on the laptop, thankfully nothing happened.

Also, the sensors of my car have stopped working, while they say its covered under warranty, the last time I got it fixed they blamed the rodents for it and made me pay

[Axe77]

Tuesday brought a bit of a sudden long (solo) road trip somewhere beyond Pune.

Clocked in about 450 kms of varied driving ranging from Bombay Pune expressway, to inner MH highways, to two lane roads right down to village roads leading straight up to farm lands.

The GT did it all with aplomb. On the way back I had to go right into Pune for some other work, including picking up my bicycle bag from my Pune home for a friend who needed it.

It never ceases to amaze me how competent the 3 GT is in almost all kinds of conditions. Not once did I have to worry about ground clearance even on the worst broken roads or on completely kachha mud roads with uneven climbs and descends. Fuel efficiency of course is also stupendous. My MID generally displays optimistic figures but it would still be well in the double digits, even discounting a bit. This is after pedal to metal driving whenever I felt inclined to.

The car itself of course also distinguishes itself in its luggage bearing capacity. Its come up to just under 60k clicks on the Odo and standing at over 6.5 years old but I never shy of taking it on however, long, far or remote that I need to travel. A grand tourer indeed.
.
.

[Axe77]

I suddenly realised mid drive to office yesterday that the car has crossed 60,000 clicks. Wanted to snap it AT 60k but somehow missed tracking the ODO at the right juncture. Its taken close to 6 weeks between my last update which was at ~59,100 kms or so and it tipping to the other side of 60k. But in the last two weeks, the Meridian has clocked in close to 700-800 kms, taking away some of the load from the GT (of course a lot of those 700-800 kms were simply just for the sake of test driving the Jeep and not ordinary course usage).

I suppose the km count on the GT will slow down from hereon, now with two primary cars at my disposal.

[Axe77]

Short update. The car is still in under 60,400 kms. Running has really dipped since the arrival of the Meridian.

The ever annoying sensor fail hit me again recently - this time it was the front left sensor. Got the usual traction control, ABS, rear spoiler sort of failure notifications.

This happens with just too much regularity with the Beemers (I am told specially the GT although I can't imagine why the GT should suffer any more than others).

No choice but to get it changed. Cost me ~14k INR to get this replaced. I believe they come with a 2 year warranty once replaced so some small relief on that front. But trust the darn thing to fail a different sensor the next time around.

All in all, despite these minor irritants, I still think there's plenty value in retaining these steeds despite the minor periodic expenses on upkeep rather than spend 60 - 80 big ones to replace it with a similar or slightly better product. My usage across two cars is anyway quite limited, and the GT is still tightly built, completely reliable and in immaculate shape so I see no reason to warrant a change even now. On the reliability front, I would not think twice about driving it down to as far as Goa even at short notice, if I wanted to.

[Shubz]

Originally Posted by astrik.treks

When you open the boot (electronic), whatever water gets accumulated in the side channels pour right inside the boot. Once I had my laptop inside and the water dripped directly on the laptop, thankfully nothing happened.

I learnt it the hard way too So now I consciously open the spoiler - clean the pockets under the spoiler (particularly post a wash or rain) before opening the boot.

Originally Posted by Axe77

.
Attachment 2306955

How do you guys manage to get such FE (16+) I've barely managed a max of 12.1 on my GT

[amitoberoi]

Hi guys. Planning to buy a Bmw 3gt luxury line 2019 model about 14000 km already run. The car has one year of warranty still in place with an option of two more I think. I really like the gt for its looks and have never had a Bmw. Needless to say it’s a good drive. I also plan to get it checked at the Bmw workshop before finalising in a couple of days.

This is also the first time I am buying a used car so slightly hesitant. I plan to keep it for 3 to 4 years at least. So a question for the gt owners on the forum. Does it make sense to buy a discontinued car even if it is only 14k used. Spare parts availability can be an issue? Any remarks on this from gt owners would be highly appreciated, thanks.

[Axe77]

Hi Amit.

I think you should easily have part support for your anticipated period of ownership, specially from a well established mainstream brand like BMW. We are looking at a similar period of ownership from date - I would like to keep my 3GT for at least another 2 - 3 years and mine is 2015 so already 4 years older than the model you’re considering.

Its a good idea to get this checked from BMW A.S.S - good decision there indeed. Will also establish your rapport and relationship with the service folks.

If you like the car, it has no red flags and otherwise this works for you, I wouldn’t let the discontinued aspect come in the way.

[amitoberoi]

Originally Posted by Axe77

Hi Amit.

I think you should easily have part support for your anticipated period of ownership, specially from a well established mainstream brand like BMW. We are looking at a similar period of ownership from date - I would like to keep my 3GT for at least another 2 - 3 years and mine is 2015 so already 4 years older than the model you’re considering.

Its a good idea to get this checked from BMW A.S.S - good decision there indeed. Will also establish your rapport and relationship with the service folks.

If you like the car, it has no red flags and otherwise this works for you, I wouldn’t let the discontinued aspect come in the way.

Thanks a lot. What you say makes sense. I can probably get a total of three years warranty which would make life peaceful for me i guess. However, there are two things:

1. The vehicle is not insured any more. I can get it insured again i think but i have no idea if a lapsed insurance is something i should worry about or a red flag.
2. The broker is insisting that he can get the car inspection done at a particular BMW service centre as he knows people there. I wanted to get it done at a service centre near to my place. Call it over imagination (effect of a lot of movies i guess :-) ), but is it possible he can get overlooked certain issues if any in the vehicle at that particular service centre. Though in all fairness that particular service centre is nearer to his place.

Other than that, things look good. If there are any other things i should check out, request the forum members to please help me out here, thanks.

[ritedhawan]

Nice read. This is the second 3GT long term review that I went through. Even though your car came first in the order of purchase when specifically compared to 'graaja' 3GT link:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-...s-home-29.html

I went through 'graaja' thread first and then went through your thread. His car has put on great mileage even though his purchase came latter, not to forget yours is a Diesel car while his is Petrol. My impressions after going through both the threads are:

(1) The 3GT is worth it for someone looking for a supple ride with ample amount of boot space especially when compared to the lean, taut 3 series. The bulk 3GT carries on its shoulders when compared to 3 series is akin to its supple ride and humungous boot. Who knows even the rear seat space must have been better compared in 3GT compared to its sibling.

Graaja's attempt to upgrade suspension on his 3GT may have been based on a trade off: To get stiffened suspension and its associated taut ride characteristics at the expense of supple ride which came with stock 3GT.

He ended up facing 3 bent rims with RFT's on, later those RFT's were replaced with tubeless tires and BBS allows , yet still one bent rim. It was his insertion (Reference to #421):

" I think it is a combination of the stiff sidewalls of the RFTs, lower profile with the 18" wheels and weak alloys that resulted in this. I had 3 bent alloys around 30k kilometers and the bend was significant. After this, I have driven 50K kilometers on the BBS alloys and tubeless tires and only one of them bent enough to warrant a replacement. The other that I replaced was mainly to replace them in pairs."

If RFT's and weak alloys being the only constant, in your car and his, and if by taking the above into consideration then:

Why haven't you faced bent alloys?

You have actually replaced RFT's for RFT's , you didn't go the tubeless tire way.

(2) 'The intention to replace all four shock absorbers before the car "falls off the BSI ramp" (figuratively speaking)' may have been of paramount importance when compared to replacing only two shock absorbers which had actually gone bad.

Final BSI update

I had taken the 5 years 60,000 BSI package. Got a final service done from BMW to check whether there was anything that needed attention. In the recent past one of the sensors had given up yet again which was duly replaced under warranty. As a last service, all 4 shock absorbers were also changed by BMW (2 were gone and 2 had become hard). I am really pleased at this outcome from BMW as this would have been a major expense outside of BSI (about 1.2 Lakh approx at A.S.S rates).

Kindly confirm whether CBS prompted for the two busted shocks and how was the "hardness" of the other two shock absorbers estimated?

(3)

Hey Graaja,

So here is the information you requested. Before anything else, my personal advice would be to not take BSI at all – certainly not if your running is on the lower side, and possibly even if it is on the higher side you may just want the convenience of servicing at your own will.

You principally don’t want to be bound by the automatic service reminders. I had a situation where my car went in twice in two months, because of the condition based service intervals. They only did brake pad in the first and then did the oil change in the next service. This is pretty inconvenient. Now imagine you want to do a long drive in your car and want all preventive or anticipated maintenance in advance of the trip. You cannot override the CBS rule.

If I ever owned a BMW offering, I wouldn't go for BSI. Agreed with your advise. Inspite of the multiple trips one needs to take in order to complete separate jobs which the CBS displays in the car, something that could have been done in one job, it seems service advisor's wont budge until prompted by CBS to do the required job.
In graaja's thread , I encountered an instance where the brake pads required replacement but it was identified that disc's need replacement as well. Some odd rule -- seems to be my impression-- that those service people pulled out from some BSI textbook! (Pun intended) stating both needs to be replaced together! and that they would replace both once disc's arrive. I mean, thats what I understood. What dependency they brought up.

(3) Final question--and this is something I asked in another thread as well, but still awaiting reply.

When you signed up for BSI, did that document set forth in detail some dependencies? For example, jobs such as 'brake pads+discs' or any such jobs coupled together, would require parts to be changed in pairs instead of being changed separately?

Nevertheless, If I were asked to choose between 3-series and 3GT. I would choose the latter.

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by ritedhawan

If RFT's and weak alloys being the only constant, in your car and his, and if by taking the above into consideration then:

Why haven't you faced bent alloys?

You have actually replaced RFT's for RFT's , you didn't go the tubeless tire way.

I dont really know why I “haven’t” faced bends but from a fact perspective - yes, my car is entirely stock on all aspects of suspension, tyres and alloys. Not sure if that’s the difference that’s prevented bends or I’ve been plain lucky. I can say that I’ve done enough rough terrain touring of my own but of course nothing like Graaja’s extreme Pan India drives.

(2) 'The intention to replace all four shock absorbers before the car "falls off the BSI ramp" (figuratively speaking)' may have been of paramount importance when compared to replacing only two shock absorbers which had actually gone bad.


Kindly confirm whether CBS prompted for the two busted shocks and how was the "hardness" of the other two shock absorbers estimated?

I honestly can’t recall the MMI showing any prompt. This was identified when the car went in for service. Again, its too long back for my recollection but I’ll try to ask my SA and come back to you on how this typically works.

(3) Final question--and this is something I asked in another thread as well, but still awaiting reply.

When you signed up for BSI, did that document set forth in detail some dependencies? For example, jobs such as 'brake pads+discs' or any such jobs coupled together, would require parts to be changed in pairs instead of being changed separately?

Nevertheless, If I were asked to choose between 3-series and 3GT. I would choose the latter.

Again I don’t really recall reading the actual BSI document. I was broadly explained what it covers. Even CBS though theoretically annoying has not really played out significantly to disadvantage at least in my case.

Sorry if this wasn’t helpful beyond a point but if and when you’re on the verge of pulling the trigger I’m sure the SA will be able to explain this in detail - these are all indeed pertinent questions. Personally I’ve had great support from the BMW service team and never ever had any issues with their service levels in the past 7 years plus. But of course this can vary from dealer to dealer and best to get such technicalities clarified up front.

[sea_eagle]

I became the audience for now infamous BMW alarm - It was the ABS sensors which had failed. My GT has done 40,000 kms on the ODO. Maintained at a FNG run by a good friend. Thankfully the warnings (same as the ones mentioned by AXE77 above) came up after completing the year-end trips to Coorg, Kundapur & Sakleshpur. While I will take to a separate thread to talk about the drive, this post is informative purpose only.

Took the car to the garage next day and got it checked, They confirmed the sensor failure and we went for a replacement. The genuine BMW accessory was not in stock and hence we bought from a 3rd Party OE. Cost us 9800/- + taxes.

I believe this is a common failure for 5+ years old beamers.

[Straight6_N54]

Hi Everyone, Recently picked up a 2018 BMW GT with 35K on ODO. Absolutely in love with this beast.
This thread has been very insightful, kindly keep it updated. Looking forward any advise and suggestions.

[sea_eagle]

Yet another trip of almost 650kms completed on the BMW 3GT. Was a pleasant drive given the road conditions. Did not face any issues except that I had to drive slow on potholes and speed breakers. This is the biggest change from driving the Compass where I cruise over small potholes and speed-breakers with relative easy. Guess, it takes a while to get used to.

The drive was from Bangalore to Subramanya and comprised of a mixed bag of roads - Excellent; Good; Not-so-good. The GT handled everything with ease.