Its that time of the year again, when thoughts turn to motoring needs for the year ahead.
Things have changed a little bit since I had to clear the cars out of the warehouse storage I had and now the cars are scattered in a couple of different locations. This is proving to be a bit of an issue. Being busy of late, its means that I don't even see some of the cars for months on end. After having a ball with the Z in the fine summer of 2018, it hardly saw the light of day in 2019. It went in to a pals shed just before new year 2019 and I didn't even see the car again until early December 2019 when I moved it to another location, for example. So, there might be a couple of changes in the coming year, at least until I get my finger out and do something other than think/talk about some garage space at home. Anyway, that's a slight aside.
The e60 has been here for quite a long time now (4 1/2 years) and other than a blip caused by water ingress in to the boot it has been a great friend. Its been a daily driver for the commute and a mile muncher for the longer runs like regular trips to the tip top of Donegal. However, it may be time to think of a change, and with the focus on environmental issues, etc. and the likelihood that running larger, older motors will be made even more costly in the next few years I'm in a bit of a quandry. I have, and will probably continue to have, the 6 or something like it, that would fulfill the weekend mandate of being a little bit different but still able to meet the needs of a dash to the North and back.
The commute is a 45-ish mile round-trip each day, mostly on motorway with relatively little town driving. So, there's a fairly wide range of current BMW's that could meet that need. I think the criteria need to be 1) EU6 compliant - in order to minimize the impact of government tax policy changes likely over the next few years, 2) in one of the lower VRT/road-tax categories, 3) not entirely bland to the point of falling asleep at the wheel, 4) has commute and run-around comfort essentials, 4) is something that is likely to have a reasonable residual likelihood based on not being entirely out of step with what is socially acceptable in a couple of years i.e. low-ish CO2/NOx, maybe even EV or Hybrid rather than a big EU5 diesel and 5) a budget of around €20k.
Sifting through the possibilities, all 2016, include a 320d M-Sport, a 330e M-Sport, an F10 520d M-Sport and i3 in either full EV or Rex form, probably 94aH. They all seem to come in at around the budget figure with a modest mileage.
My main concern with the EV or hybrids is a potential wallet wilting issue with the battery kit - I considered an F10 ActiveHybrid 5 recently on the basis that a battery replacement on something that only have an electric only range of only a handful of miles is somewhere in the €5-7k range I understand. I'd probably not be buying Retail, so more likely to be taking the risk myself. That may not be a rational fear as so far there don't seem to have been too many horror stories. Also, battery technology is developing in leaps, so early EV's like the i3, while fairly advanced now, could look old hat fairly quickly.
The background is a bit long-winded, so my apologies for that, but I'd appreciate your thoughts on the options I listed above, based on approx 10-12k miles per year of usage, a couple of years of ownership and still having something for the weekend and something to wheel out for seasonal entertainment.