Hi Browellm .
Economy - Like you I'm shocked at 31 - 32mpg whilst running in . It's my first diesel and I had expected more . Thank goodness the 530D is a similar price to the 530i - other wise I'd have felt peeved if I had paid a premium for this engine.

Seats Still struggling to get Sarah's key to save her settings. For example the handbook says it will also save her audio and mirror settings - doesn't seem to!

Saphire Black I cleaned it yesterday for the first time. I always knew it would take more effort - but I was shocked ! It's really really hard to get clean.

Wheels the 124 style and others show a lot more of the "interior" of the rim than older (and smaller) designs. It's hard ,even with a pressure washer, to get all the brake dust off the non - polished "interior " part . (If you only wash and polish the outward facing surfaces they look grim!). Does anyone have any tips for this? I can see that I'll have to remove the wheels every six months or so to really clean them.

 

Stu:

Economy - don't sweat it. The engine will loosen over time. Besides, the ONLY reason I bought the diesel is the real-world performance is FAR greater than the petrol.

Seats - Alison's too nervous to drive it yet so I'll have to report back on wether we can get the two-key settings thing to work/

Colour - tell me about it. I used to have an Obsidian Black SLK, looked clean for all of 15mins after washing it.

Wheels - they sound similar to the 7-spoke alloys you used to get on the SLK. I gave up trying to keep the interior sections clean after a bit - total nightmare.
You could try a big old toothbrush and some Wonder Wheels - not tried it but supposed to be v good.

 

Following up on the mpg issue I was a bit disappointed too at being down around 30mpg. I'd hoped for more considering I'm getting about the same now as I was with a manual 328ci. I've kept some figures to see if my obc is accurate after reading some are way off.

Total average after 2900 miles is 31 mpg.

comparison between some fills and the obc
obc 29 calc 32.1
obc 30 calc 29.9
obc 31 calc 30.4
obc 32.8 calc 32.4
obc 30 calc 29.7

I think I'm gonna stop tracking it soon as the obc seems pretty much on the mark.

Only other tip I can give is hide the mpg read out on the dash, you don't feel so bad when you floor it all the time then

 

Stu,

Sapphire black is hard to keep looking good but if you don't mind a bit of elbow grease help is at hand!

Washing

I live in an area with high limescale content and find that the water tends to dry onto the surface of the car extremely quickly leaving large "water spots" on the surface which are a nightmare to get off. To counter this I try to quickly dry the car using a Halfords synthetic chamois to get most of the water off then use a dry Meguiars micofibre drying towel to completely remove the remaining surface water. This towel is superb and this combo works a treat. You can buy these towels on-line at www.meguiars.co.uk

Waxing

You can buy some excellent liquid polish from your BMW dealers parts dept. It's a pink liquid which goes on in a jiff and polishes off without leaving any white dust if you do a section at a time. It costs about ?8 for a large bottle. Put it on with one of those circular foam pads and make sure the pad is damp first. Wipe it off with a micofibre towel (you can buy these in supermarkets now - 3M do one, or from some of the on-line car cleaning sites such as Meguiars). I find that I have to polish the car every other wash to keep it looking good but using this polish it only takes about 30 minutes to do the whole car which isn't bad.

Wheels

BMW also do some good alloy wheel cleaner but I'm afraid there isn't any easy way of cleaning the 124 alloys. You just have to spray the cleaner between the spokes then stick your hand through them and use a small sponge to wipe the dirt of. I wear a glove to do this as the brake guard rims tend to shred the back of your hand. Meguiars do a really good tyre coating called Endurance gel I think for keeping your tyres looking nice and black (crucial on a black car IMHO).

Hope this helps you out and if anyone from Meguiars reads this post please send me some commission

 

Hi ISUK - thanks . Really helpful stuff. Have just been to www.meguiars.co.uk and ordered.