pjinca

I agree on both counts. Still surprised that the 550 listed there has so few options - who cheaps out on a 550?

Bimmerchop69

There has been a long lived debate with turbo vs. N/A....... In my opinion. A turbo engine has more potential as far as performance goes. More compression with boost = more power, however with high compression/ under boost parts wear out faster i.e. head gaskets blow. Also at around 100k miles of wear turbo seals at the bearing fail and begin to burn oil which means big $$ for turbo rebuild or new turbo and with 2 turbos that's twice the $$. A naturally aspirated engine runs on lower compression and means reliability is much better. For performance they add displacement to produce power but are very limited. As far ad modding goes you can't get much more HP out of the N62 engine. However with the M54tt engine there significant gains with raising the boost.

If your friend is looking for performance and are willing to pay for the turbo's, head gaskets, etc. that come along with a high mileage turbo car go with the 535i.
If you friend wants a more reliable yet has performance, but limited to additional power gains. Go with the 550i.

BTW if you are a DIYer. The M54 (535i) engine is a hell of a lot easier to work on compared to the N62 (550i)

mustafa550i

550i all the way!! I love mine

melimel

550, just not that one..

R1100S

My decision to buy a 550i when like this:

My wife and I were searching for a replacement for her 2000 /M Roadster. Our son is almost 2, and it was time to have more than just my 4 door Tacoma to haul him around in. We figured we could get by with something small, as long as it had a back seat.

Oh yea. It can't be slow. My wife had become addicted to the performance of her /M.

We test drove and fell in love with the 135i. Small, but it will work for grocery store runs with the munchkin in the back.

Then I did some research, and kept running into a recurring theme. HPFP.

So with the N54 engine on our DON'T BUY list, we reconsidered. The 128i wasn't very exciting. Hell, we might as well get a 528i. Sure it's slow, but at least it's got some space.

Too bad we can't get a 535i. Hey why did we want the 135i again? The 535i is awesome! Why did we ever make fun of Chris Bangle? WTF is wrong with us. The E60 is awesome! We want one! Damn HPFP!!!

550i? V8? 360hp? HELL YES!

I think owners of _35i vehicles are WAY to accepting of the HPFP issue. I know they warrantied them for 10yr/10kmi, but the fact that BMW has not and seemingly can not fix this issue is unacceptable. Even if YOUR HPFP hasn't failed yet...how is it not ALWAYS in the back of your mind as you depart on a long trip, or simply an important day at work. On top of that, I've seen numerous complaints on both this forum, and the 1-series forum I frequent of performance issues after software updates intended to address the HPFP issue. BMW NEEDS to FIX this. Not by dumbing your car down with a software patch, but by fixing the REAL hardware problem.

Yes, 135i's, 335i's, and 535i's are awesome and fun when they work. And I still want a 135i. I WILL buy one if they ever find a final solution to this problem. But until they do, I would never recommend an N54/N55 equipped car to anyone. :thumbsdown:

Allen

For the record...the HPFP factory warranty is 10 years or 120,000 miles.

pjinca

It's not about the warranty, it's about the hassle of having your car go into the shop all the time. Maybe, by some miracle, you get lucky like Gene (knocks on wood for you Bro) and don't have any HPFP issues. More likely you'll end up like many members on this forum and others that have had 3,4, or more HPFP's replaced until the car is eventually lemoned.
Get the 550, with better options than the V8 taxi listed here, and be done with it

Gene

I did have to bring in my car once for 5 days dude to hpfp symptoms, they ended up replacing the injectors...oddly enough yesterday i had a slightly rough start up and was waiting to see if I was going to get a CEL/limp mode...luckily I did not and today's start up was smooth....I have a few more weeks with my e60 535i and i hope I can stay hpfp symptom free until then

calberk95

I would avoid the 535i. It's not just the HPFP. I, and others, have also had a turbo replaced and fuel injectors replaced--these are not covered by the extended HPFP warranty. BMW is currently in the process of buying back my 535i and I can't wait to replace it with a 550i. I owned 2 previous BMW V8s and they were both solid engines.

Gene

this was my question regadrding the hpfp warranty extension. It seems fuel injectors, wastegates, even the turbos all fall under hpfp failures and are often parts that are replaced to address hpfp symptoms. So how can they warranty just the hpfp, when hpfp is directly to other engine parts