by Ken Johnstone

Created on: December 09, 2008

I recently changed my taxi. (For the second time this year!) My old car was a BMW 525TDS which I'd run for about 3 years (and about 90,000 miles) practically trouble free, so my first choice of vehicle when looking about for a change of car was another diesel BMW.

Unfortunately I was waylaid and seduced into purchasing a Nissan Maxima QX 2-Litre Auto back in June (2008). This big Nissan was/is a marvellous car (review to follow) but after the frugality of the BMW 525TDS I simply found that a overall miles per gallon figure of between 18mpg and 19mpg was simply unliveable for someone who drives such a huge annual mileage as I do, so after a couple of months I decided that much as I loved the car it simply had to go.

I'd already decided on my next car. I was after an older model BMW 530D SE (E39 model) which many of my taxi driving buddies had already purchased and who gave the car glowing recommendations on all fronts especially economy, comfort and performance. After a few false starts I eventually found a 1999 model in a local garage with a mere 109,000 miles on the clock (this is nothing on a large diesel engine) and a full BMW service history. The service history is very important when buying a car as not only does it verify the mileage, it also shows it has been looked after properly and is thus less likely to develop serious (or even terminal) faults shortly after you drive it off the garage forecourt.

After a bit of haggling about the price (I am a Scotsman!) and the offer of a 3 month parts and labour warranty the deal was struck for a mere Euro7100! This was a whopping Euro850 less than the original ticket price of Euro7950, but it's a buyer's market at present with the current recession hitting used car sales very hard.

So why a BMW 530D and not one of the many other fine "oil burners" that are now becoming so popular on the roads of the UK and Ireland? (Diesel cars have been popular in the rest of Europe for the last 15 years or so!)

Two main reasons. The first was that I was already very familiar with BMW diesels and the second was the strong recommendations from my taxi driving colleagues. A wee tip here; if you really want to know about how good (or bad) a car is then take the time to make a trip down to one of your local taxi ranks and ask the drivers their opinion. You could save yourself from making a very costly mistake.

So what do I think of the car thus far, (I've had it a month) and what are its strong and weak points?

Its strong points are legendary.

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• Next Page >>