Used 2008 BMW 3 Series 335xi 4dr Sedan AWD (3.0L 6cyl Turbo 6M) Consumer Reviews
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Driver's and Mechanic's dream
FLMike, Fort Walton Beach, FL, 09/25/2015
updated 05/20/2020
BMW 3 Series 335xi 4dr Sedan AWD (3.0L 6cyl Turbo 6M)
65 of 67 people found this review helpful
Bought my 335xi AWD sedan as a CPO with 30K miles in 2011 as a "practical" commuter as too many miles on my 1995 Porsche 911S. Love the car but the maintenance costs are beginning to concern me. IMO the ONLY way to purchase / own a 335XI is under the CPO warranty program and sell it before the value curve falls off at 5 to 6 years. Maintenance thus far: Via recall: fuel pump, Under CPO: Both rear bearings, front transfer case, front bearing, all O2 sensors, idler pulley, main harness from battery to engine compartment. Maintenance not covered under CPO: rear window motor: $400 Now at 104K highway miles, maintenance out of my pocket: Electric water pump and thermostat ($1500). So I am estimating the cost to drive this driving machine approaching >$10k in 4 years. Ouch. Expected Maintenance in next 3 months: All fuel injectors: $1600, Rotors / pads $800. Turbos...? hope not. Update 10/2016 118k miles. Original 8yr old battery showing signs of death. New BMW battery $210 self install plus $130 for bmw to reset the not-so-adaptive battery mgmt system. Value cover gasket leak. Dealer wants 1100. Another self install of 4hrs and 40bucks... 170K mile update. Still runs fantastic. Maintenance since 118k update: transmission flush/filter, aftermarket drilled rotors and ceramic pads, spark plug coils 1.5 hr do it yourself for $180.00. Inner window door seal felt glue smearing my ceramic window tint so replaced the seals. Cabin blower motor suddenly not working so pulled module connection and reset... eight minute repair. A/c Compressor getting noisy. Oil pan Gasket leaking... expensive fix coming up. Turbos still performing well. Love it more everyday...like replacement is expensive.
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Great combination of sportiness and luxury
mpt2222, Pittsburgh, PA, 06/13/2011
BMW 3 Series 335xi 4dr Sedan AWD (3.0L 6cyl Turbo 6M)
11 of 11 people found this review helpful
I recently traded my 02 325i for an 08 335xi and must say, it's been a great decision. This car is so smooth and quick and handles corners with ease. There are several nice touches in technology added from the previous version that are really nice. For example, the exterior LED door handle lights are very cool and useful. I don't use the can chiller often in the console, but it's nice to have it for the long trips. This car represents one of the best balances of luxury and handling I've had the pleasure of driving. I'm just glad I bought this used as the original pricetag is just out of my reach.
High satisfaction, but even higher operating cost!
Len D, Exton, PA, 01/30/2017
updated 08/02/2022
BMW 3 Series 335xi 4dr Sedan AWD (3.0L 6cyl Turbo 6M)
18 of 19 people found this review helpful
Bought my '08 in May 2015. It was pristine with only 38k miles on it then and still ran and looked like new. It had Cold Weather, Premium and Sports packages, 6-spd manual. The run-flats were ditched by the previous owner and despite the extra weight over the nose from AWD it carved corners like a Ginsu knife with quick, responsive steering; highly tossable. Yet it also had that legendary combination of sporty handling with ride comfort, although being the 3-series it did tend to follow road perturbations more than it absorbed them, making the ride along PA's crappy roads 'busier' than I'd like at times. The car had that classic German horsepower swell where, the further along the tach the needle goes, the harder it seems to pull; third gear was nearly frighteningly quick and I swear it had way more than 'just' 300 hp. All that said, I kept my fingers crossed every time I got in it. Three months after getting it, it stranded me; I had to have its third high-pressure fuel pump installed at under 40k miles. Thankfully, BMW had years before acknowledged the problem and extended the warranty on that specific part to ten years or 120k miles, which meant I would be on my own in another fifteen months. Still, warranty or not, three fuel pumps in under 40k miles is a joke. And then there were the dainty little piezo fuel injectors that also reputedly might have a short life and the twin turbo wate-gates and of course, the self-imploding water pump (every 55k miles!). The tech at my local BMW dealer, as well as the owner of the indie BMW shop I take it to, both told me that the N54 in-line 6 was “..the best engine BMW ever made..” and that its foibles are grossly exaggerated on the internet. The dealer tech was able to tell through the BMW database that my specific car had “..already had the injectors addressed..” at around 20k miles although he was unable to explain exactly what that meant, and so he assured me I was “..good to go..”. I hoped they were both right. But even if they were, that still left me with the frequent and expensive maintenance charges. I spread-sheeted the planned expenditures according to my much-trusted indie shop’s schedule for the car, (which BTW included changing differential and xfer case oil that BMW claims never needs changing; yeah, right!). Including the guaranteed-to-fail water-pump, and it was going to cost me about $1,000/yr to keep her maintained and running ‘like a BMW’. The online BMW forums dismiss this as ‘..pay-to-play..’ and the cost of ‘being in the club’. I suppose that’s really not so bad, but if the other of its notorious bits start to ‘pop’ it’ll be a LOT worse than that. So I started shopping for something less fussy to maintain and repair, while keeping my fingers crossed. The problem was, once you’ve become spoiled by the car’s unparalleled combination of power, handling and comfort (for a 4-door sedan anyway), most every other sedan felt inferior by comparison. Darn Germans!! UPDATE 2/1/2022 This car has been long gone for 5+ years now. I first replaced it with a a naturally aspirated 530Xi which proved to have equally high maintenance costs. Now I’m driving a 2017 Infiniti QX50; their compact cross-over SUV hatchback. It had been in production since 2008 (called the ‘EX35 then} and refined/perfected over these its ten years. 325 hellacious horses under the hood in a naturally aspirated V6 that has been named one of the best engines ever for many years. It pulls like a freight train, mimicking BMW’s performance, and sounds great doing it. The car, based off the company’s earlier ‘G’ series sedans, has nimble handling like the 3-series but ride quality like the bigger 5 series; I kid you not! Its dynamic performance limits are not as high as the BMWs, so it’s not as track worthy. But for my daily driving needs, which sometimes include spirited driving on twisty roads, I’m every bit as satisfied as I was in the Bimmers. The technology is way better than those older Bimmers. My fully loaded car has all the modern toys and driver aids, but also incorporates actually push-button controls for radio stations and A/C control along with actual knobs for volume and station tuning. These are big pluses in my book. I wish it got better gas mileage, and that it also had Apple CarPlay so I could see my Waze nav directions on the screen. I also wish it had come in a stickshift, although I find I don’t mind the automatic at all, which has a sport mode and can be shifted manually. But these shortcomings are all small prices to pay for a car which should cost a fraction of the BMWs’ long term operating cost while sacrificing nothing in day-to-day driving satisfaction, at least within the less demanding limits of my driving needs. Japanese reliability is well proven and my peace-of-mind/car-anxiety levels have both improved by a factor of ten. I’m never going back to BMW, nor other equally finicky European cars. There’s truly no need to anymore as the rest of the world has finally caught up to building cars having whatever elusive magic only the Europeans seemed able to engineer into their cars. Before getting the QX50 I had a brief, and wonderful, stint in a Lexus ES300h hybrid which rode and handled almost as well as that 530xi I mentioned, while getting 40+ mpg. And none of this will matter anyway in a few more years as we’ll all be driving EVs anyway! 8/2/2022 Still loving the Infiniti!! As hoped, expenses over the last two years have been routine maintenance only; oil and filter changes and one brake fluid flush. Now at 44k miles, the car still performs as new. Unless I choose to lease a car (which is unlikely), I will never again go back to a BMW.
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Wanted to Love It
Automan, 11/30/2010
BMW 3 Series 335xi 4dr Sedan AWD (3.0L 6cyl Turbo 6M)
36 of 40 people found this review helpful
Wanted to love it. Took me a long time to finally settle on this car, should have gone with the G35x. Two fuel pumps replaced. Very expensive tires that seem to attract nails like magnets, and boy do they ride harshly. Dealer costs very high on parts and service. Small and cramped inside (I'm 6'2"). Love the handling and power. Very precise and tossable. Fun, even in the rain w/AWD. In the end, sold it after only a year and a month because I couldn't take it anymore. Lost $9k between repairs and sale of car. Even warned the guy that bought it off me that it was costly to own. Just to be fair, the car had 32,000 miles on it when I bought it and I sold it with 57,000.
The Ultimate Repair Machine
S. Sutton, Richfield, OH, 10/26/2015
BMW 3 Series 335xi 4dr Sedan AWD (3.0L 6cyl Turbo 6M)
31 of 35 people found this review helpful
Don't believe the advertising hype and signage at the dealerships about how "cheap" the cost of ownership is and "inexpensive" the repairs are. (My favorite is a placard outside the dealership that says "this landscaping costs more to maintain than your BMW!"). The stereotypes are true, these things are a money pit. My 2008 335xi is a pleasure to drive, super fun, super comfortable, the perfect balance of power and luxury: The Ultimate Driving Machine (TM). Unfortunately, that comes at a severe cost in maintenance and repairs. Many of the parts used on these have very short life spans, and cost thousands to replace. My vehicle has less than 60,000 miles and currently needs a $1200 waterpump. The warranty for 2008's was a 4y/48k, so this one is out of pocket for me. I've had vehicles that go three times as long without needing a water pump, let alone such an expensive one. If you assume the waterpump will only last another 55,000 miles that's $2400 in waterpumps just to make it to 100k miles! *whistle noise* I'm 6 months away from having this paid off... I think I'm going to put her up for sale as soon as I have the title in hand and look for something more reliable.
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