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Originally Posted by ALPINA_DREAMS
Former owner of an F15 35d. Bought it new and put almost 50K miles it. Relatively trouble free, although it did have emissions parts replaced under warranty, (egr valve, DEF filter).
I'm not sure what part of the world you're in, but US diesels are a real crap shoot in the used market for two reasons: Fuel quality and driving style.
If you live in the Midwest US, the majority of fuel is going to be a biodiesel blend, from 5-20%. BMW engine's simply aren't designed to run on this crap and it wreaks havoc on the emissions system. It's for this reason (and somewhat slow sales) that BMW stopped producing them for the US market.
The second, and harder to discern issue is driving style. If the 35d was used for short trips and to putt around the city, the DPF won't get a chance to regen (burn off) and you end up with a clogged filter and sooty ass combustion chamber. This equates to poor performance and fuel economy, and eventually a $5K-8K dollar repair bill.
I would advise you to steer clear of used diesel BMWs unless you know the provenance and are good friends with an import mechanic.
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Your post is pretty much exactly what I was expecting to see and, frankly, the reason(s) I'm staying away from the 35D in my search.
I own a Cayenne Diesel at the moment and have been warned about fuel quality in the past and the potential for issues caused by a lot of short trips. To your point, it's really hard to tell how the vehicle was being driven in the past unless you know who you're buying it from so I'm planning to stay away, even though I really like the overall performance of the diesel. Oh, and I enjoy not having to pump gas for my wife every week...
