Help! I just bought a 2 series, what do I need to know?

[Morris the Cat]

I've been shopping for a used BMW for about three months now and finally pulled the trigger. What I've been TRYING to buy as what I felt was the optimal intersection of performance, reliability, and value was a low milage E92 series coupe with a manual transmission and the lovely inline six before they started putting turbos on everything. However those are pretty hard to find and my wife finally got sick of only having one car and threatened that if I didn't just Get On With It she'd go out and buy something herself.

The very next day a very lovely low milage 2016 228i with the required manual transmission popped up for sale and I snagged it. Carvana is delivering it on Wednesday and now I'm trying to look ahead to what kind of expectations I should have and what I should be on the lookout for over the next 50k miles or so. With only 17k miles on it it seems likely that any significant maintenance costs should be well off in the future, but since I hit 200k miles on my last car and expect to do the same on this one, I want to make sure I don't accidentally overlook anything I need to know to keep this thing in good order.

Important Note: I am NOT interested in juicing this car up. If I wanted that, I would have gone with the very heavily modified 2005 M3 that a local has been trying (and failing) to sell on Craigslist since September.

So, lay it on me. What do I need to know?

[White94RX]

I would change the oil and filter every 5k miles. Definitely not any more than 7500 miles. Other than that, just stay on top of any other maintenance like oil leaks, fluids, filters, etc.

[MarcoZandrini]

Concur on the oil and filter change interval. The turbo is lubed AND cooled by the oil. Make sure the oil has the Americans petroleum institute (API) “SN” code. That means the oil is designed for engines with a turbo. Also, buy either a Mahle or a Mann oil filter. I get my filters from either fcpeuro or the bmwminipartstore (dealer in Cincinnati). After driving 5k miles, change the oil and filter and send an oil sample to Blackstone Labs for analysis. Obviously get one of the lab’s sample bottles in advance. The lab will send it to you for free. The results (the lab provides both the chemical analysis and a written summary) will tell you the status of the engine. The only gas you want to put in the car is a premium grade (91+ octane) from a gas station that sells top tier gas. Go to www.toptiergas.com to learn more. I use Shell 93 exclusively.

[Morris the Cat]

Thanks, this is the kind of info I was looking for. You think even at only 17 thousand miles I should be worried about the oil sample?

[MarcoZandrini]

An oil sample will give you a baseline for future oil analysts.

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An oil sample will give you a baseline for future oil analysts.