We bought a 2012 50i about 4 months ago.

It does go though a little oil. Slow enough don't notice in the exhaust but in 4 months and maybe 3000 miles have had to add two quarts.

BMW changed the official capacity up a quart to keep oil level high enough and for certain years they offered a refund for up to seven quarts of oil and three oil changes but I think the deal on that ended late 2018.

Our 50i had under 75000mi when purchased and the engine performs like it is new.

I am working on finding out if the car has gone through the CCP (soft recall). BMW will repair any N63 motor with any of a few defects including injectors or timing chain but it's a one-shot deal.

Find out from VIN has the car gone though the program.

Pay the extra to get a lower milage copy so you should be able to get a few years out of it before valve stem seals are cooked and need replacement.

I decided a couple years ago that i wanted the 50i model vs. M for the fact the detuned power level suggests less maintenance and less stress for less likely to break things.

We also take extra precautions like every drive cycle idle the engine a few minutes to pull some of the heat soak out the radiator before shut down and removed the engine "blanket" from the top to let more heat out.

I want to get the turbo heat shield designed to protect the VSS from the turbo heat but the only prefab one I can find is $350 for about 1 ft.² of heat blanket. I just need to find that material (I think it's same as they use for racing suits).

Replacement turbos can be found on eBay for less than. A set of injectors.

I'm already anticipating that in 3-4 years I'll be doing the VSS job myself right about the time we will find wife's next car and I'll take over the 50i with about 110,000 miles on it.

Driving the car is as wife puts it "like therapy".

The exhaust note coupled with the g force at every launch just makes you smile inisde.

Every time you find yourself in the wrong lane and you can use the right pedal (both meanings) vs. the left/wrong pedal to fix the issue you'll smile inside.

A full throttle up hill onramp the car will easily be going 80 using half throttle. At full throttle I've never gone the full length of the onramp but estimate about 110-115 would be the result.

Wife describes it this way (can you speed up and find a hole to change lanes). "don't even worry about it she'll get you there".

It's comical; feels like a video game when you see the car next to you appear to have hit the brakes when you kickdown the 50i at really any speed.

Balancing risk/reward I'm very glad we took the plunge.

Oh: I found this out after the fact:. The 2012 still has the BMW unicorn engine: only gas powered model since about 2004 without Valvetronic.

It costs about 10% power but for maintenance literally 100s less parts that move billions of times per year. Think about that.

I love the theory of Valvetronic but from a DIY repair damn glad not to have to deal with the headache.

The problem trade off is N63 first motor ever with hot V. Both turbos in the Vs. of the 8. Very hot and will cook the top of the motor. BMW made 3-4 technical updates the first of course added Valvetronic and a boost of 10% HP. I think came either 13-14.

I wouldn't shy away from a clean copy where the engine runs perfectly and especially has maintenance records and had or is still eligible for the CCP (Customer care package) soft recall.

You have to have the mindset that you may have added maintenance costs but we paid cash so no monthly payment means we can have a monthly budget and if that ends up being $150 it's very well worth it for a 6000 lb SUV that can do 0-60 in just over 5 seconds.

Pay attention to the shorter maintenance frequency of parts like spark plugs. I think it's as low as 20-40k vs. 100,000. I bought a set from fcpeuro so I only have to pay once.

I still drive my 01 3.0i daily but I drive the wife's 50i on the weekends. It's awesome taking a break from the beast because it's like the first time every weekend. (plus far less likely to get tickets when I have to resort to the left pedal to get into an exit lane).

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2011 E70 • N55 (me)
2012 E70 • N63 (wife)