It was time to replace the Mazda, and after what felt like an eternity of searching for the car that was basically unobtainable in Aus I finally got my hands on the f31 around April/May of 2025. I had basically given up on finding a 6cyl f31 touring and had began looking at 4cyl options as that was the only config we ever got in Aus. I was just deciding on whether to go look at an estoril blue II 330i example up in QLD when I had opened up marketplace for the millionth time. Putting my usual search in for any BMW touring’s/wagons I noticed this one popped up. Originally catching my eye as the price was decent and it was a black M-sport kitted car.

Reading the description I had to do a double take as I read the line “330D”. Double checking online as well that it indeed does have the 6cyl Diesel. I immediately messaged the seller to start finding out more about the car.

It didn’t fill 100% of the boxes I wanted checked in terms of spec however I’d never find another 6cyl wagon in Aus (Without paying a rediculous amount of money). Just a few small things missing and most of this was due to it being a pre lci model. These were the m-sport performance brake option, Xenon/LED headlights with DRL’s and a Pano Sunroof. Most of those could be fixed/added at a later date aside from the sunroof but that’s no deal breaker.

Talking to the seller he explained that it had been imported over with him when he moved back to Australia from working in the UK. I was curious as to how it had come in, as to my knowledge we actually aren’t allowed to import these in for sale like we do with alot of the JDM stuff. It had been imported under a “personal Vehicle” import which requires the vehicle to be owned for at least 12 months in the country of origin.

The beginning

That weekend I had the homie Max drive me down to Jervis bay to have a look at the car. The car had 163xxx km when I bought it and does have a few scuffs/scratches on the bodywork. This worked in my favour as I was able to talk him down on price from around 24k to 21. Along with that after my test drive I could tell that some of the suspension i.e shocks, top hats & likely control arms where worn however that is all replaceable so wasn’t a big concern of mine. I ended up purchasing the car that afternoon and drove it back.

Coming from the rickety old mazda this thing felt like an absolute tank on the way back.

I took it to a local spot near me and grabbed some quick pictures for the usual “look! new car!” post:

A couple weeks later I was headed up to Pheasants wood with our friends from @Kakkoii Krew for a track day. I originally had no intention of tracking the F31 as we were going as a test day for Kakoii’s new B18 swapped ED civic they had just finished.

Once I arrived though I couldn’t help but sign up as well. I figured why not just do a couple laps and use that to figure out how the car goes and what I want to improve first. It actually suprised me with how well it handled for a stock car that’s suspension was probably on it’s way out. Definitely a bit boaty (it is a heavy wagon after all) and the brakes/tires left a bit to be desired. It was also raining so it was fun to battle the wheel spin and understeer on the tight corners at Pheasant wood circuit.

I left that day with some pretty cooked brake pads and an itch to start modding brakes, suspension and get a set of sticky tires on it.

(I replaced the pads about 2 weeks later with some brembo ceramic pads which performed alot better under heat and produced wayy less brake dust.

First Track Day

2025 Jindabyne/Snowy’s Trip

About a month and a half after getting the car we had a group trip planned to head up to the snowy mountains for a couple days. This was by far my favorite trip so far in this car. Keen to head up again this year!

I couldn’t ask for a better car for trips like this, which is half the reason why I was so set on getting a touring in the first place. I threw all the camping gear in the back and shot up to Jindabyne with the group. Being a diesel it just eats up the km’s and barely sips at the fuel.

On our first actual day after settling in we hit up the Alpine way which is on my list as favourite driving roads so far. The car did a lot better this time around with the new brake pads however still with the same tyres I was wishing for a bit more grip. If your up that way I would highly recommend taking the alpine way through to khancoban. Just make sure you’ve got a full tank of fuel.

Over the other few days we did some other trips out to some dams etc a little more in-land. Again the car did great just eating up the km’s.

I had the swag with me for this trip but already started playing with the idea of getting a roof top tent setup for it. Definitely on the cards for 2026.

Will pop some extra pics from this trip below:

After the Jindabyne trip I got caught up with doing life stuff and working for a while so not too much happened. I had been driving back from a work trip in Canberra in the rain when I hit a pot hole and cracked my rear left wheel. It was leaking air badly through the crack so this prompted me to just replace the wheels. I had been looking at 437m’s for a while before this so it was what made me just punch it.

437m’s are a bit cookie cutter when it comes to F series BMW’s as they’re the F80 wheels and pretty much everyone runs them. However they’re hard to beat for an OEM+ look which is my overall goal with this car. I scored a set with some semi-slicks on them from a bloke up in Sydney. I test fitted them and then had the semi slicks removed and replaced with Pilot Sport 4s’ all around. Specs below:

Front: 245/40/r19

Rear: 265/40/r19

PS. Buying Pilot sports in a 265 r19 costs a small house deposit ;-;

New Wheels

This is the day I got the wheels and fitted them with the semi-slicks. The rears were chunky af with a 275 on them!

And above here is the setup with Pilot sports. Sidewalls not quite as meaty as the semi-slicks and a 265 on the rear instead of 275

Lithgow/Bathurst Trip

A little later in the year we did another trip in october to Lithgow/Bathurst. This would usually be a trip to Vic high country however everyone was super busy this year so we kept it short and closer. Another good trip, hit lots of back country roads and finally visited Mt Panorama.

I took some extra time off before the trip and spent a couple days detailing and polishing the car as I hadn’t had a chance to since buying it. It had an obscene amount of swirls/marring in the paint. I got that pretty well cleaned up (Do want to go back to it some time and cut it a little heavier to get some deeper scratches etc out & maybe ceramic coat). I also got tired of seeing the tiny little exhaust so took it down to the exhaust shop and had them chop the rear muffler off and fit Dual single tips. I had to replace the rear diffuser with one from a 335D/340i for this as they have the dual cutouts.

It didn’t really make the car any louder which wasn’t a bad thing. Little bit more when you punch it but if I want more turbo noise etc I have to go down the route of down pipe etc.

Not a whole lot has happened since the Lithgow trip. Just been enjoying driving it around. Did a few trips to Canberra & back, down south etc over Christmas.

As of this week I have ordered a whole bunch of parts to do a suspension/brake refresh and upgrade early this year so very keen for that.

We will be fitting new Radius and thrust arms in the front from Whiteline. Some Bilstein B16’s all around to replace the tired shocks (along with some new strut top mounts as they’re shot).

And finally I will also be doing a full M-performance/M3 Brake setup with the Brembo’s, Stainless brake lines and Bigger rotors.

Current Day Jan 2026

Also if you’ve just read all this so far up until this point I APPRECIATE U.

I will be updating this as the car progresses. Just wanted to keep a little timeline of the progress with it over my ownership.

My Personal F31 330D