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The car was delivered in Munich. When we entered the garage area our car was to the left and angled towards the open area of the garage. Every other car there was some shade of silver and parked perpendicular to the walls. The experience was like a waiter lifting the cover off a dinner tray. I'm sure they move cars around, but others were taking delivery at the same time. People were also walking around and looking at our car and not the others. I also heard someone say they did not know BMW had that color.
The lady who went over our vehicle said she has been there when every car in the garage was silver and she had to press the key to find the car she was presenting.
Otherwise the sand floor carpets show dirt very easily, but I bought dark brown floor mats before the car was delivered here. The brown matches the stripe in the seat belts and complements the rest of the interior. We now have 3 sets of floor mats, the brown we are using, the European sand mats and a bagged set delivered with the car.
I love the color, I love the car, but you really should get silver or black.
on a serious note, why?
Spyderred,
My wife drives a New Honday Odyssey - Silver - so I need another color!!
The Khalahari Beige car I came across also had the light interior - I want a black interior!
http://www.thecarconnection.com/index.asp?article=5723
I have seen a black interior with kalahari beige, actually the dealer had two side by side, one black interior, one sand. The darker interior gave the car a somewhat orchid caste and the sand tends to push more to a gold.
Many years ago, I had a very minor-league version of the same thing happen to me. I fractured and severely sprained my right ankle while playing basketball. Embarassing to say, it was a non-contact injury -- my klutzy self tried to cut, but my foot remained firmly planted. A month in a cast followed by a few weeks heavily taped, all the while on crutches. Once the cast came off, I found I could loosely pull a sneaker sans laces onto my foot, throw the crutches behind the seats of my Triumph, and launch myself semi-smoothly down the road. If I had needed to panic stop, I told myself I would brake with my left foot and not worry about declutching and killing the engine. Fortunately, I never had to test whether my feet would obey my conscious mind or my reflexes.
Again, great to have you back.
Playing basketball was actually how I broke my first leg (the left one, 28 years ago), so I know from whence you speak. ;-)
I am already lobbying my Orthopedic Sturgeon to put me in a removable walking cast/boot arrangement on 20-Feb so that I can start Physical Therapy as soon as possible thereafter. Unfortunately, there is rumor around here (here being the company that I am working with on my Mouse project) that we will need to go back to the factory in Taipei the very next week. Grrrr, well, I’ll get to the PT sooner or later.
Best Regards,
Shipo
bmw323is: No, no children here, no devilish siblings such as yourself ;-) and my girlfriend wouldn't do such a thing (she's afraid to breathe on the car!). I had started to suspect our cat that lives in the garage. He is a very smart cat, but not THAT smart...Thanks for the story about your bro and his TV; pretty funny!
Given the fact the BMW manufacters many, many cars, would suspect a few things.
1. there are some absolutely rock-solid vehicles,
2. there a bunch of lemons
3. the majority are in the middle ground.
It's my opinion, however comforting or disquieting having people tell their anecdotal stories about their 530i - given the vast number of 5 series out there, won't be enough information for you to draw a conclusion about whether your 530i will be a winner or loser.
If it were me I would put the reliability of the 530i up against any top Japanese manufacturer.
Good luck in your decision and keep the forum posted.
1) I would like to express my concerns about your accident and wishes for a speedy recovery. It may not have been entirely your fault which is something to consider. They have a feduciary responsibility to maintain safe ingress/egress...especicially considering the business they're in.
2) your comments regarding snow tires are right on. As a life long resident of New England and current resident of NH, I have plenty of experience with this topic. If you live in a region of the country that actually experiences winter (I'm not talking NC where 2 inches paralyze the state), you need snows. Period. Anybody that feels that Traction Control and All seasons will suffice (either RWD OR FWD) is sorely mistaken. Wife and I both drive AWD vehicles so that we can always make it home. Both my 4matic and her Subaru Legacy are shod in snows from the end of October to beginning of March. My neighbor drives a Seville STS (FWD and Traction control). He doesn't use snows. Every snow storm over 4 inches his car is parked at the bottom of his driveway as he can't even get up to his garage.
Regards,
BigRob.
Prior to experiencing the difference using the Arctic-Alpins, I was clearly one of those who figured that good All-Season rubber was most likely good enough for most places, after all, I grew up in Michigan, and the stuff we used to drive around on probably had less traction than the Pilot-Primacys that came on my 530i. That said, now that I have taken the plunge, I am totally sold on the “Winter tire thing.”
I don’t know if “Trespassing” is the right word for it. ;-) I remember your posts both here and in the E-Class discussion as well, and they have always been constructive and respectful. To me at least, a true “Trespasser” is equivalent to a “Troll”, and that you are decidedly not. ;-)
I remember last summer, while my move to NH was still in the works, that you cautioned me on the quality of some of the dealerships around here. Fortunately, so far at least, the service department at Tully BMW over in Nashua has been exemplary. Last fall, my wife “Curbed” my 530i by pulling far enough into a parking space at her office to push the front bumper over the curb stone. She then compounded the problem by backing out and partially removing the front bumper, ouch! When I took my car in, they scheduled me for the repair (which turned out to be fairly painless at about $300), and then they asked if I had anything else that needed doing. I told them that my previous dealership back in NJ had upgraded the engine control software, and the throttle response changed just enough to make driving a stick shift tricky, as in not stalling it when accelerating from a dead stop. On the spot, they took my car in, upgraded the software with the (then) latest code (two days old at the time) and sent me on my way.
Interesting side note, I took a quick test drive with the technician both before and after the software upgrade to see if we could sense any difference (it was like night and day), and he commented that my car “Felt awfully fast for a 530i.”
I said, “Could it feel faster to you because mine is a 5-Speed?”
His response was, “I drive LOTS of 5-Series cars every day, both manual and automatic, and this one feels like it is in 540 territory. By the way, you had better slow down; the police like to stake out this curve we are approaching.”
The only possible thing I could say to that was, “Cool!” ;-)
Best Regards,
Shipo
Will the dealer charge me for this upgrade?
btw- just have my 530i oil change after a year. No indicator light turned on yet.
Thanks. Hnn
Will the dealer charge you? I suspect that this is a warranty issue, as I was not charged when they upgraded my code.
Best Regards,
Shipo
Chris
By the way we just received another 4 inches of snow up here in NH. I have had enough of Winter.
Chris
Here is my experience:
- Service writer explained why I should give him a 5 rating when the service evaluation call is made in a few days
- oil change indicator was reset
- I wanted the day time running lights activated. He said it would have been no charge if I purchased the car from this dealership, but because I did not it would cost $125. I said no thank you.
- when I got the car back, it was washed and armoraled
- when I looked at the paperwork, tire pressure was incorrectly set at 36 psi all way around (should be 33/41 per door jam label). Service writer immediately corrected it after I pointed it out to him and complimented me on being so careful with my BMW
- I noticed that they changed the license plate frames to the dealer frames both front and back (my old ones were put in the trunk. They had the original BMW dealership name on them)
- If I had read shipo's post about the software upgrade before I went to the dealer, I would have inquired about it. I think I will call the dealer tomorrow and ask about it.
Unfortunately, the guy who plowed my driveway yesterday (he seems to have an uncanny knack for predicting the weather) said that he suspects that “We haven’t even seen the worst of the snow yet.” Hmmm, just 12 more days to a walking cast.
Meanwhile (staying on topic), my wife had absolutely no problem driving my Artic-Alpin equipped 530i home from the Boston area yesterday, and they had an easy six inches of slush and snowy stuff on the side streets where she works.
Best Regards,
Shipo
Best Regards,
Shipo
The 530ia outright won brakes. (The Audi won outright for value. The MB didn't win any criteria outright; all of its wins were ties.) The 530ia then tied for best with at least one other car in transmission, handling, driver comfort, ergonomics, fit & finish, and fun to drive.
As always, one could carp about a few things. Why give the 530ia the best score for "ergonomics" and then pan it for "dated dash"? I think the dash is fantastic in my '98 540i6. But at least they were fair and gave both it and the MB a "7" for value (with only the Lincoln LS V-8 and Jaguar S-type 3.0 scoring below that on this criteria, "5" & "6" respectively).
Their 530ia went 0-60 mph in 6.7 seconds, ran the 1/4 mile in 15.3 seconds (93 mph), was top speed governed to 125 mph, braked 70-0 mph in 175 feet, pulled .82g on skidpad, and twisted thru the emergency-lane-change maneuver at 61.3 mph. Not too shabby for a car that came out in CY 1996 as a MY 1997!!!
I hear you on that; I am continually amazed at how well the E39 has aged. I have been following cars fairly religiously for well over 30 years, and I have no recollection of ANY car ever coming close to the current 5-Series at being a viable (if not still class leading) competitor in its eight year (and depending upon who you listen to, there might even be a partial ninth year) of production. Couple that with the fact that the 5-Series is still selling (in terms of unit volume) at or near its record sales level, and know that BMW is REALLY going to have to pull out all stops to top this one. I really hope they do. ;-)
Best Regards,
Shipo
Shipo, I am very familiar with your area as I live in the next town over, being Salem. Let me offer you a belated ‘Welcome to NH’. By the way I believe this has been the worst winter in almost 7 years of living here.
Now I’m off to ski country.
Have a good weekend,
Chris
Both sport suspension but the 528 had Dunlop Sport 2000 ZR & the 530, Michelin Pilot Primacy YR both 235/45-17. Is there that much difference between the brands?
By the way, how many miles are most people getting from the 'summer tires' as compared to the M&S? Probably hard to compare tho the tread wear rating differs, likely those w/ ZR press it in curves & freeway ramps & ones w/ standard suspension wouldn't.
I'm considering Euro delivery on a 2004 and still struggle w/ the suspension question (SP or not)--tire cost & wear as well as ride quality all important concerns.
Always great info here, thanks for your well informed and considered responses.
1) Age of the tires. When tires are brand new they have about the worst grip they will ever have (unless they are flat). That is why racers who race on street rubber grind off one half to two thirds of the rubber when they buy new tires.
2) Temperature. The temp of the surface, tires and indirectly the air (which affects the other two) can make a HUGH difference, especially on summer tires like the Michelin Pilot-Primacy tires. Summer tires have little if any Silica (used in All-Season and Winter tires to keep them flexible when cold) in them, and much of the country has been cold this winter, so, most likely the tires were tested under less than optimal temperature conditions.
3) Surface conditions. No two surfaces are the same, for that matter, over time, no single surface is the same as it was. Were both tests conducted on the same test track?
4) Vehicle weight. Was the 2000 528i equipped with the SP and a 5-Speed only? If so, then it could have weighed a couple of hundred pounds less that a fully loaded 530iA.
5) Tires themselves. The Dunlop 2000 tires seem to be more of a dry road/stick to the pavement tire than the Michelin Pilot-Primacy tires. The Michelins exhibit some fairly decent wet road characteristics at the expense of a little (very little) adhesion at the limit on dry surfaces when compared to the Dunlops, at least according to some of the reviews that I have read in the past.
Speaking strictly for myself, I have the Pilot-Primacys on my 530i, and they seem to be a very nice blend of High Performance summer tire and one that can also be very comfortable on a day to day basis as well as on long “Cruise Control Mode” drives. Based upon tire wear at the time when I took them off (so that I could mount my winter tires), my guess is that I will get somewhere between 25,000 and 30,000 miles from the set. That is no where as good as the Michelin MXV4-Plus tires that I had on my 328i, which at the time of trade in, had somewhere in the neighborhood of 40,000 miles on them, and could easily have gone 15 to 20 thousand miles more.
So, in the end, you have to ask yourself if you want to have your car shod in rubber that is basically a compromise year round (the standard All-Season rubber), or do you want the inconvenience of A) Changing tires twice a year, or Sliding all over the road when it gets slippery outside. In my case, I chose to get the SP (which in addition to the better wheels and tires, gives you better seating, a better steering wheel, a cool looking “M” shifter (if you opt for the 5-Speed), a stiffer suspension, and (according to my TireRack.com consultant) larger brakes), along with a set of winter wheels and tires.
Good luck on your decision, let us know what you do. By the way, I did the ED thing on my 530i, and assuming that I can work out the logistics, I will always do it that way in the future, what a blast!
Best Regards,
Shipo
But, am I crazy to even think of getting one of the first of a redesign? It's perhaps naive but I'm thinking BMW will get the 2004 530 right after all the bad press they've gotten on the 7s. I admit the idrive thing really seems like a fat pain but surely they'll simplify it. I see from the Consumer Reports that the '97 528 is as reliable as other years.
What has others experience been w/ new models, & how good is BMW in getting modifications out and making good problem areas? Most of the SF Bay Area dealers have terrible records in service, so getting bugs out would likely fall to the local dealer-one of the worst as per Consumer CheckBook. I'm having withdrawal symptoms in terms of waiting to get something new. I'd hate to do something rash like go G35 or the redesign of Acura TL due this fall??, but then there's CPO. Oh, obsessions, I know you guys might have heard of such afflictions!! No, i'd not do that, tho it'd be nice if the Ultimate Driving Machine copied the Ultimate nav system from Acura-& we got something user friendly.
Thanks for your patience w/ my rambling obsessions. Any feedback, suggestions greatly appreciated.
I ended up buying a 2003 E39 last week and I could not be happier with my decision. I have always admired the current 5 series and I still think this is the best looking car out there (just look at the above mentioned C&D article). It's a classic.
Best of luck to you and please let us know of your final decision.
P.S. Have you guys seen the latest Audi commercial, comparing an A4 driver to a BMW 3 driver? I don't get it...
Now, the question. I am in the market for 530, SP, 5 spd. I stepped on the link for eurobuyers.com (Steve Diamonds). Has anyone used his services? Any feedback is appreciated.
I'm very sorry to hear about your accident. I hope you have a quick and full recovery!
As a long time winter tire advocate, I thought your testimony on winter tires was well written and informative. I saved a copy for my doubting friends.
Get well soon!
-murray
As for buying the first year, hmmm, I have mixed emotions about that one. First, I bought a 1999 328i built in December of 1998, just a couple of months into the (then) new E46 production, and I had a stellar experience. By that I mean that I had zero, unscheduled service calls, kind of unheard of, that said, there were two latent problems that were taken care of during my normal service calls. That said, IMHO at least, the E46 was an evolution of the long running and successful E36, so I wasn’t too worried about the traditional first year teething problems.
The E60 however, is, once again IMHO, a different story entirely. Much of the E60 is all new, and I would be worried about early problems on this car. In fact, I was worried enough to deliberately upgrade from my 328i (which only had 40K miles on it) to my 530i way earlier than I needed to, just so that I could have the “Tried and True” E39. Well, maybe that is overstating the case a little, the first year teething problems were half of my reason for upgrading early, and the other half was that my “Eye” prefers the look of the E39 to any of the E60 images that I have seen to date.
Regarding the 1997 E39, trust me, while in the long run, they seem to have turned out to be fairly reliable, the early cars had LOTS of teething problems, and were in and out of the dealership quite often until BMW got everything sorted out.
Hope this helps.
Best Regards,
Shipo
I called Steve back when I was shopping for my car; he wasn’t in, so I left a message. He never got back to me, that said, other folks have reported good things about him. In the end, I decided to negotiate my own deal.
I decided that based upon what I had read here at Edmunds, that a $1,500 dealership profit would be fair for a car bought outside a dealers’ allocation, via the ED program. I got on the BMWUSA web site, located all dealerships near my home and where I worked, and started calling. The first dealership I called accepted my offer, and I drove right down there, and signed the paperwork. My salesman was even able to schedule the EXACT delivery date (only about 6 weeks from that day) that I had requested by reconfiguring a car that the dealership already had scheduled for production, and then swapping that allocation with the ED program for a later car for his stock. While Steve might well have been able to find a lower price from another dealership, Steve also collects a commission or finders fee, and the dealership may have been far enough away to incur travel expenses. In the end, I felt $1,500 over ED invoice was a “Fair Deal”.
Murray,
Thanks, I’m working on it. ;-) Given that I have two weddings that I need to attend this spring, one in Paris and the other in Nairobi, I need to have both paws in reasonable operation to get through airports and to and from the various events that I will be attending.
As for the winter tires, up here in New Hampshire, they are absolutely necessary, unless of course, you have a snow mobile that is. ;-)
Best Regards,
Shipo
In terms of ED delivery. How did you find the experience? Munich is not an easy place to fly in to. Did you go via Frankfurt or directly in? I am debating whether I should pursue it. I understand it is the cheapest by far. Just the time of year, this whole world situation etc. I have two little kids, not certain if the saving is worth the anxiety.
.g
My put is that most of these weenies are lazy and/or ignorant. Those of them who have really, really driven the cars in this class (A6 2.7T, BMW 530, unworthy American wannabe A, unworthy American wannabe B, Jaguar S, etc., etc.) would fit in a phone booth. Oh, wait, there aren't phone booths anymore. . . Well, they'd fit in a really small space.
Does anyone on this board have any use whatsoever for car reviews? If so, please help me understand why.
When I compare all the positives (which are all the things I care about) to all the negatives (most of which I don't perceive to be negatives to begin with), the E39 is a classic!
Regarding traveling in these troubled times, hmmm, well, I guess it just does not trouble me too much (I too have a wife and two small children), security is fairly good these days. In fact, I just recently took a good look at my projected travel schedule this year, and I am probably going to fly nearly 100,000 miles and hit Asia (4 times), Europe (at least twice), Africa (once) and various points around the U.S. in the process.
Regarding how well the 5-Series fares against its competition in the various sundry published comparison tests; it is not that I am surprised that they consistently pick the E39 to be one of the best (if not the outright winner), it is just that I am VERY impressed that a car in its eight year of production has remained so dominant compared to its competition after so long. That in my mind says that the folks that created this car over at BMW were WAY ahead of their time, and only just now, after all of these years is the competition catching up.
Regarding said competition; when I ordered my 530i, the new W211 E-Class was not yet out, that said, I used to work at MBUSA, and I drove plenty of W210s while there, and while I think it was a wonderful car, the lack of the manual transmission and the less precise ride (compared to the 5-Series) eliminated the MB from my list. The Jaguar X-Type does not pass my “Eyeball Test”, nor for that matter, do the G35, CTS, LS or the GS. The Jaguar S-Type, however does pass that test, but fails for the same reasons as the E-Class, but it was a nice ride, plush, but nice. The A6, while not really my favorite looking car is only available with three pedals in the 2.7t trim, and while it might have been a little faster than a 530i, it just did not GRAB me like the BMW, and this from a former Audi owner and someone who has a great appreciation for the marque. Yeah, I shopped.
Just for grins, I did a little E-Class (W211 version) configuring, and here is what I found:
2003 E320 Base Price: $47,670
2003 E320 Fully Optioned (w/o the Motorola V60): $66,490
2003 E320 Fully Optioned (including the Motorola V60): $68,085
All of the ~$20,000 in options were just that "Options" (Step 2), as in Factory Options, not "Accessories" (Step 3).
Best Regards,
Shipo
The BMW 530i.
I don't know WHY anyone would want to option an E320 that high, however. The car in the C & D testing was optioned just fine, including the sport pkg.
As I've pointed out before, though, I argue Porsche is the worst offender in this practice. Check off all the options on a base Boxster (MSRP $42k), and you're only a stone's throw away from the 911 Turbo (MSRP $115k). Gee, I wonder why Porsche is the most profitable carmaker.
By the way, what else have you done to put your 530 into "540 territory?"