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Not sure what to make of the market though. It may be different on your side that here out west. The E60 may be gaining some buyers but as I mentioned on my previous message, the E39 530i may be holding a premium since I've noticed a spike on some asking prices.
Go figure! Thanks again in advance for the VIN check!!
p.s. Were you able to shop around at all this past weekend?!?
BMW Total US sales (Jan-Apr): 2004-87,987....2003-86,549
Only Lexus is selling better at 88,947.
A sampling by model:
330i: 2004-8,340 .... 2003-9,566
5-Series: 2004-14,734 .... 2003-14,077
7-Series: 2004-5,528 .... 2003-6,385
X5: 2004-9,272 ....2003-11,028
Article also says Consumer Reports rates the 7-series as worst ever tested. CR had rated E39 as best ever tested.
Looks like the X3 is where all the action is. 3 and 7 Series down. X5 down. 5 Series stagnant, which can't bode well for the beginning of a complete redesign.
I ran a carfax. It is ok for everything...no accidents, odometer is fine, etc. It has had one owner in CA and was sold at auction with 55,064 miles reported on 6/9. Any other info you need?
The other car was indeed the same car. I called the 1st dealer who had the car and they said that they sold it because the car had electrical issues that they couldn't resolve.
I'm going to look at a 2003 525i tonight. It is Steel Blue with sport, premium, and cold weather packages. It has 11,850 miles. They are asking $40,850. Do you all think $35,000 is a reasonable offer for this type of car?
I think the prices in Atlanta must be inflated compared to other places!
325i: 2004 - 23,316 .... 2003 - 24,925
M3: 2004 - 2,710 .... 2003 - 2,793
6-series: 2004 - 1,798 .... 2003 - 0
Z4: 2004 - 4,109 .... 2003 - 6,181
X3: 2004 - 6,706 . 2003 - 0
Mini Cooper: 2004 - 6,022 .... 6,371
Mini Cooper S: 2004 - 5,539 .... 2003 - 4,933
Rolls Royce: 2004 - 37 .... 2003 - 36
Did you know.... Automobile Magazine Readers Choice Awards for best in category went to the following BMWs:
Best Small SUV: X3
Best Small Car: MINI Cooper S
Best Luxury under 40,000: 3-series
But....
Best Sports Sedan: Cadillac CTS V (replacing BMW)
Best Luxury over 40,000: Audi 8L (replacing BMW)
Also, BMW spent $15,430,200 in first 4 months of 2004, or $177 per car sold. Much less than GM or Ford.
Also Dinan Engineering is introducing new 621 hp E39 M5.
Finally, on a personal note, I signed up for BMWs Drive for breast cancer promotion. I called first day I received an invite to reserve a car, but 530, 545 and 645 were already taken. Signed up for 330i stick and 745.
More pics
Decided to sell the M3 as well....bought a 328i Sport pkg with less miles (project car).
The '03 that I saw today isn't CPO'd and warranty will run out Dec. 2006. Also, sport package isn't a necessity for me and I don't want to pay extra for something that I don't have to have.
I have another '03 that I'm going to review. It has 11,600 miles w/premium package. Asking price is $38.500. It is CPO'd too so it has about 4 1/2 years of warranty on it.
Anyways, go to BMWUSA.COM and look thru their CPO inventory. Remember the 10% rule - asking price minus 10% minus another 5% for a fair price (Just my opinion).
The price on the window was $33.5 when we drove up. I later found out on BMWNA's preowned inventory that the asking price was $30.9. The salesperson apparently knew that I've researched the 530i quite intensively. I told him about the private seller (half an hour from dealership) and his asking price so that gave them something to shoot for. I asked if they had a birthday special since it was my wife's birthday that day . It took quite a while to get them down to $26k. We actually walked away twice since we were both extremely hungry and was running late for a beach party at Avila Beach. Anyways, they came running after us and made a final offer of $26k CPO'd financed thru BMW FS at 2.9% with a bright red 'Happy Birthday!' at the bottom. Needless to say, we missed the party!!
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cooling the air only, not as drying it out. The promotional material quoted by the reviewers touted the BMW system as better on the sinuses because it did not dry out the air as other ACs do.
One reviewer, who drove the car in South Carolina during some particularly wet weather, said the car was unbearable because it was adding humidity in wet, humid weather. I don't know how it works, only that several reviewers have mentioned it and when I've test driven the car I've noticed how damp the air is relative to what I am accustomed to with other cars' AC units.
highway 46 through Paso Robles is fun too, but you have to be careful. Good wine there too!
-Paul
Looking forward to many happy miles with our new friend 'Slate' as in Slategreen Metallic .
Thanks again!!
Here's a couple of items from the History Report -
RO# Claim# Enrty_date Mileage Dealer Defect_code Location
179512 92006 12/10/2001 15,099 04247 85990091MP 01
194393 98169 05/31/2002 22,383 04247 11009999SA 01
1214119600
'95 525i manual with perfect exterior (a little faded interior) and 127kmi with a new clutch
or
'95 525ia auto with 96kmi and two big dings (very good interior) ?
wmuller: if your girlfriend still has that 525i and you're in the northern CA area, let me know.
Only problem was the kids in the back were getting car sick, so we had to end it. Great part about the return drive... along the beach were hundreds of elephant seals basking in the sun, so we stopped and took pictures of them. Wouldn't want to go near em - too dangerous if they get riled up.
Definitely some gorgeous areas that are a LOT of fun to get to with a BMW (as long as nobody gets car sick!).
-Paul
Strategic Vision's Total Quality Index rating "the complete ownership experience", rated BMW sixth (previously was first). Automobile magazine rated new Audi A6 over new 530, Road & Track rated 530 6th of 7 in comparison test.
Did you know that 2.7% of cars traded for Chrysler's 300 are BMW's vs 0.5% for other Chrysler name plates and 1.5% for Mercedes and 1.3% for Lexus.
But alas, there is some good news for male BMW drivers. A recent poll from Germany's Men's Car magazine says that BMW drivers had more [a type of physical activity] than any other car brand, even more than Porsche!
*Exhaust - what is the consensus? Supersprint, Remus, Rogue?!?
*Chip - does this car really need it?
*Wheels - I like the stock setup. If anything I might go wider. Can I go 245's all around.
*Most importantly, the Cupholder - I've seen some pretty crappy design out there. What do you guys use?
*Alignment - how often do you guys with MY01-03 530i Sport do it?
Slate
I wanted to see if I understood your 10%/5% rule. Is this your own rule or have you seen this stated somewhere?
Dealer Price - $38,900
Minus 10% - $35, 010
Minus 5% - $33.259
I intend to offer $34,500 or $35,000 on it. Any opinions? I know that someone mentioned a while back that they knew someone who had purchased an '03 last year for $37,500 so I can't see paying more than $36K or less for an '03.
The 03 that you looked at...what model is that again? 525/530/SP/Non-SP? How is it optioned?
There is another '03 that's 525i with premium, cold weather, and sport. It's about $3,000 more than the premium package one. Sport package isn't on my list of requirements so it's not worth the extra money to me. I do like the cold weather package though it isn't a necessity.
Anybody got a similar setup?? Pls post pics of upgraded wheels with STOCK SPORT PKG (Model Year 01 530i SP)...17's, 18's or 19's.
Thanks a lot guys!!!!!!!!!!!
accomodate
I'm no fan of major mods. Think most--esp. huge tire/wheel combos and "aero"/exterior changes--end up hurting the car, both looks-wise and performance-wise.
If you want to plus size the tires, you might check The Tire Rack or other similar places. Of course, tires that fit the 540i6 should also fit the 530i. Check out the tire plate in the door jamb and look over the owner's manual & any car brochure.
Unfortunately, the very low profile tires tend to have very stiff sidewalls that can adversely impact ride quality without a significant improvement in handling. Can be a real lose-lose proposition. And sometimes the very wide tires can cause terrible tramlining (following the grooves in roads). Sometimes the manufacturer really does know best. (Not to mention how expensive 18 or 19 inch
Staggered tires (like used in the 540i6), where the rears are bigger than the fronts, can increase oversteer.
Finally, the bigger tires and wheels normally add lots of unsprung weight. That is the single worst thing you can do to your suspension. You want to reduce unsprung weight, not increase it.
My advice: enjoy the natural balance of your 530i Sport for a couple thousand miles before you consider doing anything!
As for exhausts and chips, you might check out Dinan. Cost a bit but worth the quality. Shark Injector and some others will eliminate the top speed limiter (so be careful about the speed rating of your tires) but won't increase output much.
If all you want is to bling-bling the car out, may God help us all.
I've kept my past/present cars mostly stock. Only mods I do are usually performance oriented and never for looks (complete waste of money)...mainly intake/exhaust and maybe suspension. I agree with you on the rims as well. I once had 18's on my M3 and bent two on the way home one rainy night (hit a BIG pothole). Speaking of Dinan, I live right down the street from their Morgan Hill office. Personally met Steve and gave me a brief tour of the facility. Lots of research and development going on - they're currently designing their own shocks/struts/springs. There were also a couple of CooperS's and the new Z4 in their garage that they are developing products for.
Anyways, thanks for the advice! Can I at least put 245's all around once the 235's wear out? Since IT IS mainly the wifey's car, we'll keep it in stock form for a while .
p.s. How's the new Sportcross? Actually test drove one of those a while back and was very impressed with the overall pkg. Also testdrove a manual sedan (that was fun). Would've cost us more than a used 530i though. POST SOME PICS!! I'd love to see them side by side .
I will not comment on exterior styling, since that is a personal matter, and numerous keystrokes have already been spent discussing it. The interior look nice, but again that is a personal opinion. Some interior ergonomics are just great, such as the seat. I had no problem settling in and making myself comfortable. The much-maligned iDrive is actually quite intuitive, and leads to less clutter on the dashboard. The navigation sytem is quite good and works on a very comparable functional level to any other on the market. The irritating "I Accept" thing is here too, but it was a pleasant surprise that one may program in a new destination while driving, presumably allowing a passenger to set a new destination on the fly. Some ergonomics are not as good. The window up and down buttons on the driver's door seemd to me to be at an odd angle for my wrist. The bottom edge of the door rear view mirrors slants up at the outward edges, limiting vision in a part of the field. The central rear view mirror is wider at the top than at the botton, opposite to most other cars, leading to an interesting view out the rear window. It has a large red button hanging out the lower edge that falls right in the field of vision when the driver looks out the right side of the windscreen. The trick indicator stalk (a little nudge to flash three times for a lane change, a further detent to keep on for longer until cancelled by a turn or another flick back) had me beat only a few times in the beginning, but by the end I had gotten the hang of it, quite nifty in fact. Other than these minor things, the interior is very well put together.
Apparently, being in Park is no longer enough for BMW as a safety feature. One must press the brake before turning the key to let the engine start. My guess is that BMW want to ensure that our feet are on the brake pedal rather than the accelerator, thereby preventing an Audi like siutation of a few years ago if the Park safety feature fails. It just seemd like overkill.
The engine starts and lets out a delicious low rumble when idling. Whatever the niggling things are with ergonomics and styling, man this thing moves! The drivetrain is an absolute hoot, with plenty of smooth power and quick delightful gearchanges. Both the automatic and manumatic gearchanges are smooth and quick. This thing can scoot from 50-60 miles to well over a 100 very quickly in automatic mode, and blazingly quickly in M3 and M4, which can be dangerous to both wallet and licence, but oh what fun!
The Active steering works very intuitively and I could not feel it, just that it was very easy to turn and park the car at low speeds, and very easy to track the car at high speeds without turning the steering wheel too much. The brakes are very smooth, strong and fade free. I did have some trouble in modulating the brakes, since they had a tendency to come on stronger than I intended, which made for some interesting mid-corner corrections. The handling in turns was fantastic. One can take a turn off ramp with a posted 30 mph suggestion (the yellow sign) at 70, and this car will stick to the road confidently, with nary a squeal from the tires, and very little body roll.
I can now see why there are BMW aficionados who wouldn't drive anything else, and also Lexus lovers who love tranquillity. Going back to my LS430, it was much smoother and quieter. The BMW was definitely more fun to drive, especially on a twisty road. If I were rich, I'd have one of each. I'd take the LS430 on a long interstate drive, and let it pamper me. I'd take the 545i on non-interstates, preferably through mountainous terrain. Maybe I need a 545i with a proper 6-speed manual transmission. I am somewhat heartbroken that the new M5 will only have an SMG.
This test drive made me think about getting the new M5, but only if it comes with a 6-speed three pedal manual transmission. I hope BMW listens! No wait, maybe I need the new 645Ci as my next car, but with two kids, may be not (they need their own doors I guess). Damn, maybe the new restyled 745i will be an even better combination of the two. Hmmmmmmmmmmm,....isn't choice wonderful. We do live in the greatest society on earth, not perfect surely, but still a darn nice place. Drifting off to daydream.........
PS: The reason we decided to take his car instead of mine was that my LS was in the shop for a bad wheel bearing at 14k miles. So the Lexus is not perfect either, despite the claims. However, the dealer and the service were great. To be fair, my friend has had to take in his 545i several times already, to re-flash the drivetrain computer for a hesitation and a software update, and he was not happy when the car was returned with a small ding on a chrome strip and oily smudges on the interior. Maybe what we need is an Maserati-designed, BMW-engineered, Tahara-built car, sold and serviced by Lexus dealers. Hmmm... now there's a thought.
Thanks in advance
Hope this helps...JL
Other changes:
- Lumbar support will be standard
- Ditto Parking Assist at least in the 530 and 545
- Although neither mentioned it, hopefully BMW will be delivering the 2005 with most of the software bugs corrected.
Since my dramatically aging 1986 325eS had a near death experience the other day, I'll be getting one of these
The Lexus is a pleasure to ride in.
The BMW is a pleasure to drive.
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My '04 Lexus IS300 5-speed manual with LSD is every bit as fun to drive, and drive really hard, as my former '98 540i6. And my wife's '04 Lexus IS300 SportCross automatic with LSD is a lot more fun to drive (and more pratical) than her former '00 323ia.
That is the NASTIEST sedan I have ever seen...and heard.
As regards iDrive, if anything, complaints are more prevalent today than ever.
What are the pros and cons of this issue? Are there any other decisions, concerning setup procedures done only by the dealer, I am going to need to make at that time? If there are, please give me the plusses and minuses.
Thanks.