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Comments
Their bottom line: Most people will be served better by winter tires. AWD is most useful for hill climbing.
What I meant to say about a lot of people being misinformed is that there seems to be a common belief that bigger, heavier vehicles (SUV's) are safer than smaller vehicles. In a front collision, they would be because of the laws of physics - a heavier object will make more impact over a lighter object, other things equal. However, a more nimble, well-handling, well-built vehicle will help avert an accident more easily than a bigger, clumsier vehicle. You are also less likely to leave the road (primary reason for rollovers) in a well-handling car. Obviously, it's a tradeoff at best and it would be incorrect to assume that bigger vehicles are safer and that smaller cars are not. I've seen a lot more SUV's than sedans in the ditch on snowy days...
p.s. I've met a lot of perfectionists in my life, none of them too happy in their personal lives. Look, unless you're a genius of some sort, you cannot do many things perfectly. I'd rather be doing most things well and be a well-rounded person than do a few things perfectly and be mediocre at most other things. We sleep and work about 2/3 of our time, which leaves about a couple of hours a day (if even that) for everything else. You spend a day washing and waxing your car and you'd have to wait till next week to do your laundry, let alone go golfing ;o)
But it ain't all sweetness and light. On steeper hills, weight is transferred towards the rear of the car, so the steeper the hill the less advantage FWD has when accelerating.
The big problem, from my point of view, is FWD give you choice of two unpalatable handling dynamics: terminal understeer, or lift throttle snap oversteer. At least with RWD you can control the attitude of the car with the throttle.
I go back and forth between my car and my wife's Passat (both cars equipped with Blizzaks) and I strongly prefer the Bimmer on snow. I'll happily trade off a little acceleration against feeling much more secure around turns. The only traction control system on my Bimmer is the one at the end of my leg. When it came to winter driving, the most frightening car I ever owned was my Integra.
BMW is riding along on the crest of a wave and over the Bloomberg today came the news that year to date BMW has outsold Mercedes and is only 7,000 cars behind luxury import leader Lexus.
There will now be a five minute pause while I adjust the sandbags around my foxhole in case V Tech is out on night manoeuvers.
All's clear...the article suggested X5 sales are spurring things along (but 3 series sales ain't exactly hurting the cause!)BMW's sales are up 15% YTD to 194,000 vee-hikkles while Mercedes(186,000) are up only 1 percent. Lexus is up 9.7%.
Cadillac number four in sales, followed by Acura and Lincoln.
genie-regarding Phal dishes...I have yet to find them in America and I don't recall them being that common in London either. India is a huge country- I should know as I had to vacuum it once during high-school detention-and it has many regional languages and cuisines.
Shipo-when you are in DAWAT make sure to start with some cauliflower and ginger soup and tell them I said "hello". If they can't quite place me just say "the Irish guy who always has to be carried out on a stretcher".
PS...get the 22oz glass of Kingfisher.
15k miles per year. stanley22 at edmunds chat room
DL
Power: I didn't see any mind blow off power difference between these two cars. as 320i also comes with 2.2L 168hp. the difference is only 16hp, but at the same time it weights less, may be it gets compensated because of weight difference.
Handling: I felt a bit difference in handling. At this point 325i got advantage. But I was told that 320i with Sport pack is handles as good as 325i. I didn't get a chance to drive a car with sport pack.
Sound System: for sure I would go with HK upgraded, what an amazing sound system.
Seats: I didn't get a chance drive with, but there is one in the showroom, felt those are very comfortable, but not mandatory to have em, even regulars also did well.
3Spoke Steering wheel: looks so cool, may be I am a bit concerned abt cosmetics at this point. Sales guy is going to find out wether they can install one for me with out buying entire sport pack.
Color: silver/black is nicest and flawless combo. Orient blue/beige is classiest, I would go with sportiest....ho ho ... black on black with titanium trim, the sportiest of all
the configurations i am looking at costs same for both 320 and 325. for CAD42000 I get 320 with sport pack or 325 without sport pack. All other options and standard equipment more or less same. Both cars have exactly same cosmetics. I was told 325 has better resale. I can trust sales guy as he don't have any car with the cifiguration i am looking at in his lot. He have to place an order for it. For him it doesn't make difference as both costs same. he gave me basic ideas like 325 has better resale value and with 320 i can have sport seats etc. Haven't decided wchich one to go with and wether to go with europien delivery. ED takes 3months to get the car. Montreal delivery takes one month. there is a price difference of arround 2000 to 2500. Give me some sugeessions.
thanks in advance,
nobee
LOL! So you were the kid who got suckered into that deal. Apparently the frequent blackouts in the Deccan plateau and duststorms in the Thar desert made it the longest detention ever!
I love North Indian and South Indian food and quite a bit of the stuff they serve in the Central part too.
With 236+ dialects and 13+ regional languages, each with their own script, most kids learn secondary and tertiary languages in grade school. To add to the linguistic confusion, if your family comes from a different region, chances are you probably learn to speak a fourth language as well.
Basic French-101 is a piece of cake after that!
I was always thinking that lot of people really dont know so much about the East. You guys are impressive. Bavarian sure does have that tongue for Indian dishes. Kingfisher whenever i tasted, I alwasy think this is no more than just another beer...but when I order it, I dunno I end up drinking atleast 2. Its something about the drink.
About languages , a small correction, it is 50+ recognized languages( that have script) and about 400 dialects.
It is strange.. I wonder how is it even possible.
Braveheart: pagani zonda is an exotic car...The beauty is Italian...It is prettty powerful. Check out one of the enthusiats website www.paganizonda.com
We took the car into the dealership, whose service manager said that a factory technician would review the problem. Today, we heard that they will replace the top and mechanism -- free of charge. Has anyone else experienced this problem with this otherwise marvelous car?
http://www.paganizonda.com/
It uses a Mercedes powerplant. I really should update my profile - my current automotive lust object is the Z8.
Lancer: Yep, I *hated* that car on ice. Honda dialed a fair amount of rear roll stiffness, which kept from plowing too badly on dry pavment. The trade-off was even with studded snows it only took a slight lift off the gas for the tail end to want to pass the front. What was weird was my first new car was a '79 Civic, and that thing was unstoppable on snow.
The M3 is closer to the Civic than the Integra, and way better than the T-bird turbo coupe. This despite the fact that since I installed the turbo, I can not floor it in the first 2 gears when the snow tires are on, even on dry pavement. Even 3rd gear's dicey.
The cars are funny looking too especially the old Fiats and Ambassadors that can seat 5 comfortably and a family of nine in a pinch.
brave: I thought you were being sarcastic when you said "tricks". The worst vehicles I've ever driven in the snow are two wheel drive pick-ups, or 4-wheel drive pick-ups w/the 4WD off.
My perfectionism has mellowed quite a bit in the last 10 years, but you're right, I wasn't always happy before that. The best advice I got was from a fellow professional (I'm an architect), who said: The last 10% of effort toward perfection takes as much time and energy as the first 90%. So,...stop at 90%. Revisit the issue a few days or hours later, and if it is still bothering you, complete the remaining 10% of the effort. Most of the time, you'll already be consumed with the next challenge or task, and that last 10% won't seem so important. I sleep better now, and I try to polish faster!!!
PS: If you have an AWD Audi, you understand the joys of AWD. Their system, along w/Subaru's is among the best.
Our A4 Quattro is a lot of fun to drive in snow even without the sport pack. My favorite part is when I steer to the inside before a turn to force the tail to come out in a predictable slide and then hit the gas as I am entering the turn. It slides sideways through the turn and then hold yourself, you are flying through the corner exit rally style. I love it.
Well, the 90% advice sounds great, I couldn't agree more with that. I am a natural at the 90% stuff - I get there easily but I rarely make it through the last 10%, hard as I try. So conveniently, I ended up doing a lot of things very well, and none extremely well (even those I wanted to
As far as washing/waxing my car, I do it but could not say I like it. I work extremely fast, though, and following the 90% rule, I hand-wash it, dry it up and vacuum the interior in < 1 hr. Waxing would be another 3/4 hour or so and I only do it twice a year. Keep in mind that I have to cars to maintain (taking care of my wife's car as well) and do not have the convenience of living in a suburban house like most of you.
maybe it was left that way to cover the hand-painted finish!
Let's hope that no one does such a thing with their BMW (besides brave of course).
BTW, have you seen the photos of the 2004 SLK?
I just don't get it. So why stray off the beaten track in your v. expensive clear-coated beast if you're so worried about scratches anyway?
Oh well, I'm sure they paid some agency a lot of money for that piece of advertising garbage.
* The consumer has the ability to accurately assess their payment given the entered deal parameters.
* Based on the given input, the decision tool will clearly indicate which option is most advantageous when given the choice between a customer rebate and a subsidized interest rate (a la 0% APR).
* The True Market Value (TMV) tools are integrated into the calculators to assist the consumer in accurately assessing the deal parameters prior to walking on a dealer's lot.
Give it a test drive at http://applications.edmunds.com/loancalculator/LoanController and let us know what you think.
Pat
Host
Sedans Message Board
My circumstances:
The 325I configuration I'm looking at has an invoice price of $26,755. Let's say, for the sake of argument that I can get it for $2,000 over invoice, plus $200 for titling and licensing. Thus, my capitalized cost will be $28,955. I've driven about 20,000 miles per year recently, but lets say I'm having so much fun in my new bimmer that I drive 22,500 miles. Going with the dictum that you not lease past the warranty period, which is 50,000 miles, I would want a 24 month lease. I'll have to buy 15,000 extra miles because as far as I can tell, BMW doesn't offer leases for over 15,000 miles per year.
Questions:
1) How much does BMW Financing charge for extra miles?
2) Approximately what is the residual value (expressed as a percentage) for a 24 month old 325I with 45,000 miles on it?
3) Approximately what money factor can I expect to get from BMW FS?
Gotchas:
4) Are there any? Someone I work with who always leases said that on his current lease he has been getting a property tax bill each year from the county tax assessor-collector -- to the tune of $800 per year -- and in our state we don't even pay property tax on cars we own outright. What's that all about?
Pat: The Edmunds Payment Estimator is much easier to use than the BMW one but it is for purchasing only.
One final question related to using a company other than BMW Financial Services. I discussed the BMW European Delivery program today with a loan officer and she was totally confused -- had never heard of such a thing -- and was almost positive that her company wouldn't be able to do this. I didn't want to get in an argument with her, but why not? Has anyone who has done the Euro Delivery worked with an independent financial institution?
I know this is a lot of questions but I'm sure you guys know the answers and I want to be thoroughly prepared for my purchase. Thanks in advance.
Brave, I thought it odd that the picture of your car (gorgeous, by the way) was taken when clean. As hard as I tried, I couldn't see any brake dust on those wheels
I drove around for a few minutes first to get enough snow to stick to the tires and fill in the grooves for a better simulation. Getting going on flat surface was not difficult. I preferred to switch off the DSC and traction control and allow for a little wheelspin for best starts. Same with ice (this ice BTW was smooth as glass). With or without the DSC+T, key thing was to be gentle with the gas. Now, that part takes some concentration because the 325 is geared to get the RPM's high quickly in first and the tach just doesn't like to see the needle hesitating in the low RPM's for more than a second or so. Once you are comfortable with that, best thing to do as soon as you have moved a couple of yards is to shift it into second. Driving with the highest possible gear had MUCH better traction than the lower gears. Braking was a lot better than I had ever hoped with these tires and it seems to me that it is even better than my old Jetta VR6 with all-season Dunlops on it. I tried braking downhill going about 25-30 mph and the car felt composed under braking with or without the ABS kicking in (I personally try to brake without the ABS kicking in, probably just an old habit). Handling was good - the 50/50 weight distribution makes the car very predictable on snow. Where I ran into problems is getting going on an uphill. With a 5-degree (or thereabout) slope, you need to be extremely gentle with the gas to move even a foot. I could not figure out if the DSC was any help or not in THIS case but it seems like I did best when I switched it off and rocked the car a couple of times. Getting going in the steepest section, maybe 7-degree or so took more rocking. Once you get going, it is fine but if you have a steep driveway and steep streets leading to your house, forget it. The manual was HUGE help in snow!! BTW, the DSC does a terrific job of keeping the car on its intended path if you start skidding, I was very impressed with it. You have to switch it off for powerslides and these, BTW, were at least as much fun as with the Quattro - I just love to see the back end come out and then straighten it out with the throttle but the key thing is that the car feels very manageable, very predictable. Another thing to keep in mind is that this car is so low, you really should not drive it in more than a few inches of snow (unless you like hearing the undercarriage being scraped). I am also planning on keeping at least a small bag of sand in the trunk just in case.
In short, I was convinced for myself that I will probably not get stuck with this car with the type of driving that I do with it and that it is good enough for MY snow driving needs even with the SP tires. I'd like to remind you that the purpose of this post is not to argue with the significant advantages of snow tires in inclement weather but rather to provide a reference point for any of you that live in warmer climates and are keeping their SP tires because they will probably never see snow. This is in case you do have to drive in a surprise snow storm.
Here's the link:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/625453.asp
I would still, really, really, like answers to the questions I asked yesterday. (I'm especially puzzled about the property tax assessment on my co-workers lease.)
Where is everybody? I've never seen the board so dead!