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Comments
I know that E or J stands for Regensberg, C or F for Dingolfing, and K for Munich.
john01, what kind of plates did they give you? Are you driving with diplomat plates or the regular german plates?
-nobee
2001 Prelude Type SH, 2022 Highlander XLE AWD, 2025 Camry SE AWD
I put on over 1300 miles and I want to max it out, but the darn limiter on US cars. Besides, I have the snow tires and the max recommended is 210 km/h. Perhaps I should have gotten 540/M5 just so that I can push it to 155 mph.
-nobee
2001 Prelude Type SH, 2022 Highlander XLE AWD, 2025 Camry SE AWD
Please shop around because Passport, Pacific and Cutter Motors also offer competitive prices. I can provide MSRP for Germany and England for various products. Your best bet is to get the product that you cannot buy in the U.S. especially interior trim. We get ripped in the U.S. They really have some nice wood and metal trim that we cannot get in the U.S.
That said, if you don't drive in snow alot (say 5 times a year or so), I think you should put all-seasons on your RWD in the winter. Summer tires don't work because of the cold effect on the tread compound, but most of the time you'll just be driving in the cold and rain, and won't need the extra noise and aggressive tread of the snow tires. The all-seasons will handle better than the snows, and they will get you by on those 5 or so snow days a year.
NOTE for the TIRE POLICE: I am not suggesting that all-seasons match the performance of summer tires during warmer months. I know you can't touch performance tires for pure handling.
Now, if you live in Canada, Maine, or some other place where snow falls in October and stays on the ground until April - I'd go with snow tires, no question.
Just MHO.
I got the name of my Munich hotel from another EDer (derprofi) (Hotel Uhland) and used a search engine to come up with their website. Even some of the smaller hotels in small towns have websites, but the rest will be on a website put out by their equivalent of our Chambers of commerce or a hotels reservation service. If you're looking for a place to stay in, say, Heidelberg, just point your search engine at: germany heidelberg hotels and you'll get plenty of hits. Usually, their will be a web form you can fill out and you'll get a communication back in English. I noticed that, usually, this is from a reservations company that gets a fee -- you aren't speaking directly with the hotel staff. Works fine and is fun.
2001 Prelude Type SH, 2022 Highlander XLE AWD, 2025 Camry SE AWD
HELOC: I think what ccotenj put it in January is the bottom line for your judgment: "defaulting on a car loan leaves you carless... defaulting on a heloc leaves you homeless..." For me, a Bimmer is just a toy which I am happy to have but does not sadden me without. But I must secure a love nest for my loved ones.
ED plates: I brought back my ED front plate as a souvenir and the rear one came back with the car. I do not think either E.D.Harms or VPC takes them away, it may be lost when your dealer put on their dealership plate frames when your arrives. So as long as you tell your dealer to keep it, it should be fine to keep both ED plates on your car when you drop off.
Mr. Dean Shipo: I've never got to congrat you. I know you will be back to the board - it is not about the car, it is about the soul.
nyccarguy:
- Have you thought of a stripped 330 than a loaded 325?
- I typically do not use travel agencies as I consider them conflict of interest. A travel package which can be of saving is typically in an area/route not quite matching with EDers' customization. Internet can help you much more. October is the time when airlines begin post-summer promotions, normally for the flight times beyond 10/15. You should be able to find air deals quite easily. BTW, Marriott currently has a promotion of 3 stays 2 free weekend nights. Even without business travel opportunities, you can play the game by driving to cheap NJ/NY/PA towns with Fairfield Inn (low end Marriott) to have 3 stays (not nights, you will have to have 3 stays of one night each at different hotels, maybe too troublesome) for $50/night. Then you can redeem the 2 free weekend nights in any Europe Marriott regardless of their rates. The cost to you is $150 or so plus tax. Obviously it'd be beneficial if you redeem in a high-end Munich/London/Paris Marriott. Sheraton has a 10 nights 2 free weekends deal but you'll have to redeem by 8/30. Just to mentioned so that EDers may consider it. I do too much travel and I am a loser enough to beat every promotion. :-> or :-<
nobee & john01: Out of curiousity, how much in general do service men get paid overseas and what percentage of service men stationed in Germany take advantage of the low (yet still high) military discount for BMW/MBZ/Audi? DoD seems always complain about low pays.
Kind Regards.
2001 Prelude Type SH, 2022 Highlander XLE AWD, 2025 Camry SE AWD
I have another question... does anyone drive the automatic tiptronic version? I am a stedfast stick driver, but the Boston stop and go traffic is killing me! Much to my surprise, I had alot of fun with the tiptronic. I'd love to hear from someone who has been using it for a while. Any gripes or problems?
Thanks again!
"...but the Boston stop and go traffic is killing me"?!? Never thought about that in 11 years. You don't like shifting for yourself very much, do you? Shifting the 3-series is like being in a $1,000/day spa; shifting the Saturn probably feels like getting a massage from a lumberjack...In all fairness, though, the step is supposed to be one of the best automatics out there.
2001 Prelude Type SH, 2022 Highlander XLE AWD, 2025 Camry SE AWD
trade my e36 for March 2001 build 330, modified light steering. I don't mind it. But the problem is lack of balance. It feels tighter/heavier to the right than the left.
Dealer can't figure it out/notice it. So I get the retro thinking new rack will solve it all.
August 2001 get retro. So much heavier all around hard to notice left right imbalance.
After a couple months I begin to notice the imbalance again, albeit that all steering is heavier. Take it in. They do alignment ( rear was pretty off). Feels better.
Now a couple months later I feel the imbalance again. I can't believe that my car keeps redeveloping an identical alignment problem. HTe new rack hasn't solved it . Is it the tie rods? A loose bolt? My dealer is losing interest in helping . WHat the hell is going on? Thanks for listening.
Believe it or not, I was asked about the ED program while I was in Germany. Maybe I need to get out of Engineering and go into Marketing.
The reservation is guaranteed, and you do not have to pay any deposits, or give any credit card info. For some hotels, you can even cancel before noon of the day of arrival, without any fees.
I realized Germany hotels also use this site to make reservations between themselves for customers.
Like what, just out of curiosity?
Hmmm, interesting idea, using all seasons for winter driving. Some thoughts:
The all-seasons will handle better than the snows This is true, but I would say a 3er with winter tires will handle better than most cars with summer tires.
The question is do the winter tires offer enough advantage in the deep stuff to make up for those days when it's dry. I opted to not put the winter tires on our Volvo this winter thinking the all season Pirelli's would be fine. The 8 inch snow a couple weeks ago confirmed that there can be a huge difference between all seasons and winter tires in snow.
I would say switching to all seasons would be a good idea in some moderate climates, but winter tires offer a big advantage here in Wisconsin and, I would think, in Boston as well.
-Murray
If I do get a response what should I expect to pay versus MSRP
Advice: do your research, find the "real" invoice pricing at http://www.eurobuyers.com and than start negotiating. I had to order my car, as it was base (I do not like any of the options), and I got my lease at $395+tax/month + $600 out-of-pocket. I see that as a pretty good deal, and I am not a good negotiator, so it can be done if you are persistent.
2. The car manual is wrong about the key to press for the panic alarm.
DOH I needed to take my car in for service for the above items.
3. The HK upgrade, IMO, is worth the money. Compared the two back to back with a CD. The HK upgrade to my ears sounded fuller and richer.
4. You either luck out with a dealer or not. I purchased 3 Nissans from this one local dealer. Before I got the BMW I went back to the dealer and said to one of the reps that I bought 3 prior cars there thinking that would set the tone of the conversation. Nope. Some dealers get it some don't. The BMW dealer treated me like royalty.
I wouldn't get discouraged by the lack of response or the dealer's seemingly unwillingness to deal. The first dealer I went to said he couldn't even take my offer of $1,350 over invoice (330i) to his manager. And this was the dealer from which I had leased my 328i. I went to the next closest dealer about 15 miles away and presented the same offer. We closed the deal at $1,400 over in a matter of minutes.
Keep plugging away and don't let them discourage you. Once you've done your research and let it show, the dealers will respect that and will not be as likely to give you the round around. Good luck.
FYI: My deal was in Northern NJ.
I don't mind BMW did the recall or campaign work at VPC as soon as they had discovered the problem. I expect to enjoy driving the car once it is delivered to me, not to waste time bringing it back for the recall.
Also among all cars I have owned over the years (bought new), there was no single one that had not had at least one recall or "campaign" during my ownership. If you have never had the experience, you must be a lucky person. As for me, anytime they found ways to improve safety and performance for my car, I am all for it.
When my wife and I were just window shopping at out local BMW dealer on 12/1/01 the salesman came out to meet us. We initially told him we were just looking and thought he'd leave us alone. But he was polite, interested, asked questions, and walked us all over the lot until we found the exact car my wife was looking for. We bought it that day. Nice guy, pleasant experience.
http://www.roadandtrack.com/RoadAndTrack/technical/0102_changing_shifting_patterns_p1.html
Adam
I have the 330Ci with sport package and I bought a set of 330Ci Non-sport wheels and used them for the winter. This way if it snowed I would be in better shape than I was with the sport wheels/tires which are absolutely horrible in the snow.
Also, it kept a stock look to the car and the all seasons were a nice change though after a month I really started missing the wider tires from the sport package.
Some differences with the all-season tires are:
- smoother ride
- still handled well but not as good
- initial turn in was not as quick
- much less tramlining on the highway
- much quieter ride
Also, a very big advantage was the price . . . I found a set online with 2000 miles on them for around $1000.
I will most likely sell my non-sport wheels soon which means it will basically cost me little to nothing to have had them as I will probably be trading in the 330 at the end of this year
This last Wednesday I was up in Windham, NH and the parking lot that I was parked in was about 20 feet below the road surface with a fairly steep incline up to said road. As most of you know, I drive a 1999 E46 328i 5-Speed (for another 6 weeks anyway) with Michelin MXV4 Plus All-Season tires (which have close to 38,000 miles on them, and the rears are starting to show their wear). That said, when I came out from the meeting (the reason for my trip to NH), six inches of snow was covering everything, and under the snow was a layer of water that was partially frozen, this stuff was REAL slick.
As we were heading to a little dinner get-together, we split up into three different vehicles (my 328i, a Lexus ES300 and a Ford F-250 4WD pickup). Given that the Lexus is a FWD vehicle, it had only moderate difficulties getting up the hill, my 328i, on the other hand, made it up a few feet, and then the back end started to slew to either side as the DSC tried in vain to keep wheel spin under control. The guy in the pickup, made it half way up and promptly started sliding sideways before the driver wisely stopped trying to make it up (before he slid sideways off the edge of the ramp, and into some woods). On my second attempt (this time with a better running head start), I made it up just a couple of feet further before the slewing started again. :-(
Time to change the rules. For my third attempt, I decided to let it all hang out, so, I turned the car around, turned off the DSC and headed up the hill in reverse, right past the stunned driver in the Ford, and right up to the road. All of the way up, I tried to keep the tach between 2000 and 2500 rpms, and this seemed to work perfectly well, that is, until I got closer to the top, when the vehicle speed started matching the wheel speed, then, I had to back off the throttle to keep from zooming out into the street backwards. ;-)
Once on the road, we drove through the storm to the site of dinner place, which was about 20 miles away, first up I-93 and then onto your basic 2-lane side roads, and my 328i did quite well (DSC turned back on) with only a few minor slips here and there when I gave the car too much gas (each time the DSC jumped in and got the wheel spin under control, and I simply had to correct for the slightly errant direction of travel of the back end).
Oh yeah, the dude in the 4WD Ford truck, he got there 45 minutes later. ;-)
Were it that I lived up in that area (and, who knows, I might sooner or later), I would not hesitate to put a set of snow tires on my car for the winter season, here in New Jersey, however, I do not see the need.
Fuel...
On my way out of Windham on Thursday afternoon, I stopped at a Citgo station to fill up with gas; however, they had run out of 93 Octane fuel. :-( Given that I was under a time crunch, I filled up with 89 Octane, reset my trip computer, and headed for Home. While this is anything but scientific, I was surprised at how bad my mileage was on the way home. I normally get between 34 and 35.5 mpg between my house and Windham, on this trip, in spite of much lighter than normal traffic, I only averaged 32.2. Now, the difference could have been attributed to head winds, but, I had no sense of that, the implication being, the fuel. In this case, the 89 Octane that I bought cost $1.38 per gallon, the 93 Octane (had it been available) would have cost $1.43 per gallon. Assuming that this difference is anywhere near what could be expected from lower octane fuel, for a 3.6% increase in fuel cost, my car seems to be able to deliver a 5.6% increase in fuel economy, more than offsetting the extra cost of the fuel.
Best Regards,
Shipo
I have to laugh about the F-250. Some people think 4WD is gods gift to winter driving, but they haven't got a clue. There are many factors involved and driving more wheels can't overcome some of them.
The higher octane fuel here tends to be $.20 more expensive ($1.59 vs. $1.39 recently) so there is a 14% increase :-( I'll probably stick with the more expensive stuff with an occasional cheaper tank full for comparison.
-Murray
2. Car & Driver did a nice story recently regarding use of octane in various cars. In all but one car, those that recommended premium octane had higher engine output and economy than if you ran same car on regular unleaded.
3. Current, May '02, issue of European Car has a fascinating article, with color power output charts, regarding varying a turbocharger's psi and the octane. They turbocharged a BMW M3. One chart shows output for 10 lbs psi and 91 octane. Another chart shows output for Sunoco 104 octane (race use only) at both 10 psi and 12 psi. Last chart has Sunoco 104 octane at 13 psi.
Article says contact Sunoco if you want super-high octane fuels. Says Sunoco sells 100 octane street legal fuel. Gives Sunoco contact info as(800) RACE GAS (722-3427) and www.racegas.com. Says "visit Sunoco's website for your local distributor"; author went to Downs Commerical Fueling, Inc., in Corona, CA.
I came up with the following with some testing:
The key part of the memory for the seats does not directly tie in with the buttons on the seat...
The key remembers the last place you had the seat, mirrors, climate control, and music when you exit and lock your car.
So that would be true with the other key.
Try some experimentation using both keys... switching back and forth remembering to lock car with remote each time.
CNorthrup
"The indicator lamp shows that the system is operational...[or there is a] system malfunction... Please refer the problem to your authorized BMW Retailer as soon as possible... A system malfunction could prevent the system from responding to an impact occurring within its normal response range... The airbag indicator lamp also comes on if the safety belt lock tensioners are activated."
I took it to my dealer. They had to order a "SENSOR MAT". No part number given. It finally came in. I have to get it installed.
If you aren't a member and don't want to join, I can post it on my website where you can download it.
-Murray
Your story about backing up the hill reminded me of some good old days when I was a kid.
I remember back in the mid 60's when I was around 14 I spent a couple of summers up in Clarksville, NH (had a crank telephone and party lines) helping out at a place called Rudy's Log Cabins that had about 6 or 7 camps for vacationing fisherman and hunters.
Anyhow I learned how to drive Rudy's car and pickup truck (both standard) as I had to bring the garbage to the local dump that the locals used. It was located behind a hay field along the elevated bank next to a stream with a dirt road access. I remember Rudy telling me that if I ever was trying to negotiate the road in the mud to apply the parking brake and drive backwards. The way I remember it, he explained that the brake would prevent the wheels from spinning but still allow movement because the brakes where designed to only lock up going in the forward direction. Had to be there...
CNorthrup
Hmmm, backwards in the snow, why did it work? While I was not able to articulate to my passenger from Sweden why I even attempted to drive up that hill in reverse, something in my gut told me that the car would be easier to control that way. To be sure, the weight transfer thing did not work in my favor, however, with the “Front” wheels pulling and the “Rear” wheels steering, I felt that the “Reverse” thing would be worth at least an attempt, if for no other reason than control. Maybe I felt that driving up the hill in the normal fashion was something akin to “Pushing a string”, it’s just a whole lot easier to pull it. As it turned out, I was both surprised and pleased when it worked so well, that said, I never let on to Dan from Stockholm that I was anything other than totally confident that this would work. ;-)
As for the mileage thing, the calculations were worst-case numbers. There is no question that of the 10 one-way trips between my house and Windham, NH, this trip was made with the lightest traffic and at the most constant of speeds, if anything, this trip Should have generated the Best mileage numbers of any trip. That said, my best mileage run between the two points was 35.5 mpg, which is 10.25 percent better mileage than the 32.2 that I got on Thursday. As far as price differences between 89 (midgrade) and 93 (premium), the most I have seen around here is about $0.10 to $0.12, which still makes the use of premium at worst, a wash. Wow, a $0.20 difference in Wisconsin, that sounds a bit like price gouging to me, ouch!
Reiz,
I agree with you totally on the tire thing. In my case, the rear tires on my 328i are anything but optimal given that they are well worn All-Seasons with 38,000 miles on them. The F-250, on the other hand, was fairly new, however, borrowing a term from some of our friends that like to ummm, errr, Enhance the look of their Japanese cars, his truck was “Slammed” with all sorts of gee-gaws hanging all over it, everything from (what seemed like) dozens of lights on the front grill to running boards and chrome stuff. Did he have tires that were acceptable for the conditions of Wednesday last? Unlikely, however, I did not even condescend to look. ;-)
CNorthrup,
Hmmm, setting the parking brake, kind of a cool idea. The old drum brakes were designed to do their “Adjusting” when stopping a vehicle while in reverse, as such, they gave up quite a bit of braking power while in reverse when compared to normal forward motion. This sounds like something that would have been discovered during WWII, was Rudy a veteran of that war?
Best Regards,
Shipo