BMW 3-Series 2005 and earlier

seivwrig

I have the bi-xenon on my 325i. The side vision is the most noticible(sp?) thing. There is a cutoff that seems to be more pronounced when driving across mountaineous and hilly terrain. I got to test my Xenons very well. When I did ED, I flew into Munich, picked up the car and drove to Spangdahlem AB near Trier with a few stops. By the time I got around Frankfurt, it got dark quickly and so did the terrain. 90 mph, darkness and mountains are not a good mix especially when you add rain. I would not do that in my Altima. The xenons were great but I did not like the cutoff on valley approaches. The Bi-xenons don't level fast enough at high speed. No need to use the High beams unless you want to light up the neighbor and play night soccer.

ccotenj

that people on the autobahn exercise neat little things like lane discipline, signalling of intent, and so on... or so i've been told, i could have been told incorrectly...

-Chris

efxx

The xenons I was referring to are the halogen/xenons described at
http://bmwxenon.com. From reading the product description they seem
like xenons that work in halogen fixtures. Is it legite?

dl7265

Dale:i now think i recall hearing that, also the clock is on the radio instead of gage cluster, several little things but noticeable. I just wish we had a Cold front to try out the bum warmers lol. Thanks for the tip on the fold down seat, didnt thik about it being in the trunk.

After a full day i will recant a little on the HK the bass response is noticably better, but still not $645.00 IMO

So, would i trade my Sport auto on the 5speed Premium loaner.... umm no. why ?

1) light steering, i havent looked at the production date on the car, but compared to my 99 it feels like a camry, ack..

2) Missing the Sport seats and suspension, its not bad , im sure Mr.Pierce will be very happy, with his non sport, but i see no sacrifice in ride in my car, only crisper handeling..
So in short my next go around will be a Sport 5 speed

DL

brave1heart

I meant that as a broad concept. It would be too dangerous to allow free speed on highways without first educating drivers in lane discipline, signalling of intent, etc...

raavir

is "Klasse Concours Kit" you got from properautocare.com? I am about to place order, just want to make sure this is right one. Is it easy to use this kit?

Thanks

butmywife

Picking up my 325xi tomorrow and had a couple of questions for the board:

1. My dealership is having a "sale" on the trunk mounted CD player (Nakamichi) for $382, down from the msrp list of $595. With all the other parts necessary (total of $490, tax included) they say it will take 2 hours to install it (@$70/hour) so the grand total is $640.

Is this reasonable? A good deal? Over priced? I believe I remember a poster saying he installed one himself in 30 minutes. If so, maybe the "sale" is a ruse.

2. Does anyone have XM radio? If so, what are your impressions? Where do you have it installed in your Bimmer?

Well, the wait has been tough but it will be over tomorrow. Can't wait!

ButMyWife

kdshapiro

Clock. It's in both places. You can set the radio to display the time or not. You can set the instrument cluster, to display the time or the trip computer statistics. However, I forgot what package gives you the trip computer. (premium package?)

HK upgrade. IMO yes, worth the cost. I driven 3 series loaners without, and while I think I would be okay without it the HK upgrade adds a lot of panache. Over time I've noticed the bass response of the HK upgrade is very subtle but powerful. Not like having an obnoxious 12 subwoofer that sounds like a disco. I don't blast the radio, but when I play music with low frequencies I frequently turn around to find out which car next to me has their bass turned way up, only to discover it's coming from my car. You don't get the feeling on the standard 3 series radio.

leenelsonmd

Saw a silver 3 series getting a ticket today on Hwy 288 as I was coming home. Hoping it wasn't katkison.

I was doing my usual 79mph in a 55 and using the cheap radar detector which gives me about 2 seconds notice prior to a bogey.

Should I break down and get the Valentine 1 now or should I wait till this fall when I pick up the E46? I love the detector mostly because it is a fun toy and so I was thinking about getting one early and installing it on my E36. I thought about connecting 2 of them just to see if the V1 is all that it is cracked up to be. Should I go ahead and take the plunge or wait, hoping that the V1 will be updated this fall just as I am hoping they put a few goodies in the new 3 series.

mschukar

From reading the product description they seem like xenons that work in halogen fixtures. Is it legite?

I doubt it. Xenons require very high voltage (like an arc welder) to work. Halogen fixtures wouldn't provide the necessary voltage.

-murray

soverypoornow

Nice to hear you're finally getting your car. I just got back in from cruising with my son tonight playing with the navigation system. Fun, fun, fun. Let me know what you decide on the XM. I was thinking about doing something similar. Excellent birthday request, I figure.

soverypoornow

So, I finally got my map CD today and went out to play with the nav sys. It seems really hard to hear the audible instructions even with the volume on the loudest setting. I'm not that old and didn't go to many concerts in my youth, so my hearing is good. Just have to strain to hear it. Doesn't seem right. I'd hope on the loudest setting the nice woman would scare the lederhosen off of me when ever she chimed in. Anyone have similar problem?

dl7265

its prob a moot point , im likely to get a 330i so no choice on the power seats and HK since they are standard now.

its going to depend on how "bangelized" the final 5er is going to look. Im still trying to hold out for valvetronic *sigh*

btw, anyone know how to figure euro gas mileage? i was checking out the 330d and it uses 5.3L/100KM ? i cant seem to get my math straight tonite,

thanks
DL

vkwheels

Raavir - yes I got the Courcours kit for $39.95. Also bought the Eagle One Wet Wipe'n'Shine, only $3.95. Then I followed the tips on that website for using them all in conjunction. I only did the all-in-one & 2 co-workers raved how good my car looked. And that was my old car!

As for the new one, she is quite lovely. I am all pleased about it. I get a loopy grin easily, as though I'm in love. A pleasure to drive & behold. Am itching to go on a long, long road trip. Spartanburg perhaps. ;-) Then I could do a tour of the east coast from Martha's Vineyard through the Garden State and the Smokies to South Beach. How long would that take I wonder?

btw, Here are restrictions my dealer placed on me: don't go faster than 100mph until after 1200 miles (remember I have the automatic), don't use the cruise until after 500 miles, don't redline it.

soverypoornow

My wife mocked me for spending two hours washing and Klasseing my car yesterday evening, but it sure looks and feels nice now. Smooooooth. Properautocare.com is my new friend.

I, too have been pondering a road trip. I'm thinking Napa.

john01

is somewhat sparse these days. Some Germans blame it on their brethren from the eastern part. Many will pull out to pass a truck that is moving at 65 or so, but the problem is they themselves to about 68. They do not seem to care that some cars are going twice their speed. Remember shipo's story during his ED? I, too, feel good about having good brakes on my 530.

deryll

Just arrived back from Germany and have to say for the most part driving on the autobahn was good but there where several times that I had to stand hard on the brakes to avoid running over slow traffic in the left lane that would not move to the right. The other problem is all the road construction zones and I never saw anyone working, whats with that? Between Frankfurt and the Swiss border on the A5 I was able to make some good time average speed was over 220km for quite sometime. Its really nice to not worry about speeding tickets when travel.

postoak

Isn't that the most detailed site?!? The variety and complexity of all the signs is amazing. I find it hard to believe that even native Germans know all of them. I printed out all the signage pages plus the rules and regulations pages and it was a stack of paper about 3/8" thick! Something to read on the flight over (in addition to learning German!). Plus, when I'm driving, I'll have my navigator (wife) keep the signage pages handy. Once again, it's:

http://home.att.net/~texhwyman/auto.htm

BTW, I did drive over there on my last trip, and you can get by without knowing most of this stuff. The one sign that confused me the most were the small "tank" signs with numbers. I finally pulled over and asked about them. They are explained in the above site, near the end of the signage section.

raavir

one last question, which product you use for car wash. Is it available on properautocare.com.

Thanks

rascal8

butmywife,

Looked at XM radio at a local shop. It appears the Alpine system would be the way to go. Alpine has a small XM tuner that fits very nicely in the 3'er right where the ashtry is. They would have to make a small faceplate though. The receiver would go in the trunk and the antenae would mount on the trunk near the rear window. The price is still outrageous - about $550 for the equipment - which I was not willing to pay. But, if you spend a lot of time in your car...

shipo

Ok, here you go:

(Kilometers * .621371) / (Liters * .264172) = MPG

So, in the case of the 330d it would look like this:

(100 * .621371) / (5.3 * .264172) = 44.38011

Best Regards,
Shipo

postoak

I received a complementary ballpoint pen through the mail after I placed my ED order. The other day I dropped it onto concrete and it must have landed right on the point. Now, it no longer writes properly and I would like to get a new refill. Anyone know what brand the pen is? I went to my local Office Depot and saw nothing like it.

butmywife

rascal8: Thanks for your post. I agree, it's too much at present. BTW, are you a Direct TV subscriber? They are running a special until the end of July---I believe you can get the receiver for $150 and then pay for the antenna ($?)and service ($10/month). Their infomercial shows receivers by Sony, Pioneer and Alpine.

postoak: Good luck on your trip. I'm still beeming (bimming?)from mine. You are going to have so much fun. BTW, our German taxi driver told us that Autobahn driving is getting frustrating because some people are starting to adopt the attitude that if they are going the posted speed limit in the left lane a fast approaching car should make adjustments. He stated it something like this: "They don't consider that while they might be logically correct they might also loose the lives of their loved ones when they get rammed at 160 mph. In that case, does it pay to be logically correct?" He added, "Another problem is that evolution has not kept up with the pace of things you do in your car (steer, shift, drink coffee, talk on the phone, etc.). We need to evolve one more arm."

And he didn't even broach the subject of driving on the Autostrada in Italy! That's a whole different breed of craziness.

ButMyWife

postoak

Thanks! We fly out Saturday. Still quite a bit of work to be done to get ready. I just hope there is no problem with me carrying bottles of wine onto the plane.

ttenn

Steel blue, black leather, SP, xenon. The said the rear shade is no longer offered as an option. It isn't available on the 02's. It was on the 01's.

Now the wait begins.

mbox

I already posted this at bimmer.org, but wanted to see if anyone here may have actual experiences regarding drop-off of a Eurodelivery car in Italy. I've pretty much decided to drop off in Nice to avoid someone from Harms driving my car to Munich (plus the extra delivery time). I'd still be interested in hearing impressions from anyone who has tried the Italy drop-off. Thanks in advance!

vkwheels

I used the one by Eagle One. It's on that website, not expensive.

rshaw11

I used both the All-in-One and Glaze from the Concours Kit and the car looks great. It was very easy, I just followed all the instructions. Even left the Glaze on overnight and wiped it off easily in the morning. I still have to do my older cars, that will probably take a clay treatment first.

rshaw11

I'd like to get it too, but I have a short commute and live in a large city with a lot of AM and FM stations available. The technology just sounds too neat to pass up. I think I'll wait for the prices to drop first.

brave1heart

Shipo is correct. You can probably do it all in your head actually:
1. Convert km to miles
2. Convert liters to gallons
3. Divide miles by the gallons obtained above - in this case 62/1.4 = 44.3 mpg (close enough)

That's some great mileage they're getting out of the diesel, uh?

erickpl

My wife gave me the Alpine unit and receiver for my Father's Day present. I'm scheduled to get it installed tomorrow.

I have a 2 hour commute (per day) in the desert. I want my XM!

I will let you all know where they end up mounting it. If I had a dang digital camera, I'd be happy to post pics post installation. I'm looking at the ashtray (since nobody in my family smokes) or the little pocket just below the climate controls as my mounting points for the display unit. I'm not sure where the other components will mount, but I'm suspecting either under a seat or in the trunk somewhere. The place doing the installation is the only shop near where I live that can install XM and still have BMW warranty the work. Nice.

I'm still a bit undecided about the antenna - glass mount or roof/trunk mount. Any thoughts?

-Paul
'02 325xi
Oxford Green/Natural Brown
SP,CWP, 1/2PP, tint, bixenon

raavir

rascal8

I'll have to check out the infomercial again. I remember them offering $50 off an install recently. I would like to install a system if the price would come down some. I HATE public (local) radio.

erickpl

butmywife, the $50.00 off is also available for DirectTV customers.

-Paul

chewie5

There are some great roads in the Napa and Sonoma counties to take the 3er out on that you should check out if you're up in the area. Check out www.pashnit.com/motoroads.htm. (Acually, anyone in California should check out that site). Skaags spring-Stewarts point road is a fantastic drive--it is a bit far from Napa though. Lucky for me it's close!

katkison

No, that wasn't me getting pulled over, thank goodness. I have a steel grey 330i. But thank you for the concern. I heard they had a lesser, but still effective sped trap set up yesterday during the workday. My fiance went home during the day yesterday to meet our builder to start repairs on some water damage that occurred in our house from builder error, two months after we have moved in. In short, some bright person used a 2 inch brad to attach the base boards to our walls, instead of a finishing nail. This nail happened to get driven into a water pipe. This water pipe started leaking Friday morning while I was in Atlanta on business. Our cleaning woman called my VM frantic. Luckily, the water main was turned off and the damage was less than it would have been if it were a different day of the week and it was leaking all day. It just happened to be at the top of the stairs, though, so it caused enough damage on its ways downhill. And the wall is curved!

So, I am enjoying my car every chance I get since I come home to nasty smelly wet sheetrock, etc. If only they would speed up the increase of our speed limits, it could be a year before they revert back to the previous speeds!

Kelly

efxx

Has anyone had any luck with getting after-market xenons?

Has anyone installed a DVD player into the slot
where the cigarette lighter/ash tray is ('99-02 models).

raavir

silverprincess

I bought both lowbeams and fogs for my 99 323i from bmwxenons.com. Can't give you a really good comparison between BMW OEM xenons and the ones I have because I've never driven an E46 with the OEM xenons. But I have to say that I'm very impressed with the color and much improved visibility over the halogens (although the BMW halogens are excellent already!) The ones from bmwxenons.com are VERY SIMILAR to the real ones. The only disappointment I have is they don't really have that blueish hue that I expected. The other thing is the price - at $120/pair, they're pretty expensive compared to other aftermarkets. But then again people have complained that other aftermarkets are "too blue", "too blinding bright", "look fake", etc...The advertisement from that site is pretty accurate and honest. The photo comparisons will give you a good idea. Jimmy Wu (owner of that site) and his staff have been pretty responsive to inquiries via email, so service is not bad. I've recently sent back my low beams for replacements because I found that one bulb is more "yellowish" than the other. Jimmy didn't have any problems replacing them, but it has taken him a long time to ship them out to me. I'm trying to be patient about the delay because he just got out of the hospital after a near-death motorcycle accident. So I would recommend them, if you're willing to fork out the money. But they're still cheaper than the OEM's! BTW, I bought my E46 through CPO, so to me this is the next best option.

tenet1

These aftermarkets aren't real Xenon's are they? I believe that they are just brigther and "bluer" halogens.

silverprincess

from http://www.bmwxenon.com/xenon.html:

What makes these PREMIUM XENONS(TM) so unique is its ULTRA XENON GAS inside the ceramic-based tube, the glare my XENONS produces are one of a kind. They are not just much BRIGHTER than the stock and other brand bulbs, these XENONS are laboratory-proven to output CLOSEST light texture compare to BMW factory XENON-Lowbeams.

sbmaine

sbmaine

Anybody have to choose between the 330xi and 3 series convertible? I love the look of the sedan, but the convertible... love to hear any thoughts or regrets on your decision! Also, I am thinking black metallic with natural brown--anybody with this combo recommend it? Happy with the choice?

seivwrig

Hey, since your so close to heading over. If you need any tips, just email. Or you can call me after 7 p.m. If you email me, I'll give you my number. seivwrig@swbell.net

postoak

Thanks, since I've been planning this trip since April of last year, I believe I'm pretty well prepared -- except I've been bad about my German lessons. Oh well, for about 10 days of the trip our German friends will be traveling with us, so we'll have them as a resource.

The questions will come when I pick up the car from my dealer around September 1st. Then I'll be asking about the clown's nose, programming, installing the homelink, etc., etc., LOL.

leenelsonmd

Sorry to hear about the water mess. I hate dealing with that stuff-the workers never show up, the job is never fixed right the first time, they track mud all over the house--it is terrible.

We had our fair share of torture a couple of months into our new home in Silverlake. Shower pan was installed wrong, fixed (wrong), and then re-re-installed. Torture.

FWIW: My new posh (kidding) crib in town has a roof leak which the previous owner denied vehemently. I think I have it figured out though now and have only spent about $3.50 fixing it--the next big rain will tell all.

FWIW 2: They installed hardwoods into the new place last week and they looked terrible--they ripped them out this week and started over--tar is all over the house--TORTURE.

The real question is: Should I go ahead and get the V1? I am dying to watch the bogey counter and see the arrows pointing in the direction of the bogey. It looks like great fun and the curiosity is killing me. Of course my new home is 2.0 miles from work so it will sit idle most of the time, but I think I still like having it as I drive around the neighborhood--It is just fun to know a cop is there around a corner or over a hill...

scp123

I'm interested in purchasing a 325i. However, the only thing holding me back is its reliability. I've heard all kinds of stories about a lot of little nagging problems. So what's the nature of the problems people have been having. I'm interested in keeping the car for about 10 years, so should I even consider this car? How much can I expect in maintainence costs over the period of 10 years?

seivwrig

Considering the area where you live. A V1 will probably go off with frequency especially in ticket happy West U. Bellaire likes to catch the occasional speeder. Then there are the University of Texas cops in the Medical Center. Maybe, you should ride a bicycle to work, pending that you don't get run over on Holcombe.

dl7265

i knew you would come to rescue lol, i figured it would have to be close to that. And all that torque too..... But alas it looks like we have no chance getting a diesel over here. Not until petro doubles in price.i drove a E300 TD a while back and thought it drove nice.

DL

rascal8

Some advice: don't listen to Uncle Joe who had a BMW once and it overheated and it was a lemon, blah, blah (he is statistically irrelevant). There are stories of little problems with EVERY model of car. The current 325 model has been in production for a number of years and it's reliability has been proven. If you check with the trade rags and JD Powers, etc. they rank the 3-series (and BMW's in general) towards the top. Most of 3-series owners on this board will tell your they are sticklers for quality and reliability. In todays auto market performance alone does not cut it. So, I really don't think you should worry too much about a 3-series being a problem. Good luck on your next purchase whatever it may be.