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Thanks again. Please let me know if there's anything I should know about ED.
I know your dealer can sell touch-up paint/clear coat set for around $20. It worked well on my chip.
Take a look at the clear nose cover they are now offering.
http://www.pacificbmw.com/catalog/access/detail.asp?pid=161&category=%section=&model=E46
thanks, terryk
For what it's worth, I also looked at the two cars you mentioned above. The lexus was too 'childish' in a few of the design elements for my tastes. Someone above put it very well when they said that they felt like they needed a piece of bubble-gum when sitting in it. :-) The Acura was a pretty nice car that simply lacked soul. The lack of a manual tranny didn't score many points for either car in my book either.
As for the size, that's too personal for anyone else to help you with. I like smaller, tossable cars, but my wife has a minivan we use for vacations, shopping, and whatever else requires a larger vehicle. My two children (7yrs and 9yrs) fit fine in my "Ci", and that's all I really cared about.
Good luck in whatever decision you make!
Regards,
Darryl
Sorry, but if yours is one of these (and I suspect a week 20 car is!), it is a little late for changes. Did you want to change the transmission? You've got a Steptronic and if you are driving around San Diego area, I don't think you made a bad decision.
Thanks, terryk
sandecki: Euro delivery is available on leased cars also. I purchased, so cannot give too many specifics, but there are some restrictions with regards to leased cars. I believe you are limited to 30 days maximum stay (vs. 3 or 6 months I think on a purchase). Also, leased cars are not insured when driven into former Eastern bloc countries. Poastoak is correct on the payment - it must be made in full 30 days prior to your delivery date in Munich. I don't know how that works if you are leasing, but be sure to give Joern Esser a call at Passport BMW in Maryland (that's not too far from NJ, is it?) He handled my deal and is an excellent sales contact. I posted his phone number one or two days ago.
jpcbearden - glad I could help. I asked Joern if he wanted me to send him referrals, to which he responded with a resounding "Yes!" When are you scheduled for delivery? If you have any specific questions with regards to ED, I can try to answer them.
did you pay for tax? last year i checked there was no tax for ED. i heard it has been changed this year. did you pay MD tax or TX tax?
I'm a newbie and was curious about the benefits of the sports steering wheel compared to the regular four spoke model. Do the fewer spokes facilitate quicker turns and is the wheel diameter smaller?
I have a question concerning ignition timing. I understand that the timing is advanced in response to an increase in the throttle position and higher fuel octane. Wouldn't the engine perform better if the timing were permanently set for the maximum advance?
Thank you in advance to whomever responds to my newbie questions.
Parump
alpine325 - you'll need to change name! anyway, sport suspension, HK sound, power memory seats were the additions in March production. Auto climate control always was standard on 330.
did you pay for tax? last year i checked there was no tax for ED. i heard it has been changed this year. did you pay MD tax or TX tax?
Sometime ago I read that MB Quart did a very good job with speakers for the 3er. I went to their web site and its all greek and latin to me...
Here's what I want - Decent speakers, an amp and a pair of subs. Budget - 1500. Any ideas?
I appreciate your response. Do you happen to know anything about the PERMA PLATE product for protecting the paint?
sandiegoblue - if you like to wash your own car and polish/wax it every few months, save your money. If your go to the local car wash, it might be worth it. Is there a free re-application after a year?
So, all you 3-series owners out there, REJOICE in your pleasure. LOVE your car--name your 3, inhale that new car smell deeply, and become one with your Ultimate Driving Machine. For those of us in the present lowlands/private hell, we have to suffer in the meantime. To have test-driven is to have loved for a moment. To have taken Euro-delivery is to have tasted sweetness only to endure six weeks of painful w/drawal (I could not bear this, so I chose not this way).
To my future 325Ci, as you lie in unextruded/unwelded/unassembled pieces, we will soon be together...sniff.
Man, is it getting late. See what a 2 am stogie and cognac will do to ya? Sorry, everyone. Perhaps sleep will dull the pain.
Tax is paid according to your state of residence, not where the car is purchased. (If the latter were the case, we'd all be purchasing cars from Washington state - no sales tax). Since I puchased out-of-state, I did not have to pay tax at the time of car payment. I will pay my Texas taxes when I register the car here locally.
I'm surpised that the earlist delivery you could get was September. When I ordered in March, Joern was able to secure an April 25 pick-up date for me. I sensed that demand was slowing. In September, you're on the cusp of the 2002 models.
DSC - it is always on when you start the engine. No light comes up under these circumstances. The light comes up temporarily only if the DSC kicks in (typically under aggressive maneuvering) and it is constantly lit up if you switch it off. I have seen it come up a couple of times during aggressive cornering with Strumpf Muscle and it actually works pretty well to prevent the back end from coming out and maintaining balance.
jakep - congrats on your new ride!! 'I do not want mechanics pulling my new car apart for no reason'???? Getting the old steering is a very good reason for me and I'd like them to do whatever they need to do so I can get a better on-center feel. But I am taking the same approach as you - enjoying it and taking it one step at a time.
postoak - The technologies that I work with are not exactly old; they are just not as cutting edge as some of the new XML stuff out there. I work with PeopleSoft applications. Ver. 7 and 7.5 have been around for about 3 years; Ver. 8 has an internet-based architecture but it has not been massively implemented by Fortune 1000 companies yet. PeopleSoft uses dozens of different tools and they are all proprietary stuff.
erickson - I am very happy to see that my ramblings have made a small difference in at least one person's life. You won't be disappointed by the car - it's all good.
Well, going out for sushi and some sake tonight and going to see Driven later. I can't wait to see those special effects. Not keeping my hopes very high on the acting but the effects should be phenomenal. They sealed off a part of Chicago to shoot the movie? I would've loved to see that on Storrow Drive in Boston.
From this morning: Motor racing fans will probably enjoy the movie. The special effects are overdone but still a lot of fun. The plot and character development are laughable and serious movie goers will be disappointed unless they love racing.
If my car is scheduled for week 25, would it then follow that I might expect it to be in production at the end of this month? If so, would it be reasonable to expect delivery in Maryland in late June or early July?
Also, can anyone tell me how I can get in touch with BMW NA by phone???
i am ordering a 325i stick with pp that includes cruise control. anybody have any ideas how cruise control works on a stick? i don't know anything about cars.
I've been corresponding with out host Pat RE. how to improve this board's technology. My idea basically is to have a better search engine and especially availability of discussion threads within the same board. There is no need for a separate Owners' club and a 3-series board - we all want to be ONE big happy family on the same board but have discussion threads to different topics of interest that allow you to weed out the topics that you are not interested in. Also, we'd be able to see at a glance the topics that generate the most interest that way. This is our opportunity to make out lives here on this board better. Edmunds.com is currently in the process of overhauling their search engine and we have to tell them what we like so we can get it. Please send you suggestions to pat@edmunds.com. My perfect board would be one that has the bimmer.org BBS technology with the quality of people, posts and discussions from edmunds.com. Fun and education sans the profanity. Any ideas?
I am not the one to whom you folks want to make your suggestions on how to improve this site. That is best done by using the "Online Support" link on the left sidebar of this page.
I have no input whatsoever into the redesign of the Search engine or any other feature of Town Hall. Brave1heart, I was simply passing on information to you. :-)
Personally, I believe that Town Hall's 3-Series Owners Club Board can be used to give you most of the features you are looking for. Separate discussions relevant to the 3-Series can be set up there simply by asking your host KarenS to do so. You can subscribe to the entire Owners Club folder by accessing that choice at the bottom of the main Owners Board discussion list. Then you can use "Read Subscriptions" to easily move through all new posts in all the discussions without ever having to go to the main list.
Or you can go to your Message Center to see exactly which discussions have new posts and access those from there.
For those who have not tried subscribing to the entire 3-Series Owners board, I encourage you to give it a shot. The Town Hall Help section can give you all the details - you'll find a link to that on the left sidebar of this page also.
Hope this helps.
Pat
Host
Sedans and Women's Auto Center Message Boards
BTW, I spoke with a Dinan tech specialist. He informed me that a stage 1 download (chip) is not required if you get the CAI and the stage 2 download. That should get you an additional 9 horsepower. The freeflow exhaust has finally been developed and is awaiting release to market probably w/in the next month or so. No indication as to the total hp/torque increase with that. The freeflow exhaust had to be revised b/c the 323 formerly had a single inlet pipe exhaust, whereas the 325 has a dual inlet. This is all VERY good news.
So far, I've decided that I will add the above no more than a month after delivery, as well as the white tail-light markers, Dinan badging (reads Dinan 3 in place of 325Ci), and all-around window tinting (30% or so). I want to keep the car fairly stealthy, nothing ostentatious. I don't want to end up on www.riceboypage.com. The matte-chrome trim (like 330) may have to wait. It costs about $400 on the circlebmw site.
One thing I'd advise you to do is take it one step at a time. Get the car, enjoy it, see how it goes - maybe you'll love it just the way it is and you won't want to change anything, who knows...I'd decided for myself that what I was getting was totally sufficient for me and I could live with it for many happy years just the way it was. If I can gain cheap HP and/or acceleration improvement, though, I'd be happy to do it. But I am definitely going to wait till the car has had a chance to fully break in before I make up my mind.
http://www.dinanbmw.com/html/maps/dealer_list.html
thanks again for looking up my car.
Dinan says that "The combination of the Stage 2 Engine Software and Cold Air Intake System produces a 7 horsepower and 6 lb/ft torque gain on 325 models."
If a labor unit is 1/10 of an hour, then 10 units make one hour. I will use $80 an hour as the average that I would expect to pay.
Here is the pricing:
Stage 2 dnld: $300 + 5 units (or $40)
CAI + K&N filter: $550 + 25 units (or $200)
-----------------------------------------------
Total $850 parts + $240 lab = $1,090
In my estimate, the 330i is about 5 grand more expensive than the 325i w/ equivalent options. Official HP difference is 41 horses (225 - 184), or about $125/pony. In Dinan's case, you get 7 horses for $1,090, or about $155/pony. Definitely more expensive, although I suspect that drivability will be improved substantially and overall acceleration may be improved by more than what the 7-pony gain at 6,500 rpms reflects. Still not sure if it's worth it but at least it's nice to know that incremental improvements in performance don't cost outrageously more than going from the 325 to the 330. I think when you add drivability into the equation, the per-pony price may be very similar. What do you guys think?