We have an A4 Quattro with all-seasons and I know what you mean about stability in snow. Any time the vehicle pulls to one side or loses composure, you just step on the gas lightly and steer - it's almost a no-brainer. Cornering in snow is also very safe knowing that all 4 tires are gripping. I am sure the couple of hundred extra pounds over an equivalent 2-wheel drive model increase braking distance but it is a worthy tradeoff in snow/ice.
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)
FWD has a couple of advantages: 1 - on flat ground you can get started a little easier 'cause of the weight of the engine right over the wheels. 2 - In loose snow, the driving wheels are doing the trail-breaking.
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.
I see we are ahead of the 300M enthusiasts in number of posts, so here's one more nail in their coffin. 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".
Your Integra, really? Hmm. I never had a problem with mine, except for the one time I was caught in a surprise October snowstorm (this was in South Dakota) with summer tires mounted. THAT was interesting.
well sorry., in the summer or fair weather the Sport get a handwashing every few days , besides being relaxing, your getting a good look at your vehicle. Ive read the auto car wash propaganda about how im wearing my finish down and how abrasive it is, but id challenge them to locate any wear on my finish and its only a few months newer than Shipos car. NOt only that but ive never seen a auto wash clean like i can hand detail. Just a personal preference.
I drove 2001 320i and 2002 325i. I am an novice driver to BMW cars, I may be wrong with some of my impressions. Comments on my impressions are most welcome.
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.
>>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.>>
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.
Bavarian and Genie... 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
Has anybody been able to get the "Payment Estimator" over at bmwusa.com to work? That's a pretty user-unfriendly piece of software they have over there. I could never get a figure out of it.
We love our Bimmer convertible, however top down weather has finally passed in the NYC area. When we put the top up and took a short trip, we noticed a plastic rattle coming from the top mechanism. As well, there appeared to be an indentation, almost a puncture in the roof fabric. 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?
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.
I'm a trivia buff and have been fortunate to have seen and lived in many different places. Some of the miscellany just sticks. You are right about the number of languages and dialects, it seems like there are new ones recognized almost every day. I don't know of any other country that has as many official languages.
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.
It came out that one of our company's Senior VP's just got a new 330 convertible a month ago. I was at our company's X-mas party when I found that out and we spent at least an hour talking about our Bimmers. What a great person - she's an attractive, sophisticated lady in her late 40's and she's been driving BMW's for 10 years or so. She said her E36 325 used to break down a lot and when it was time to replace it, she opted for a boring but reliable car like the Accord. She added with a smile that the Accord affair was very short-lived ) She ordered a teal green sight unseen and loves the color. I was very impressed that she bought a manual one - she said it's a lot more fun driving a manual. Was she interested in the 5-series? She said it's too big for her (she's single) and you lose a lot of the fun that you can have with the 3-series. She also said that she used to put a 100-lb kitty litter bag in her trunk on snow days with her E36 325 and it worked just fine. I am wondering how many other SVP's do that ) What a fun lady, I was really impressed.
To me the most critical option is the sport suspension. I enjoy driving my car hard, and the upgraded suspension makes the biggest difference to me. Everything else was for creature comfort.
Postoak: I've used that payment estimator many times, and had no problem. They don't allow you to estimate the discount from MSRP, so I just add whatever discount I expect ($1,000 to 1,200 seems reasonable from what I've read here) to the down payment line, to adjust the final price of the car.
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.
I ran my post through the spellchecker but the spellchecker wouldn't know the difference between "trucks" and "tricks". Then I hit the "Submit" button and ran out the door.
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.
I just saw an ad for an SUV (Ford I think) which shows a guy clearing some trees with a machete. He walks back to an SUV which has some mud spray aft the wheels, but is otherwise spotless. His wife and kids sitting in the car look at him with a puzzled expression and he goes: Don't want to scratch the paint.
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.
You might want to check out Edmunds.com's newest feature found in the Advice Section: a combined payment calculator and decision tool. Together they assist consumers in making informed decisions in this incentive crazed environment. Here are a couple of key points:
* 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.
SUVs never made much sense to me (espically the luxury ones). They handle poorly, block others' view, danger to themselves and others, and almost none of them ever go off road.
Okay, I've read the section in Edmunds on leasing. Now, I need some information specific to my situation.
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.
I want to buy snow tires for my 328i convertible, but I have received some conflicting information. The popular tires locally are the Michelin Alpines, but recently I've heard that they're not as good on dry roads as a new tire called the Goodyear Eagle Ultra Gm -?, which are supposed to handle better on dry roads. It's always hard to tell what kind of roads there will be in southeast michigan but I'm looking for the best handling tires for this time of year. Can anyone offer advice? Thanks
I read your post about the SVP and had to reply. I used to be a SVP with a very large bank, and like your co-worker have owned several BMW's. I took delivery of a 2002 330i yesterday - my third, having owned a 1997 328i and a 1999 328i - all five speeds. I ordered a steel blue/grey SP, PP, Xenons. I am one of the few females who wouldn't drive anything else but a manual transmission, since my 260Z years ago. Some first impressions of the new bimmer: love the power; the extra horsepower and torque is definitely noticeable over the 1999 328. I am a little disappointed in the steering. Not nearly as heavy and tight as the 1999 or the 1997, but for some reason the car feels more FUN to drive. I can't quite put my finger on it yet, but there is something very subtle about the 2002 that grabs me. The sound is of the engine is more "throaty" than before. I can't wait until this weekend to get on some curvy roads and really enjoy it.
I too am an avid car washer/waxer, especially with the Bimmer in Jet Black. Cleaning my car gives me a great feeling of pride and has a calming emotional influence. I don't consider it a waste of time, but I also know I am unusual compared to the average car owner. To each, his/her own.
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
The two highest rated snows tires for all around performance on Tirerack were the Blizzack LM and Dunlop Winter Sports. I went for the Blizzacks but haven't put them on my 330i with sp yet as it's still in the 50-60's here in NY and I played golf today! I'll probably put them on this week and report on the ride. PS at 5000 miles the car is starting to feel even more lively.
I have a Sand leather interior and when I put on my seatbelt the webbing rubs across the headrest mount and wears off the sand color at the friction points. My dealer replaced the headrest mounts and the same thing happened again. My car was built 4/01. I saw a 7/01 build recently and the headrest mounts now have protective moulding to reduce the rubbing. I spoke to BMWNA and they won't authorize the upgrade because it requires a new mount AND headrest. Although they would continue to replace the old ones over and over with the old design (go figure). Anyway, if you have this problem, speak up to your dealer and BMWNA. If enough of us speak up they will authorize a TSB to fix this problem.
I can tell you right off the bat that unless you can write off the lease as a business expense, leasing will not make sense for you considering how much you drive annually. Either way you slice it and dice it, buying the car would make more sense. What I would do to come with the residual you're looking for is go to the Used Cars section on Edmunds or MS carpoint.com and plug in the numbers for a '99 323 to see how much it depreciates over 2 years for the amount of miles you drive. I am guessing you will be left with about a 65-70% residual after 2 years and 45,000 miles... BTW, my car is 32 grand, I pay 629/mo for 60 months with no money down and in the end, I will own whatever is left of it )
The 330's engine has a lot more growl than the 328's and the shifting is much smoother - maybe that's what grabs you that much. It's great to hear from a repeat 3-series owner. Enjoy your baby!!
I took the picture right after I waxed it. The rims on the picture are, of course, hand-washed - the 44's are very easy to clean. I don't really get much brake dust between washes (about 3 weeks apart) because I do mostly highway driving and I downshift all the time, so I barely get to use the brakes.
As I have mentioned in the past, my individual circumstances allow me to keep my SP tires for the winter, as I will be driving my wife's A4 on snowy days. I wanted to get a feel for how the SP's behave on snow just to be ready in case of an unexpected snow storm. So I took my 325i SP with ContiSport Contacts (12,000 miles) to an empty parking lot covered with 1 - 1 1/2 inches of 3-day old snow and ice last night and spent about half-hour driving there. This was a perfect place for my test (or experiment if you prefer) - a large deserted parking lot sloping by 5-7 degrees on one side.
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.
According to Dateline NBC: "The SUV is still the King of the Road. Sports Utility Vehicles remain among the best-selling vehicles in America. Though buyers know the 'S' doesn't stand for 'safety', these rough and tough vehicles seem so safe. But looks can be deceiving, if not outright dangerous. The Insurance Institute put 11 new midsized SUVs put through high-impact tests. Not all get high marks when it matters most. This test has led to a recall for one of the hottest models around. "
Brave1heart - I did as you suggested and came up with a residual of about 65%. How did you purchase without a downpayment or a trade-in? I thought that was pretty much a requirement. Am I wrong?
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!
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!