BMW 3-Series 2005 and earlier

adam68 · May 2001

Can someone please give me the trunk dimensions of a 325 CI?

Thanks...

akwon · May 2001

Wow. I hadn't broken it down that way. Smart. For some reason, it seems easier for me to mentally digest the aftermarket power b/c it makes me feel like I'm not paying almost $40K for a car (330). For some stupid reason, I can rationalize to myself that b/c I've set a limit of $35K on my BMW OTD purchase, I have to stick to my guns and order the 325, but I can still add on mods over time. I want to keep my payments manageable every month. Sure, the additional cost per hp seems high for Dinan add-ons, but I can choose to do or not to do so after I get the car. Once I've signed the papers, it's too late for regrets (and after driving the 325, I'm sure I'd regret having spent too much on a 330 more than I'd regret not ordering a car w/ more power).

I'm going to take your advice, bh1, and just enjoy the car as it is and feel it break in. I can always decide later. There's definitely something to be said for being grateful for what you have rather than hoping/wanting it to be something it's not.

An aside: I've seen a ridiculous number of silver E46's over the past week. Five today alone. I've seen the topaz blue quite often, as well. Hardly any sienna red (the "write me a ticket, officer" color). I did see a 325Ci in my steel gray metallic a couple of days ago. Two words: HUBBA HUBBA!

denright · May 2001

I am in the same boat as you -- ordered the car April 28, just before the close of the 5.9% financing offering. I am also scheduled for week 25 production. I am crossing my fingers that we take delivery by the end of June so we can take advantage of the 5.9% financing. 6.5% isn't bad, but it's a few bucks extra every month that I'd rather not have to pay.

I can tell you this -- I have heard that cars scheduled for week 21 production in Germany were on the line by or before April 26. This indicates that BMW's German plants were approximately 3-4 weeks ahead of schedule as of April 26, 2001 (as the 21st week of the calendar year actually falls as the third week of May).

Calendar week 25 is the 3rd week in June. In light of BMW's status as being approximately 3-4 weeks ahead of calendar schedule, I suspect that our cars will be built in the last week of May or the first week of June. This is consistent with what my dealer has been telling me all along.

From what I understand, the cars take about 15 days to get from the German plant to the NJ terminal and then prepped for delivery to east coast dealerships. Figure in a few extra days for delivery to the dealership, and then add a couple extra days on top of that just to be conservative, and we're basically looking at 3 weeks from plant to our greedy hands. This would put delivery at the end of June.

I am crossing my fingers. Gurumike, please tell me if I am making any false assumptions.

denright · May 2001

On the subject of per pony price differences between the 325 and the 330, I can tell you I was all set to pay $35K (and maybe a little change) for a loaded 325xi. I ended up talking myself into the 330xi. I ended up not getting the SP (because on the 330 it comes with the M aero ground effects) but everything was the same otherwise, and I am only paying $38,475.

Not that big a difference. Including the HK sound system as standard was pretty key.

brave1heart · May 2001

... the 325 when equivalently equipped. That's if you compare apples to apples. Trust me on this - I did the math multiple times before I ended up ordering the 325i. If other people are not convinced, I'll go thru the hassle of showing you the arithmetic.

brave1heart · May 2001

I was hoping that someone else would know better than me and respond to you on your trunk size questions. I don't know the exact dimensions - total capacity is 10-11 cubic feet. Put it this way: even with the subwoofers in the trunk, I can fit my golf bag with the driver and bag stand diagonally. It's not a huge trunk at all but it's probably sufficient for what I personally need in a car. Our Audi A4 has 14 cubic feet AND folding rear seats so I'm all covered.

akwon · May 2001

I struggled w/ this whole issue for a couple of weeks before coming to my decision for the 325. My 325Ci came to $34,633 OTD. If I stepped up to the 330, I know I would want leather, xenon, and a moonroof, as well as the SP. That would take me into the stratosphere. Even if I kept the 330 bare-bones and only ordered the SP (gotta have the seats, baby), I would still be looking at 3 grand more than I wanted to spend. That may not seem like much, but I'm already upgrading from an Accord (like going from eating a good burger to some choice filet mignon).

micga · May 2001

Can anyone tell me where I can buy BMW front license plates other than the Circle BMW website?

Thanks

micga · May 2001

Has anyone noticed that the black rubber trim around the doors (esp the rear)is sort of loose? Not really the thin rubber, but the thicker outside part of the trim (vinyl??). I hope I am explaining this right. This seems to be the case with the 325i I just picked up.

Thanks

brave1heart · May 2001

Judging by the lack of posts in the afternoon, we all love our mothers dearly and are working hard to show them our love. Just like a family should.

kelf · May 2001

Does anyone have actual experience and recommendation on picking up new car at Spburg, instead at your local dealer? Is there any extra charge for this? How about if did a Euro Delivery---can you have car shipped to SPburg, instead to a dealer??---is there any extra charge for that?

roc50mg · May 2001

There must be some way we can bribe those guys in Munich to get our cars made faster. I certainly hope that they crank the cars out. It sucks to be telling everyone that "I just bought a BMW" and having to wait a few months to get it.
The Guru must be out with his mom since he hasn't gotten back to us as yet this evening.

Keep me updated on our week 25 production.

denright · May 2001

I understand what you're saying. At $38,475, I am spending $3,475 more than you were allowing yourself. For that price I am getting the 330xi with HK sound system, PP (including leather), CWP and in-dash CD. That's a $36,775 invoice price.

I'm not sure what it would cost for this combination (plus the 17" rims that are standard on the 330) on a 325. I just wanted you to have the right numbers for your $/ponies analysis.

Braveheart, I understand what you're saying, but I think your numbers might have to be amended in light of the new standard equipment on the 330.

kelf · May 2001

Would you please share your lowest over invoice experience anyplace on regular 3 car ( not an M car)?

deepdarkblue · May 2001

Okay, no more MPD (Multiple Personality Disorder) on my part. I finally fixed things, and I will only be posting as thedeepdarkblue or deepdarkblue.

deepdarkblue · May 2001

Is that price you mentioned ($38,475) the final out-the-door price, after tags, tax, title, etc?

gurumike · May 2001

Week 23 week 25 production likely means week 25 production! I know many people have talked of the German plant being way ahead (I think I may be answering a denrignt question as well??) in production. I know many Priority 1 cars (sold units) have been getting built a few weeks early, but it's not most of them and they seem to be finishing build in the production week allocated. Frankly, if yours a week 25, unless it really does get built one month early, you're not going to see that car until the back half on July. If it's a week 25.
It will be 6.5% financing (still an excellent rate and ultimately there's little difference in the payment between the two.
I hope it's built soon !!

mrpeltyn · May 2001

Hello Everyone...My new 325i is so fun to drive, I find myself going to get gas even though I'm half full! Anyway...I was hoping you had the answers to a couple of quick questions...

1. I notice that some 325i's have an antenna above the rear windshield? Is this due to the alarm or cell phone option?? I do not have this antenna.

2. Are we supposed to get any complimentary touch-up paint for nicks with the new car purchase?

Thanks, and this is a very informative board.

gurumike · May 2001

1. The initial E46 3 series cars all were built with that, the cellphone antenna. None of the more recent (2000 MY on) cars have them.

2. No. No free touch up paint. It's a parts dept item.

roc50mg · May 2001

thanks for your valuable input concerning vehicle production. july sure seems a long way off right now though. i guess until then i will just have to keep on reading these edmunds posts and checking owner's circle a dozen times a day.

mrpeltyn · May 2001

Thanks for the responses...

denright · May 2001

Mike, thanks for the insight! I will still be crossing my fingers, but will try to keep my expectations in check. As they say, expect the worst, hope for the best.

Man... that would put delivery more than 2 months away. What the hell am I going to do to maintain my sanity for that long?

I wonder why my dealer told me late May/early June build when I ordered it? He also said late June delivery. I am starting to think my dealer hoodwinked me on a few things.

DDBlue -- the $38,475 price does not include tax, tags and licensing. It includes invoice, destination, MD advertising fee ($200) and dealer profit ($1,500). Adding in taxes (5% in MD) and tags (i think maybe another $500) I'm looking at just over $40K as an OTD price.

denright · May 2001

The lowest over-invoice price I have heard of on this board for normal U.S. delivery is $1500 over invoice. Several people on this board got that.

aaa330i · May 2001

I ordered my 330i 5-spd, Prem, Sport, Xenon, CD for $1500 over invoice from Garlyn Shelton Imports in Temple, TX. They're very friendly people and will ship your new bimmer to you instead of you haveing to drive to Temple. Of course, I'm in Austin, so the 70 mile drive for me isn't too bad.

motorcity3 · May 2001

Hello everyone,

I believe that there have been multiple posts about this, but I was wondering if there are any good web sites that I can look up concerning car care. Things like the best products to use for washing/waxing the car (a 325i), keeping the wheels looking good, what to use to maintain the look of the vinyl inside, etc.
Thanks

aaa330i · May 2001

I like Autopia Care Care site the best, there is extensive information on it regarding car care, detailing, etc.

http://www.autopia-carcare.com/index.html

gr8st8 · May 2001

I too noticed that the outer black trim on my car is sort of loose but in my case, it's the trim on the front bumper.
I thought maybe it was caused by those long trips I've had lately. At any rate, I tried to push it back in place and it snapped right back on although I can still tell that it still feels kind of loose.
So far it hasn't caused me any problems, if it does I will take it to the dealer. But I wouldn't worry too much about it.

thedeepdarkblu · May 2001

I was looking at that site that someone posted the other day, and I can't seem to remember what it was. It had the index w/ all the color combinations of the 3-series. Anyone? Help! I need this to carry me through until I get my 325!!

shipo · May 2001

Cruise Control on a stick works just the same as CC on an automatic, with three exceptions.

1) If you hit the "Resume Speed" button coming out of a tollbooth or such, the CC on a manual will not shift gears for you, so you will either reach your preset speed with very high RPMs or be driving around bumping against the rev limiter. Simply accelerate through the gears and then hit RS.

2) The clutch will disengage the CC just like the brake pedal. I like this, a simple tap of the clutch pedal and you are now off CC (without the telltale blip of the brake lights). This can be handy when the local constabulary is around.

3) NEVER and I do mean NEVER hit the RS button when the car is not in gear, the engine will immediately "Red Line" and stay there until you disengage the CC.

Best Regards,
Shipo

burrsr · May 2001

Another observation regarding the Steptronic (in addition to the many that I posted a few hundred posts back):

In Manual mode, without driver intervention, when decelerating from speed to a stop (or about 5mph or less), the tranny will always default to M2, or second gear. If you want first gear (M1), you must flick the lever down yourself. This is a nice feature that prevents the more sudden engine braking when using 1st gear (have you ever used 1st to engine brake in a manual? -- provides MUCH more force due to the ratio). If you want 1st, you can shift to it to purposely use engine braking during deceleration, or you can shift to it at a standstill, or you can (given the torquey engine) use 2nd to accelerate (albeit not as quickly) from a standstill. Otherwise, the tranny logic defaults to 2nd.

Also, I've found that the tranny will not allow you to start (from a standstill) in a higher gear than 2nd UNLESS you HOLD the lever in the "+" position. For example, in icy conditions you may want to start in 3rd to allow the tires to be least sensitive to throttle inputs. To do this, you simply HOLD the lever up, and M3 will stay engaged. Otherwise, simply flicking the lever up will allow the tranny logic to override, sending ir back to M2.

The more I experiment with the Step, the more I realize how much effort went into the design of it, from an engineering perspective. They really thought through all possible scenarios in terms of driving needs and conditions. This is not to say that I STILL wouldn't prefer a good ol' stick, however, as all of the above can be accomplished by driver via correct clutch/throttle modulation.

jasonkureejii · May 2001

Thanks for the reply. I'll most likely make a decision on a car by the end of this week, because if I do go with the 325i instead of the Acura TL or Lexus IS300, the dealer told me 9 weeks for production (I can only put another 1200 miles on the car I drive now...leased). I haven't started negotiations yet, and I'd like to now what would be a fair starting bid for this...he emailed me the MSRP of 33460 for one with PP, leather, Xenon HL, metallic paint, and heated seats. ANYONE else want to comment on the reliability and maintenance of a 3-series vs. the two cars I mentioned??? This discussion area is super fast....

errickson · May 2001

zaino, zaino, zaino, zaino, zaino!

dresnick · May 2001

I'm considering the purchase of a new BMW 3'er and I've been lurking here for the past month or so enjoying the banter and the info from the friendly BMW family. Couple of Questions...
Looking at invoice -vs- MSRP for the model range, can you give info as to why the there is a much increased markup as you go up the model range. I am actually going to purchase the 325iC or the 330iC (there I've said it now

) and it looks like dealer profit is down around $2k or so for the 325i and up to $7-8k for the 300iC. When I've read on this board about people paying 1500 over invoice, I wonder if I could get away with that for the convertibles or if I'm going to be bargaining in the other direction, i. e. 1500 off MSRP. Also, I know there have been a number of posts from people who have purchased outside their home area, and people who have picked up at Spartenburg, but has anyone done both? After reading several posts about the S'burg pick-up, I think that this is really the route I want to go. I know my local dealer will understand my pick-up at S'burg but how do you all think I will be treated if I purchase out of state and take the S'burg delivery.? If I have to negotiate as aggressively as I fear to minimize that mark-up I have a feeling that this will be the case.
BMW, Gurumike, come visit the Convertible page now and then, the poster's there will love you for it.
One more thing, has anyone raced the 325/330 at the SCCA autocross level. I did so a while back with my Miata and enjoyed it immensely and will want to do the same with my 3'er (once broken in, of course.)
Thanks to all of you for providing so much personal and valuable information.
And so sorry for the long post....

gurumike · May 2001

email me at michaelfinbow@hotmail.com
I'll give you the address for the photo gallery.
I'd like to just provide it here but, even though it's basically just a list of jpg titles, there is a link to a page which has the phone number for my company. Incredible as it may seem, more than one person (allegedly) "complained" to the web master that they found this link an were "offended". Stunning as this may seem, fanatical adhesion to the town hall code of conduct means that to provide this link some-how may be construed as a solicitation for business which is a violation.
Like most things in life, it's always a few people RUINING it for the masses. But that's just the way it is. So as not to offend these very special people, it it necessary to have you email me just to get the address and we will likely have to continue to deprive our fellow Town Hall readers to protect the sensitive feeling of some of our more special readers. Apologies for this inconvienience but, as I say, we must never offend people or hurt their feelings.

kominsky · May 2001

Does anyone have any pictures of a 3-series with the BMW mud-flaps on it. I'm going crazy trying to keep my Topaz car clean and the constant road splatter behind the wheels is driving me nuts! If anyone can email me pics (kominsky@agere.com) or a link to pics, it would be greatly appreciated.

I'd also like to hear some opinions. Should I get the one's with Yosemite Sam saying "BACK OFF" or the chrome silhouette of the naked woman? :-)

pat · May 2001

As I have explained to you offline, it is an issue of the TOU. If you can remove the link to the dealership contact info, we would love to have that page linked here.

It really is that simple. :-)

Please feel free to email me if you want to discuss this issue any further - thanks.

Pat
Host
Sedans and Women's Auto Center Message Boards

thedeepdarkblu · May 2001

You can't go wrong with either design. They both say, "I've arrived!" (more like, "I'm an idiot who should be driving an El Camino w/ flames painted on the hood.").

denright · May 2001

Spoke to BMW NA today. The woman confirmed that I am scheduled for week 25 build, and though some customer ordered cars were rolling off early, there's no way of knowing whether mine will or not. She was VERY cagey in answering these questions. They must be instructed from the top not to give delivery estimates.

So we're probably looking at late July delivery. Damn.

One interesting piece of info she gave me was that one can request a special extension of the financing terms. I fully intend to do so, because my dealer originally told me I could expect delivery in late June, well within the 60 day cut off.. I'll keep you posted on this.

Man, I need to get busier here at work so I can stop obsessing about this.

brave1heart · May 2001

That's a real tough choice - can you get both on the same flap? Then you'd be really getting a lot of thumbs up from the type of people that always wonder how gas station restrooms can be so clean

) You'd be the most popular German car driver among their friends too

)

kominsky · May 2001

brave1heart; "then you'd be really getting a lot of thumbs up from the type of people that always wonder how gas station restrooms can be so clean"
- ROTFLMAO

thedeepdarkblue; flames? on the hood? I never thought of that! Thanks! :-)

langley2 · May 2001

Read last week that HK now comes as a freebie in the 330. My steel gray/black 325xi is being built as I write this. Does anyone know if BMW is offering new freebies in the 325i/325xi (besides the fogs and climate control) ? Thanks.

brave1heart · May 2001

It's normal to expect that manufacturer's profit will be higher even percentage-wise for the more expensive models. The 330i has a great engine but I don't see how that engine alone could cost 4-5 grand MORE than the 325's engine (apples to apples). To me, there is a seriously diminishing rate of return on your top-end model dollars. That's not to say that the 330i is not a fabulous car, it' s just my perception of what's reasonable to me. I can justify the 10-grand difference of the M3 over the 330 a lot more easily than the 4-5 grand difference for the engine ALONE between the 325 and 330. Demand is a lot less elastic when it comes to convertibles and you won't see a lot of discounting there. Same goes with other manufacturers; it's not just BMW. You pay a hefty premium for exclusivity. For example, you'll never be able to get the Audi TT for less than MSRP, although you can get 2 grand off on a similarly priced A4.

brave1heart · May 2001

ROTFLMAO means. Send me an e-mail if you can't say it here. Thanks

sandecki · May 2001

I have just called my dealer to inquire about my car which was ordered last week, scheduled for production in week 23. He has just informed me my car is on 150 status. Does that mean I will get it sooner (haha..nice try:))?

Again it is Jet Black 330i, 5 Speed, Premium, Sport, Xenon, CD - purchased from Morristown BMW in NJ. Could you please please please comment/confirm?

denright · May 2001

The extra cash for the 330 over the 325 is not just for the engine. The HK sound system, power seats and sport suspension are all standard on the 330, but not on the 325. That's gotta be about $1500 to $2000 right there.

kominsky · May 2001

Rolling On The Floor, Laughing My [non-permissible content removed] Off

brave1heart · May 2001

cheaper entertainment instead of wasting your money like that? No wonder your wife won't let you get the CAI

)

brave1heart · May 2001

You are right about those being a couple of grand. The MSRP diff between the two models is 7 grand, take out 2 and do the math. I'll try to post more exact numbers so we can quantify this when I get a chance.

jpcbearden · May 2001

Thanks Shipo, you guys are genius!
I believe once I get the car I am going to have more questions. This is a pretty useful web site.

brave1heart · May 2001

We are all very thankful to have him. You are right, we are a collective genius. Shipo is the genius' brain; the rest of us are on the genius' research team. Our collective genius even has a pet who's conspicuously missing today - he seems to have run away but will be back when he gets hungry

)

Man, I'm in a goofy mood today. Feels good, though.

BMW 3-Series 2005 and earlier

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