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Comments
There is no excuse for road noise. My BMW was not isolated by any means, but it didn't transmit large amounts of road noise. It was not Lexus quiet, but I didn't hear tires slapping against the pavement. I heard the growl of the engine, but there was no wind noise, no creaking, no rattling.
Can anyone tell me why more and more manufacturers (Acura TSX, TL, BMW,and others)are eliminating the protective side moldings? I like them. Is it not cool styling or what?
Thanks.
I don't mind any of those. I mind that my e90 was too quiet. It was like driving in a tomb.
I have an '05 TL, noise hasn't been too much of an issue for me. But, I'm coming from a couple of Chrysler products, so a Kawasaki may have seemed quieter!
I'm still enjoying my TL greatly!
'21 Dark Blue/Black Audi A7 PHEV (mine); '22 White/Beige BMW X3 (hers); '20 Estoril Blue/Oyster BMW M240xi 'Vert (Ours, read: hers in 'vert weather; mine during Nor'easters...)
Regardless, the amount of steering feedback is tops in my experience so far.
Regards,
OW
Why didn't you just open the windows and sunroof?
Maybe cut-out the muffler and re-route the exhaust pipe to be next to your ear?
Hopefully BMW will come up with a ZHP version by 09/10.
Regards,
OW
We'll see. From what I've read the new M3 is a step back from the e46 version.
Ah, now I get it. It's not "road noise" that you were missing, but the sweet song of the engine / exhaust. Big difference.
I'm fortunate in that respect. I never would have ordered the $2,400 sport exhaust option in a 911, but since the car I bought had it and it was lost in the $10k discount, I have it. Press that sport button and the car suddenly goes from reservedly quiet to the pleasant gurgle of a real Porsche. Almost back to the level of the 993 air cooled ones.
And you are right, from what I've heard, the new V8 M3 is going to be a step in the wrong direction, aurally speaking.
A "friend" in high school did that to his 3.8L (?) Mustang (the hole in the exhaust...that is) to make it sound meaner...still was no 5.0
First off, this car is actually halfway decent looking, and while the family resemblance to the butt ugly first generation CTS is definitely there, it is none-the-less sort of pleasing to look at in an angular sort of way. Then I got in and was surprised to find myself sitting lower than in my old 1985 Dodge Daytona (I was expecting a seating position more in keeping with my 530i), and while the seating position wasn't at all uncomfortable, I just thought it odd given that this car is a mid-sized sedan.
The rest of the interior seems to be reasonably well thought out, and once again a vast improvement to the Gen 1 car. All in all, a place where I would generally feel comfortable for a long drive. Then there was the back seat, geez can looks be deceiving or what? Visually it looks large back there, however, upon entering I bashed my head on the steeply raked C pillar, and then landed with a thump down low once again. The problem here is that while the seat cushion in low, the floor isn't. I'm only 5' 8" and yet with my feet shoved as far forward under the front seat as I could, my thighs were rising from my hips at an angle of greater than twenty degrees. Said another way, my knees were a good eight inches higher than my hips, not a good recipe for a comfortable place to sit on a long drive.
Speaking of the drive, the first thing I noticed was that the steering wasn't as heavy as I would have preferred, however, for the general driving public that may not be a bad thing. Personally I prefer the heavy steering of the BMWs; however, I've heard lots of folks complain that many models from BMW and Mercedes-Benz have steering that is too heavy, so for them, the CTS is probably just about perfect.
Found a nice country road, pulled away from a stop light and nailed it, holding full throttle through the 1-2 gear change and beyond. Geez was that lame. The software that controls this thing actually backed the throttle off so that the tranny could sort of ooze into second gear. Ewwww. FWIW, I mentioned to the spouse my impressions of the gear change issue and was told later in the day that a software fix was already completed and this car just needed to get patched. Personally I could care less about how the automatic performs as I'd rather have a manual, but come on; our minivans have more positive shifting than this thing. I found myself asking out loud how a transmission like that even saw the light of day.
Back to the drive. If that engine has 300 horsepower, then either that car is seriously heavy, or that engine is seriously anemic. My butt-o-meter tells me that the new CTS with a slushbox tranny is probably no faster than say 0-60 in the low sixes. Ride wise, the car was reasonably compliant and seemed to handle well enough, that said, the tires on this thing seemed to be of the relatively narrow all-season variety, so I'm assuming that this wasn't a sport model (if there even is such a thing), and as such cannot judge it too harshly.
Long story short, BMW needn't be worried about this car, it seems to be targeted more at the Toyota Avalon / Lexus ES crowd than at the folks who buy 3-Series and 5-Series cars for their driving dynamics.
Best Regards,
Shipo
Perhaps this question needs to be placed in another forum .... which?
Why the protective modling on the doors is disappearing, especially on luxury cars?
Did customer survey revealed that people didn't like them and preferred smal dents and nicks? Or perhaps the strips ruin styling? I wonder why those 'strips' are missing in new BMWs, Acuras.....?
As far as preferring small dents and nicks, I still got a few of them on my Maxima. You need to be pretty lucky to have the offender's door height match your 1" wide molding.
As usual, the engineering seems to have missed the mark, as I expected. I anticipated nothing more. It will be good for some, I would think, because at least the design has improved as you noted. Surprised at the tranny trouble since the slush boxes are usually good.
Perhaps they will add a CTS-S model down the road! :confuse:
Regards,
OW
Now that the car's actually out, he's nowhere to be seen.
Strange.
Thanks, Shipo, for the interesting review.
I'm still going to wait on real reviews of real production cars before jumping to any conclusions, personally.
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '08 Charger R/T Daytona; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '08 Maser QP; '11 Mini Cooper S
Amen, Brother! Preach it! I can't stand it when they use hodge-podge numbers, either. I've seen articles where the reviewer will supposedly be reviewing an updated sport model of a car and post numbers from a non-sport model from TWO YEARS prior!! :surprise: I guess they forget that the people who actually read their rags are enthusiasts, not idiots. :sick: (Most of us, anyway.)
The rest is for everyone to decide on their own. For me, in Dec. '08, I'll check out the next iteration of the CTS but I highly doubt it will meet what BMW will offer at that time.
Regards,
OW
Absolutely 100% correct.
The side molding do NOTHING for protecting from dings.
Each and every car's moldings are different in height and the out most edge of somebody's door is very likely to not be at that same exact height dimension.
These moldings are now called "protective" but are nothing more than styling stick-ons.
Wanna protect your car from dings...
Park on a different planet and walk, like I do, or wrap your car in bubble wrap when you need to leave it in a parking lot. :P
Sounds like you need one of the inflatable door protectors hanging from the ceiling! :P
Hanging door protector
The side molding do NOTHING for protecting from dings.
Absolutely 100% eh?
I had them put on my wife's TL. There are a few nicks in them already and NONE on the door sheet metal. Also my daughter left the back door semi-open before my wife pulled into the garage. Sure enough the door bangs into the garage door jamb. Now there's an even bigger ding in THE MOLDING, and not the door.
Not sure where your anti-molding slant comes from, but they do serve a useful purpose. And we park on this planet.
Funny huh?
So, is that supposed to look better? Are you going to have the molding replaced, or just leave it there with the "bigger ding".
In 3+ years, I've gotten one noticable door ding in my TL and it cost $79 to remove using one of the paintless dent removal services. So far, 0 dings in my 2 year old 911. But when moldings are dinged or scuffed, removing and replacing them can be considerably more expensive.
Strictly personal taste, but I think given the nice exterior lines of the TL, the moldings are a detraction. Not so on my 1995 Maxima, but the moldings are scuffed and faded over the years to a slightly different color than the metal.
It is important that the moldings on two cars are aligned but even if they are not, the door of my car or the door of the other car hits my molding not bare metal. I wonder how cool is it to drive a $40k+ car with dings and dents?
Again, personal taste and for some, little bit of peace of mind when parking at WalMart .... 600 feet from the entrance.
Let's keep echoing the same point over and over again.
This is fun!
I have an 06 MDX.
Parked next to the 2007 TL Loaner with the side trim pieces, the MDX door hits the TL in a place where the trim does NOTHING to protect it.
Yes, if the trim just happens to land in a place where offending door hits, it offers some protection from dings.
That is not argued.
All I'm saying is that the circumstances have to be just right.
I'd rather park in the far corner of a lot and hope for the best than to stick $500- worth of crap plastic on the side of my car.
Finally, for those dings that do occur, there are many guys out there who can repair door dings without bodywork. I've had it done and for most dings the results are amazing!
I agree that adding strips and cladding that did not come with the vehicle can be tacky (excuse the pun ). It's hard to do that without hurting the lines and the design of the automobile.
If you are worried about looking cool in your $40k car, you might want to shop somewhere other than WalMart or park even further than 600 feet from the entrance. From what I've seen, 50% of the vehicles in the lots are pick-ups and most of the rest of the cars look like they've been to hell and back. Not exactly the best place to keep your car from getting dinged, moldings or not.
As dings/scratches drive me nuts too, I made a bit of a blunder buying a dark blue car. Zaino Z5 helps, but I know they're still there...
'21 Dark Blue/Black Audi A7 PHEV (mine); '22 White/Beige BMW X3 (hers); '20 Estoril Blue/Oyster BMW M240xi 'Vert (Ours, read: hers in 'vert weather; mine during Nor'easters...)
I live in farm country... after washing my car, within about 10 miles, it's got a covering of dirt, pollen, manure, bugs, possum innards, and who-knows-what-else covering it... I couldn't keep up with it even if I wanted to.
My car gets washed every few weeks and gets a quarterly application of Klasse. Vacuum the interior? Huh?! Only when I can bribe my wife to do it for me or if my daughter wants to make a couple of bucks.
I am, however, pretty picky about the windows and lens covers being clean.
But I do understand. It is such a chore to clean those "innards" out of the grille and door handles...
'21 Dark Blue/Black Audi A7 PHEV (mine); '22 White/Beige BMW X3 (hers); '20 Estoril Blue/Oyster BMW M240xi 'Vert (Ours, read: hers in 'vert weather; mine during Nor'easters...)
I am extremely anal when it comes to maintenance, just not that cleaning stuff.