I've never really seen the appeal of the 3-series. Sure they handle great but guess what, I don't live near a slalom or even a interesting twisty road plus they're expensive and everybody and their brother (and his sister and probably her boyfriend) seems to have one. In LA, a black 3-series is about as original as a Good Charlotte song.
And then I took a road trip in our red 330i...
With an iPod jacked in to the center console, my Motorola phone connected via Bluetooth, and the back up of Sirius satellite radio for when the awful Apple batteries die prematurley I was set for the seven hour trip.
Piloting the 3 Series, I looked at the California highway that stretched out before me as a blessing, a prize, a rest if you will thanks to this awesome car - in another car I may have dreaded the trip.
Another feature worth noting is the climate control system. As I drove the temperature ranged from 90 degrees to 59 as I neared the coast. I simply set it at 71 and never touched it again - nice.
Maybe this car does deserve all the praise it recieves -
Brian Moody @ 19,205 miles.
desmolicious says:
04:03 PM, 09/14/06
Does the gear shift loosen up with miles? My 1-2 shift seems a tad notchy, the rest are fine. Sure I have only put on a few hundred miles so far, gotta fix that...(work commute is only 8 miles one way which is perfect top down in the Jeep, the BMW cozies up to the Ducati waiting for the weekend. )
briancam says:
04:41 PM, 09/14/06
It seems to me that all the gear positions are a little "notchy" as you say - a nice "click, click." To me it lends a feeling of precision - it's another thing to like about this car.
blueguydotcom says:
11:10 PM, 09/14/06
Never really changes. You'll never mistake one of BMW's vague manuals for a delicious Honda or Mazda tranny.
desmolicious says:
10:42 AM, 09/15/06
Again BlueDot, it seems that you are talking about a different car than that other people have had experience with. The gear shift is not remotely vague, 1-2 seems a bit "notchy" to me, but it only has 350 miles on it and I can tell it is getting better. You complain that it is too big inside, you claim it rides too soft , you're even complaining about the position of window switches and launched into a diatribe over that! This is a complete 180 from anyone else's experience, including all tests I've ever read, both in the domestic and foreign press. Strange huh? So who are we to believe, one person who for some reason has buyer's remorse, or the experience of countless others, both professional testers and private owners ?
Care for some cheese with your whine?
blueguydotcom says:
03:04 PM, 09/15/06
"Again BlueDot, it seems that you are talking about a different car than that other people have had experience with. The gear shift is not remotely vague, 1-2 seems a bit "notchy" to me, but it only has 350 miles on it and I can tell it is getting better."
I've owned two BMW 330is with manuals and drive my bro-inlaw's 325i which also has a manual. BMW's manuals are notchy, vague and anything but precise.
You complain that it is too big inside, you claim it rides too soft , you're "even complaining about the position of window switches and launched into a diatribe over that! This is a complete 180 from anyone else's experience, including all tests I've ever read, both in the domestic and foreign press. Strange huh? So who are we to believe, one person who for some reason has buyer's remorse, or the experience of countless others, both professional testers and private owners ?"
Unlike testers and the press, I put my money where my mouth is. i've lived with the car over 6k miles. It's a lesser car than the e46. Just my experience. Some people may value the things I dislike.
Buyer's remorse? Perhaps. The car is porky, slow, cavernous, performs very poorly over uneven pavement/undulations - of course this is just my experience driving it in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, France and the USA.
desmolicious says:
04:04 PM, 09/15/06
Wow, guess my previous M5 and MCoupe with their perfect gear boxes must have been flukes. Weird how my 330 is better balanced than either of those two cars and handles better over rough undulated surfaces. In the case of the MCoupe, the 330 handles much better. Porky, slow, cavernous....oh my! Seriously, provide a link to any other article from any publication that is in agreement with your statements.
blueguydotcom says:
04:59 PM, 09/15/06
I'm sorry, I'm stuck driving the car daily. So I'd say I'm amply qualified to say the following:
The 330i is slow. The official time from BMW is 0-60 in 6.1 seconds. I've yet to see results from a reputable source that peg it faster. In the case of my car, I'd put it at 7 seconds. Max. The torqueless wonder that is a BMW inline six simply can't get the car moving quickly. At 3k, 4k, 5k rpm the car barely chugs along. I thought my ZHP lacked guts but the e90 330i is an absolute gutless dog at WOT. Smooth engine but no wow in it at all.
The manual - like every BMW manual i've owned and/or driven - is sloppy, vague and just not much fun. This is a combination of many things - mostly the fact that BMW,. IMHO, always puts lousy trannies in their cars. From the poor clutches to the long, long strick travel (even on my ZHP), the manuals on BMWs can't compare to the precision snick-snick of a Mazda or Honda unit.
Porky - the car's over 3400 lbs. It's fat. no two ways about it. Anything over 3000 lbs is grossly overweight. in the 330i you feel it.
Cavernous - check out the epa passenger volume. To me, that's big. Riding in the car it feels big.
Handling - every road irregularity causes the car's backend to leap into the air. I've gone up and down the scale on the PSI for my tires. There is not one setting that keeps those cruddy runflats on the road. The car skips around corners much like a solid-beam-rear-axle car.
Refinement - the car's whisper quiet at WOT. All other times it's just plain vanilla on the freeway. At 140 mph the car was composed, quiet, dampened and bland. At 75 it might as well be a lexus for all the commotion inside the car. Blech. Again, the wimpy 3.0 in the car is probably most to blame for this. At least my ZHP felt peaky and could thrust the driver back in the seat...the e90's new 3.0 is just limp.
Again, these are all opinions. You may feel otherwise. I feel the 06 e90 is essentially a Buick with a BMW badge.