Where would you go next...

digiman wrote: »

So far very good, will write a more detailed reply once I had her back on Monday.

Meant to write this up sooner but been a busy week.

I called up BMW First at the end of February to book the X3 M40i as soon as my 3 month free trial was up and picked last weekend as I was heading down to Killarney for the weekend and thought it would be a decent spin to get a good feel for the car. I was also quite interested to see how it would work practically for the family in comparison to my 5 series touring. Anyway process of booking the car was very simple and no problems at all with that.

I picked the car up on Friday morning at 10am in Sandyford, again process was fairly painless. You need to sign some forms, usual type of car rental agreement stuff and I parked my wifes Golf there for the weekend at E4/day. We done a quick walk around the X3 and she was in glorious shape both inside and out. I was very impressed later when driving down the road and you could see all the rain drops in a beeding shape on the bonnet rolling around which was pretty cool. Fair play to the guys there, they had the car like it was brand new. They also give you a really good intro to the car and make sure you know what everything does, having a new 5 series with the same extras I already knew where everything was and how it operated.

The car itself was very well specced, had most of the good options ticked, like tech pack, visibility pack, comfort pack, pano sunroof and one of the nicest touches I thought was the BMW Individual Tartufo/ Black Merino extended leather. The leather itself feels great and nice and soft, a huge step up from the standard BMW leather and something I would consider getting if I'm speccing a car in the future. In total, list price of car was E98.5k.

What I was looking forward to the most was driving the car, it's a 3.0L petrol with 354bhp so it really goes. Was great fun just flooring it at traffic lights and leaving everyone for dust, also coming out of the tool bridges was quite fun as well. You are going pretty quickly before you even realise it and could lose your license very quickly if you don't control yourself. I had my wife and 3 month old on board so wasn't doing anything remotely stupid really other than dropping down the gears now and again on the motorway and just flooring it at the lights etc.

Putting the car into sport mode and she just wants to be driven fast, revs stay at around 3-4krpm so you have an instant response as soon as you plant your foot, the engine is really just class, the sound is amazing and the rattle when you start her up first sounds great although it could annoy your neighbours at 6am on a weekday morning, I think I seen one of MarkNs videos where the Panamera allows you to start the car alot quieter!! In all honesty you would only drive it in sport now and again as its very aggressive and I think they also play the active sound to make the engine sound louder than it is which I found quite annoying after a while.

The ring of Kerry was a lot of fun to drive on though, it had no bother handling the twisty uneven roads. But the ride is fairly harsh when compared to the 5 series touring, suspension is quite stiff and riding on 20" alloys with RFT probably doesn't help either. Wife was sitting in the back with the baby for a little while and wasn't too impressed!!

On the way back up to Dublin on the Sunday we hit the snow and went off the motorway from Cashel as M7/M8 was closed in multiple places. Never felt uncomfortable with the xdrive in those conditions and certainly felt way more confident that if I was coming back in the RWD touring.

Dropped the car back on Monday morning and they had a quick look around the car, no problems with it and they released the hold of 1500 on my credit card.

After it all, it was a great experience to have such a high performance car for the weekend but I wouldn't buy one. Given it's size its got way less boot space than the touring and we struggled to get everything into the car for what we needed with the baby, you can get everything into the boot of the touring where as with the X3 we had to put the carry cot in the back seat with the baby which wouldn't work if we have another in a year or so. We bought a Tiguan at the weekend which may mean my touring while make way for a saloon again and after loving the M40I engine in this car I would love to pick up a demo or used new 3series M40i in about a year's time.

I'm going to book an M2 for a weekend but need to see if it can cope with a car seat and a suitcase if I take it away to the parents for a weekend. Great offering from BMW and I would love to see them add the M5 or the M6 Grand Coupe to the offering.

bazz26 wrote: »

Sounds like you had a great experience Digiman. I'm very tempted now myself. Quick question for you. When you left your own car there for the weekend is it parked away in a secure car park or just parked in the estate? Leaving my own car there would suit me more but I don't fancy leaving my car parked on street in a quiet industrial estate in Sandyford all weekend.

They said they would park it in a secure car park but it was in the same space on the forecourt when I picked it up again on the Monday! Thats why I left the wife's Golf there just incase it would get nicked or something but I'm sure they would have moved it to a secure place. They are very good in there in fairness, no reason to doubt they didn't

Thanks for the write up digiman.
Sounds like you enjoyed the experience and it was painless to do.
How did the x3 feel quality wise compared to your 5?
I had a new model base x3 as a loaner when my own car got serviced recently and it didn’t feel anything wonderful at all. I was surprised in fact.
Based on current 3 series pricing I could see the new model 340i coming in at 85/90k easily with a few options.
Would be a brilliant daily driver though.

On a different topic, I called to our local jag/ Land Rover dealer and had a look at the new i pace recently voted European car of the year.
A very interesting design and very spacious looking. A sort of low slung cross over/ suv. Unlike any other jag and is getting rave reviews although you would need to be brave to spend 90k on one.

digiman wrote: »

They said they would park it in a secure car park but it was in the same space on the forecourt when I picked it up again on the Monday! Thats why I left the wife's Golf there just incase it would get nicked or something but I'm sure they would have moved it to a secure place. They are very good in there in fairness, no reason to doubt they didn't

MarkN wrote: »

I leave my car with them when I’ve a press car and they 100% lock them away, on a Monday morning they would need the space outside with all the press cars being dropped off/picked up so I’d say it was put out for when you were due. Sounds like a nice weekend!!

Cheers lads, that's good to know. I may well go ahead and book one of them during June or July when I have some time off to do some proper driving

That B58 engine has won numerous awards and replaced the N55 engine which was found in the x35i models. More power, more economy....I think it will be the next powerplant in my future car....someday

Yep its savage. I've been reading about the G 740Li for years and was wondering what it would be like to step back to a straight six over the V8. Same engine as that 640i, i'd have zero issue with going for one now, it makes the 750 and 760 seem ridiculous, it was proper quick and would get you in trouble quickly enough over here.

Seeing as we were floating between 130-160kph most of the way, €48 over 350km works out at at about 10L/100km, not bad at all. Best my V8 does is about 9.5L at 120kph.

I can't stress the level of refinement, i'd argue its better than a 10 year old Bentley, no road noise, no tyre noise, no wind noise, softly sprung, amazing to drive.

Voodoomelon wrote: »

Yep its savage. I've been reading about the G 740Li for years and was wondering what it would be like to step back to a straight six over the V8. Same engine as that 640i, i'd have zero issue with going for one now, it makes the 750 and 760 seem ridiculous, it was proper quick and would get you in trouble quickly enough over here.

Seeing as we were floating between 130-160kph most of the way, €48 over 350km works out at at about 10L/100km, not bad at all. Best my V8 does is about 9.5L at 120kph.

I can't stress the level of refinement, i'd argue its better than a 10 year old Bentley, no road noise, no tyre noise, no wind noise, softly sprung, amazing to drive.

Its not what you'd call easy on the eye though, especially in white :eek:

Yep, look quite nice in the proper spec:

Not my cup of tea, but better than the 5 GT.

I think the problem with the 6 GT is that it's too tall which makes the styling awkward and bulky. It doesn't know if it wants to be a 4 dr coupe or 5dr fastback. With the 8 Series more upmarket and expensive than the old 6 Series, it's a shame they didn't just go with a new generations 6 Gran Coupe to continue competing with the A7 and CLS. Bizarre decision to persist with the GT model given the last 5 GT was a hardly a sales success for BMW.

MarkN wrote: »

It has tonnes of tech though, the brakes gently press without the driver knowing if the rain sensing wipers are on to flush any potential water from the road that could negatively impact braking power.

A few manufacturers have had this for a while as far as I know. Probably a system supplied by some Tier 1 like Brembo or Bosch.

Just goes to show you how interconnected modern systems really are. Replacing your windscreen (and affecting the rain sensor) could potentially give you an error in the ESC ECU.

There back, was tempted to buy a pair last week. Want to hide the fact I wear socks so the young lads don't laugh at me.

James Bond Junior wrote: »

As do Valeo. Wipers to self drive systems.

Valeo do a lot of it in Tuam. They always have pre production cars there from Porsche and the likes working on all sorts of camera systems, radar cruise etc, I believe. Would like to work there but Im the wrong type of Engineer.