[mgarvey]

My local BMW dealer progressed my order nice and quickly and my TiAg E93 arrived with them Friday afternoon and I picked it up Monday.

It has done nothing but rain since so I've had the roof down for about half a mile, but it has still been a blast.

The car

Dec 07 (57) 325i M-Sport Auto
Titanium Silver
Black Dakota Leather
Brushed Aluminium trim
Heated Seats
Elec Folding mirrors
M Light Alloy Double-spoke 225M
Bluetooth
Sliding armrest
Wind deflector

BMW UK car, 1,900 miles from new

Initial thoughts

Engine - lovely straight six burble and decent performance when you wind it up too. Economy isn't great (OBC reads 26.5mpg) but I've used a little over half a tank now and done about 220 miles, so I reckon it should get near to 400 miles a tank (OBC says 180-odd to go). That is good enough for a 3-litre petrol that is probably still pretty tight.

Gearbox - Autobox is great. Changes are almost imperceptable and it doesn't often change when I don't want it too. DS mode is noticeably more eager and makes it much more fun to drive, though I suspect it won't do economy much good. Not really tried manual mode yet.

Ride - For an M-Sport on 19" runflats, the ride is really impressive. Sure you can feel everything the road is doing, but body control is so much better than the SE, so it doesn't bounce about and get unsettled like my E91 used to. Combine that with the chunky and lighter action steering wheel (electric power steering) and the fantastic sports seats and the drive is actually a lot more relaxing than the E91 was.

The car just doesn't feel as jumpy and so far I've not had any of the scary moments that I used to get a lot with the SE - hitting a bump on a wet roundabout is nowhere near as scary as it used to be.

Gadgets - Bluetooth is great, once I'd deleted the 5 other phones paired with it. All the electric seats and stuff are great. Xenons work well. Other than that not much different to the E91.

Bad points

There does seem to be some sort of rattle and creak from the back when you go over biggish bumps. Not sure what it is - it could be the old seatbelt problem, or the roof not seated quite properly (it hasn't been dry for long enough to try lowering and raising it again). It seems to come and go so I'll keep an eye on it.

Bit worried about the 19" wheels. They look awesome, but prone to damage and getting tyres looks like it is going to be costly and challenging. I guess that is the price of having a flash car!

Pictures

Now the bit you've been waiting for - pictures! I'll post roof-down pictures when it stops raining long enough, it was still spitting when I took these. Hopefully it'll be cleaner then too when I've polished it and stuff.

[E92Fan]

Fab

[M3-FAST]

Originally Posted by mgarvey

Initial thoughts

Engine - lovely straight six burble and decent performance when you wind it up too. Economy isn't great (OBC reads 26.5mpg) but I've used a little over half a tank now and done about 220 miles, so I reckon it should get near to 400 miles a tank (OBC says 180-odd to go). That is good enough for a 3-litre petrol that is probably still pretty tight.

Mine does approx 300 miles of round town driving - Done Stafford to Staplehurst in Kent and back again today on a tankful (410 miles) and still got 50 miles left. All motorway at 80-90mph with cruise used wherever poss.

Originally Posted by mgarvey

Bad points

There does seem to be some sort of rattle and creak from the back when you go over biggish bumps. Not sure what it is - it could be the old seatbelt problem, or the roof not seated quite properly (it hasn't been dry for long enough to try lowering and raising it again). It seems to come and go so I'll keep an eye on it.

Mine does this also at times - I think it is the boot divider thingy, that you latch down to allow the roof to operate. When mine is down it seems to make a racket at times. Try folding it up and seeing if it still does it? It is a pain though as I like to leave mine down so I can drop the roof from the keyfob without having to open the boot first and drop the divider.

Pleased you like the car - I love mine!

[CD]

Looks great

ive got my fingers crossed for you for a dry weekend

[misterS3]

Nice looking car

[neilmc]

Lovely car,enjoy it.

[beemerbird]

Congrats - nice car.

Here's hoping for ......dare I say an Indian summer.

[Porscha!]

Enjoy

Theres one thing I need you to remember if the roof is up the storm better have a name, spitting does not count, GET THE ROOF OFF

Hope you love it, hope you drive it, own it, look after it and keep it as beautiful as it looks now

Indian Summer -ROLL ON!!! (Just don't let Carlos see this thread.....)

[Dave_3]

Congrats.

I had one like that (also with 19") as a loaner recently. Rode well, my thoughts echo yours - much better than I expected for large wheels and no roof. I liked it.

D.

[booforty]

Looks AWESOME mate!

Are you going to show it off to us in the flesh at UK6?

[Porscha!]

Dee - Eye - Tee - Tee - Oh

Get yourself to UK6

[tisme]

Looks good! The bi-xenons look as though they are staring at you!

[freon warrior]

Very nice!

[greatbm]

Bad points

There does seem to be some sort of rattle and creak from the back when you go over biggish bumps. Not sure what it is - it could be the old seatbelt problem, or the roof not seated quite properly (it hasn't been dry for long enough to try lowering and raising it again). It seems to come and go so I'll keep an eye on it.

Bit worried about the 19" wheels. They look awesome, but prone to damage and getting tyres looks like it is going to be costly and challenging. I guess that is the price of having a flash car!

Mine has the odd noise from the back drivers side rear, put roof to fold and back again and the noise disappears for a short while and returns, seems worse in the hotter temps and over rough ground.

[ShereKhan]

Had one of these when I had my engine work done.

Those 19" wheels are "very" easy to damage as I found out. So very careful, I damaged the wheel and tyre at about 2mph. Its amazing what a diff one inch makes.

I also found the ride much better than mine and other E90's i've driven. I thought I was in for a hell of a ride with vert+M Sport suspension and 19" wheels. My last car was a vert and I know they can give some scuttle shake.
I couldn't get any scuttle shake even if I tried to push the car.

All you need is some sun

Perfect excuse to drive down to Spain/France for a holiday.....

[mgarvey]

Drove to Devon and back today visiting a client site. I had some sun and had the roof down for a good couple of hours each way

Gets a bit blowy above 70mph, but then I didn't have the deflector thingy with me which I'm sure would help.

Better still, the rattle and squeak didn't occur when the roof was down and (so far) hasn't come back with the roof up.

Average mpg is getting better. The first tank would've managed close to 400 miles I think - I filled it with about 100 left on the OBC range. The second tank is reading a range of 450, but this will no doubt drop when I'm not using it solely for m-way/a-roads.

I also tried out the paddle shifts. They are great for quickly dropping it down a gear when coming off a roundabout in D, or before overtaking, so that it accelerates smoothly without the normal pause whilst the box decides whether it can be bothered to drop down a gear. After a few seconds it goes back to D, by which time I'm nicely up to speed. Puts me much more in control than with my last (Volvo) auto where manual changes were way too slow.

[mgarvey]

Much as I'd love to come to UK6, I just can't see myself getting that one past the wife on what will be a busy weekend. If it was further south and only meant being out a few hours I could probably swing it, but not the whole day.

[peterg1965]

Stunning car, TiAg definately suits it. Glad you are enjoying it!

[Porscha!]

mgarvey - Absolutely rubbish excuse 1/10

[Hotcoupe]

What a stunner,lovely car.
Glad you are enjoying it.

[CrimsonRedE93]

Nice car, the wind deflector works well upto er higher speeds as proved by a little sunday morning drive with SJ

Try and avoid those potholes if you want your teeth and wheels intact