General Comments:
The Good:
Handles good.
Decently quiet inside.
Excellent sound system.
Good get up and go.
Nice styling on the outside and inside.
Comfortable seats for a small coupe. Most comfortable in any small coupe I've been in.
Good gas mileage
The Bad:
Very stiff suspension.
Road noise.
Too much feel of the road; every single little bump.
The WTF:
No spare tire. Next to useless tire repair kit for blow outs. The run flats are a crazy cost to replace.
No oil dipstick. And as keeping in with the fad, no transmission dipstick.
Engine noise is not as quiet as the Jag or Lincoln Town Car, but is in no manner intrusive, and is very quiet compared to the average car. Perfect.
Handles a good way beyond the daily needed limits that would be ever needed at US highway speeds. Would be right at home with the handling on the autobahn, but in the US with its low highway speeds, it is very underused.
Style - Good style. The last years before BMW made the entire car line look exactly alike. This looks like a 3 series coupe, and won't be mistaken for any other BMW model. The new ones, look like the regular 3 series, which look like the 5 series, which look like the 7 series. New ones are indistinguishable from each other until you pull up beside one and count the doors or pay attention to door length.
Trunk space - OK for a small coupe; put a baby car seat in the trunk and not much else will fit.
Rear seat room - Actually pretty decent for a coupe. It's useable assuming the front driver nor passenger have the habit or have to slide their seat all the way back. Not good for long road trip though.
Front seat - Good.
Controls - Pretty easy to figure out, although the windshield wiper control is over done. Did they really need that many ways to turn on the wipers? Radio controls are pretty simple, and everything is within reach.
Steering wheel design - It's meh. The usual typical three spoke design that looks minimalistic, and like no effort was put into the design and it was just thrown in there. Maybe this would fly in a cheap borderline sports car, but in something that is supposed to be as refined in this, it looks low budget.
Interior style - Good design, the soft lighting is a very good touch, excellent touch in fact. It looks like an upscale luxury coupe; better looking than the Bentley GT, but as mentioned, doesn't hold up as well. If it wasn't for that steering wheel, the interior would easily be a ten plus for the looks, but that steering wheel just takes so much from it. Guess they ran out of budget from putting so much effort into the rest of the interior, that they forgot to leave some money for the steering wheel.
Mechanics/design - Overall pretty good, but who thought of removing the spare tire? Guess they never thought about if a person had a blow out. It's silly having to be towed for a blown out tire. The run flats addiction, and probably the main source of road noise in this car, works well if the tires lose air and remain whole, like in the commercial where everyone gets a nail perfectly in the middle of the tire, and the air perfectly leaves the tire and that person can perfectly drive to the nearest tire shop. Guess they didn't consider the real world, where tire shops don't stay open 24 hours, the tire sometimes comes apart completely, and a spare would be highly useful.
Overall - Solid car, good for a sports coupe. Bought it wanting to try something different, but now that I know, overall, it's not made for comfort at all. While it gets the job done as a commuter car, I wouldn't dare take it on a long road trip. Although it gets very good gas mileage on the highway. But those pennies saved are not worth the sacrifice of comfort for a long road trip. Probably will keep it for a few years and move back to something more comfortable. I'm not getting any younger, and comfort is no longer becoming an option for me. If the newer BMWs didn't ride so stiff, I'd plan to trade this one in and get a new one, but alas, no comfort ride can be found within the BMW car range anymore. Looks like I must depend on Mercedes again :(
Not really my type of a fun car. But one of those cars that I can't say I dislike it. There's too much stuff they got right about this car, and not much I dislike about this car. But I can't say I love this car either, because the stuff that is wrong for me is the most important aspect of a car for me. Sure, handling is good to have, but here in the US, there's nowhere to use it. Speed is good, but go much above 70 and you're liable to get a ticket, assuming 70, as in many places, is not already ticket territory. 0-60 time is about near irrelevant, as long as the car is able to get out of its own way.
Comfort matters a lot, especially when choosing the next car to go home on a 20+ hour drive. Or even go to the next town over, a minimum of 4 hours away and the next state over. Or the nearest city within the state, 9 hours away. This wouldn't be the car I'd choose.
For some, this is a fun car; it's stiff, noisy, lots of road feel, zippy, cheap looking steering wheel. For me, it's meh; just something to have for now, and probably will be gone as soon as a nice S-Class appears for sale in this city 2004-2006. I won't be buying any of the new ones, that is for sure, as they moved even further away from comfort than this car. Might buy an old one when comfort was a word in the BMW realm for a side car, although they don't seem as nearly reliable as this one unless I get another 80s (non-M series) BMW.
27th Feb 2013, 14:56
"Golden advice for potential buyers: If you can’t afford a new Beemer, you can’t afford a used one"
This is incorrect advice. I own an 88 325is and have no problems being able to afford maintenance. Even the newer ones can be repaired at other independent shops for less.