Lets talk about new vehicles

[skyactiv]

I'm not going to start a new thread on this. My wife and I looked at a new BMW 330i xDrive yesterday and she test drove it. She's wanting to replace her 10 year old A4.

The car is assembled in Mexico but the engine is made in Austria, transmission in Germany. My wife likes how the car drives and rides but noticed its turning radius kinda sucked and didn't care for the climate controls being in the touchscreen. I told her we should wait when the 2026 Audi A5 refresh comes out.

I still can't get over how ugly the frontend is on most BMW's.

 

[Zee09]

I'm not going to start a new thread on this. My wife and I looked at a new BMW 330i xDrive yesterday and she test drove it. She's wanting to replace her 10 year old A4.

The car is assembled in Mexico but the engine is made in Austria, transmission in Germany. My wife likes how the car drives and rides but noticed its turning radius kinda sucked and didn't care for the climate controls being in the touchscreen. I told her we should wait when the 2026 Audi A5 refresh comes out.

I still can't get over how ugly the frontend is on most BMW's.

I like Audi's myself
I'd wait too....

 

[Zee09]

I'm watching the Car Care Nut fixing a Lexus 460... each headlight assembly complete is $4k ... yikes

 

[KCJeep]

I'm not going to start a new thread on this. My wife and I looked at a new BMW 330i xDrive yesterday and she test drove it. She's wanting to replace her 10 year old A4.

The car is assembled in Mexico but the engine is made in Austria, transmission in Germany. My wife likes how the car drives and rides but noticed its turning radius kinda sucked and didn't care for the climate controls being in the touchscreen. I told her we should wait when the 2026 Audi A5 refresh comes out.

I still can't get over how ugly the frontend is on most BMW's.

The last couple of years are hideous.

 

[Pablo]

The last couple of years are hideous.

Indeed. They lost me.

 

[Zee09]

 

[Zee09]

Honda is still sticking with 0w20 as opposed to Toyotas 0w8

 

[Pablo]

Honda is still sticking with 0w20 as opposed to Toyotas 0w8

5W-30

If fuel diluter 10W-30

Thank my influencers

 

[Zee09]

5W-30

If fuel diluter 10W-30

Thank my influencers

I'm going 5w30 every 5k

 

[Zee09]

 

[meep]

I'm not going to start a new thread on this. My wife and I looked at a new BMW 330i xDrive yesterday and she test drove it. She's wanting to replace her 10 year old A4.

The car is assembled in Mexico but the engine is made in Austria, transmission in Germany. My wife likes how the car drives and rides but noticed its turning radius kinda sucked and didn't care for the climate controls being in the touchscreen. I told her we should wait when the 2026 Audi A5 refresh comes out.

I still can't get over how ugly the frontend is on most BMW's.

Seems like the new BMWs are trying to do what Audi did 10 years ago with grill proportions, but missed. I saw something, maybe an I7 today? The overly square character had me wondering if they had cybertruck lust. The I7 did not have flowing lines to my at, all. (If that is what it was?)

 

[meep]

A week ago I went back and test drove a gas-only X3, 2022. I owned, then returned, a ‘21 X3e for a week last year. Wanted to give the simpler version with longer driving range a chance, and to settle my second-guessing down.

I was really surprised by the difference in character between the two. The X3 gas was sluggish off the line and had to be prodded if you wanted it to respond, and was quick to find a “loaf about” gear. It wasn’t unlike a turbo 4 explorer. It had plenty of zip but it didn’t feel like it was immediately on tap. Stop/start was busy, running a traditional starter. It was heartbreaking in stop/go traffic. Chassis handling was tight, but the X3e was the preferred character for me. The additional 500lbs+ of the hybrid did a lot to give it a more solid ride and feel. Gas version almost felt flimsy and cheap in comparison. I was not expecting nearly the difference between the two.

When I had the X3e, I knew that the complexity was always busy because I could hear and feel the transitions between gears, engine, electric, regen, friction, and stop. The complexity scared me because man, there was so much going on. But aside from the bumps and tugs, the pedal-to-response tuning was superb, far better. The magic was in transmission, e-motor and throttle body ballet. Eliminating the traditional starter was good. Immediate electrical response the magic bullet for that drivetrain. And, they got the brakes pretty good too. Based on that experience, I expected the gas version to be every bit as integrated-feeling.

Gas version gets another usable 90 miles of range per tank over the hybrid, 3 gallons or so.

Back to the X3. Like before, the dash, infotainment, lighting inside and out, all great. And in all practicality, it’s a very nice vehicle. The 2022 seats seemed a little more welcoming than the 2021, and the 21 seats were far superior to the model before.

 

[Zee09]

I know it's getting old but in normal driving and usually in the rain these days with the defroster on and mostly highway use I'm getting about 60 mpg over the 165 miles with under 300 miles on the car..

 

[Zee09]

I got a 4 piece floor liner set for the Accord for $99 and that included a trunk mat... they look great considering I used Weather -Tech for many years.

 

[walterjay]

Looks great. I have used Weather-Tech in the past but have moved away from them. Nice mats now out there for less.

 

[KCJeep]

I just dropped off one of our work vehicles at the Honda dealership for a recall job. They had a whopping 8 service advisors, never seen anything like it. Also like Zee's VW experience, there were another 4-6 people that kept walking through like they had someplace to go but they'd be right back and were never carrying anything. Salary overhead must be sky high at that place.

 

[Zee09]

Looks great. I have used Weather-Tech in the past but have moved away from them. Nice mats now out there for less.

Yeah big bucks in the day....

 

[Zee09]

I just dropped off one of our work vehicles at the Honda dealership for a recall job. They had a whopping 8 service advisors, never seen anything like it. Also like Zee's VW experience, there were another 4-6 people that kept walking through like they had someplace to go but they'd be right back and were never carrying anything. Salary overhead must be sky high at that place.

Like you being in business do they want repair prices sky high because they have 40 people doing nothing all day? I just see millions being tossed away yearly for nothing

Absolutely insane....

 

[KCJeep]

Bizarre, I'm sure they have surges but at least five of the service advisors did not have customers and were just jaw jacking about random stuff.

 

[MCompact]

Indeed. They lost me.

As I've mentioned before, I've had at least one BMW in my garage since 1983. I'm now down to just one again (a one owner 1995 318ti Club Sport) because I traded my 2014 M235i for a CPO 2020 Mercedes-AMG C43. I've owned it now for going on three years and I absolutely love it (as does my lovely bride).
Prior to buying the C43 I had driven several M340i loaners; aside from great straight-line grunt I was underwhelmed; the IP graphics are a joke and newer cars have gone full touchscreen- with a digital display that is the textbook definition of "tacked-on." I also looked at the new M240i and M2 but the Minecraft/Lego design language and the aforementioned dog's breakfast of an interior.removed them from contention. I would have jumped on a F87 M2 CS if I could have found one in my price range, but that's the only newer Bimmer I could see myself owning.