Got a phone call from the dealership today, my 335i has arrived several days early. Received the car around noon and took the rest of the day off for an extended first drive
Funny enough, the car came exactly with all the options ordered:
Titanium Silver, Black Dakota, Black Trim (European option), Prof. Nav+Idrive, sport package (189 rims, electric sports seats), ,steptronic + paddles, PDC front+rear, BMW assist, folding mirrors, lumbar support, comfort access, cold weather package
Here are a couple of first impressions, my current (and now "ex" car) is an E60 530d (as in diesel). For your information, I only got to test drive a 325i before ordering and this is the first 335i delivered to my dealer.
Engine:
Very nice sound, much like a subtle growling. Very pleasing, even with the windows up. Can´t say much about the power at wide open throttle yet due to break in. Having said that, I did redline it a couple of times, plus stretched the 4500rpm limit a little. Don´t think the engine will explode if one is still a little bit careful about giving it the stick.
BTW, need I mention that the engine sounds a lot nicer than the 3l diesel?
Regarding the overheating / temperature issue. The car ran at around 110-125 deg C which is approximately 230-240 deg F. On the Euro model, the needle is left of the center on the oil temperature scale.
Also I was told today that the turbos in the 335i are not only cooled/lubed with oil, but water-cooled on top of that. Since the water coolant circuit is still active once the car is turned off, one needs to worry less about the turbos overheating after turning the car off. Oh and by the way, I did not notice a turbo lag, nor was I able to hear a turbo whine (much in contrast to the 530d).
Gas consumption for today (around 120km total), 13l/100km which is 18.1 mpg. Not too bad, considering I wasn´t pampering the car.
Steptronic:
During the past weeks I did get severe second (and third+fourth) thoughts about the decision to get the steptronic. This cost me a couple of sleepless nights since I hated the auto/step in the E60 and was talked into getting it in the E92.
As of now, I´m really glad I did and here´s why.
In standard D mode the step shifts up very very early. Extremely comfortable to drive. The engine sounds and feels a little muted, the ride is smooth but throttle response is so so. For quick acceleration you really need to floor the pedal somewhat and downshifts are, in my opinion, too slow. But then this is the comfy mode and a more economical approach designed to conserve gas and make things smooth. Your passengers will love D
This also means having a cup of cofee on the way to work is not problem at all...
Now in DS, it´s a totally different story. The car feels very agressive and jumpy from the start. Even if you try to take a laid back approach while in DS, this setting will still produce a wonderful engine sound at all speeds plus the throttle will react instantly to even slight twitches of your right foot.
As others have mentioned, there is a short delay/lag before the car gets going from a full stop, in both D and DS. Not really annoying though.
Needless to say, I love the DS mode. The step even downshifts (engine brakes) when approaching a stop light. And during shifts (especially when accelerating hard) it sounds very much as if the gears were shifted manually.
Now if you really floor the pedal and redline the engine, the step will, again in DS, keep the current gear in place at very high rpms even if you ease off the throttle. Very very sporty!
I won´t go into much detail regarding manual mode with the step or the paddles. Tried them both, of course, but not really in a scientific manner. Don´t like the paddles much and think they would be more useful with active steering. With the superb DS mode, I don´t see much use in fiddling with the step in manual mode anyway.
Handling:
It was raining all day and outside temperatures were around 10 deg C / 50 deg F. Since it´s fall, the roads are also getting a little slippery with leaves everywhere.
Due to the roads being wet, traction was a major issue with the power delivery of this car, both from a stand still and up to cruising speed (around 100km/h, 62 mph).
What caught me entirely by suprise is the fact that the tail would start to spin out even with slight acelleration coming out of corners (too early on the pedal). DSC will of course master this nicely, glad it works so well.
I would assume 275 tires might be better suited for the 335i. Had those on the E60 and no significant traction or oversteer problems ever.
To sum things up, being a BMW, the E92 handling is as expected, very close to perfect. Coming from the E60, which has a very direct steering and handles very nicely as well, I am very satisfied. We´ll see what it´s all about when the roads are back to normal.
Interiour:
Most of you know what the couple looks like from the inside. All I can say is, everything is in the right place and it all looks and feels pretty great
I feel much more comfortable in the E92 coupe than in the E60, some of the plastics in the E60 looked cheap. Not so in the 3 series (my opinion).
Idrive/Nav:
Since I had the cheaper European entry combo caled "Business navigation" in the E60, I´ve gotten quite used to operating the Idrive. This time I decided to get the "Professional navigation", which is basically the same thing plus the colored map feature (the cheap version only has arrows+voice).
Basically the "big" nav is a wonderful system, but it does have one very significant drawback. It is very very slow... Press the Idrive button and wait...
The old and cheaper system ist lightyears faster. Apparently this nav is slow in all BMW models, at least that´s what I was told today. I Don´t know what the engineers at BMW were thinking, but I´ll probably get used to it..
Comfort Access:
This one works for me
It even locks/unlocks nicely in the rain. Glad I got it, didn´t have to pull the key out of my jacket once today.
Misc:
The new curve+cornering lights are fabulous. Even better than those in the E60.
The suspension + the rims are fine but a slight bit on the harsh side. Glad I didn´t get the 19" factory rims (230).
Finally some useless gimmicks and criticism, please don´t take this too seriously:
To confirm other reviews, the safety belt "butler" is flimsy, I think it might not last long.
Hill assist, didn´t notice it yet, luckily, it´s no use with the step.
Neither is the "Driving the Queen of England" soft brake assist thingy (or whatever it´s called in real life), which at least hasn´t made any negative impact yet. Maybe they forgot to program these features on this car... :-)
Now to the most useless and money-wasting feature of them all and I don´t even know if you guys in North America get to order this one. Having said that, I can´t even tell you the correct translation. Basically it´s the automatic low beam / high beam adjustment the car makes based on light measured from traffic in front of you. All I can say is it doesn´t work properly in my car. On a stretch of 10 km testing it, I had three cars flash at me because this thing was too late going back to the low beam. On top of that, I have no idea yet how to turn it off permanently (or even better get the 130 Euro back that this nonsense cost).
If I find the time and a camera, I´ll add a few pictures over the weekend.
To sum things up, all expectations have been met so far, this is really a wonderful car!
P.S: This 335i still has license plates from the dealership and before it is registered permanently, I have an option to return it tomorrow and upgrade it to a 2007 Z4 M coupe (which comes with a manual and even more traction control problems). Any thoughts on that one?
