[DWUK]

Hi all…….
Have to firstly say – what a great community!!!! Just picked my new baby this week from Sytner Canary Wharf, following a three-year love affair with my Silver Grey E46 320CD M Sport Coupe (it was time for a change – fiancé wanted four doors, hence no E92 !).
So with twisted arm – off I went to place my order on my new 330d M Sport

Just wanted to write and tell of my experiences to date with the car, dealer and the techno-babble of the car – hope this is useful (if somewhat lengthy!!)

1) Sytner Canary Wharf – brilliant dealership, if you ever need a good deal talk to a guy called Chad Tracey, top top guy. Looked after me start to finish, got a great discount off the new car, free mats, BMW umbrella, touch up kit and more importantly a FULL tank of gas (not the £45 – oh its just short of the full mark excuse!) and no extra tip to Gordon Brown in the form of the extra road tax!

2) Took delivery of my E90 Mon 3rd April – it looked stunning in my Le Mans Blue…….awesome. The looks took there time to grow on me especially the rear lights, but the subtle sport kit makes the difference – plus it has, carried over from my E46 the 18”wheels, which I loved. But the colour, wow……..unique to the M Sport model, really makes it stand out

3) Voice control – for any concerned (well I was) when I placed my order, for UK specified cars with Prof Sat Nav, Bluetooth – you automatically get voice control, yes I know this one confused me. Just look for the "SA28 Voice ruling" on your invoice (or something like that!).

4) Voice control is novel and gets around the I-Drive mechanism quickly, but the command lists are needed and do take some getting use to, but once used a few times it does seem sensible and logical. Still getting my head around it, in particular the phone and navigation set-up using voice. Voice pick-up is quite good too, recognising instructions clearly. The female voice is not bad either

5) I-Drive – it is a useful system, you have complete access to everything, right down to the lock settings, tyre pressure read out, to silly things like a speed limit warning (I mean come on I live in London, when do we get a chance to speed!!) and an hour chime warning. I love I-Drive, all those sceptical motor journalists obviously had 1hr with the car before a write up and never spent time familiarising themselves with the system. An hour spent doing this is well worth the effort - just do it

6) The auto/steptronic box………….living in London and having a fiancé who only drives auto’s this was a no brainer. Coming from my E46 coupe – the clutch on which was incredibly heavy in stop start London traffic (think Blackwall Tunnel on Friday evenings!!!). The E90 is a revelation but is taking some getting use to – as this is my first auto . Fuel economy though is currently poor (part motorway, part city) I’m getting at the minute 29mpg. Hopefully more motorway miles and less city may kick it closer to the 38mpg BMW swear to. I hope so………..my old E46 clocked on average 42mpg.

7) No haven’t tried it in DS yet – not yet anyway

8) Power – oh wow ……..not done it on mine yet, but drove the demonstrator -Sytner had available. Put your foot down (I mean bury the accelerator) and you are gone! The 330d does not hang about, the auto box is very very very well suited to this car. Puts the E46 320cd to shame.

9) The run-flats tyres (RFT’s), I have in the past read an awful lot about the problems with RFT’s, “poor ride”, “hard”, “crash into potholes” etc etc. I have in fact first hand knowledge, as my kid sister has a Mini, one of the first BMW’s which fully used RFT’s and I had to admit it was awful in the Mini. I feared the worse for the E90. But hey you know what, it was not bad at all, coming from my E46 M Sport, the suspension and ride was more or less the same, in fact I would even go, as far to say, that the E90 is better. Advances in technology huh! My only concern is that no matter how many ads they do, I’m still a strong believer of carrying a spare – even one of them emergency donuts!

10) MP3’s – this one was a close one to my heart. Thought about the Ipod connector, then thought, bit pointless, in that you get no track name, nor steering wheel control over the tracks. So opted for the MP3 route. Horror of horrors there was that on going debate - that yes MP3s worked/did not work with the Sat Nav Pro debate. Well, I can honestly say mine works, straight out of the box. My only problem was the track listings……..3+8 characters so you got truncated titles on the display. Now I was using drag and drop on Windows XP, dragging my MP3s creating sub folders, then burning. THIS DOES NOT WORK. Windows XP is rubbish for this. Get yourself a copy of Nero Premium 7 Burning Rom – picked up a copy at PC World for £29.99. Ran through the ISO settings (see earlier links) and this works, full titles hurray!!! But note you do need quality CD to burn onto, they weren’t kidding when they say the laser is sensitive on the BMW.

11) Folding wing mirrors, absolute must in London, works similar to shutting all your windows, hold down the lock button

12) Auto lights, not sorted this one out yet, but the I-Drive lights setting needs a visit tonight, I believe I need to try the “slow” option.

13) Bluetooth – very good piece of kit, clearly improved from my old E46, the other caller can now clearly hear me, and I don’t sound like I’m underwater. My Sony Ericsson K750i – perfect phone for my car. Just need to sort out voice dial (which sounds AWFUL!) and is not exactly accurate, I can’t tell you how many times the system attempted to call someone I didn’t want!

14) Torch – you do indeed get one on the E90, thought about “borrowing” mine from my E46, no need, it’s tucked away in the usual glovebox slot.

15) Break-in – sticking to form and driving like a saint, 1,250 miles is a long one, but hoping to break the car in gently, its painful, but hopefully worth it.

In summary – would I change anything? No I really like the E90 – only hoping that the fuel economy improves that bit more!!!!!

Hope this has been educational

[KL2DC]

Congratulations...great write up!!! You certainly gave the car and the details a lot of thoughts, thank you for sharing....

But......

[DWUK]

Working on the pics - PROMISE!!!!
Just killing time at work and thought I would submit a write up.........roll on 5pm so I can drive home!!!! :rocks:

Thanks for the feedback...........

[0700700]

great. I found i really hated my 330i because it had no toys at all and was really not a proper bmw in my mind.. so i corrected this and am soon to receive my 330xd

[FeeBear]

Welcome to the community DWUK.

[vivekk]

Excellent write-up DW.
Have you thought about coming to the first UK meet at Donington Park on Sat April 22nd?
It would good to see you & your car.

All the best.

Viv

[DWUK]

Thanks for that Viv -
tempted about the UK meet, just not sure whats happening, rumours are abound that a trip to Heathrow may be on the cards to pick up the mother-in-law
I will see how it goes, would be fun to hook up and get feedback from the rest of mob

Will sign up if circumstances permit

[ShaneV]

I think I've seen your car! Was it the one parked in the middle of the showroom for a few days?

It is actually the inspiration behind my car... I just ordered a 330i M in Le Mans blue and it was after seeing yours in the showroom... AWESOME car

Enjoy it, your car :rocks:

[vivekk]

Originally Posted by DWUK

Thanks for that Viv -
tempted about the UK meet, just not sure whats happening, rumours are abound that a trip to Heathrow may be on the cards to pick up the mother-in-law
I will see how it goes, would be fun to hook up and get feedback from the rest of mob

Will sign up if circumstances permit

Hahaha!
No problem DW.
Hopefully you will be able to make it- having a few LMBs together would look great on film & video.

So lets hope those rumours are totally unfounded!

All the best.

Viv

[DWUK]

ShaneV - inspirational huh
If it was the one in the Canary Wharf branch, that was their demo, they took it out of that showroom for me to blast around on the A13 with. Problem was they failed to remove the "chocks" from the suspension - lets just say it was a HARD ride

Hope you enjoy your E90 sport........its an awesome car and the colour is striking especially in the sunny weather we've had in London recently

Good luck with it - and see you around London :rocks:

[simnew]

Hi guys,

Well just to add to this - I got my Mystic Blue 330d SE auto just a few weeks ago and I came from an E46 330d Sport and it is just one awesome car.

Firstly the SE in the E90 matches the handling in the E46 M Sport easily. It rides a whole lot better and rolls about the same as the old sport.

The latest diesel engine is so so so good, that when you drive one , you wonder why anyone would buy the petrol and that is no exageration. And I did drive several petrols and have owner an E46 325 in the past....

The auto with the diesel is just so seamless and it uses the low down torque of the engine better with this latest engine. In the E46, the revs were usually always over 2000 rpm until you got convertor lock up. On the E90, it works much better and fuel economy on my car is around 38 mpg and on a long run 45 mpg !! and its not yet run in.

Standing start acceleration is just explosive. One tip here is to use DS mode since sometimes steptronic will start in 2nd if it detects you have been driving with a light throttle.

Only negatives....

Less stoage space in the car. The cubby hole on the drivers side is nearly half the side of the old one. The door pocket is almost useless unlike before. The window switches are almost out of reach and would be better on the console as per the last 20 odd years. Sound system is a little disappointing even compared to the E46. The sound from the under seat sub woofers is just a little too subtle to overcome any road noise.

Nonetheless, an epic car and when the sun shines, the paint just dances in the sunlight - Mystic is a great colour and Le Mans is even better.

[DWUK]

Simnew - you hit the nail right on the head with that one
Must admit my E46 coupe had more convienient cubby holes, plus I find the centre armrest a pain to get into in a hurry - if needed, ie sunglasses!
The window controls - agreed are a pain, I keep for some bizarre reason reaching for the side of the gear lever - force of habit, or is that position more natural - I know it would be easier though if they were there
Fuel economy - I can't get 38mpg......not a chance. Picked the car up last Monday, with a full tank and had to fill up today - she'd only done 365 miles on the clock.
BUT that was partially due to 3 rush hour trips in and out of central London, so that might have dented the economy (most of my trips are out to Essex) - the trip computer stated I had an average speed of 22mph and 31.5mpg :mad:

The engine though is a peach - great engine noise, great acceleration, smooth, puts the 2.0 diesel to shame in terms of refinement , but still trying to sort out where I stand on economy

[davinet78]

yes for me the 330d is the best engine available on the e90

[2GPP]

Picked my silver 330D sport Auto up just over a week ago. It was a dealer demo car and already had 5k on the clock...so run in!! On a "fast" trip to Scotland from Berkshire I averaged 42mpg (500 miles out of tank and still about 40 to go!) on the OBC. I had reset this when I picked the car up. It had an average of 32 on it then. Trip back from Scotland gave 42mpg. Over last few days mix of motorway and twon stop/start driving and a bit of "thrashing" thrown in its averaged out at 40mpg. The 330D engine is a peach - agree with the comment - "Why have the petrol version?" I owned an E60 530D prior to this for 12 months and the 330 is superior. I had an E46 330Ci before that (manual) not as quick as 330D and handling on this and E90 I would say are on a par.
Going to post some photos soon. The Sport kit does finish the car off nicely!

[Bimmer325]

Originally Posted by DWUK

Working on the pics - PROMISE!!!!
Just killing time at work and thought I would submit a write up.........roll on 5pm so I can drive home!!!! :rocks:

Thanks for the feedback...........

how's London right now? i miss the Tower Bridge & my Oxford Street... :rocks:

[D-Rock]

Welcome to the forum

[London320d]

Welcome Guys, it's good to see a few more Londoners on the forum. (Will this be enough to weight the next meet towards the south a little )

A few comments on the posts above:
Stowage space - This is one of the few areas in which BMW dropped the ball when designing the E90. There's no reason to cut it back, as it's cheap to include, and the lack of it is an inconvenience. It would (for iDrive cars) have been better to relegate the Nav DVD to the boot and use the extra dash space for a sunglasses holder.

Economy - I'm not comparing apples with apples as you guys have gone for the 330d and I wen't for the manual 320d. Hard to be sure, but my impression was that econonomy improved at about 1200mi and again at about 3500mi. Now 35mpg in town and 53mpg (carefully driven) on the motorway. Running on BP Ultimate Diesel.

Originally Posted by Bimmer325

how's London right now? i miss the Tower Bridge & my Oxford Street... :rocks:

Tower bridge is very popular at the moment, even for us locals. At the moment it has a vastly increased number of visitors and they are sitting around for hours looking at it. (The reason as the next river crossing along - a busy tunnel - is closed, increasing traffic levels over the bridge to gridlock at tlimes!).
Oxford Street is ... well still the same old Oxford street!. Slightly deminished I guess by the phasing out of the famous hop on/off Routemaster double decker busses . We still have big red double decker busses but they are now modern. Our Mayor has also bought in 18m long single deck articulated "bendy busses" which can bring four lanes of traffic (out of five) on nearby Park Lane to a halt in a single manoever. :mad:

[330m]

Great write up!

Still glad I went for the 330i - it's soooo much better than the old 330 petrol engines, and when it's run in - wow hear that baby scream!

I promised myself I would never have another diesel or an auto after I left the company car mob (and the benefit-in-kind tax!) and set up my own business!

Clean hands forever!

[LEDZEP]

DWUK - Great job! Welcome to the forum. I love reading anything written in Brittish... . Congratulations on the new car, and enjoy!! Post some photos when you have a chance.