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upd: japan plate and tuned version

My sister and her boyfriend have loaned a 320d xDrive (M package, adaptive dampers and steering, 19" runflats) for a few months and as we were celebrating my birthday last Sunday they came here of course. I was pretty curious how does the new F30 compare to our E91 LCI. I only had a 15 minute ride in it in the passenger seat (don't have a license) through the town, so I can't tell you how does the car behave on the limit, but what I can tell you is that it is definitely more comfortable than our E91 w/ M Sport suspension and 17" RFT tires. The ride is still firm, which is good as it is a BMW, but when the wheels hit one of the billion potholes on the Czech roads you don't hear and feel any huge bangs to the car at all. Obviously you feel the pothole, the car 'sinks' a little bit, but it is like 60 % more refined and softer in the good way. This stands for the comfort setting and normal commuting in the city. I heard some owners saying that it is too soft in comfort setting and too harsh in sport and sport+ modes... I suspect that if we install some nice and light 18" wheels and non-RFT tires and better shocks it will be as comfortable as the F30 on 19's but better in corners etc.. What I also liked about the new F30 was the engine. As you probably know I'm not a fan of the N47 diesel engine in our car due to the noise. However, it feels (and sounds) that BMW has improved the motor over the years because the new 3er was less noisy on idle. The ZF8HP slushbox felt pretty damn good, but that is widely known across the owners and journalists. I've had the chance to be in a 5 Series Touring (1500 km trip) and in an X1 that had that 8 speed gearbox. Moving to the interior: As it was equipped with the M Sport package, it had those amazing sport seats covered in Alcantara/cloth combination. We have those in the E91 too, I love them, but, and this surprised me, they were wider! I have no clue why they widened them, maybe ze Germans are fatter and fatter? They still are awesome though, a must-have option. The F30 has a longer wheelbase and this allowed to have a bigger space in the rear. I set the driver's seat to my likings and moved to the rear seat. I didn't measure it, but I felt I don't need more space. Not much less, not more. I'm 186,5 cm tall. The E91 is smaller inside (and outside), however it is still good. Journalists complaining about the space, shut up. It does not need to be any larger. If I was stupid and someone told me the F30 was actually a 5 Series, and next to it there was an E90, I'd trust him. Overall, the interior and dashboard was nice. Still not sure about the standing iDrive screen, I prefer the old layout that everyone seems to hate except me. The cluster instrument with optional extended displays (standard for Navigation Professional) looked awesome. Finally, BMW decided put an oil temperature gauge after years of people complaing about the lack of it (it is funny that six cylinder E9x models had it, also pre-LCI 130i but not the LCI models...) More on the interior below. So, above there are basically things I liked. Is there anything I did not like? Yes, yes and yes. 1) Exhaust tailpipe. The single pipe one that 316's, 318's and 320's have looks completely out, cheap and doesn't suit the car at all. Needs at least the 328/330 tailpipe, or M Performance or aftermarket. 2) Wipers. Not that they weren't doing what they are supposed to do, but the wiper arms are half the thinner. Ridiculous cost-cutting at its best. 3) Interior. As I said above, the cabin felt nicely done, the quality of the plastic fitment seemed to be a little bit better than in the E91. Though some not so premium plastics remain. There were two thing that caught my eye: the armrest no longer has a button that opens it (you have to literally pluck it) and the boot carpet... Maybe the sedans have some sort of cheaper boot carpet than wagons, but it's much much worse than in our Touring. I need to check out the F31's trunk next time I'm at BMW. Cost-cutting again. 4) Old 3 Series' had two little plastic pieces with a grill on both sides in the engine bay which pick dirt and leaves and other garbage that falls on the car. I always take them and clean them when cleaning the car. The F30 does not have those, instead of them there is... nothing. 4) The last thing, not that bad however, is the lack of rubber trim on the upper side of the windscreen. Right above the windscreen there is nothing and finally few millimetres there is roof ridge. A lot of bugs were right there and I think it's going to be hit by grit. Not good for the paint. So the question is, what generation I prefer? Old or new? It's not an easy decision I have to say... If I had to decide right now, I'd stick to the old one. -- OLD IMAGE REMOVED (imageshack) -- -- OLD IMAGE REMOVED (imageshack) -- I hope you enjoyed this horribly long essay full of grammar mistakes. I don't know why I decided to write such a long post. P.S.: If everything goes well, we'll have an opportunity to try an F31 335i in late August.

Ah... S2000's, i love these cars.

@vega. Turn off your adblocker so you can see the ad. Then click on the ad and wait untill the page is fully loaded. Then go back and click download. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHnyn4vguoo

http://i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc452/daniel0251/daniel0251%20part%202/958B3B20-0823-449B-8109-3C8F08F15D5B-452-0000004503E334D2_zpsb3d744ad.jpg

Welcome And I don't hate you :cheeky:

I loved reading it! :) I'm a bit disappointed at the F10's interior quality. Since we are forced to have RFTs, and our roads are full of potholes, the car has suffered a lot of impact, because the tires are very hard, due to being RFT, so the rear part of the cabin became rattly. So everytime we go over something as smooth as a speed bump the rear of the interior rattles to all hell. You can't hear it in the front so at least that's not bad. I think audis are more refined in build quality, but both of them are great cars. BMW caused a great initial impression on me, but it's slowly degrading that image, car feels much cheaper and doesn't give such a feeling of reliability, which the audi did. I am not sure if I'd want my parents to keep this car for a lot of years!

This would be amazing with LWD... Anyway beautiful work, nice car ;)

I've read the article and watched the vid. This moron is so funny that it makes me sad. "I've been to many countries like Tenessee or Carolina and a lot of people there enjoy cars. I guess it's traditional or something". Hmmm, I prefer buying new eyebrows than cars. The effff. :fp3: :fp3:

Nice quallity star. Keep up your mod posting speed :)

long live capitalism --- Post Updated --- -- OLD IMAGE REMOVED (imageshack) --

Installed the free camera mod and a few cars. I know, my graphics sucks.

Depends who you ask. Premiere is good for rendering but Vegas has a better workflow/interface