[Kafkaesque328]

Hello. Just wanted to introduce myself. I special ordered a 2014 BSM 320i from Pacific BMW Glendale and it should hopefully arrive in the next 6 weeks or so. A few things about me:

My previous car was a 2DR 2010 VW GTI, 6 speed manual. I was running APR Stage 1 software and an intake for about 30k miles. The car was great and I will miss it to a degree but it had a lot of little problems in the 40k miles I had it. Mainly electrical, valve cover gasket leak, cam position sensor failure, lots of rattles, some other random stuff but it was a fun car. Solid, handled well for wrong wheel drive and Stage 1 put down about 240hp/285lb ft on 91 octane. Pretty annoying clutch travel and rev hang..

I always wanted a BMW and test drove an e90 328ci before going with the GTI and always felt that I sort of compromised. After 3.5 years in the GTI it was time to move on. Wanted a BMW with 4 doors and the 8 speed step. I've spent a lot of time with the DSG in the VWs as well as Audis s-tronic and I think the 8 speed is the best in the business. I went and drove a 320 and a 328i. Both were somewhat base, lacking the what I see as essential sport package. Coming from the GTI I need well bolstered seats, sport tuned suspension and a nice steering wheel.

I came away being most impressed with the 320i, for the money. Even without sport package, it handles well, feels stable and refined even though you can see where they cut costs a little and the transmission is brilliant. Turbo lag seems non-existent and I love the flexibility of the different drive and transmission modes. For the options I wanted and didn't want, the car was going to have to be a special order. Even stock, I think the 320i is quick and feels on par with a stock GTI but there is a power deficit for sure. The 328 is a slightly better car but I know some guys who have gone with Burger tuning for their stage 1 and 2 setups and it really closes the gap between the 320 and 328i, which would have ended up costing me about 7 grand more.

So I settled on this:

2014 320i RWD
Black Saphire Metallic, Black sensatec and silver matte trim
Sport Package
Heated Seats
Split rear fold down seats

Dealer went $2500 below invoice and I'm leasing the car for $0 down, minimum drive-offs and $328 a month. Bimmer on a budget.

Already spoke to Terry at Burger Tuning in Simi Valley, about a half hour away from me and I plan to get the stage 1 hookup with the 4PSI increase as soon as I get the car which should make about 220hp/260lb ft respectively, give or take.

Anyway, sorry so long. For those of you who managed to read this far, thank you and I look forward to learning a great deal on this forum. Would love to hear from fellow 320i owners

[f30luxline]

Welcome!

My bro has an MK6, 2dr, 6speed and the car has been a dream since the 2 years he has owned it. He has been running the APR stage 2 since new (2012?) He doesn't get the issues you described here. Very minimal lag, no rev hang...car is great! Maybe it was something with the tune. Being in Atlanta he always deals with APR HDQ's in Alabama.

Anywho great choice. I was debating the options of the 320 or 328.

[Vervain]

Welcome!

Yeah the 320i is seriously impressive. It has a good amount of torque and is really light too. I absolutely love it!

Congrats

[Mermaid]

Welcome to the 320i club!

[ThaiBruin]

Welcome to the club! I was also talking to Terry at BMS and it's pretty sweet that they'll install the Stage 1 for free (and no tax if you pay in cash). I'll probably do it after my next oil change, which is less than 3000 miles away. What part of LA are you in?

[Jamesons Viggen]

I too had an APR tuned 2.0TSI 6mt but had to ditch it due to reliability concerns.

Once you try Map 5 for stage2 on the BMS tune, you will be a happy camper.

[snowghost]

Originally Posted by ThaiBruin

Welcome to the club! I was also talking to Terry at BMS and it's pretty sweet that they'll install the Stage 1 for free (and no tax if you pay in cash). I'll probably do it after my next oil change, which is less than 3000 miles away. What part of LA are you in?

How much is Stage 1?

Edit: I guess not for the N55.

[xantdieselx]

I too came from a GTI. I had an 11' GTI Autobahn DSG. My feelings are much the same fun little car, great engine and dynamics but shaky overall quality. I've had 2 BMW's prior...an 08' 135i and 10' E92 coupe. I bought the GTI because I was commuting over 100 miles a day. Couldn't wait to get back in a BMW. I went with the 328i x-drive with M-Sport and couldn't be happier.

[QTC]

My girlfriend has a stock MkVI GTI (DSG), and my buddy has a tuned MkVI GTI (6MT) with the APR GT28 kit, Peloquin diff, KW V3's, etc. Both are great cars - I think the MkVI is one of the better platforms out there. I have a 320i myself (6MT, sport package) - fun little car.

[Kafkaesque328]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone - glad to hear everyone is enjoying their 320's. Stage 1 Burger is $379 I believe which is either + 3 or +4 psi. Terry posted a dyno thing on another forum showing some really nice whp and tq numbers and the fact that it is all plug and play w/out having to tamper with/crack open the ECU is a huge plus to me.

Having Stage 1 with the GTI was always a slight worry in the back of my mind. Anytime something came up it was like "ok get ready for a battle with the dealer". Luckily I had a mod friendly dealer I frequented and they didn't hassle me, much. When I noticed oil seeping from the cam position sensor I brought it in and had also noticed buildup around the valve cover gasket. Oil was seeping from around the gasket and behind the sensor which then fouled the sensor. The tech was cool but told me straight up that I was running too much pressure in the crankcase. They fixed it but he said if things like that kept happening I'd be out of luck. I was flagged TD1 from VWoA from the get go so they could have denied any warranty claim I had that the dealer couldn't be 'cool' about. All in all, that whole thing is a drag.

So the harness type set up Burger has going on is very appealing to me. Terry offered to do the install for me when I get the car for free, takes all of 10 minutes and walk me through so I could remove and reinstall if needed. Great customer service.

I can't wait to get my car.. Going to be a long 6 weeks..

For those with the 320 and sport package, have you guys driven the 320 w/out the sport package? That is the only one I drove and while that one was ok, I know that the sport package will make everything right. I could probably live with stock 320 power for a little while since its pretty much on par w/a stock GTI combined with RWD and Bimmer road feel, but those stage 1 numbers are real nice while still being conservative, so it feels like a must. And thats cheap! APR Stage 1 + tax and labor was $800.

Heres a shot of the GTI.

Originally Posted by ThaiBruin

Welcome to the club! I was also talking to Terry at BMS and it's pretty sweet that they'll install the Stage 1 for free (and no tax if you pay in cash). I'll probably do it after my next oil change, which is less than 3000 miles away. What part of LA are you in?

Yep, same offer to me. Free install and no tax if I pay cash.. I'm in. Probably do it the first week I get my car.
Im in La Crescenta/Tujunga area off the 210, about 20 miles north of DTLA. Lived in Silverlakle/Echo Park area forever before that.. Lot of really nice canyon roads out here, right in my backyard.

Originally Posted by Anodite10

Welcome!

Yeah the 320i is seriously impressive. It has a good amount of torque and is really light too. I absolutely love it!

Congrats

South Africa ha? What city? Ever heard of Die Antwoord? Love them

[flyguy27]

Welcome, always enjoyed your threads over there in golf mk6. Im new here myself excited for you on getting a new car.

[Kafkaesque328]

^^ Haha, cool...What was your username over there?

[flyguy27]

Originally Posted by Kafkaesque320

^^ Haha, cool...What was your username over there?

Same that i have right now

[KnowledgeMC]

Originally Posted by Kafkaesque320

Im in La Crescenta/Tujunga area off the 210, about 20 miles north of DTLA. Lived in Silverlakle/Echo Park area forever before that.. Lot of really nice canyon roads out here, right in my backyard.

Wow! I never thought I'd find another person from the La Crescenta area on these forums! LOL. Welcome!

[mike@x-ph.com]

Welcome.
Pacific BMW is the worst dealership i have been to

[Kafkaesque328]

Originally Posted by KnowledgeMC

Wow! I never thought I'd find another person from the La Crescenta area on these forums! LOL. Welcome!

Haha, yeah, this area is the last frontier of LA county as far as I'm concerned my friend. I love it out here. Never any traffic, you can go to the grocery store without wanting to kill anyone or getting into some epic parking lot rage and the air is cleaner. I work in Koreatown and it only takes me a half hour to get to work. Just shoot down the 210 to the 2 to Echo Park and I'm back in the pit. Can't wait to drive Little Tujunga and Angeles Crest in the Bimmer and really see how it handles. If it's anything like the e90 sport package 328's I've driven I think I'll be really happy.

Originally Posted by mike@x-ph.com

Welcome.
Pacific BMW is the worst dealership i have been to

Really? I dealt with 3 different dealers while I optioned and negotiated my 320 order. I negotiated the hell out of that scene and just kept getting them to go lower on the cap cost until I ended up with a decent selling price from this Downtown LA dealer bro. Then I hit my guy at Pacific with their offer, who is the one who had me drive the 320i initially and he came more than a grand below the other dealer's offer and it was done. Been great so far. Guess we'll see when the car arrives and all that.. Signed up on BMWUSA for my account and entered my production number so now.... I wait.

[CK335iMSport]

Welcome, I too came from a GTI. A 2011 6mt with Nav. and an APR Stage 1 tune. Didn't experience many of the issues you stated, but I will absolutely agree that it is a great little car to drive/own. I've said it many times before, everyone who truly enjoys driving should either own, or at least spend some time driving a GTI at some point in their life. The car is such an icon in the hot hatch arena.

As for the BMW, you're going to love it. Totally different car in terms of a "solid feel" and everything else. I absolutely love my car

Again, welcome...

[Kafkaesque328]

Thanks.. Man 335 M Sport, jesus nice. Wasn't quite able to swing the 335 but that must be a nice DD man, real nice. So yeah, we basically had the same car and I agree that anyone who loves driving should have some time in a GTI. The love affair wore off for me though after about 2 years.. 2 years I was infatuated, 6 months I started tripping out, the last 6 months I started looking into other rides. I entertained an A4 but I wanted to move away from VAG products this time.

[puma1552]

$2500 under invoice or $2500 under sticker? Either way, a good deal.

EDIT: Curious, why no lighting package? Probably the most defining thing on a BMW imo.

[Kafkaesque328]

Originally Posted by puma1552

$2500 under invoice or $2500 under sticker? Either way, a good deal.

EDIT: Curious, why no lighting package? Probably the most defining thing on a BMW imo.

$3500 off of MSRP. Money factor 1.25 (.00125), 36 months, 10k miles a year, 0 down, $1500 drive-off, $322 p/mo + tax.

TOTAL AS EQUIPPED $36,500.00
SELLING PRICE $33,185.00

This was the thing: I needed Bimmer on a budget. We just had a kid and are trying to build up liquid savings and I was used to no car payment on the GTI because I paid it off in a year so I had 2 years no car payments. My wife leases a Tiguan which we also got a really good deal on. I can negotiate the hell out of a lease. But anyway, with 2 car payments now, I needed to keep it manageable. I realize that the Bimmer forums bring a whole new income bracket of people so this might sound amusing to some of you. So after I drove the 320, I new it was going to have to be a special order because it had to have the sport package. To me, I'm not interested in any Bimmer w/out the sport or M-sport packages. Soft. So I had to determine essential options vs. non-essential and that is what I came up with.

The lighting package is nice, all those things are nice and you can easily option out a $50k 328i without thinking about it, but that wasn't the mission here. The mission was to get an affordable and fun to drive 3 that had the distilled elements of what I have always loved about BMW w/out the fluff. We'll see when this lease is up if I can upstream but for now, Im stoked because its still an upgrade over the GTI.

[ThaiBruin]

Originally Posted by puma1552

$2500 under invoice or $2500 under sticker? Either way, a good deal.

EDIT: Curious, why no lighting package? Probably the most defining thing on a BMW imo.

I live in West LA and EVERYONE has a 3 series. I'd say that 75% of the 3s I see (current F30 and before) have halogens. It's just not that important to a lot of people.

FYI, I do have lighting package on mine and wouldn't have it any other way

[puma1552]

Originally Posted by Kafkaesque320

$3500 off of MSRP. Money factor 1.25 (.00125), 36 months, 10k miles a year, 0 down, $1500 drive-off, $322 p/mo + tax.

TOTAL AS EQUIPPED $36,500.00
SELLING PRICE $33,185.00

This was the thing: I needed Bimmer on a budget. We just had a kid and are trying to build up liquid savings and I was used to no car payment on the GTI because I paid it off in a year so I had 2 years no car payments. My wife leases a Tiguan which we also got a really good deal on. I can negotiate the hell out of a lease. But anyway, with 2 car payments now, I needed to keep it manageable. I realize that the Bimmer forums bring a whole new income bracket of people so this might sound amusing to some of you. So after I drove the 320, I new it was going to have to be a special order because it had to have the sport package. To me, I'm not interested in any Bimmer w/out the sport or M-sport packages. Soft. So I had to determine essential options vs. non-essential and that is what I came up with.

The lighting package is nice, all those things are nice and you can easily option out a $50k 328i without thinking about it, but that wasn't the mission here. The mission was to get an affordable and fun to drive 3 that had the distilled elements of what I have always loved about BMW w/out the fluff. We'll see when this lease is up if I can upstream but for now, Im stoked because its still an upgrade over the GTI.

I hear you, that's a great deal.

If I were to get a 3, it would also be a 320i because the 328i is just too expensive (for a purchase) with all the options.

My 320 would also be special order, likely:

-RWD
-Leatherette
-Metallic paint
-Sport with the all season tires
-Heated seats
-Lighting
-Moonroof

And that would be it, *maybe* I'd throw in power seats but then between the seats and moonroof I'd only be $1k from premium and getting the keyless access, but I probably wouldn't go that route.

I'm glad to hear you were able to get that much off not only on a 2014, but a 2014 that has to be special ordered.

The only thing I really hate on the 320i is the lack of a HK audio option, I need my tunes and hate going aftermarket in an era where factory stereos can finally be pretty good.