[MickyD'bo]

Originally Posted by Tengocity

Not sure what to say other than round!

Looking at the 330e one then it's clearly changed a bit but it's not too bad at all. It's not worn looking at all and I still love how it feels.

Do you rub it with anything special?

[Tengocity]

Originally Posted by MickyD'bo

Do you rub it with anything special?

All the best magic happens when you rub it with your hands!

[TodmordenLad]

Great review, thanks, and great milestone

[mikeoz]

Super write up thanks

[Rbrown]

Originally Posted by Kal027

Good to see it’s still going strong.

Helps with my ( logical) decision to keep hold of Mine once the pcp is over - however man maths may take over

Appreciate the write up.

Think I’m in the same position as you. My PCP finishes in May.

Thinking if keeping it....but there are some pretty good offers about at the moment. Will see what is available early 2018 and see what options are.....hardly a bad problem to have though!!!

[Drek]

Originally Posted by Tengocity

Ha! I get the train for all meetings in London and for trips to Manchester and the North of England generally.

I also do enough flying to have reached BA Silver membership, so my personal CO2 contribution is considerable I must admit.

The car usage reflects that my family is in Scotland, and my wife's in Poland, and we've done lots of driving holidays because of that, as well as annual business mileage of about 20-30k over last 3 years.

What on earth do you do for a living that needs so much travel?! Top write up by the way.

[Tengocity]

Originally Posted by Drek

What on earth do you do for a living that needs so much travel?! Top write up by the way.

I'm head of sales for a business unit, and the sales teams are all across the UK, so I go to various meetings all over the place. I'm contractually field based, but need to go to our HO in Welwyn a couple of times per week on average, and thats 150 mile round trip each time.
I'm also involved in various Global and European projects which mean I've got some international travel over the year too.
So it's planes, trans and automobiles for work. You get used to it, and I get a day at week at home on average too, and so no two weeks are the same thankfully.

Then with my family in Scotland, and my wife's in Poland we then have to layer a whole load of personal travel on top of that. In many ways I am lucky that with having a team in Scotland too, I can often make the most of work trips there with visiting family and friends, and getting some rounds of golf or some climbing.

[flashollie]

Thread resurrection time.

So I'm interested in this. I have the same car and I'm likely to be keeping mine for sometime as well and I do about 20k a year.
As this is my daily driver which mods would you not be without?

How is the DMS remap to live did you see any mpg improvements on mways?
How did you avoid any warranty issues?
I'm thinking of the ACS box for this very reason but for the £££££.

I have ACS spings may get some spacers and do the ARBs for beefier ones but did these adversly affect ride on away at all? I suspect not?

Besides oil change frequency what else have you done to maintain reliability? Gearbox oil for example. I don't buy in to these being sealed units. I changed the oil on my 530d at 100k and felt better for it.

Cheers

[Tengocity]

Originally Posted by flashollie

Thread resurrection time.

So I'm interested in this. I have the same car and I'm likely to be keeping mine for sometime as well and I do about 20k a year.
As this is my daily driver which mods would you not be without?

How is the DMS remap to live did you see any mpg improvements on mways?
How did you avoid any warranty issues?
I'm thinking of the ACS box for this very reason but for the £££££.

I have ACS spings may get some spacers and do the ARBs for beefier ones but did these adversly affect ride on away at all? I suspect not?

Besides oil change frequency what else have you done to maintain reliability? Gearbox oil for example. I don't buy in to these being sealed units. I changed the oil on my 530d at 100k and felt better for it.

Cheers

The DMS remap wasn't detected by the dealers so no issues there. No improvement in economy though, as I can't resist using the extra performance!

I had the gearbox oil changed at 60k, and the oil every 12-14k.

I found the stiffer ARBs a bit annoying and would recommend better dampers and springs.

[flashollie]

Originally Posted by Tengocity

The DMS remap wasn't detected by the dealers so no issues there. No improvement in economy though, as I can't resist using the extra performance!

I had the gearbox oil changed at 60k, and the oil every 12-14k.

I found the stiffer ARBs a bit annoying and would recommend better dampers and springs.

Is the DMS remap polite enough to drive round town?
Interested to read your not too sure on the ARBs.. The ride with ACS and adaptive is fine. I just fancied something a bit more taught stable and less roll in the bends so thought of ARB.s but dampers sounds £££££

[Tengocity]

Originally Posted by flashollie

Is the DMS remap polite enough to drive round town?
Interested to read your not too sure on the ARBs.. The ride with ACS and adaptive is fine. I just fancied something a bit more taught stable and less roll in the bends so thought of ARB.s but dampers sounds £££££

Yes, the remap is awesome, you won't have any drivability issues.

If it's a long term keeper then the dampers are a must have mod to me. I'd take them over a remap personally.

[flashollie]

What dampers do you have?

[Tengocity]

Originally Posted by flashollie

What dampers do you have?

I've got ACS RS coilovers. Overkill for most, but I got a good deal on them. If I was doing it now I'd get some Bilstein damptronics, or Birds B3

[Mr Whippy]

Good write-up!

I'm curious on the Birds suspension. It reads like it might be quite good.

It's a long way to go try it out though, from oop North.

I couldn't see how much they charge for springs + dampers though.
Could easily be something to buy and DIY.

I know people fancy the ACS springs but imo you can't just change springs without doing dampers too.
The system is tuned and to be the best doing dampers too seems best.

In practice it's probably easier too as you can do the front struts without swapping the springs.

[Watsey]

Originally Posted by Mr Whippy

Good write-up!

I'm curious on the Birds suspension. It reads like it might be quite good.

It's a long way to go try it out though, from oop North.

I couldn't see how much they charge for springs + dampers though.
Could easily be something to buy and DIY.

I know people fancy the ACS springs but imo you can't just change springs without doing dampers too.
The system is tuned and to be the best doing dampers too seems best.

In practice it's probably easier too as you can do the front struts without swapping the springs.

Where about do you live ? If Atherstone is within a sensible distance I recommend a chat with Chris or Pete at Center Gravity about supplying and fitting coilover options that would suit your driving style.

From experience I'd not change springs only.

[Mr Whippy]

I'd prefer something oem looking then I can just swap without worrying about anything.

The Birds kit sounds like I could just mail order, fit diy and try it out pretty simply, and also it'll sit more oem, and may as well be just aftermarket oem replacement bits (bilstein body)

Just the extra faff of front driveshafts on awd.

[Solstice1]

Originally Posted by Mr Whippy

Good write-up!

I'm curious on the Birds suspension. It reads like it might be quite good.

It's a long way to go try it out though, from oop North.

I couldn't see how much they charge for springs + dampers though.
Could easily be something to buy and DIY.

I know people fancy the ACS springs but imo you can't just change springs without doing dampers too.
The system is tuned and to be the best doing dampers too seems best.

In practice it's probably easier too as you can do the front struts without swapping the springs.

I wouldn't touch Birds with a barge pole for the install, they did mine a few months ago, before I placed the order I asked whether the geometry would be checked and adjusted, when I collected the car I asked whether this had been done, on both occasions the answer was yes.
I was a bit underwhelmed with the package, but thought this might be down to still being on rft tyres. A few weeks ago I fitted PS4S and the handling was still not what I had hoped for, the front tyres that came off were very badly worn on the outside shoulders so I decided to have the geometry looked at by a local garage who have set up my Caterhams and lotus, and have a good reputation for work on race /track cars.
They adjusted both front and rear, but said that the rear in particular was well out.
After the new set up the car drives as I had hoped for.
When I contacted Birds I was told that they do not check the rear geometry as they do not disturb it, so if it comes into their workshop wrong it will leave wrong.
This wasn't what I was told when I enquirer about their suspension and to be honest if they had told me that I would probably have gone with a KW v3 set up which I have used on other cars.
In summary a reasonable product, better is available at a similar price, but a very poor service from a company that I had been led to believe had a good reputation (although I have subsequently heard of other instances which would have made me think twice about using them)

[Mr Whippy]

Yeah I'd fit diy and go to BMW for alignment.

Kw3 are nice but as with everything the spring rates are fixed and no one says what their rates are, or what oem were.

Plus insurance just gets more difficult.


Bit shoddy that Birds would fit a kit they design and then leave their product at its worst by having it badly aligned.

Suddenly it strikes me as just any other shoddy aftermarket stuff up-sold like a premium product.

Maybe the Alpina parts bin is a good place to go looking?!

[Solstice1]

Originally Posted by Mr Whippy

Yeah I'd fit diy and go to BMW for alignment.

Kw3 are nice but as with everything the spring rates are fixed and no one says what their rates are, or what oem were.

Plus insurance just gets more difficult.


Bit shoddy that Birds would fit a kit they design and then leave their product at its worst by having it badly aligned.

Suddenly it strikes me as just any other shoddy aftermarket stuff up-sold like a premium product.

Maybe the Alpina parts bin is a good place to go looking?!

Yep, the guy who did my geometry and has dealt with them in the past described them as "box shifters"

[matt_320d]

I think this review kind of sums up a lot of how most of us feel about owning a high end 3 series.

Here's the thing: If you own a high end 3 series BMW then you are, to some extent a "Car person". You havn't bought a ford Focus or just something that "gets you from A to B".

This means that, deep down, if you could afford it and you had no concerns for practicality, you'd probably love to be driving a Ferrari 458. Let's be clear - the "Ford Focus buyer" has no interest in driving a Ferrari 458. But you, Mr. BMW owner...You do.

But you can't. For a combination of financial and practical reasons. You cannot fit the kiddie seats and the labrodor in a Ferrari 458 and the missus will would moan that you were only owning it to impress other women. (And she'd be partly right).

So you own a quick BMW. You pride yourself on the fact that performance wise, your high end Bimmer is not far off a mid 1990s Ferrari, but you can fit the family holiday luggage in it and insure and fuel it without having to remortgage your house.

However, it does mean that, for nearly EVERYONE who buys a 335d or 330d or 340i, to some extent the car is a balance of head vs heart.

Which means you flip between two mental states about it: On the one hand feeling very pleased with yourself that you own a car which is 8/10 in every category (performance, value, practicality, style)...while at the same time occassionally flipping into a slightly more pessimistic mental state that it's not QUITE 10/10 in any category.

But the fact is the first analysis is really the correct one :There's simply nothing out there that ticks as many boxes as a quick 3 series.

[Watsey]

Originally Posted by matt_320d

I think this review kind of sums up a lot of how most of us feel about owning a high end 3 series.

Here's the thing: If you own a high end 3 series BMW then you are, to some extent a "Car person". You havn't bought a ford Focus or just something that "gets you from A to B".

This means that, deep down, if you could afford it and you had no concerns for practicality, you'd probably love to be driving a Ferrari 458. Let's be clear - the "Ford Focus buyer" has no interest in driving a Ferrari 458. But you, Mr. BMW owner...You do.

But you can't. For a combination of financial and practical reasons. You cannot fit the kiddie seats and the labrodor in a Ferrari 458 and the missus will would moan that you were only owning it to impress other women. (And she'd be partly right).

So you own a quick BMW. You pride yourself on the fact that performance wise, your high end Bimmer is not far off a mid 1990s Ferrari, but you can fit the family holiday luggage in it and insure and fuel it without having to remortgage your house.

However, it does mean that, for nearly EVERYONE who buys a 335d or 330d or 340i, to some extent the car is a balance of head vs heart.

Which means you flip between two mental states about it: On the one hand feeling very pleased with yourself that you own a car which is 8/10 in every category (performance, value, practicality, style)...while at the same time occassionally flipping into a slightly more pessimistic mental state that it's not QUITE 10/10 in any category.

But the fact is the first analysis is really the correct one :There's simply nothing out there that ticks as many boxes as a quick 3 series.

Spot on

[shao_khan]

Good write up.

I've just recently sold a Macan after 2 years of ownership - any questions let me know but to summarise I'm regretting the sale, faultless car let down only by crap dealers. 33k miles in 24 months and it was a joy to drive fast and like you did trips around Europe fully loaded without issues. I'd have another tomorrow.