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Originally Posted by rapid64k
Do you have it yet?  |
Yes! Sorry for the late post. Changed delivery to Friday and it came at around 10 am.
First impressions are very good indeed. The space in the front and rear is not far off the 7 series and the boot is wide, flat and spacious. The 8 speed gearbox feels like a substantial upgrade on the old 6 speed auto. I can't stress enough how much I'm enjoying the gearbox! To drive, it feels more poised and balanced than the 430d xDrive I previously tried out although I'm sure the AWD system is better in many other scenarios though I do like the feeling of a slight rear-bias. Moreover, the engine is excellent and I'd go as far as saying overkill for a car that is predominantly going to be used for city driving.
I opted for M Sport suspension deletion (maybe adaptive dampers are better? not too bothered about changes to driving dynamics either way as long as the ride is smooth and comfortable), the advanced parking pack and heated seats. Going again, I'd consider HUD as it's amazing in the 7 (I have the old 7 and old HUD from 2008 and its still awesome
) and electric seats which is especially useful for cars that have multiple drivers.
There are only two key downsides to this car so far. One is minor and applicable to all modern cars (including the latest Merc C Class which I tried out recently) is the lightness of every control, the door panels and lack of a solid touch/feel to many things. I know this is probably for emissions and weight saving but compared to the previous E39 523i and E60 525i models we've had in our household (both cheaper than the 330d GT including inflation) it just seems less solid. No real biggie though but it seems that unless you buy 5 series, maybe 6 series or higher in the lineup, you don't get the heavier build and solid controls in the interior. Same thing felt in the E Class (old model, nice and solid) vs C Class (latest model, lightweight and shallow). Maybe it's just me. Second thing, which actually pisses me off, is the lack of Xenon/LED as standard. Halogen on a car that's more than £40,000 is not on. But hey, could have bought the option, just felt that it wasn't worth it. Hopefully this will be ironed out in the LCI.
I ordered the GT blind and it has clearly beaten my reasonably high expectations, even with these tidbits.
Here are some pictures. (rushed and quite bad, my apologies!)
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<img src="http://i.share.pho.to/ac0e4419_o.jpeg" width="1024" height="768">
<img src="http://i.share.pho.to/4846914e_o.jpeg" width="1024" height="768">
<img src="http://i.share.pho.to/5ede3045_o.jpeg" width="1024" height="768">
<img src="http://i.share.pho.to/72652a84_o.jpeg" width="1024" height="768">
<img src="http://oi65.tinypic.com/b7f120.jpg" width="1024" height="768">
<img src="http://oi63.tinypic.com/dwcjzt.jpg" width="1024" height="768">
EDIT: Not sure why my HTML didn't parse, I guess I just posted a syntax highlighted code excerpt. Doh. Hit those URLs for pics. Sorry guys! Any advice on embedding images that need on-the-fly resizing?