Category: BMW

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BMW Take 2

So after the 335i debacle, I still needed to upgrade my ride. The new role at Juniper has me spending way too much time in the car between Cincinnati, Louisville, Lexington, Columbus, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland.  The RX8, as awesome as it is, just isn’t a highway road warrior car.  I need comfort and quiet so that I can continue to live on the phone an in conference calls while I drive around.

During the debacle I got to drive relatively new Honda loaner and I just wasn’t impressed.  I had also test driven a few other cars and just couldn’t shake the feeling I got in the BMW so we started looking around.

As much as I loved the performance associated with the twin-turbo 335i, we decided to take a different approach. We lucked into a pretty good deal on an older and larger 528i.

2008 BMW 528i

No Turbos, just a regularly aspirated straight 6.  *most* of the bells and whistles.  The bluetooth integration works well. The nav is old and crusty and non-updatable because it’s DVD driven, and  it doesn’t even have heated seats.  Who orders a car without heated seats these days?  It’s had most of the normal BMW leaks fixed recently and the stealership just put brakes all the way around and new shoes too.  So it’s likely I can drive this for 2-3 years and flip it without having to buy brakes and tires.

It’s a quality long distance commute vehicle. I’ll report back on any maintenance that’s required.  We’ll see how much the Bring More Wallet adage is true.  So far it gets a smooth 30MPG on the highway so that’s a significant boost.  I can get from Dayton to Louisville to Columbus on a single tank.   That I like.

More as it develops.

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New Wheels…

New to me wheels.   I’ve been driving the RX8 for 4 years now and have loved every mile that I’ve put on that car.  But the new job requires me to travel a lot more than I bargained for.  In fact I’m making the rounds between Cincinnati , Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Columbus, Louisville and Lexington regularly so I needed something more comfortable and more suited for highway travel.

I’d been saving my pennies for a while and had been looking at quite a few options. Then this presented itself:

2011 BMW 335i Sedan
2011 BMW 335i Sedan

She’s in incredible shape, nearly like new with 57k miles.  Smooth, quiet, and super comfy.

This is the first BMW (Bring More Wallet) I’ve owned.  We’ll see how this goes.

Basically a stock 3 series with Premium package.  Nav / Leather /  Heated Seats /  Premium Sound / Bluetooth (all the iDrive goodness).  It just needs to be driven and I plan to do just that.

So far, the only thing I have changed was updating the Navigation maps to 2017 maps from the 2011 maps it probably came with.  That took about an hour.

I plan to leave it bone stock as I did with the RX8 and simply take care of her with maintenance as required.

Update 6/11/2017

Exactly 7 days after purchase and 320 miles later, it appears that the twin-power turbo has imploded.  Right now I’m driving a loaner from Joe Morgan Honda where the vehicle was purchased.  They appear to be standing behind it with the 3 month, 3000 mile warranty and have shipped the car to their sister BMW dealer in Dayton.

Update 6/13/2017
The news is back. She needs an entirely new engine. Something about suspected ingested turbo parts. So the options presented to me are as follows:

Option A: Voss BMW (sister dealership) has sourced a 2011 N55 engine with roughly 10k fewer miles.  This engine would come with a 12 month PARTS ONLY warranty (no labor).  I have enquired about them including an extended warranty so that remains to be seen.

Option B: They will ‘un-sell’ me the car.  Refund my money and I walk away.  This obviously seems like the no brainer choice.  Or is it?  If there’s a warranty is that a better deal?

Well, after much consternation and discussion with multiple people who’s opinions I respect, I have ultimately opted for Option B. So…

Thus ends my brief BMW ownership experience.