Jockdooshbag

#Ill need to look for this on mine as it wasnt immediately obvious. My old BMW had a massive big red blinking light hanging from the rear view mirror so it was dead handy to check from a fair distance off if it was indeed locked when those OCD moments kick in.

Still hardly a WTF moment but never mind. I still maintain BMW manuals are pants, but hey WTF do i know. Now thats how you do it.

Just input your reg plate on mytyres website it will show you the correct size of wheel etc you need. Worked for me on my last car anyway.

Ah. I forgot about the S500 merc. Not sure if 2k is enough, havent checked. Surely the basic S500 V8 with about 300bhp would be close? Big unstressed engine should last for donkeys.

Ill bet anyone a million pounds the world doesnt end. Any takers? Seriously though at least we still have time to get presents for the missus if it doesnt end. Im definately leaving it to the last minute now. Do you think amazon will guarantee delivery in time for chistmas if i order on the 24th?? They are very good after all.

The black alloys will certainly be standing up better to the winter grime better than mine i would imagine. Agree regarding the sat nav. You would need to be a mentalist to pay for this option if you specced it onto a standard car. But fitted as standard to yours thats great value. I would love it as built in sat nav just looks so dam cool. Tom tom does the job seeing as it only gets used on rare occasions but that still doesnt stop me wanting built in sat nav just to satisfy the gadget geek in me. I would have leather in a heart beat as well but again being a tight wad i wouldnt pay for it. Basically you have all the options i want but didnt want to pay for. Maybe if i had more patience i could have waited for a blackline but it still doesnt stop me enjoying my standard VRS. TBH i wouldnt give two hoots about it not being a "proper" limited edition. Who cares. Getting more for less money is at that matters. Enjoy.

As stated in later post i did recommend he try it himself. You say its not bad i say it was. Each to their own and thats what a forum is for after all. Opinions. I described the issue i had with it and if that characteristic is not an issue for you then fine but certainly not a "WTF" issue. I would imagine differing opinions on a specific vehicle is what was anticipated and seeing as ive owned a manual and an auto verison of the car in question it kind of makes my opinion relevant if not gospel. Save the WTF's for a more contentious issue.

I fully understand choosing a manual over an auto what i mean is the BMW manual specifically is not a nice one. Its very hard to pull away and change gears smoothly in the first couple of gears. Its like the clutch wants to throw your foot off it as quick as possible. You can slowly modulate the clutch pedal out to bitting point then at that precise moment its like a spring engages and the clutch pushes outwards causing a jerky shift. Becomes very tiresome after a while. On the open road its ok but in stop start traffic i absolutely hated it. Every other manual ive owned was far better even ones in crappy cars. I tried my mates 320d and it was the same so wasnt a specific problem with mine. Just a BMW characteristic. Rest of the car i would argue is untouchable by any other make of car. The BMW is just better engineered than anything else on the road without spending silly money. Try the manual you may like it but try some stop start driving before you hand over your hard earned as it totally ruined the ownership experience for me.

This 530d is a turbo. Come on now its like amatuer hour. Straight six turbo diesel.

Dont get a manual BMW. Terrible. Steptronic all the way trust me. I had a 330d manual. Greta engine but shocking clutch and gearbox. Also had an auto 320d which i mapped to the same power and torque levels. Far better although the 6 cyl diesel was smoother. At the very least try a manual first as i will never own one again after my experience with it. Auto's in BMW are really nice and there isnt really much performance or economy hit compared to the manual. The rest of trhe car above looks really nice and i cant fault mine in any way. One small niggle is the lack of anywhere to rest your right foot when on long runs. I used to take my shoe off and tuck my foot under brake pedal, Not surehow legal this was but it never caused me any issues. Get a sensible chipped uk ,map on the 320d motor and you then have a very reiable 200bhp/300lbft. Or go the full bhuna for 220 and 330lb/ft. Just dont get the manual.

Agee on the S80, has some seriously comfy seats. Best ive sat in. Dont knock the old 740 volvo, my dad had 2 in the past. Really comfy car and built like a tank. Old range rovers are nice as you said but not very reliable but at leats parts are dirt cheap. Swap air suspension for springs and then keep fingers crossed about the rest of the electrics. My personal choice would be the A8. Would try and find a 4.2 or 3.7 V8 with quattro. I presume these were all tiptronic as this is essential for this type of car and then pretend you are in Ronin. i.e letting peugeot 406's keep up with you. Or was it 605's or a renault safrane. Dam my memory is poor.

I would have thought a basic normally aspirated petrol would handle bigger miles better than a turbo diesel. In theory the 730d would be preferable but would it not be riskier running a mega high mileage one of these as opposed to a 728i??

This is basically what i am saying also. Yes the halogens are poorer then xenons at the extremity of their range but i still found xenons too limited in terms of range. This is not the bulbs fault but the limiting factors of anti dazzle laws. Even at £400 its too much. Id pay £400 for bi-xenons i think but not normal xenons. I honestly think they are not worth anything extra. I can see why people like them though as the imediate effect is a much brighter footprint. I have used them for several years and i first thought they were great before i realised they didnt offer much advantage after i still had to keep using my full beams to properly illuminate country roads. The first time you experience xenons its impressive but you soon learn they are crippled by the same limiting factors as halogens, for the dipped beams anyway.

2k for a 4.2ltr V8?? WOW. One of my favourite all time cars. S8 would just pip it but standard 4.2 gets pretty close. They have lots of electric gadgets so wouldnt want to fix some of those items if they broke. This applies to all luxury barges though not just audi. Any electrical problems on yours? Another similar car i love is the 4.2 ltr A6 quattro avant. With this even the dog could enjoy the ride. These are pretty rare cars though but i have always hankered after one. Dam company car rules i never get to own the cars i really want.

You have similar criteria to me except i wouldnt dare spend 30-35k on a car. Id like to but it would give me serious headaches. Tricky descision. BMW certainly has various options for you. The 30d or 35d engine is immense in whatever body shape or model you choose. What about a Jag? XF witht he 3.0 ltr diesel kicking out about 270ish bhp? Why not but another skoda or VW and then also buy a fun weekend car all for the same budget?

The 728 would be a ggod choice. From what ive heard the 2.8ltr motor does a fine job. What about an A8. Event V6 in this car would suffice. Quattro would be nice too. Not sure if the V6 was quattro but there is always the V8's. As some one else said a lexus is a lot of reliable car for the money. If you love car maintanance what about an old Jag??

No i read this will be a common feature on all new autos. It maybe wasnt BMW now i think about it. It might have been the new range rover. Doesnt really matter which car it is, the point was that the car will effectively be coasting.

Its called the road surface. Very little light will "bounce"back up to be off any use. You even answered this question yourself. I cant get my head around why you thibnk this is so difficult to grasp. Xenons are brighter within the permitted range. this permited range is outwith car manufacturers control. It is the road beyond this range that would benefit from being illuminated. To illuminate this increased range we need to use full "main" beams. This is not my personal opinion, it is fact. headlight dipped beams have their ultimate range dictaced by MOT criteria. If you think you can see beyond this range with your xenons then you are either lying, stupid or your lights are not adjusted correctly. I am not diputing xenons are brighter, i dont think anyone is. Im not even disputing the fact that i would rather have have them, i would. What i am disputing is that they dont offer any range increase over halogens unless you have bi-xenons i.e xenon main beam bulbs. Therefore standard xenons offer little advantage for me and certainly no where near £800 worth of advantage. I wouldnt pay anything for them, thats how much i rated mine but they are better but only better in certain areas. These areas are not the areas that would improve my driving experience. I could certainly benefit from xenon main bulbs for the full beams but again i wouldnt pay £800 for them. This simple fact that xenons dont offer any advantage for me is not up for debate. I am merely expressing my experience with them based on how they actually work. You cant argue that they are better because they are brighter therefore must see further as this is just tosh. Brighter does not mean they illuminate the road any further than halogens. This can be proved very easily by looking at your xenon lights pattern on the road in front of you. The extreme end of the dipped beam range has a very sharp and definate end to it. This is because xenons are very bright right up to this range. The same part of the range is less obvious with halogens as the light is less bright and therefore doesnt have such a defined contrast to it. The extremity is however exactly the same i.e 50m up the road or whatever VOSA dictates. If the above doesnt make sense then someone else will need to explain it even more simply for you.

No driving in reverse winds the odometer back. Have you not seen Ferris Bueller's Day off?? Everyone knows this.

D does suit for most situations but paddles are great for certain situations such as country roads. I prefer the padles to leaving it in D when on twisty country roads. The fact that we are given both options is a good thing so hardly pointless. Being offered more is never pointless. D mode will always be a compromise hence why S mode and paddles are offered along with manula overide with the gear lever as well. If you cant find a mode from "D","S", Paddles or manual shift with lever, thats suits the current driving conditions then you must be driving on siome pretty weird roads or are not driving properly. I use the paddles on mine several times a week and would definately not want to loose them so very far from pointless. If you dont use the paddles and D suffices then thats great but others including myself do use them. Simply ignore these additional features and use the one of the 4 alternatives and enjoy. A manual gives you only one option so not really any options at all.

Regarding "coasting" as discussed here, the new autos on the likes of BMW etc actually fully disengage drive on the overrun to achieve better mpg. Is this not coasting? On CC and MPG i couldnt care less about a small mpg deficit for using CC as its far more convienient ans relaxing. My knee kills me after a short while so i need to adjust my leg position from time to time and can only do thios properly with CC. My kness are pretty knackered hence why CC is essential for me but even if my knees were fine i would still prefer it. I do enjoy extracting maximum MPG on country roads and in town as its strangely satisfying but on motorways its just boring so i flick CC on as soon as im on one. Proper hypermiling sounds boring but there is a strange gratification from easing off the throttle at the exact moment to be able to coast up to a junction with just enough speed to check its clear and then pull out without stopping or from keeping up with traffic flow and negotiating corners with zero braking whilst maintaing a sensible average speed. I must be getting old but at least its one aspect of motoring you can legally enjoy these days plus speeding with the missus in the car and the wee one gets quickly nipped in the bud and me nipped in the lug.

Big fancy garage or parents living with you.....hhhhhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Not much of a descision that one.

I would agree with some opinions that manuals offer more control. This is true. But i dont need the additional control. The DSG does everything i need and more. If this fine level of control was essential then why do high end cars such as ferrari etc have auto type gearboxes. A manual clutch is slowly becoming outdated. Saying this in a sports car like a boxter or similar i would still prefer a manual plus i do prefer my manual landy when offroading but i do still get trounced by autos on some occasions as the gearbox isnt the main iussue in these situations, tyres and diffs are. Each to their own but i simply cannot see a situation on the public roads where a DSG box doesnt do everything better than a manual.

Couldnt sum it up better. Basic xenon not really worth the high extra cost. Bi-xenon and directional function when cornering then thats a differnet thing all together. Havent tried such a set up but having brighter full beams and swivelling function does sound like something potentially worth some extra cash. Still not sure if it would be worth £800 but they would be worth something extra.

Yes. Finally youve got it. Increased lighting range would benefit me not increased brightness within the range i can already see.