Picked up my M135i today- gentlemen get your Kleenex ready for some car porn...

[Furbytom]

Unfortunately the BMW garage would only offer me peanuts like a grand under we buy any car! For my vRS so had to end negotiations :(

Good news I managed to negotiate a good deal on a brand new prereg, Fiesta ST3!

So no BMW for me.

Now just need to get myself up to Matlock near Derby to finish the job only 4 1/2 hrs each way.

Sorry to hear you couldn't get a decent deal on your trade in. However I'm sure you will love the ST they are meant to be pretty epic :-)

[ColinD]

I always had a small hankering after a Z3M coupe 'widowmaker' most are long in the tooth now or north of 25k still. A 135m would be the logical replacement and maybe not quite as suicidal driving daily.

[Lady Elanore]

I always had a small hankering after a Z3M coupe 'widowmaker' most are long in the tooth now or north of 25k still. A 135m would be the logical replacement and maybe not quite as suicidal driving daily.

We had one for sale that used to belong to Stuart Hall (yes that Stuart Hall) and the reg was Z3VD It made a great noise and went very well when not on cobbles, or in the rain, or on bumpy roads, or.....

 

Ah ha, found a pic. Got the reg the wrong way round (disclaimers, disclaimers....) oh and that's me in the reflection

 

 

Edited 12 May, 2015 by Lady Elanore

[Lady Elanore]

Enjoy your new motor, shame the BMW dealer didn't want to deal!

I think you will find all dealers want to deal. That's why they are called dealers. Just sometimes they don't want your car or can't get it underwritten for a decent amount. The bid they made on my Merc was beaten by about £1,500 when I took it directly to Merc and asked if they want to buy it for stock. You've got to shop around when you sell a car as well as buy a car (assuming you don't want to sell the car privately....there I go with disclaimers again). I'm also looking to off load my Grand Vitara to a 4x4 place as they are offering more than Suzuki for it

[vrskeith]

Thanks Amanda,you read to much into my 1 liner comment.

The rest is teaching Granmother to suck eggs.

But thanks anyway. Good luck with the Suzuki sale

Keith

Edited 13 May, 2015 by vrskeith

[Lady Elanore]

think you read too much into my reply Keith

[Ally_bassman]

Agreed,

 

Dealers want to 'deal' it is their bread n' butter after all!

 

Every deal is different, there are two parties involved and for a deal to be made, both parties need to be happy.

 

If the deciding factor was trade in price, then so be it.

 

I walked away from a Kia Pro-Cee'd GT for the very same reason. A rubbish trade-in price that wouldn't budge made the deal unaffordable for me. No qualms from myself or the dealer, they said they wish they could have done more, I said I wish I could afford more lol!

[Lady Elanore]

It surprises me how little work dealers do sometimes, when it comes to getting a car underwritten. They usually have a few contacts that they regularly deal with and it's unusual to go beyond these contacts. It's more understandable if you are looking at buying a very high volume car, but even so....

 

I was once asked to get a strong price for one of those mad V6 Beetles. It turned out nobody wanted it, so I resorted to looking through Exchange and Mart to find dealers that might stock similar cars. I found one down South and they had 2 in Stock, "perhaps they do a roaring trade in them" I though? Suffice to say, the Sales Manager was a little curt when I offered to enhance his obviously growing VR6 Beetle franchise.  When I asked if the market for them was really 'that' small, he replied width he trusted line of "small. I am the bloody market". He'd had them for months and couldn't even shift them at auction. 

 

I sometimes regret not buying the last model 1M Coupe. They are still going for their original purchase price.

 

Car sales, go figure...

[Lady Elanore]

Guess what Tom. I hit the magic mileage number and test if my legs were long enough to push the accelerator pedal into the carpet (they are ☺). Anyhow my colleague sat next to me reckoned it felt quicker than his 360 bhp TT RS, although I didn't think it felt much different tbh. But it was promising for a tight, 2 up car with enough luggage and equipment on board to fill the car even with the rear seats down. 20 miles later the car is parked up for 9 days :(

Edited 14 May, 2015 by Lady Elanore

[Furbytom]

Guess what Tom. I hit the magic mileage number and test if my legs were long enough to push the accelerator pedal into the carpet (they are ☺). Anyhow my colleague sat next to me reckoned it felt quicker than his 360 bhp TT RS, although I didn't think it felt much different tbh. But it was promising for a tight, 2 up car with enough luggage and equipment on board to fill the car even with the rear seats down. 20 miles later the car is parked up for 9 days :(

Nice, glad you are now free to unleash the beast!

I suspect your colleague was benefiting from the "passenger seat effect" to some degree. It's funny how cars always seem alot quicker when you are not in control by driving them yourself. As the driver you are aware the surge of acceleration or direction change is coming and brace yourself accordingly whereas as the passenger you don't get that benefit so the car feels quicker reckon :-)

[Lady Elanore]

The car is starting to bed in nicely now Tom. But I have been pleasantly surprised by not only the burbles and pops of the polyglot engine/exhaust combo, but I notice it also does "thrpps" on the up changes, even on relatively light throttle openings Not heard of this before, so it was a nice little pressie.

 

I also got a Pizza delivery guy on a moped start chatting to me as I drove up Kings Road in London (I think it was Kings road as there were at least 4 Ferraris parked up). He seemed to know what the car was and asked lots of intelligent questions, even if he did sit on the opposite side of the road at several lights, in order to do so

[Furbytom]

The car is starting to bed in nicely now Tom. But I have been pleasantly surprised by not only the burbles and pops of the polyglot engine/exhaust combo, but I notice it also does "thrpps" on the up changes, even on relatively light throttle openings Not heard of this before, so it was a nice little pressie.

 

I also got a Pizza delivery guy on a moped start chatting to me as I drove up Kings Road in London (I think it was Kings road as there were at least 4 Ferraris parked up). He seemed to know what the car was and asked lots of intelligent questions, even if he did sit on the opposite side of the road at several lights, in order to do so

Yep the upshift exhaust "whumpfff" noise is quite amusing isn't it!

Glad you are enjoying it. I've been out in mine today enjoying the straight six noise and exhaust pops etc. Great fun! :-)

[Lady Elanore]

Yep the upshift exhaust "whumpfff" noise is quite amusing isn't it!

Glad you are enjoying it. I've been out in mine today enjoying the straight six noise and exhaust pops etc. Great fun! :-)

There's quite a few guys over on Baby Beemer saying that the Shell Nitro causes noticeably more pops etc

[dobbey]

Lovely cars both, I'd quite like an M135i especially with the deals.

I'd agree with that regarding the fuel. My old Scimitar has a much livelier exhaust on overrun with Shell's expensive stuff

[Lady Elanore]

Lovely cars both, I'd quite like an M135i especially with the deals.

I'd agree with that regarding the fuel. My old Scimitar has a much livelier exhaust on overrun with Shell's expensive stuff

Might try a tankful next time I need some juice......shouldn't be too long

[vrskeith]

A little something for the M135i lovers - enjoy your Bank Holiday Drive out.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU-qaapm2Y8

[Lady Elanore]

I have that one in my watch later list on You Tube as well as about 40 others There is a junction around a third of the way in that looks very like the road in the You Tube video of a comparison between an Audi S3 and  Golf R. probably just me seeing something that isn't the case.

 

Off to see a Detailer tomorrow about getting my car a Protection detail. Thinking of getting the ceramic coating

[jlwah]

I bet the 'traction warning' dash light is the first bulb to blow 

 

Great soundtrack from that straight 6, just a pity the 1 series is BMW's fourth most ugly car (after X1, X4, X6). The 2 series improves looks, but at the expense of practicality and increased cost.

[Lady Elanore]

From what I have seen this afternoon while driving around, the Bulb/Fuse could blow very soon in Sport Plus They're in a race with the rear tyres to wear out first I think

[JoshH]

Switch TCS off, leave stability on wouldn't advise stability off, all hell breaks loose!

[Lady Elanore]

Sport Plus knocks the stability off and leaves some traction control on. Had a little mini roundabout test in a quiet car park. It seems a promising start to wearing out the tyres

[Lady Elanore]

Been to see the Detailer and have opted for Modesta BC04 as a the outer coat. horrendously expensive, but if it's as good as they say it's a 'win' if it isn't, I wont be doing it again.

 

The manufacturer claims it can even reduce your drag slightly Well that's an extra 10mpg then and an increase to 200mph (unrestricted) I assume

[Lady Elanore]

Car goes to the Detailer tomorrow for a 2 day detail and application of Modesta. Fingers crossed it's as good as thy say

[Furbytom]

Car goes to the Detailer tomorrow for a 2 day detail and application of Modesta. Fingers crossed it's as good as thy say

Looking forward to seeing the results! Still enjoying the car Amanda? :-)

[Lady Elanore]

......... Still enjoying the car Amanda? :-)

I am   Can get around 35mpg with cruise set to 80-83 (Disclaimer: not that I would of course). I pulled up to the detailer today and he was sat outside his premises in his van. He'd already heard me a street away he said! I didn't think the car was that loud to be honest, but it is definitely starting to change it's tone now that it's got around 2.5K miles on it.

 

Had a proper drive yesterday afternoon, down from the North East through County Durham and North Yorkshire to the M6. 75 mules of sinuous roads and I only came up on around 5 cars (normally I only come up behind 1-2 max). Found the car is basically too fast for normal roads but having a go at the infamous Chris Harris 'Squiggle' on occasion was great fun. The Michelins are superb!!

 

The adaptive gearbox really works too. I tried the gearbox in Sport Auto and it changes down for bends if you brake before them and so seems to keep the revs up to at least around 3.5K so the engine is never anywhere near being off the boil. In fact the harder you push the higher it tries to maintain the revs by down changing in advance. It is a clever trick and changes down roughly where you would do it normally if you knew the road well, but on an unfamiliar road it helps maintain really brisk progress. I can see it being useful for saving fuel too, although it won't be getting used for that Before the usual crowd say "you need a manual for the authentic connected experience" can I say imho "******". It's epic fun with the quick fire blatting through the gears and if you are in auto, never being wrong-footed. It seems to be unobtrusive technology that really works and although playing with the flappy paddles in manual is more engaging, the auto experience is the best of it's type I have ever come across. All the autos I have driven previously, have worked a moment or two behind where you want them to be, eg you approach a roundabout, braking firmly and the car drops a gear or two once the revs are low enough, you then accelerate again and find that the car is still in too tall a gear, there is moment of thinking, a pause before another change down and then off you go. With this system you brake as hard and late as you want and accelerate in the right gear seamlessly. Obviously if you hit the kick down, it will hunt for the lowest possible gear, even if that's a few hundred revs below the red line. If you are pootling in 'Comfort' the box will change down fewer gears and you just ride the torque out of a corner in a smooth and more relaxed manner