Test drove an e90 today
 

I am not exactly sure what happened, but I went to the local BMW dealer on the off chance they had a 330 I might be interested in with a CPO warranty (for cost comparison) and somehow got talked into test driving the 328. Followed by the 335.

I liked them. A lot. :erstaunt: I didn't even mind the interior once I heard the sound of the 335 opening up. THe chasis is tight, the body roll is non-existent, the steering feel is much better then I expected - the only thing I really disliked was the horribly light clutch.

I take back almost all the negative things I said about them.

I suppose I should have mentioned that it's not the first time I have driven them and I didn't have this same impression in teh past. Perhaps its the comparison. Last time it was compared to the CTSV (and before the 335 was out). This time its compared to a 328 with 200k miles on it. They were nice.

why do you hate light clutches? lose feel:dunno:

My ZHP clutch compared to a Ferrari Marinello (which I had the privilege of driving a few years ago) feels light, very light, but compared to a Honda Accord or the like, feels heavy.

I remember the clutches in my dad's pickups being heavy and a '63 Jeep Truckster's I was given for a summer job being massively heavy compared to the 74 Datsun I was driving to the job everyday. I always got used to them in pretty short order.

That same Datsun, a 710, gave way to my first new car, a 1980 VW Rabbit - its light clutch made the Datsun's feel like a truck.

I think most people get used to whatever they drive and a quick switch to another car may seem more "alarming" than it really is...

Ed

my question is why is a heavier clutch better? you like the leg workout? Only thing I can see is you lose clutch feel:dunno:

I dont notice any less feel with my lighter wrx clutch versus our 325iT. Honda civics clutches do feel weird being so light and seem to have no feel, just press in a release, very vague engagement point.

i thought the pedal travel on the e90 clutch is pretty short and very devoid of feel with respect to the engagement point. easy to stall the car because you have absolutely no idea where the clutch grabs.

i don't mind the light clutch feel, though.

i find the 328 to be a superb car, but you really have to cane it to get it to giddyup.

Just got back from Vermont yesterday. Including that trip, I put 1350 miles on the e90 330xi in two weeks.

It's simply an excellent daily driver.

Sure the clutch could be better or the car could be a cayman or it could be a gt2. Whatever, once you get used to it, it just doesn't matter... It is very well isolated and cruises almost/just as well as an e39 while remaining as tight and even flatter than an e46. While I didn't think this whilst I owned an e46, I now think it's quite a leap past them (the zhp and some modified sports are still more fun, but the e90 is the better daily). Much more solid.

The normally aspirated 3.0 is a gem for daily driving, I got 29mpg on one all-highway tank and 27mpg on another (colder, more hills). Such a blessing after the s4. The xi gives up some steering feel, but I found the x-drive to be quite good (and I've had two audis and a subaru), much better than their last half-assed effort. It has a slight "delay" to it, hard to describe, but it still feels like a bmw. No worries on snow/ice and kicks the back if you gun it enough. Great for my ski trips, after 3 winters of rwd + snows, I'm enjoying not worrying about getting stuck.

The logic7 is the best car audio I've heard. Also it's quite simply controlled (non i-drive) and it took only an inexpensive monster cable/charger to hook up my ipod nicely.

The biggest con are the RFT tires - and even they are acceptable so long as you're not in the urban northeast (I didn't really notice them in Vermont). Some other minor cons are window button placement and of course, for the xi's, a certain lack of steering feel (but I'm willing to pay that price for awd).
The xi is a bit strange on turns, the car doesn't balance unless you're on the gas very early, so you have to turn in slow -but then so are most awd cars (and some famous rear-engined sports cars as well :eeps:)

I "familiarized" myself further with x-drive soon after I took this pic:

Also, DTC seems better than on the e46. Perhaps it's the xi or my (over time) tamer driving but I never feel anything kick in. Driving the zhp seemed like a constant struggle against the overly intrusive DSC.

Lemming, did you get a 328i?

DSC is vastly less intrusive on the E90. (Although it won't feel that way in a 335.)

I did a brief run around a snow-covered cemetary the other day and the DSC was quite intrusive, I didn't bother turning it off or anything as there was a guy watching me suspiciously - as of he was going to call the police or something :rolleyes: - so I stopped and took a few pics then hit the local touchless wash.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2351/...2e242747_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2029/...f89a6fcb_b.jpg

Ed