carmudgeons.com - Misc thoughts from BMW showroom

Picked up my 330i from the 45K service (42,5K actually).

Service
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-Replaced belt that caused chirping on cold morning start-ups.
-Replaced ignition coils under recall. I thought this had been covered since I got the recall letter just 2 weeks after my car had to be towed because of the ignition coils - I guess the replaced coils still were not good enough.
-Hopefully the coils above cleared the cold start hesitation during the first couple of minutes. It bucked and rpms fluctuated wildly for a few seconds before it settled. This was almost a non-issue at first, but over the past year it became pretty bad.
-Got scolded for having only 2mm of tread left on my rears. LOL I told her I have a set of winter tires and I don't drive my car in the rain because of it. I guess she wanted me to pay BMW$$$ for a new set of tires. Nope. I'm waiting 'til spring and looking forward to lighting up my tires over the next few weeks.
-On original pads I have 6mm left in front and 5mm in the rear. What is the replacement thickness? I have 7500 miles left to burn through whatever is left.:D

Showroom
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They had a Black MZ4 Roadster. The seats are Awesome - they fit like a glove. The leather feels nice. The steering wheel is great (maybe a bit too thick - and I really like thick steering wheels).

Parts of the dash are still X3-like hard-plastic and the view out front of the massive hood bothers me. Still don't like the front - even in black, but it sure helped.

With NAV and a couple of options and Gas Guzzler Tax, the sticker was 61K.

Sat on a 3er. The seat bottom tilt seems to have far more range than my 330i does. I have my seat bottom all the way up. The new 3er appeared to go beyond that point. The seating position, wheel, shifter, pedals all felt really good, but damn that dash is just too Buick for me.

Amid the 3er, MZ4, 5er, and 6er in the showroom, a white ZCP M3 looked gorgeous in comparison.

There were two slammed, 20" chromed-wheeled 6er cabrios in for service.:rolleyes:

I left the showroom to get in to my ultra-dirty ZHP and felt I was easily driving away in the best-looking car in the lot. And people checking out new cars went out of their way to peek at mine.