Touring the Fatherland

[IndyMike]

Just got back from my favorite (albeit biased) nation to visit, Touring from Bavaria (Munich) up to Nord RheinWestfallen (Bielefeld).

Weather for the time of year was pretty typical depending upon the area. Sunny and warm in the south, and much cooler and rainy in the north.

Total tally: 7 days, 1109 miles, 3 Schnitzels (Weiner Art) and too many bier's pounded down to count. When you're visiting relatives it's impolite to say "I've had enough" until it's a ridiculously obvious conclusion.

General impressions of the 328iT:

N52 is very smooth, with decent pickup even in automatic tranny mode. It's certainly no N54, but compared to the E46 it's a pleasant uptick in power delivery.

New generation of RFT's are a vast improvement over its predecessor. Not nearly as jarring as the RFT's that came equipped on the 135. Since this is the little woman's ride I have no plans on swapping out, at least until I have to go through the joys of replacing one.

E91 is as handsome as I suspected. I still have some issues with the front headlights and facia that have existed in my mind since the E90 debuted in 2006, but certainly the latest LCI is a nice albeit modest improvement.

Space Gray is a very nice, conservative color and the Type 193M spider spoke rims are very visually appealing.

Saddle brown leather is fairly supple, and sport seats with adjustable lumbar and sport tuned suspension are confidence inspiring and great for long, fast hauls whether on the A-bahn or country roads (generally standard fare for the marque).

Not all that thrilled with the four window buttons being housed on the door. They are placed so oddly that I have to grope to find them. I kept dropping the rear window instead of the front one. On the E46 the front window button on the center console is fore of the shift knob, and the rear, well, to the rear where it should be. With the E91 I have to take my eyes off the road and visually locate the button, or the wrong window invariably gets dropped. Hopefully the F30 will correct this glaring weakness.

Other than that, in the short amount of time I had with it I could find no other real gripes with the car.

Gas mileage is pretty good. I kept to the break-in guidelines (well, pretty much), but even with many extended spurts at over triple digits still managed to return 25mpg during the period.

Didn't really take any photo's until drop-off day at LogInOut in Munich, so the attached will have to do until after redelivery in four or five weeks.