beemerlover
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- Joined
- Jul 13, 2007
- Messages
- 47
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Finally took delivery of the metallic sapphire black E90 320i last Saturday. First impression it look gorgeous on 17” wheels with Bridgestone Potenza run flat tyres. I really loved the Bi Xenon headlight (with 4 parking rings – love that!) which comes with adaptive headlights (lights that turn to the direction you’re steering) and high beam assist (automatically engage and disengage high beam when it detect oncoming car on rural road).
To my surprise, the car comes with two options items I did not ask for which is the sport steering (A$200 option) and front parking distance control (A$530). Both front and rear PDC will be display in the LCD screen (apart from audio warning) to help you gauge the distance when parking. I only realised it when I took the car home and confirmed it with the car brochure. Of course, I will not alert my sales rep about this!
Getting into the car, I was not used to the idea that you do not need to press any button the car’s remote to lock and unlock the car (Comfort Access). With the remote in your pocket, you just need to hold the handle to unlock and touch a designated section of the handle to lock. I’ve a bad habit where usually I will physically check the car handle even though I know I’ve locked the car but I cannot do it now! With Comfort Access, you start/stop the car engine with start/stop button with your remote in your pocket. If you leave the remote in the car, you cannot lock yourself out by pressing the door handle, cool! Also, the remote contains detail of your car e.g. mileage, last service done, areas needing attention etc which can be accessed by just handling the remote to the BMW dealer.
When driving the car out of the dealership, I was very careful as I’m now in an unfamiliar territory on a low profile sedan after accustoming myself on high ride SUV. After a few kms driving and when the coast is clear, decided to test the car power and the car performed remarkably for a 4 cylinder as the power to weight ratio is reasonable. This car weighed 1.3 tonnes compared to my SUV’s 1.8 tonnes. Of course, did not floor down the pedal all the way as I still need to run in the engine and also due to the traffic condition. The car noise is more obvious but I believe it is due to the Potenza RFT. Obviously, nothing like the 3.5 SUV power I’m used to (also when compared to my ex E36 inline six 325i) but more than enough for your daily suburbia trips and occasionally long distance trip. The car is more suited as a comfortable cruiser rather than a straight line 0 – 100 kmh performer. But like I said, the power plant from a 2 litre valvetronic and double vanos will not disappoint you, just don’t compared to an inline six engine or V6 (that’s another story).
The best part is the handling where the 50 : 50 weight distribution of the car dynamics really excel which is the hallmark of the 3 series. There is a direct communication between the steering wheel and the road, and you feel you’re connected, engaged and in control of the car. You’re more inclined to confidently take a sharp corner at high speed on an E90 than other cars. Certainly less bouncy than my SUV in corners.
Surprisingly, the engine sounded louder than I’m expected for a 4 potter when idle but you could not hear it much when you’re in the cabin.
Inside, the quality of the cabin really stands out. The car comes with a combination of walnut wood and black dashboard with black Dakota leather. Back space has improved tremendously as compared to the E46 and especially the new Lexus IS250. There is an in dash Business navigation system that comes with an iDrive. My first impression of iDrive was not user friendly! Too complicated and overwhelming for me eventhough I’m the type of person who like techno gizmo stuff. Even simple stuff like tuning to a radio station, you need to use iDrive to access these function. After playing with iDrive for a while, you’ll slowly warm up and get used to it. Fortunately, there is 10 favourite buttons that you can program and this will facilitate quicker access to frequently used functions. As for the navigation, apart for a nicely integrated 6.5” screen, my opinion is that my current portable touch screen 3.5” Tom Tom One navigation system is more user friendly. It is compounded by the iDrive access which took things longer to process. Furthermore, it does not gives you the 3 dimensional view (unlike my Tom Tom), only 2 dimension with map and arrow to guide you. Other than that, the navigation system serves its purpose well.
The other thing that I dislike is the single CD/DVD. The navigation works properly when you insert a DVD navigation into it. But that means I cannot listen to CD when I used the navigation although you still can listen to radio and iPod (that’s a different story). You still can use the navigation system without the DVD but there will be no map, only arrow and voice guidance. Initially had trouble interfacing with my iPod to the sound system but managed to overcome that and that makes the shortcoming of CD issue more forgiving. Quality of sound system is slightly above average but nothing beat my SUV’s lovely Bose sound system.
My wife was impressed with the bluetooth system that connect to her mobile. Although I know this feature is not new and available in other models/brand but first time experienced it. By just using the favorite buttons at the steering wheel, she can call up her contact list on the LCD screen and start inititating the call.
Other pertinent features include in the event of an accident (touch wood!), door lock will disengage for safety access, fuel pump will cut off to prevent fire and it will sent off a GPS signal to pinpoint the location of the accident/car for emergency services.
iDrive controls almost everything such as given you the choice of activating adaptive headlights, door lock when car is in motion, daylight headlight etc etc....
To my surprise, the car comes with two options items I did not ask for which is the sport steering (A$200 option) and front parking distance control (A$530). Both front and rear PDC will be display in the LCD screen (apart from audio warning) to help you gauge the distance when parking. I only realised it when I took the car home and confirmed it with the car brochure. Of course, I will not alert my sales rep about this!
Getting into the car, I was not used to the idea that you do not need to press any button the car’s remote to lock and unlock the car (Comfort Access). With the remote in your pocket, you just need to hold the handle to unlock and touch a designated section of the handle to lock. I’ve a bad habit where usually I will physically check the car handle even though I know I’ve locked the car but I cannot do it now! With Comfort Access, you start/stop the car engine with start/stop button with your remote in your pocket. If you leave the remote in the car, you cannot lock yourself out by pressing the door handle, cool! Also, the remote contains detail of your car e.g. mileage, last service done, areas needing attention etc which can be accessed by just handling the remote to the BMW dealer.
When driving the car out of the dealership, I was very careful as I’m now in an unfamiliar territory on a low profile sedan after accustoming myself on high ride SUV. After a few kms driving and when the coast is clear, decided to test the car power and the car performed remarkably for a 4 cylinder as the power to weight ratio is reasonable. This car weighed 1.3 tonnes compared to my SUV’s 1.8 tonnes. Of course, did not floor down the pedal all the way as I still need to run in the engine and also due to the traffic condition. The car noise is more obvious but I believe it is due to the Potenza RFT. Obviously, nothing like the 3.5 SUV power I’m used to (also when compared to my ex E36 inline six 325i) but more than enough for your daily suburbia trips and occasionally long distance trip. The car is more suited as a comfortable cruiser rather than a straight line 0 – 100 kmh performer. But like I said, the power plant from a 2 litre valvetronic and double vanos will not disappoint you, just don’t compared to an inline six engine or V6 (that’s another story).
The best part is the handling where the 50 : 50 weight distribution of the car dynamics really excel which is the hallmark of the 3 series. There is a direct communication between the steering wheel and the road, and you feel you’re connected, engaged and in control of the car. You’re more inclined to confidently take a sharp corner at high speed on an E90 than other cars. Certainly less bouncy than my SUV in corners.
Surprisingly, the engine sounded louder than I’m expected for a 4 potter when idle but you could not hear it much when you’re in the cabin.
Inside, the quality of the cabin really stands out. The car comes with a combination of walnut wood and black dashboard with black Dakota leather. Back space has improved tremendously as compared to the E46 and especially the new Lexus IS250. There is an in dash Business navigation system that comes with an iDrive. My first impression of iDrive was not user friendly! Too complicated and overwhelming for me eventhough I’m the type of person who like techno gizmo stuff. Even simple stuff like tuning to a radio station, you need to use iDrive to access these function. After playing with iDrive for a while, you’ll slowly warm up and get used to it. Fortunately, there is 10 favourite buttons that you can program and this will facilitate quicker access to frequently used functions. As for the navigation, apart for a nicely integrated 6.5” screen, my opinion is that my current portable touch screen 3.5” Tom Tom One navigation system is more user friendly. It is compounded by the iDrive access which took things longer to process. Furthermore, it does not gives you the 3 dimensional view (unlike my Tom Tom), only 2 dimension with map and arrow to guide you. Other than that, the navigation system serves its purpose well.
The other thing that I dislike is the single CD/DVD. The navigation works properly when you insert a DVD navigation into it. But that means I cannot listen to CD when I used the navigation although you still can listen to radio and iPod (that’s a different story). You still can use the navigation system without the DVD but there will be no map, only arrow and voice guidance. Initially had trouble interfacing with my iPod to the sound system but managed to overcome that and that makes the shortcoming of CD issue more forgiving. Quality of sound system is slightly above average but nothing beat my SUV’s lovely Bose sound system.
My wife was impressed with the bluetooth system that connect to her mobile. Although I know this feature is not new and available in other models/brand but first time experienced it. By just using the favorite buttons at the steering wheel, she can call up her contact list on the LCD screen and start inititating the call.
Other pertinent features include in the event of an accident (touch wood!), door lock will disengage for safety access, fuel pump will cut off to prevent fire and it will sent off a GPS signal to pinpoint the location of the accident/car for emergency services.
iDrive controls almost everything such as given you the choice of activating adaptive headlights, door lock when car is in motion, daylight headlight etc etc....
