you have Pm Shmoogle..

Back at ya, Mr Kam. 

2009 Outstanding Contribution Award - Joint Runner Up
2009 'Tech-Head Of The Year' Award - Runner Up

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Thinking of Moving S? Not to Cyprus I hope! 2005 Zambezi TDV6 - Gone but not forgotten
2009 Alaska TDV8 - Gone and much missed.



WINNER - 2009 �Idler Of The Year� Award
Runner Up - 2009 �Just Doing What It�s Designed To Do� Award


DO NOT CLICK HERE!

I'm moving into Super's granny annexe I understand the boobies are good this time of year. 

2009 Outstanding Contribution Award - Joint Runner Up
2009 'Tech-Head Of The Year' Award - Runner Up

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Well after going to see the 335d this morning, unfortunately they were VERY busy with people booked into see the 3 series coupes.. i was first customer to drive the 335d coupe and i have to say i liked it a lot.

My best car ever was my old 2002/52 330d sport auto, as not only was it fast, highly capable on the motorway, but also very economical. Weekend sprints to work in Swindon at triple figures (late night empty roads) yielded 32-34mpg and i used to spend about £25 a week in petrol and drive about 250-300 miles a week. So was a fantastic car for me.

However after having the RRS and now the RS4, the thought os a 330d on an E90 shape, despite now being able to be found with all the toys, seemed not special enough. The 535d not only is too barge like for me, but isn't very hot on its residuals despite it costing around 40k new fully loaded.

So i was always pretty excited about a 335d coupe, as it is sporty looking, fast and economical and with the right toys should be the best stop gap for me before the new M3 arrives.. (whenever that finally is!!)

The 335d SE Coupe Automatic i drove, was fully loaded, see beggining of this link, and i have to say after driving it reasonably hard paced, then swapping with Nick (who some of you met at the motorshow) and then him having a hard drive in it with me as a passenger, i liked it a lot.. all that torque, no turbo lag, and a supremely comfortable ride.. plus a cracking colour combo has brought out the car buying devil in me.

After some hard talking, as they were saying you can have this car for list or a grand or so off at the most for when the demo period expires.. and me saying , why would i!? and threatening to start ringing round looking for other demos that are no doubt going to be in circulation by nov/dec time, plus the fact if i order now, i can have a new one for nov anyway, and pay list for it and have my own fresh one straight out of the box..
The salesman dissapeared off to the 'office' armed with my argument and request for the standard write down on the demo car, as its a 'normal' range car, and hardly an M5/3 that would attract a premium if under the same circumstances.. he went away and came back a good 10 minutes later with an offer..

Right, standard write down allowance on this demo car, will start the list price at: £42500 as it is right now on the road, and after a 3 month period this car will owe us: £38,000 so a good chunk of £4500 off the car, so an 11.8% reduction in the cars price, plus achieve delivery of the car for Dec just before xmas.

My thoughts were, if i order a fresh one, i'll get it in Nov, and the price will be £42500 as ordered new, Plus tracker plus mats etc, however if i take a 4-6k miles + demo on the logbook, i can take this car for £38500 and beable to plan my finances accordingly.

I had them run off some figures based on bmw FS information, and the balloons came back to something like £18k after 3 years, and £14k after 4 years, which are very conservative. So i reckon i could get a balloon of: £18k after 5 years by working through some applications and personal data and achieve a very good monthly on this car come Dec time.

Achieve a drop in monthlies, a drop in insurance, and a VERY BIG drop in fuel consumption.. so im content really with this deal..
My brother in law is still taking his TDV8, so thats going to be knocking around in the family still, and i think between the RS4 and M3, this is a perfect stop gap, is fresh new model and has the right spec to keep me pleased for a while.

Took some snaps with my mobile, which i'll add in due course, when i have found my mobile install disc for the pc! Didn't bother going with sports kit, if i keep it 12 months, and am working on a trade in price of £32k worst case after that time for Sept 07, i will not get my money back for the sports kit, so may possibly add a spoiler after i've seen the new range of accesories (the 325i coupe hadn't been dressed yet) so can't decide which one yet..

Also, they normally require a £2k deposit for any new car hold now.. i had a problem with leaving £2k with them for a 3 month period, plus they know me, i have my M3 order with them and have purchased numerous cars and sold them cars in the past, so to sort me out.. they said ok.. £1k which wasn't the £500 i wanted, but was still a good move off their usual stance to be fair. I think they just wanted to beable to tell people that.. Yeah, this car is sold.. see they go like hotcakes so order yours now! which has got to be good for launch weekend.

Also, the spread they put on was pretty crap.. fruit bar, and mini cans of coke etc.. hmm.. Bmw £3m showroom.. probably about £1m worth of stock on display.. and a spread of about £100 laid out.. my deposit alone probably paid for their whole marketing campaign in the local rags and the event line up at the showroom..

Went to my dealer's launch on Sat too.

Really just went out of interest as a fan of BMWs as I knew the coupe would be off limits as any kind of family car. So got in there and they had a three showroom cars - two static 335is and a 335d on a rotating doobrie. I have to say these cars look great in the flesh. The star was a black 335i, with all the toys... and this looked great from the outside to the inside. Unlike a lot of the new shape BMWs with the redesigned "iDrive" interiors, this one still felt like the cockpit was driver focused... not sure if that was down to the colour scheme (black/black with piano black trim) but either way it worked a dream.

Contrary to previous thoughts, Shmoogle Jr disappeared off to the creche with Mrs S and I was left to play to my heart's content even managing to take both the petrol and the diesel for a blast. I'm very very impressed with it. The petrol might as well be an M3 in real terms - on the circuit I took (disregarded the dealer's planned route for some of my own favourite local roads) it performed really no differently to my M3.

Now, the epiphany. Happened to dive into the boot.... my god, it's huge! Well, for a 3 series coupe it is anyway - it's got to be getting on for 50% bigger than the E46 boot. Of course, I'm now thinking - can we fit the various Shmoogle Jr gubbins into it! Two Isofix car seat fixings in the rear for both Shmoogle Jr and Shmoogle Jr 2 when he/she appears. It's obviously no 5 Touring in terms of space but needless to say I'm currently working on the Mrs to have her see the pro-side of me owning one of these things....

My dealer still has a free Nov build slot for Dec delivery and I didn't really want to wait that long to get rid of the RRS.... but it's def food for thought. Anyway, I'm going back there again on Fri to take it out again along with the 535d (which was the original plan) in case I can't convince the wife

By the way Kam, my dealer's food was fantastic - a really good BBQ with all the trimmings, so we all filled our boots with that. I've always been well treated by my local BMW dealer, but I have to say it felt good to be back there.... decisions, decisions...  

2009 Outstanding Contribution Award - Joint Runner Up
2009 'Tech-Head Of The Year' Award - Runner Up

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Glad the food at urs was good.. i was there from 9.30am - 1:40pm, so was rather hungry when i left, i only had two cans of coke and a bit of fruit.. what dealer is yours with a barbecue? ill head there next time and make a day of it instead!

Im really pleased with the car, although if i see it bombing it about Solihull, i know it will hurt.. the second most senior guy in the dealership drives it as his daily car, so can't get much better then that, and everything is generally put right with them anyway before release to customer so should be ok.

Checking on the finances today if interested Shmoogle.
Will Pm them over to you anyway just for interest.

Yes please, Kam.

My dealer is Barons of Hindhead, over my time living here I've worked with 3 sales guys and several of the service dept. All good chaps, in my estimation  

2009 Outstanding Contribution Award - Joint Runner Up
2009 'Tech-Head Of The Year' Award - Runner Up

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