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Automotive Discussion Thread | OT2 | Zero to pointless fighting faster than a GT86
- Thread starter AlphaSnake
- Start date
Frustrated_me
Member
Looks more Passat'ish.
Took delivery of my new car today. Didn't go too crazy as there are a couple of company vehicles available to me that I can also use, but needed something for general personal use, and that my wife could kick about too.
Was deciding between the Audi A4, Jaguar XE and a 1972 Datsun 240Z build. The latter was just too impractical and expensive for what it was, the XE wasn't as spacious as some of the other cars I tested, not in terms of interior space, leg room, nor boot space, and I just felt the Audi wasn't quite as impressive as the others overall.
In the end I went for a BMW 320D Gran Turismo M Sport. Additions were 19" performance alloys, media upgrades and Sport Auto transmission. Picked it because I loved the fact that it had 3 Series saloon style economy, price, handling and performance, but with 5 Series esque size. Very much a best of both worlds type balance, plus the garage gave me a crazy good deal.
Pics.
Believe it or not, it's not much smaller than the BMW X5, at least in overall length. Maybe a few inches at most. Interior space is very comparable.
Very happy with it. Only negatives are that the steering isn't quite as light as on the new X5 M Sport, and also that it has a traditional handbrake as well (much like the other 3 Series models, and the 4 Series too). Just thought that for the money BMW could have included their electronic handbrake option instead.
Very nice! I really like the look of the Gran Turismo body style. Congrats on the new car!
David Incorporated Esq.
Member
Nope. Them some ugly headlights.
I hate those new wheels. They're totes eeeew.
No idea why they chose those wheels for that particular promo shot. There's numerous other better wheel options available for the vehicle, such as the one above it.
AlphaSnake
...and that, kids, was the first time I sucked a dick for crack
The new A4 is a pretty decent looking car...it's just sort of too understated. And it's an Audi, which will surely be unreliable junk the moment you drive it off the lot.
jongkookie
Member
Took delivery of my new car today. Didn't go too crazy as there are a couple of company vehicles available to me that I can also use, but needed something for general personal use, and that my wife could kick about too.
Hey, I didn't know BMW made cars for the postal service... I thought USPS was going bankrupt?
Kidding aside, congrats on the new car!
Sup guys, been a while. Went to an awesome car meet at Lamborghini Newport Beach this past Saturday. To give you an idea of how crazy it was, nobody was paying attention to a line of a dozen Aventadors and Huracans. lol
So just gonna ignore the plethora of supercars and just show some of the hyper cars. Batventador SV, three McLaren P1s, LaFerrari, two 918 Spyders, a Koenigsegg CCX, and an Agera R.
Bonus pic of my brother's and mine boring ass cars getting a wash and wax afterwards. lol
So just gonna ignore the plethora of supercars and just show some of the hyper cars. Batventador SV, three McLaren P1s, LaFerrari, two 918 Spyders, a Koenigsegg CCX, and an Agera R.
Bonus pic of my brother's and mine boring ass cars getting a wash and wax afterwards. lol
Boring ass cars. What's wrong with you lol. That does look like great fun though. Some seriously awesome rides.
Yea, BMW's interiors are always mostly uneventful and quite clinical in comparison to other manufacturers. You either love it or you hate it, but I've always appreciated them. I'd describe them as industrial looking and efficient.
You can spruce it up with options such as the brighter trims, alcantra etc.
On a side note, my uncle has a 5 Series, and when comparing the cars, one thing that struck me was how much roomier the cabin was in the 3 GT, and how much more leg space there was as well. Boot space is exactly the same at 520 litres each. So given the fact that the 5 Series is a longer overall car (by just over 3 inches), I was interested in comparing the two in terms of dimensions.
What I've found is that newer BMW's have less space taken up by the engine and steering, with the front seats starting a good degree further in-front. On top of that, BMW seem to have tweaked the seating arrangement so the front seats are ever so slightly lower than the rear seats, which allows for better knee and legroom alignment. The new 4 Series Gran Coupe, 7 Series etc also adopt something similar, whereas older models have seats that are a bit more level.
A diagram comparing the two, accurate in size comparison. Bare in mind these are the standard versions, not the M Sport variants.
Laws00
Member
Sorry been busy. But here they are.
Congrats. God damn man it looks so clean
AlphaSnake
...and that, kids, was the first time I sucked a dick for crack
That's Jay Leno's yellow McLaren P1
rokkerkory
Member
Mattlikewhoa
Member
So I'm leaving for Japan next week Monday, and I'm hitting up Tokyo Auto Salon! I'll be taking plenty of pictures. I also plan to hit up a few of my fav shops, pick up some smaller items, and talk plans for my Chaser project.
I can't wait!
Your BNR34 is looking great my man! Why must you tempt me so
I can't wait!
Sorry been busy. But here they are.
Your BNR34 is looking great my man! Why must you tempt me so
Evo-X - your pictures always leave me grinning and slightly jealous. Gorgeous cars, yours included.
nib95 - I really like the interior on my 128i. It's understated but attractive (I have the Coral Red leather with black trim on the dash) and I really like the color contrast. I generally favor BMW's approach to interior design but I could totally understand why someone would want something flashier.
On another note, as if the $2,000 in maintenance and repairs in 2015 wasn't enough here it is the beginning of January and I have a "Service Engine Soon" light that just popped up. I will be making a trip to Autozone and have them read me the code tomorrow. The car just turned over 73,000 miles. So yeah, out of warranty BMW ownership for me is so far a pricey endeavor.
On the upside, the car runs great, looks good and is very fun to drive. I'm committed to paying the repair and maintenance cost for now but may change unless the cost to own and operate comes down in year two.
nib95 - I really like the interior on my 128i. It's understated but attractive (I have the Coral Red leather with black trim on the dash) and I really like the color contrast. I generally favor BMW's approach to interior design but I could totally understand why someone would want something flashier.
On another note, as if the $2,000 in maintenance and repairs in 2015 wasn't enough here it is the beginning of January and I have a "Service Engine Soon" light that just popped up. I will be making a trip to Autozone and have them read me the code tomorrow. The car just turned over 73,000 miles. So yeah, out of warranty BMW ownership for me is so far a pricey endeavor.
On the upside, the car runs great, looks good and is very fun to drive. I'm committed to paying the repair and maintenance cost for now but may change unless the cost to own and operate comes down in year two.
Agreed. Was the $2000 in maint/repairs direct from the BMW garage? Any chance you could list what the charge covered?
A friend of mine has an older 3 series with very high mileage, it ran without any issues for several years, but suddenly in the last year or so he's had to replace a battery, alternator and turbo fans. He bought the parts online fairly cheap, and had this local garage fit them for a pretty low cost. BMW's own quotation comparatively was crazy.
On a side note, a lot of garages these days (in the UK) don't fill punctures in run flat tires because legally they're advised not to, however another local garage close to me filled one of ours in, and it's been running perfectly for nearly a year since. No difference in tire pressure drops compared to the other tires, and we keep an eye on it using the cars built in tire pressure monitoring system.
SliChillax
Member
I don't know why but Koenigseggs have never attracted me design wise. Maybe because I've never seen one in person. I do appreciate them for what's underneath the body though and the door mechanism is awesome.
David Incorporated Esq.
Member
Me neither. The shape of them has always been very basic, and appear to be based more on that being a good shape for a fast car, not any sort of aesthetic appeal. That's fine, it's just not exciting.
Torque Pro + OBDII Bluetooth Adapter = Slick as hell car diagnostics.
I've had mine for about 4 years and the thing is just too damn handy for any sort of issues. Not only will it check codes, but it will give you live readouts of any universal data available from the car. This is typically information related to emissions, but it tends to capture everything on the intake and exhaust side of things, including any pressure sensors. Want a big old boost gauge on your phone? You got it. Accurate Engine temps? Sure. GPS vs. Displayed Speed? You bet.
It's rad as hell and super fun to play with, totally worth the $100 for a quality adapter.
I use a certified BMW mechanic who runs an independent repair shop. Their labor rate is $90 an hour which is a good bit less than the BMW dealer rate.
From my memory (so the actual prices may vary somewhat)
2 x Oil change $60 each (Mobil 1 Full synthetic)
1 x Battery ~$300
1 x Valve cover gasket and 1 x oil filter housing gasket ~$900
1 x Oil pan gasket ~$750 (they also installed a new air filter for free, I provided the filter, they just popped it in).
All of those gaskets are common wear items on the N52 motor. They are technically classified as "maintenance" items and not reliability problems since they just seep and make your engine bay dirty and small bad but honestly, who wants to drive around like that? Not me.
Thanks Dave. Sounds like a good plan going forward, especially once I get my garage built and put a "real" fun car in there.
I feel the same about Koenigsegg's designs. Though I do respect Christian von Koenigsegg for having the guts and ability to develop real cars rather than hacked together kit cars like certain other boutique exotic "manufacturers."
K-segg and Pagani are the only two niche supercar makers I'd ever trust not to be deathtraps.
K-segg and Pagani are the only two niche supercar makers I'd ever trust not to be deathtraps.
I might have to look into that. My GTI isn't as fancy as your BMW's but it still has some German issues. A few K over 60,000 and I've had 2 different check engine lights in 3 weeks.
Think a cheap adapter would still do the job if you are only using it once in awhile? $23 on Amazon http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B005NLQAHS/ref=s9_simh_gw_p263_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=desktop-2&pf_rd_r=1QGZRG1DN47B22YY20X7&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=2091268722&pf_rd_i=desktop
As expected Nib has good taste in cars too (along with graphics lol)
Congrats man, the GT is definitely one of the cars I rarely see on the roads where I live.
Ooh nice! Is than an S4? I'm not as up on my Audi's as I am on some of the other manufacturer's cars.
AlphaSnake
...and that, kids, was the first time I sucked a dick for crack
whatsinaname
Member
Is there something weird with the placement for the oil pan on the N52? Because, 8 hrs for a pan gasket replacement sounds huge.
Oh man, that 250 GTO sounds amazing. Great history behind the car as well as his father. And it's okay to be a fanboy Dave lol. I really like that 911 and his garage is very impressive. Clean and designed incredibly well for such a small space. This channel is fantastic.
mmazurkiewicz
Member
after a record sales year, bmw has decided to lower its maintenance policy from 4 years/50k miles, down to 3 years/36k miles for models 2017 and up.
AlphaSnake
...and that, kids, was the first time I sucked a dick for crack
Because even they know their cars are unreliable garbage and they lose money on their warranties.
haha, me too actually. i'm really disliking how BMW is totally diluting the brand with so many trims, and the cars are just getting bulkier. i sincerely hope the M2 fixes all that.
whatsinaname
Member
Interesting.
Others OEMs are dropping warranty and maintenance plans too. GM is going from from 100,000 mi to 60,000 mi, and dropping free servicing. And so is FCA.
jongkookie
Member
Didn't they increase the time/mileage to attract more buyers in the showroom after the economy crashed in 2008?
I think this is just car companies realizing that the good warranties have run the course in getting customers in and they're going back to the old ways... until the economy crashes again lol.
Because even they know their cars are unreliable garbage and they lose money on their warranties.
I can see you're a big fan of some of these German brands.
By the way, here are some results from actual reliability reports.
Just stick with the 1 series or 2 series. Even the 4 series Coupe isn't that big.
If you look at it from a business and demand perspective, a lot of the people who are buying some of their models, are buying them with cabin space, legroom, boot space etc being important considerations, as well as emissions and fuel economy etc, especially in the UK where these things make an impact on tax credits and reductions. Notably with many of the businesses that are leasing them out en masse. Naturally BMW, or any company for that matter, is going to take these things on board and design according to their customers needs.
Is this for the UK as well, or just US? I believe in the UK the Service Packs currently cover 50,000 miles over 5 years.
Haha cheers dude. Appreciate it.
AlphaSnake
...and that, kids, was the first time I sucked a dick for crack
I used to own so many German cars. New. Used. It didn't matter. They were all unreliable at any random moment.
Thus far both my Jaguar and Infiniti with their hulking V8s have been the beacon of reliability and they're both daily driven with 40K and 30K miles. My brand new 2012 Audi A6 couldn't make it to 10K without a failed thermostat...and then again at 18K with another one. And 3 times in between that consumed oil. And random issues with no heat in the winter.
Won't even get into the 335i Coupe and Audi A4. Or my first Audi A6 4.2L.
There's still one German brand I'm looking to try and that's Mercs. But the money they want for a C450 AMG is laughably ludicrous.
AlphaSnake
...and that, kids, was the first time I sucked a dick for crack
The way those charts work isn't how you THINK they work. Both JD Power and Consumer Reports base their studies on frequency of service visits. The issue is that with tech taking over cars, companies such as Ford absolutely bombed on these charts years ago with the debut of SYNC because people didn't know how to use these systems.
So they went to the service dept and complained something didn't work. Any complaint of something not working gets filed into the network and then stored as a defect that the service dept fixed. These results are horribly skewed as a result. Also, the margins we're talking about here are tenths. In its first 3 years an Infiniti will have 1.28 problems, while an Audi will have 1.51.
The issues could be anything from a silly tire pressure sensor not working correctly, or a complete failure of a thermostat that renders the car useless. The severity isn't specified in these reports, either. To me, reliability is running gear first and electronics second. BMWs and Audis are notorious for failing after 50K miles. It's indisputable. Things start to go wrong - these cars define ticking time bombs.
As I said before, having gone through so many and more, I will never own one past warranty.
I don't really want to get in to a this brand versus that brand competition, hell I've driven cars from every single one of these brands for years, and to me nothing in terms of reliability really stands out specific to a certain brand that I, or others in my company or family have tested. Often it's just pot luck or bad circumstance. Hell we've had BMW's that have lasted 10 years without any proper issue, and then we've had a brand new Range Rover Sport where the steering wheel fell off on to the drivers lap in the middle of driving. It is what it is.
I will however mention that Jaguar falls below BMW in terms of reliability in pretty much every single major consumer report out there, even several prominent user voted reliability indexes that factor in repair costs (something some of the German brands, as well as Jaguar, Bentley, Porsche, Land Rover etc are particularly bad with). But I doubt you'll pay much attention to that.
Another thing to factor in is that reliability is often very much dependant on specific model variances, as oppose to outright manufacturers as a whole. A specific model from a manufacturer can have poor reliability, whilst another can have very good reliability, so one's experience driving this model or that, is not really that informative or telling in the grand scheme of things.
All cars will have issues after a certain amount of time. No piece of machinery is indestructible or impervious to flaws, wear and tear etc. Certain things are actually a requirement to avoid issues after similar mileage, e.g. cam belt/timing belt changes and the like. That doesn't really mean much in and of itself. Hell my brother in law is driving a BMW 3 series with over 100k on it, and it was completely problem free for like 2-3 years (he bought it used) till only the last year when it needed a new battery, alternator and turbo fan. But it's got 100k on it. You sort of expect it to need some maintenance or repairs. Expecting otherwise is foolhardy imo.
You mentioned above that your vehicles have yet to even reach 50k miles. Perhaps once they have, you'll have more of a basis for comparison.
The quote in question.
Like Alpha said, it's the S5. I just wish it shared the engine with the S6 instead of the S4, but I guess that would put the currently out of production RS5 in a weird spot.
SliChillax
Member
Seems like you've had bad luck with german cars
never heard of any new BMW's failing after 50k, not the newer ones at least. I have friends who own E38, E39 M5 and their cars have been bulletproof almost apart from a few small issues that happened after 80k miles. Jaguars are a nightmare from what I've been told by owners, it seems that everything is relative to the user and how people treat their cars.I think they have to remove suspension components to get to it. I remember the bill being about $150 parts and $600 labor. They did replace all of the bolts, the gasket itself and used quite a bit of cleaner to clean up the bottom end of the motor. They were very thorough.
Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting. The 4/50 policy was one of the best things about the brand in my mind. Probably won't apply to me, however, as I don't know that I would ever be in the market for a new BMW. Their cars have just moved further and further away from what I want since they did away with the 1 series and everything else got bigger and heavier.
Seems like you've had bad luck with german cars
I don't know if "relative" is the right term. I saw someone else on another forum refer to it as "luck of the irish" and that seems to be more accurate to me. You may get a car that goes a decade with minimal problems (from any manufacturer) and then again you may get one that has constant issues almost from the time that it is new.
Consumer Reports and True Delta and JD Power can give you an overall snapshot of how a brand or model does but there's no way to tell how your actual car is going to be. What we can say is that as the years and miles go by German cars (and certainly British) seem to need more maintenance and part replacements than their Japanese (and sometimes American) counterparts. Or perhaps it is more accurate to say that the German and British cars need their parts replaced earlier (like my BMW with failing gaskets starting at 65k miles). Either way, there's certainly a very good reason why there are so many German model specific shops around and comparitively fewer Japanese specific shops.
And on that note, I stopped by Autozone this morning and here's why my check engine light is on: P0128 - Coolant Temperature Below Thermostat Regulating Temperature
Most likely culprit is a sticking thermostat. It doesn't sound terribly serious but it will ultimately mean more cash coming out of my car savings account. Yay for more BMW parts that don't even make it to 75k miles!
jongkookie
Member
Holy shit...
That actually looks really good!
All they gotta do now is put in production then call it the Grand National then drop the 'vette engine in it and call it the GNX.
That'd get me to the nearest Buick dealership immediately.
That actually looks really good!
All they gotta do now is put in production then call it the Grand National then drop the 'vette engine in it and call it the GNX.
That'd get me to the nearest Buick dealership immediately.
AlphaSnake
...and that, kids, was the first time I sucked a dick for crack
Early from Detroit, the Buick Avista concept:
Based on the Alpha platform with a TTV6.
Wow...
No chance of it going into production. GM would have to have some maaaaaaasssive balls to do that for Buick.
AlphaSnake
...and that, kids, was the first time I sucked a dick for crack
You missed the part where I said I owned brand new 2012 Audi A6 that had issues off the bat before hitting 10K miles, with more issues that continued until the lease was up. And I'm not the only one with those issues with Audis. The BMW 335 is another notorious problem car I owned, and everyone knows that they were horribly unreliable, including BMW. So was the B7 Audi A4 2.0T (and all of its cousins) which had motor problems up the ass, down to VW models.
Jaguars used to have shit reliability, but they're very much up there now in the real-world (read my post why JD Power and CR reports don't matter much). This is why Jaguar can safely offer the BEST luxury warranty coverage in the business with 5 years and 60K miles. There are people who sit high up at Jaguar and calculate these risks - and if they see the risks are low, they encourage the warranty. Likewise, BMW has stepped back from their warranty because their pencil pushers calculated the losses associated with it.
AlphaSnake
...and that, kids, was the first time I sucked a dick for crack
Seems like you've had bad luck with german cars
Old Jaguars are. 2012+ Jags are just fine. The 2011-2012 XJs had some issues, but they've been all sorted out.
Honestly, the motto for ANY car is: avoid the first 2 model years. Let them sort the issues out
I can't speak for the US, but in the UK Jaguar offer a 3 year warranty with new cars, same as BMW, Mercedes and Audi. The extended warranties they sell, as far as I know only extend by 12 months at a time, for 25,000 miles at a time, it's a similar thing with Mercedes and BMW. Audi offer extended warranties up to 4 and 5 years.
If you're talking about maintenance and service packs, in the UK, Jaguar offer two petrol options, 3yr/30k miles and 3yr/48k miles, as well as two diesel options, 5yrs/50k miles and 5yrs/75k miles. BMW offers one option for both petrol and diesel cars, of 5yrs/50k miles, same as Audi. Mercedes offers some random option which allows for a total number of 4 services over 4 years.
If there's a big discrepancy between the UK and US options and warranties, it's likely the US options are better simply to try and incentivise sales, as oppose to just being statements of reliability. I can imagine companies like BMW, Mercedes etc sell far more cars in the US compared to Jaguar, so it would make sense from a business perspective.
Early from Detroit, the Buick Avista concept:
Based on the Alpha platform with a TTV6.
Looks great.
Early from Detroit, the Buick Avista concept:
Based on the Alpha platform with a TTV6.
A Buick Camaro? Would make a nice Riviera.
Rear legroom looks a bit tight.
Duracelllll
Member
David Incorporated Esq.
Member
Rear legroom looks a bit tight.
Everybody knows that concept cars are always a little outside the realm of possibility, but it's really quite annoying what conceptual designers do with interiors. This photo right here is just another example of something that will never come to fruition, has nothing to do with Buick's design language, and isn't even functional.
Why do this at all? At least the actual car, if taken to production, will call back to the design cues from the concept's exterior, but literally nothing from this interior will make it to production (on this car or any car).
SliChillax
Member
This. I bought the Mk7 Golf when it first came out and it suffered from a faulty air conditioner tube leaking liquid into the passenger floor. Also, remember my friend who I mention that crashed his brand new M4? Well http://www.autoblog.com/2015/12/15/2016-bmw-m3-m4-recall-driveshaft-official/
CONSEQUENCE:
If the slip-joint fails, there would be a loss of power to the rear axle and therefore the vehicle would stop moving, increasing the risk of a crash.