Sunday, June 24, 2007

Nail Biting

Obtaining and confirming a European Delivery date is a multi-step processes. First your Client Adviser (CA is BMW speak for sales person) sends in a pre-reservation request with the date, model, color and option. A few days later BMW responds and lets you know if there is allocation to build your car and also availability at the Delivery Center for your requested date. Once you have a confirmed pre-reservation, your CA will create a Purchase Order and ask for a copy of your passport. Even after BMW accepts the Purchase Order you don't have a guaranty the car will be ready on your pickup date. The factory isn't scheduled to build it for another month or two and things do happen. The car gets a VIN number and goes into production about 3 weeks before the pickup date. This is when a sane person buys their plane tickets and makes hotel reservations.

Not us. When we found out about the current X3 promotions we scrambled to find a way to get to Europe on our frequent flier miles. The promotion rules require that we take delivery within 90 days of the end of June. Debbie searched on United and the only flight she could get arrives in Amsterdam September 25th. I got on the phone with Delta and they found a seat on Continental that arrived within minutes of Debbie. Delta put the ticket on hold. I contacted our CA and had him submit a pre-reservation request for a Red X3 with September 26th pickup.

Here is a photo showing the complex system BMW North America uses to assign ED pickup dates:
http://edbmw.com/photos/displayimage.php?album=17&pos=4

The hold on my SkyMiles flight was going to expire before we would hear back from BMW. We committed to our flights. If BMW ran out of post-its we'd be taking a vacation in Amsterdam without a car. A few days later BMW responded. Our future X3 has a production number and is in 112 status. 112 is the final status before production. We signed the PO. I started looking into getting from Amsterdam to Munich.

I hadn't paid much attention to dates. By dumb luck we are going to be in Munich during Okoberfest. Munich. Oktoberfest. The Oktoberfest. 3 months ahead of time and most of the berths on the night train from Amsterdam to Munich were already taken. Yikes! I did an extensive airline search and found cheap tickets on Lufthansa. I think we got the last pair. During Oktoberfest Munich hotels triple their rates. Several of the hotels frequented by ED customers were already booked. I used several internet search tool and picked a 3 star hotel more or less at random. 175 euros or $235 at the current exchange rate. During the off season people using Priceline can get a 3 star hotel for $75 or less. After I made the reservation, it occurred to me to look at a map. We ended up very close to the Delivery Center and the Englisher Garten, home to several of the best beer gardens. Dumb luck again.

We haven't gotten notice back from BMW that they've accepted the PO. We don't know when our car will start production. Most BMW factories shut down mid-August to switch model years. The X3 is built under contract by Magna Steyr in Austria. The customer center in Munich closes permanently a few days after our pickup. There are rumors of a fuel injector shortage.

I just checked. No fingernails left.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Replacing our e46


Debbie has been dreading lease turn-in on our e46 325i. She once told me she would "lie down in front of the car and refuse to move." I like the e46 too. If we could we lease a new one. BMW decided otherwise. Our 325 is a 2004. 2005 was the last year for the e46 in any form.
The replacement e90 3 series sedan is an entirely different car. The e90 is a technological wonder. It easily out handles our 325. It is faster. It uses less fuel. The N52 engine takes pages to fully appreciate. Lowest weight per HP of any 6 cylinder engine.

The new 3 series is also infuriating. The guiding principal of BMW design has always been Form Follows Function. BMWs have a long hood not for style but because a 50/50 weight balance and a long inline-6 motor require a long hood. As the cars became more sophisticated the number of controls increased but always in a logical fashion. The cruise control on my 1990 was a model of simplicity. A stalk on the steering column was the only control. Pushing the lever forward turned the cruise on. Tap it forward again to increase speed. Pull it backwards to decrease speed. Taping the brakes turned the cruise control off. Simple. Form follows function.

Things went horribly and suddenly wrong in 2002 with the introduction of the new 7 series. The sleek body of the old 7 was replaced by an ugly angular shape. Logical controls were replaced by an i-Drive control that took months to learn. Even someone familiar with the car has trouble finding the turn signals. The disease spread infecting the 3 series in 2006. The e90 sedan is bloated and ugly. The controls are quirky and unnecessarily complex. I've never understood why you need a Start Button. Putting the key in should be enough. The start button is redundant.

And then there is the price. A 328i costs $4,000 more than the car it replaced. Ouch. We started shopping for something other than a BMW.

We shopped. We were slimed. A few cars weren't too bad. Mazda 5 and Subaru Forester were the highlights. Even the best required compromises we weren't comfortable with. None of them were a BMW. After horrible slimy hours trapped at a local Jeep dealer ("let me introduce you to my inventory manager") we gave up. Stopped looking. I'd rather walk to work then endure the hard sell from yet another sales manager. Debbie could have the Miata. I was done.

A few days later Debbie asked me to check one last time to see if there were any incentives from BMW. Maybe an attractive offer to purchase our e46. No deal. But I did find that an unusual combination of incentives made it possible to get an X3 at an absurdly low price.

The X3 is a small SUV based on the e46 platform. e46, like our old 325. The X3 is sort of the old 3er wagon on steroids. We'd discounted the 2004 X3. It was underpowered. The interior was cheap compared to the 325 sedan. We didn't need the extra space. 3 years later BMW upgraded the interior and installed a 260HP version of the new N52 engine. We needed the extra space. A short test drive and we were sold.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Car Lite

We turn-in our 325i this week. 5 days. We will be left with a Mazda MX-5 Miata as our only car. 2 Adults. 2 Parrots. 5 dogs. 1 Great Dane. 1 Great Pyrenees. 1 lab mix. 1 corgi mix. 1 Shih Tzu. Oh and we are fostering a Pyr for Atlanta Pet Rescue. In a Miata.

We pickup the X3 in Munich on September 26th. We drop it off in Amsterdam around October 1st. It will be back in the US 6-8 weeks later.

I have been riding my bike to work a lot lately. There is a Whole Foods in walking distance. I've got a Marta card and a Flexcar membership. We can do it.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Farewell Red-Red



I sold my 1990 BMW 535i this week. I first met the car back in San Diego. Christine, our neighbor and the previous owner used to wash it every Saturday. Every Saturday Christine would was her car and I wouldn't wash ours. This went on for years. One Saturday instead of washing, Christine was showing her prized BMW to a potential buyer. I didn't know she was trying to sell it. Potential buyer didn't want a 200,000 mile car. I didn't know much about BMWs then, but I did know that 200,000 miles didn't mean much if the car had been well taken care of. This one was. The price was right. I took Debbie for a test-drive and we bought the car about 10 minutes later.

That was 7 years and 50,000 miles ago. Older BMWs are amazingly durable. Don't confuse durable with reliable though. Like any older car they can and do break now and then. Nevertheless when I sold my 535i it still had the original engine, transmission, alternator, starter, power steering pump... Well a lot of parts that would have long since failed on a lesser car. Once you learn to think German, older BMWs are easy to work on. I did nearly all the repairs myself.

I made sure that Charles, the new owner would give the car a good home. He correctly identified and named the idle control valve. He knew that the fluid filled control arm bushings were the cars weak point. He owned the special 5-sided screw driver needed to remove the radio. Charles didn't realize I was screening him.

When I was going through all the paper work to hand over to Charles, I figured the total cost of owning Red-Red. Seven years cost about $7000. By far the least expensive car I've ever owned and driven. Likely to stay that way too.

BMW started replacing some metal under hood parts with plastic around 1992. Water pumps, other cooling system parts. It kinda made sense as plastic parts are both lighter and cheaper. That makes the car both faster and less expensive. It also reduced durability. Modern BMWs have endless cooling system problems as all plastic parts in the cooling system become brittle and break. This usually starts around year six and continues into year 7. Usually things fail a few months apart and at the worst possible time. I've seen a cooling fan break free from the radiator on a '96. The 99 cent plastic rivets holding the thing together had just come apart. Disaster caused by someone trying to save pennies and a few grams. Not good.


BMW still makes great cars. Red-Red was the first and the one that sold me on the brand. We just signed a purchase order for BMW number four, an e83 X3.

After signing the PO, we stopped at the parts counter to pick up a part for BMW number 3. You should have seen the disappointment on the counterman's face when I told him we'd sold our e34 and were ordering an e83. They just don't make them like they used to. This car never stranded me, put up with all sorts of abuse and started right up after sitting under a tree for six months. Farewell Red-Red we will miss you.