Hey all,
This probably is the first time I am posting in this section, not because I never got a new car in last few years, but only because of the strange mentality and should I say? Pure Addiction?I am not good as writing as good as some of you are, so will try do the best I can, do read the following it might be interesting.
Revind back to 2005, Our garage included a S350L & E240, (W211 & W210) and events of which some old members may recollect but to keep it simple it was one of the worst ownership experience in my life, not just mine but also my dad who at that time was 65 year old. So frustrated were we that on one fine day we called a broker and asked him to sell all of it by the end of the day, which he gladly did and dad replaced his 'S350L' with a humble Getz & me who used the E's swapped to the Ford Fiesta, which was launched on the day we sold our cars and the dealer gave me one of the test cars he had the Fiesta 1.6 Sxi.
Believe me life was beautiful, no more wondering if the car will collapse, no more having a driver come 200 kilometers across the state with a Maruti van to pick us up because the gear box fails and no more dealing with Mercedes-Benz India and the dealership who would just always say,"Sir, please do not worry, you are in good hands. We will take care of it"
Just to add to all of it, we sold these cars in November 2005 and January 2006 is when my sister was getting married, so you can imagine the frustration. Infact I do remember dad once saying, if we use the S-Class for the wedding don't you think we should get a Honda City as back up? As funny as it sounds, it was a serious consideration.
Getting back to last week, my wife who lives in the U.S is going to be back to India, and mind you she has never really lived in India so was thinking of car options for her and dad insisted I get her a nice car, Options were i20, Vento 1.6TDI, Jazz, and obviously I test drove all on Saturday & Sunday and liked the Vento but we already have a Jetta TDI so kinda felt like you were in a similar place. i20 was nice too and was the final contender and while going back home from the hyundai showroom on the way we had a F10 525d in front of us, and I realized I have'nt met the owner since a while and thought I will go say a 'Hi' to him, which I did and over a cup of tea I just casually said, can I keep the F10 (525d) for few hours? He was fine with it, and when I drove it I had the biggest smile in years for a car and I just called to ask if he had any 530d's in stock? to which he says I will revert on monday morning.
Monday Morning : October 25, 2010
I get a call from the dealership saying they have one which landed this morning, I said I will check it out and I go to their workshop and the sales manager was there too, we had a cup of tea together and I looked at the car and I was like I want it, I asked him if I can take a picture of the interior and ask my wife if she is ok with it, as the car has a combination of Black / Oyster and my wife needs all black, he was like sure go ahead, I take a grainy picture of it using my phone and email it to her and wait for her reply, in the mean time the owner comes and this is our conversation,
Him : Boss, You have to take this home.
Me : Sure and have nightmares with service? and I don't think my wife will want a car with this light interior.
Him : Ok, take her approval until then im getting the PDI done for you.
Me : No, please do it tommorrow once I get confirmation.
Him : No it's ok, even if you don't want it, I need to get it done.
Me : Ok, I'm in a rush I need to go will call you once I get the confirmation.
Him : Don't call me I am going to be busy just take the car if she says yes I will keep it ready.
I leave at about 12:50 P.M when it's about 3:20 A.M in Washington, and at 4:05 P.M in a meeting and I get multiple calls from her, and I picked once and she was like "GET IT RIGHT NOW"
I left right away, When I got to the service centre in my Jetta they were doing final touches to the car and I spoke to Mr.Munshi, who is their service manager and since I had to reach some place I just asked them to complete it in a day or so, and drove off with it and thanked the owner as never in my Life have I bought a car without any payments / Insurance etc. and this goes to show how good the dealership is.
There is very little that one can speak about this car, GTO in his review has summed it all up very well, all I can say is and I quote from his review, "I fall in the 1% who will not drive the 525d"
At the end of it, am I happy? ofcourse to know that I got a good car for my wife, but ofcourse the past does worry me on service etc. Hopefully BMW will change what Mercedes-Benz damaged.
Woke up at 6 A.M today, and on the way to work which includes a smooth road, and a bumpy one and the last half a kilometer is pretty much offroading and as of now the car feels quite composed, I hardly have hit or scratched any component any place, the ride is fine and looks like the F10 is well made with the run flats too, coming from Mercedes-Benz all my life, I still can vouch for ergonomics being better in a Mercedes-Benz, while some of it maybe because I need to get used to the new world but I do believe Mercedes-Benz placements of buttons etc. are far superior and everything feels like it is easy for you to access, but then again maybe it is only because its the first day. Eg. I had a hard time finding where the rear sunshade button was, also for some reason the radio was on mute and could not figure where to unmute it from even though I tried increase the volume from the steering wheel?
Things I like about the car? Everything, love the bluetooth pairing of the phone and how easy the whole process is and idrive it self has come a long way and dare I say is better then the COMAND Mercedes-Benz use in their S-Class? (S-Class you can make seat adjustments too)
The engine, one of the finest parts of the car, if you read GTO's review all positives are very well written but this upgrade makes it a whole new car, my experience with the 525d is limited to the test car only but I have driven the 535i & 550i and believe me this engine makes the 35i a baseless engine no wonder BMW decided to just sell it as a CBU unit. One thing though I wish this had twin pipes at the rear which the 535i does have one on each side.
Seats are nice, and infact when the W212 came out I had complains about the leather being used by Mercedes-Benz India, as the seats felt harder then the ones in the US but no such difference in the F10, which I could check out side by side with the 535i. But as I always have mentioned I still think they need to add ventilated seats, this is my opinion since years as I do believe it's a great feature for our hot weather climate and believe me it hardly will add to much of a cost.
I'm quite surprised with the amount of CD/DVD slots, one in the dash, one in the glove box and one at the rear for rear seat entertainment, but for some reason the car does not have head phones, I will check this but in the US spec I think the car does come with head phones for the rear, not that it matters because the rear is where I never will be!
Lastly, and one of the best thing about the 530d is the steering wheel, in the 525d it's quite plain jane but in this it's nice and thick with a metal rim insert along with thumb rests on the rim and last but the best, "Paddle shifters"
Will keep updating this tread but until now, this is one of the best purchases I have made, hopefully the opinion will remain.
Regards,