[karan561]

Originally Posted by FINTAIL

Yeah right.

Where are 'em Mercs?

This obviously signifies that there are more BMW fanboys than the Merc fanboys.

Nice car of yours- of course! Service expenditures are in check- Great. In the pic while the car is getting serviced; with the bonnet open- I do notice a certain red car.

A certain red car.

Yes thats the 458 Italia as you can see, as Navnit is now responsible for Ferrari sales hence they have started service now.

Im afraid but that Ferrari had come for a gearbox replacement (more like a recall).

Your car is beau.......Okay- As it is a BMW I refuse to comment on it.

No comments. Absolutely none.

(I'm a Mercedes fanboy- after all)

Thanks for your kind words there, appreciate that.

Audi's are blown up VWs. BMW's are nigglesome. A (recent) Merc will properly reliable. Frankly speaking; MB is back in the reliability game. They made excellent cars upto the 'Nineties. A late '70s/early 80's American spec W123 300D Automatic could do 20,00,000 kilometers without the engine head being taken off.

Yeah. 20 lakh kilometers. The W124's were equally as reliable. The W210 (1995-2002) spoilt the game though. The Mercs of that generation were umm....extremely unreliable. However; online- and offline I've come across instances of 2010 and onwards Mercs of being reliable- and hardly nigglesome.

I agree with your thoughts about the Audi's. But would also like to comfort you by saying my buy/brand preference is BMW>Merc>Audi so if i dont buy a BMW for some reason then the next option will be Merc and if i ever buy an Audi it will be only for Quattro

Originally Posted by FINTAIL

Pardon me for trolling your thread. Nice car- I'm tuned to this thread. Beemer's are also quite good- but you know.

Thanks again, stay tuned !


PS - Your writing style reminded me of my old friend Guderian.

[lamborghini]

Just sharing my views based on personal experiences and choices!

Originally Posted by FINTAIL

Where are 'em Mercs? [/i]

There are actually a couple of Mercedes owners in the group. Interestingly however, those cars were parked at home that night.

Originally Posted by FINTAIL

Audi's are blown up VWs. BMW's are nigglesome. A (recent) Merc will properly reliable. Frankly speaking; MB is back in the reliability game. They made excellent cars upto the 'Nineties. A late '70s/early 80's American spec W123 300D Automatic could do 20,00,000 kilometers without the engine head being taken off.

Yeah. 20 lakh kilometers. The W124's were equally as reliable. The W210 (1995-2002) spoilt the game though. The Mercs of that generation were umm....extremely unreliable. However; online- and offline I've come across instances of 2010 and onwards Mercs of being reliable- and hardly nigglesome.

Personally, a big Merc fan too. We had a W211 E270 at home that wasn't the most reliable and put me off Mercs. Hopefully, will be seeing one of the newer more reliable Mercs enter our garage at some point. In my experience, the BMW has been the most niggle free and reliable car at home.
As for Audi's being blown up VWs: Well, yes and no. The A6 is more comfortable, refined, and feels a whole lot more special than any W212 E250 /F10 520D out there. Personal experience! No touching the older Mercedes tanks on reliability though!

Originally Posted by FINTAIL

Patek Phillipe, A. Lange and Sohne, Ulysse Nardin, etc. etc., whatever and how much ever exotics exist, a Rolex is a Rolex.

Similarly- A Merc is a Merc.

Nothing can beat a Merc in terms of.....well; in terms of everything.

Issue with the current Mercs is that they just don't wow! The new S and C Class are definitely very promising, but if you look at the W212, outgoing W204, etc. - the competition just feels more special. We have an E60 525D at home and were thinking of a replacement. Popped into a Mercedes dealership to try out the W212 and ML250. W212 interiors were average (the 2007 iDrive feels more modern than the display on Mercedes, artificial leather seats, etc.), loud unrefined engine, and at the end of the day, just did not feel 8 years newer than the E60 5 series! Same with the ML250 that had a fair bit of rattles in its 4,000kms of life at the dealership!

Yes - Mercedes is changing and it is evident with their new models, but in a couple of years when BMW and Audi have launched their competing models - would Mercedes still be able to hold ground the way they are today? The S Class is another story (one that I will agree with you on), but the rest of their vehicles? [/b]

Originally Posted by FINTAIL

Pardon me for trolling your thread. Nice car- I'm tuned to this thread. Beemer's are also quite good- but you know.

Everything pales in comparision with a Merc.

And very sorry to hijack your reply! At some level I know nothing beats a Mercedes for India - especially the S Class that you have your eye on (in terms of comfort, and quality of service), but just thought I will share the other side of the coin.

[karan561]

Here are some pics of the GERMAN car group (DDT) drive from last weekend to Khopoli-Pali Road;










That smile after achieving some good driving time behind those machines



^ probably the 1st selfie posted on TEAM BHP

[karan561]

Car parts arrived from Taiwan

[karan561]

Finally got the Grilles installed at a local friendly neighbourhood garage;





Job took < 15 mins to complete.

Does make the car look a lot more aggressive

This mod done, have a few more in my mind in the coming months till them i am goin all over internet chanting Aur Dikhao Aur Dikhao for F30 Mods

Stay Tuned !

[AdiSinghV12]

Looks really mean bro! As far as Aur Dikhao is concerned here's a pic of my F30 with the M Sport front (which you have surely seen before but somebody saidAur Dikhao, lol.

Will really compliment the beastly performance of your car IMHO. Or maybe the M3 front? I have called for the M3 kit but don't want the front bumper for obvious reasons. Hit me up if you would be interested in it. Till then, keep redlining the mean machine, something my F30 is not good at *diesel*

[karan561]

Originally Posted by AdiSinghV12

Looks really mean bro! As far as Aur Dikhao is concerned here's a pic of my F30 with the M Sport front (which you have surely seen before but somebody saidAur Dikhao, lol.
Attachment 1383093
Will really compliment the beastly performance of your car IMHO. Or maybe the M3 front? I have called for the M3 kit but don't want the front bumper for obvious reasons. Hit me up if you would be interested in it.

Your car looks the business for sure

Wanted to clarify " Aur Dikhao " is for the performance mods

Exterior/cosmetic mods im pretty much done for now, may just wrap the whiskers of the bumper to black & the car is set.

[4x4addict]

Lovely review. Unfortunately, I tried to get my hands on a new 328i and was told by BMW corporate that they have discontinued the petrol and cannot even be ordered. I was seriously disappointed. Why would they do that??

[adi_petrolhead]

Originally Posted by 4x4addict

Lovely review. Unfortunately, I tried to get my hands on a new 328i and was told by BMW corporate that they have discontinued the petrol and cannot even be ordered. I was seriously disappointed. Why would they do that??

Don't be disheartened. The new 320i and 330i along with the same 320d is coming soon. Meanwhile you could hunt around for a 2014 made 328i with any dealer across India. Check the official thread of the 320d and 328i reviews.

[karan561]

Originally Posted by 4x4addict

Lovely review. Unfortunately, I tried to get my hands on a new 328i and was told by BMW corporate that they have discontinued the petrol and cannot even be ordered. I was seriously disappointed. Why would they do that??

Thanks !

Yes only a handful of 328i's were available IIRC 50 for the first year & then onwards it was on confirmed order basis only and took 3-4 months at least after booking before being discontinued few months back.

Rest as adi_petrolhead said the 328i (renamed as 330i) definitely should launch with the facelift

[karan561]

Report: Mahabaleshwar Roadtrip;

Last to last weekend had taken the car for its longest road trip till date i.e. a total of just under 500 km round trip.

Got to know the car a lot better in this road trip, be it the limitations, challenges or the excitement & adrenaline rush.

Do note that weekend Mumbai/MH region had the must heavy downpour in recent times.

Me & my wife had started from Mumbai around 9:30 am on Sunday, it was continuously raining & do note when it rains here in Mumbai it POURS.

Still the good thing about it was there was less traffic as most people had chosen to be at home.

As rain intensity grew we approached the Mum-Pune Expressway and observed there was a thin layer of water in continuous form throughout the stretch.

I kept driving, mind you i wasn't slow, but brisk & filling the gaps through the stretch upto the 1st toll naka. As soon as the car crossed the toll, the car threw an engine checklight showing DRIVETRAIN ERROR and the car started vibrating. This gave me the chills and i put the hazard lights on and drove at extremely low speeds into the Food Mall/Fuel Station which was about 1.5 km away.

As soon as i reached there found a parking spot which and switched a car off. While the car was off i was contemplating options of flat bed, calling the Fortuner here and continuing the rest of the journey in the Fortuner and keeping the car safe here or asking the driver to drive back carefully at low speeds to my residence etc. In the meanwhile i was also hoping that the error to go away.

15 mins past and i thought to give it a go, saying a short prayer i pressed the ignition switch ON & voila the error message gone, checked the system settings to reconfirm, thankfully there too the iDrive showed NO FAULTS

What could have triggered this incident ? Excessive water splashing in the underbody / wheelwell ? May be, coz once the car was dry & restarted in sometime it was OK, very interesting.

Moved forward at a very slow pace then & surprisingly did not find any rain from there on upto Pune. But again once i approached B'lore highway to wai to Panchgani it was constantly raining.



During my stay i did not use the car much as i was in the resort only.

The day of my departure as i was leaving it was raining very heavily though Mahabaleshwar is not known to be waterlogged but there is this one patch which was LIKE THIS;



This looked to be at least 1ft deep on some places & rest about 1/2 feet in other areas, I waited aprox 10-12 mins to wait for the opportune moment to cross this specifically did not want to attempt this when other larger vehicles were moving by as that would have created a wave & would be a proper game over for me.



After waiting for some time as there were no vehicles i crossed the patch smoothly having no problems whatsoever , yes i did try to accelerate a bit but thought i myself was creating a wave so let off the accelerator. Also did this in SPORT mode as i wanted the car to be at its best & most agile & did not want any weak link be it the throttle response or the gear sharpness. Do note the speeds never crossed 10-15km/h.

Well now that was done here are a few more pics of the car in all its GLORY;

At the Ghats;







Tea Stop at the Fuel station before 1st toll towards Mumbai;



Other points to note;

1) Total Trip distance was aprox 530 km
2) Total trip FE was 9 km/l
3) Steering feedback was great on the ghats & distinguished on the highway too.
4) Manual mode was addictive but to be honest ended up redlining just to hear the exhausts pop, hence was bad for the FE so kept in A/T mode for more than 80% of journey.
5) Met 2 BHPians on the way normally crazy & kedar walke
6) Tyre pressures were set @ 30 psi before the journey & after getting back checked were still surprisingly maintained @ 30 psi.
7) Brakes performed fantastically & did not give any scary moment.

[#enzowho]

This is the Ultimate Review for the Ultimat3.
Love the way you've pampered he over the years and first time ,I'm coming across such a clean example.
Kudos to you.
I always wanted to own one of these but hated to drive anything less than a Inline 6,unfortunately even with the facelift we mostly won't be seeing a Inline 6 in a 3 Series which would be a Pocket Rocket and also VFM.
Fingers crossed that India gets an Inline 6.

[karan561]

Originally Posted by #enzowho

This is the Ultimate Review for the Ultimat3.
Love the way you've pampered he over the years and first time ,I'm coming across such a clean example.
Kudos to you.
I always wanted to own one of these but hated to drive anything less than a Inline 6,unfortunately even with the facelift we mostly won't be seeing a Inline 6 in a 3 Series which would be a Pocket Rocket and also VFM.
Fingers crossed that India gets an Inline 6.

Thanks enzowho for the kind words

Yes, there were speculations that the 335i (now 340i) will launch & be slotted against the Audi S4, but it remained a rumour.

[Turbanator]

car threw an engine checklight showing DRIVETRAIN ERROR and the car started vibrating.

I had such errors twice on my old 530D and these vanished after a restart on own , did got checked at dealership but they could not find anything wrong , regarding vibrations ,sometimes its psychological as well , seeing such error on dash specially when you are heading on holiday with family - can be due to something else - even imperfection in road surface. Maybe you get this checked whenever you visit dealership for satisfaction , hope your car is still under warranty

[#enzowho]

Originally Posted by karan561

Thanks enzowho for the kind words

Yes, there were speculations that the 335i (now 340i) will launch & be slotted against the Audi S4, but it remained a rumour.

Fingers Crossed they launch the 340i, it will be a VFM proposition if launched.
The S4 is not being sold anymore as I was planning on picking up a S4 this January and I was told it was not available anymore including the S6 or any of the 3 litre Variations in its sedan line up except the A8.