[mallumowgli]

Lovely review Graaja (And wonderful pics too )

The car looks awesome in blue

Wish you many happy miles and looking forward to more updates on this thread

[PrideRed]

Congrats on your new ride. Subtle customization you made looks good. Probably, black alloys will complete the looks!

[graaja]

Originally Posted by Asta_la_vista

Let me be the first to congratulate you graaja...

Thank you for the kind words. I still remember the day you told me GT is more practical than the 3 and I shot it down saying it was above my budget. But in the end, the practicality of the GT trumped the 3.

Originally Posted by EP.

Congratulations on your new car! Welcome to the BMW family.

Thank you for the kind words!

Originally Posted by batterylow

What can I say? Take a bow my dear sir.

Stunning attention to detail, meticulous elaboration and the pictures from Krish sir - the icing on the cake.

Joy, truly is BMW.

Thank you for the kind words. Indeed Krish's pictures perfectly bring out the details in the car!

Originally Posted by Santoshbhat

Congratulations once again graaja on your first BMW. That's a wonderfully composed review
...
Boat and BMW are words not generally found in the same sentence and it is a bit disappointing that the suspension is so soft that it warrants a modification...

Sport+ does not turn off the DSC completely...

Thank you for the kind words Santosh!

Yes. 530i would have been a fantastic car to own as well. But then I felt 3 GT was more practical.

I think since BMW made its suspensions soft from F30, the tight handling has gone for a toss. Quoting a friend who owns the F30 328i "The tail bounces from Kashmir to Kanyakumari". Having said that I think the GT definitely will be more comfort oriented than the regular 3. But my grouse is that they do not offer the M Sport suspension in the M Sport variant in India.

The cost of the suspensions including springs, struts and stabilizers is working out to be 2.05L. And installation charges would be around 30K.

Originally Posted by Hells Bells

Superbly detailed review with tons of insights...
It gives you unBMW type space and performance (both contrary to BMW) but its practicality trumps its disadvantage of high speed ride.
Looking forward to reading how it changes character with the suspension upgrades you are looking to do.

Thank you for the kind words!
Yes. What the GT lacks in handling, it more than compensates in practicality. That is the reason why I chose this car, as I thought if I fix the handling, I will get a practical car that hadles great at the same time. Will update the thread once I get the suspension upgrade done.

Originally Posted by KiloAlpha

This is a fantastically written review! Thank you very much for helping me waste one hour of time in the office
...
Feel a bit sad that the adjustable M-Sport suspension is not available as standard on the M-Sport trim. Most reviews I read online said that this feature is a must-have on the GT. I hope you can prove those reviewers right.

Thank you for the kind words! I hope you did not get caught by your boss reading the review

Forget Adaptive, it would have been far better if they had given the standard fixed M Sport suspension which would have made the car a lot better to handle. Hope my suspension upgrade plan works out smoothly.

Originally Posted by Vik0728

Congrats Graaja on your latest acquisition, and its the best shade (Personally) on any car.
...
Wishing you many more happy and fuss free GT (Gran Tourismo). Happy Motoring.

Thank you very much for the kind words!

Originally Posted by N4Nikunj

Dear grraja,
Congratulations on your latest acquisition. Wishing you many years of happy and safe motoring with blue GT.

Thank you very much for the kind words!

Originally Posted by kiku007

Congratulations! I hope you know that you are amongst the rarest of rare in TN to buy a petrol BMW. BMW India needs enthusiasts like you.
...
The ride-handling package seems to be very different for the sedan and GT then. I hope you are able to improve the handling in due course with some modifications/replacements.

Thank you very much for the kind words! Yes, the ride and handling for the GT and the regular sedan are totally different due to the longer wheelbase, higher ground clearance etc. Hope all this gets fixed with the sports suspensions.

Originally Posted by Red Liner

So a magic carpet in Turkish (turquoise) blue for the Prince of Persia and his lady love?

Thank you for the kind words! Ha ha. A magic carpet ride indeed, it has turned out to be. And the princess is not very happy about the bouncing carpet

Originally Posted by blackbeast

Did i read an ownership review or the Teambhp official review. Kudos to that detail with pictures. Lovely car and colour. Wishing you a tons of happy miles.

Thank you for the kind words!

Originally Posted by Prodigy07

Congratulations Graaja sir!

You have set a very high benchmark for ownership reviews

Thank you for the kind words!

Originally Posted by Col Mehta

Oh beautiful car that! Looks brilliant in blue shade. And what a grand ownership review...

I'm from 'love the looks' group . One of the best looking BMWs IMO.

Thank you for the kind words! Really glad that you are in the "love the looks" group!

Originally Posted by meetzap

Congratulations Graaja!

The ownership reviews looked more like an official Team-BHP Review. Very good work there!!!

I hope your time with this GT is better than Polo GT.

Thank you for the kind words!

Originally Posted by FuelInjector

wonderfully written review, Graaja. Have a great time with this machine. Sometimes RWDs tend to give a bobbing feeling at high speeds. But not what you mentioned. It might not actually need a Sport Suspension, but raise the stiffness of the current one?

Thank you for the kind words! Actually, just increasing the stiffness of the springs is not going to help. Suspensions and springs are tuned together. Changing just one of them will spoil this matching. Even if I were to change one of the components, it would be better to change the struts instead of the springs. Going for B6 would be exactly this. I just want to try the full M Sport suspension setup including the stabilizers.

Originally Posted by mallumowgli

Lovely review Graaja (And wonderful pics too ) ...

Thank you for the kind words!

Originally Posted by PrideRed

Congrats on your new ride. Subtle customization you made looks good. Probably, black alloys will complete the looks!

Thank you for the kind words! I am in two minds of changing the color of the alloys. Will give this a thought once I get the suspensions sorted out.

Update on the suspension decision:

Today, I took the test drive of the 5 series on some rough roads to check how the adaptive suspensions feel in sports mode. I did not feel them to be very harsh at all. In sports mode, they were a wee bit stiffer than the Jetta's suspensions, but absorbed the irregularities quite well, without the bounciness. Even in comfort mode, the bounciness was not there. I think this is mainly because of the low ground clearance in the 5 series. I measured the ground clearance of the 5 series and the GT and how this changed with load.

When loaded with 3 people on board, the 5 series sagged by 10mm, whereas the GT sagged by 20mm. After this 20mm sag, the GT was still 15mm higher than the 5 series at various points. The M Sport suspensions will reduce the ride height by 10mm. But as they will be stiffer than the regualar suspensions, the sagging will be less than 20mm - maybe 15mm. So, I think overall, the M Sport suspensions should give a firmer ride with a little drop in center of gravity without affecting the ground clearance too much.

Of course, all this is pure theory. With absolutely no reference point, I will know the results only when I get the suspensions installed.

Fingers crossed!

[androdev]

That's a great review. The quality, fit and finish of the car is top notch. All the very best and drive safe!

Dumb question but do your passengers read (books, phones, etc.) while traveling? Motion sickness is more to do with brain getting confused than actual nature of the motion. This is why front seat passengers don't usually feel car sick. Luxury cars do a great job of hiding motion cues so car sickness is not unusual. Do they feel car sick at highway speeds or in city traffic also?

[The Brutailer]

Congrats Sir. Amazing car. From the interiors to the engine, everything is pretty high tech. I love the small bits from the M-kit like the HUD, the sexy steering etc. It’s the little things really, which make the car special. The fact that you bought the 250+ bhp engine is commendable. A proper upgrade from the already competent Jetta.

A pretty comprehensive and detailed review as well. Loved reading it, goes right towards the top end of benchmark reviews on Team-BHP. Thanks for sharing.

Oh and did I mention that the frameless doors look sexy?

[Hayek]

What an incredibly good thread!! Congrats on getting the 330i GT. It does seem like a swell car. I had considered the 3 GT but decided to go for the X3 instead. While I am happy with that decision, I do get the feeling that I am missing out on the wonderful full electronic dashboard (my X3 has a rather old school one), the iDrive with touch screen, the ambient lighting choices, the adaptive headlamps, the powered tailgate, and the underthigh support in the front seats. Are these features available on all 3 GTs, or are they specific to the 330i M Sport? I am surprised that you find the suspension so poor at highway speeds - I would have thought that even the ordinary suspension without adaptive dampers would be well tuned. I was also amazed to see the mileage you are getting - though Coimbatore traffic is lighter than that in Bombay.

Your pictures were truly wonderful, and I was especially happy to see how you fitted a road bike in the boot (I managed to get a hybrid and my son’s mountain bike into the X3). You should consider getting an iPhone to use Connected Drive - just tried it out, and found the Web Radio app fantastic - lots of choices on stations, even if you have to put up with local ads from somewhere in the USA.

Did you take the BSI packages? If so, which one? Congrats once again and wish you many years of happy motoring.

[lancer_rit]

Wow, a 5 star initial ownership review that rivals tbhp official reviews :-) Many congrats and the car looks swell in the estoril blue!

Making rear suspension softer with the raised GC for rough roads, results in some of the vertical motion in undulating roads - the Superb mk 3 has the same trait unlike the Superb mk 2 or the Jetta. Your problem is also that the Jetta set such a high benchmark for sporty ride and handling, I am sure the regular 320d is not as good.

Enjoy your new GT safe for many years to come.

[suhaas307]

Congratulations on a fabulous purchase!

What you've bought is a car that will fit most, if not all requirements.

It's a comfortable sedan when you need it to be. It's the family car, given that the boot is huge and the rear seat is spacious enough for most people. It's a sports car when you want to wring it by its neck. And it looks pretty damn good whilst it goes about its job.

Well done, sir!

Enjoy it in good health, and all the very best to you!

Originally Posted by graaja

A comparision picture of the GT M Sport sold in Europe which is all balck and the Indian GT that has aluminium finish.
Attachment 1744966

I noticed something odd about this comparison.

I believe the car in the picture with the black trim is a 4-Series Grand Coupé and not a 3GT.

[fusionbang]

Congratulations Raja on this beauty One of the best colors for a GT apart from Black and I was planning to get the same color GT here in US, but had to settle with a Black 330i Sedan.

Wish you lot of Happy miles with smiles

Did your car come with a staggered setup? What tires are there on the car?

Originally Posted by graaja

Navigation functions. Navigation is a quite complex system where you can enter address, route type (fastest, shortest etc). However, for India, I found the system to be quite limited, as it expects the address in a particular format, and also plots routes that could be quite long. For example, when I tried to plot a route from Coimbatore to Madurai, it plotted a 400km route, which was 175km longer than the regular route. In Europe, they have a web application where you can configure your own routing and download this information to the iDrive using a thumb drive. But this is not yet available in India. Only when this feature is available, navigation will be useful.

On the navigation, did you get a chance to try the BMW Connected App. It has the below features which can be controlled from your mobile:

1. Lock, Unlock, Ventilate, Switch on lights, Blow horn, locate vehicle, ventilate on a specified time.


2. Status of your car in terms of fuel left, DTE, Doors and Windows, Service Required, Enabled Features


3. Enter destination and send it to the car, which is received as a message on iDrive and you can click on it for navigation to start.


4. Hub - For driver's guide, Road side assistance, dealers and so on.


Hope this helps!!

[graaja]

Originally Posted by androdev

That's a great review. The quality, fit and finish of the car is top notch. All the very best and drive safe!

Dumb question but do your passengers read (books, phones, etc.) while traveling? Motion sickness is more to do with brain getting confused than actual nature of the motion. This is why front seat passengers don't usually feel car sick. Luxury cars do a great job of hiding motion cues so car sickness is not unusual. Do they feel car sick at highway speeds or in city traffic also?

Thank you for the kind words, and all the support and guidance in the "What car" thread! This motion sickness is definitely not because of distraction. The bouncing is definitely there. Just last week, when a bunch of friends had gone for a drive on the highways, I drove my friend's V40, and I could clearly feel the difference in how planted the car felt at highway speeds, compared to my GT. Having said that, I am getting used to the bouncing and maybe my body is making adjustments in controlling the car with this floating feeling. But a good suspension with that fantastic steering will make this car a much much better machine.

Originally Posted by The Brutailer

...
A pretty comprehensive and detailed review as well. Loved reading it, goes right towards the top end of benchmark reviews on Team-BHP. Thanks for sharing.
...

Thank you very much for the kind words!

Originally Posted by Hayek

What an incredibly good thread!! Congrats on getting the 330i GT...
...Are these features available on all 3 GTs, or are they specific to the 330i M Sport?
...I was especially happy to see how you fitted a road bike in the boot (I managed to get a hybrid and my son’s mountain bike into the X3). You should consider getting an iPhone to use Connected Drive - just tried it out, and found the Web Radio app fantastic - lots of choices on stations, even if you have to put up with local ads from somewhere in the USA.
...Did you take the BSI packages? If so, which one? Congrats once again and wish you many years of happy motoring.

Thank you very much for the kind words. Congratulations on the X3 and wishing you tens of thousands of miles and smiles.
The digital instrument cluster and adaptive LEDs are available in all the GTs, but the HUD is only there in the M Sport. Also, BMW has started introducing the digital cluster in the 3 series as well in some variants like the 320d luxury variant. The sports seat with underthigh support are usually there in the sport line and M sport variants in most of the series. Adaptive LEDs are there only in select models in all the series - even the 5 series 530i sport line misses this. In the US or Europe, all the features can be selected at the time of ordering the car. But in India, as they bring only pre-configured versions, I felt the feature list is a littled messed up and you always get some and lose some in any car you buy (like my GT has all the features, but not the M Sport suspensions).

I have been thinking of getting a base model iPhone like the iPhone 4S to run the Connected Drive in the car. Will give this some serious thought.

Originally Posted by lancer_rit

Wow, a 5 star initial ownership review that rivals tbhp official reviews :-) Many congrats and the car looks swell in the estoril blue!
...Your problem is also that the Jetta set such a high benchmark for sporty ride and handling, I am sure the regular 320d is not as good.

Thank you very much for the kind words. Jetta set such a high standard in balancing comfort and sportiness that my wife actually keeps telling me I have actually downgraded with the BMW

Originally Posted by suhaas307

Congratulations on a fabulous purchase!
...
Enjoy it in good health, and all the very best to you!
...
I believe the car in the picture with the black trim is a 4-Series Grand Coupé and not a 3GT.

Thank you for the kind words Suhaas, and for suggesting the GT in the "What car" thread.
Actually, I had searched for 3GT M Sport pictures and Google came up with the image I had used for comparison. Maybe I should not take Google for granted, and do some cross checks

Originally Posted by fusionbang

Congratulations Raja on this beauty One of the best colors for a GT apart from Black and I was planning to get the same color GT here in US, but had to settle with a Black 330i Sedan.
...
Did your car come with a staggered setup? What tires are there on the car?
...
On the navigation, did you get a chance to try the BMW Connected App. It has the below features which can be controlled from your mobile:

Thank you very much for the kind words. And congratulations on the 330i. Wishing you tens of thousands of miles and smiles.

Yes. My car comes with the staggered setup. The front has 225/50/R18 and the rear 255/45/R18.

Actually, there is the BMW Connected App for Android, but that is totally buggy and BMW does not support that App anymore. Like you have shown, the iPhone App seems to be working great. Maybe it is time to get a basic iPhone for the BMW. If I could only use the navigation, that would make it fantastic!

[gunsho]

Hearty Congrats on the beauty.

Originally Posted by graaja

During the weekend, took the car to 3M to get the aluminium and chrome garnishes to black.

Looks awesome with the blacked linings. Thats a great decision. I would also be with your friends on making the wheels black.

[Akshay1234]

Congratulations Graaja, great review! The car truly seemed to fit your requirements perfectly. The 330i GT is definitely an extremely practical car, and with the 250bhp its great fun to drive.

Wish you many happy kms with it. Also get the M sport suspension asap, after then you'll know how the car really handles. I'm also with the others on painting the wheels black or gunmetal. Silver sticks out on the blue.

[suhaas307]

Originally Posted by graaja

Thank you for the kind words Suhaas, and for suggesting the GT in the "What car" thread.

Happy to help, Graaja!

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention! The Estoril Blue shade goes brilliantly with the tan interior! Great specification, right there!

Normally, I'm not a fan of black wheels as they tend to hide the wheels' intricate details and silver wheels really help accentuate the size / diameter. However, I would recommend you explore the option of painting your wheels.

As suggested by some others here, you must consider anthracite / gun-metal / gloss black as it would really help tie it all together in my opinion.

[vb-saan]

Congratulations! Thanks for the beautifully review – can’t blame you for being so eloquent about such a beautiful car

I personally won’t recommend getting the alloys black; feel that it probably will give the car a mod-ed look. A more subtle paint job on the alloys maybe better (say, something like below)

[Sahil]

Fantastic review!! It's at par or better than some of our official reviews here. And definitely much better than most auto mags.

The color combo is superb. Love that blue and tan. My only complaint with BMW on the M-sport models is their choice of alloy designs. They are often worse than what they offer on regular models.The X-line X1 has better rims than the M-sport X-1 and F10 Modern line had better rims than the M-sport 530d. MBIL and Audi, on the other hand, give much nicer wheels on offer. Moreover, if you buy rims as accessories from MB they aren't all that expensive either. You can get a great set of 19inchers for a bit over a lakh.