[shiv11bhargava]

Such a delight to see all of them together! The iconic Estoril Blue owned by graaja and Dr.AD's beauty in red!

A pleasure to read about them all.

[Dr.AD]

Casual Sunday Drive

The car has not been used much since last two months. I have been pretty busy on the work front, and for the couple of drives I managed to do in this period, I took my Thar (some mild off-roading was involved in one of those drives).

Finally, when I got some free time on a Sunday recently, I decided to take the 320d out on the highways, and enjoyed a day of some fast highway driving and also drove on some slow but scenic rural roads. Thankfully, the weather was lovely - nice dark clouds, some cool breeze, and some pre-monsoon showers!

I headed out on the Bangalore-Hassan highway (NH75), which is a nice fast four-lane highway, and then drove around some of the rural roads around Channarayapatna. The state highways around that area are my favorite roads. Those state highways (for example, SH121) are lovely two-lane rural roads with scenic landscapes all around, and also smooth tarmac. With views of coconut trees, hills, and windmills all around.

Enjoying the lovely weather and the roads:



Under a tree:



SH121, one of my favorite roads:



Another tree this time:



Found a nice temple a short dirt track away from the road:


It was just a casual, solo Sunday drive. I just aimlessly drove around enjoying some of my favorite rural roads, had some good food on the way, and came back home after I was happy with the running the car got.

In the end, it was a 391km drive, which was all fun:


Hopefully there will be more drives now once the summer ends and the monsoon starts. I have a few monsoon drives planned. Hopefully I will have better trip reports to share here after those drives.

Thank you for reading!

[Rohitthebest]

Wow, that's a beauty.
And guess what? You have two of my all time favourite vehicles. One of them I am planning (for sure) to acquire in next 12 months for sure. Down the line when it comes to entering into Beamer segment, I will be royally confused between 3GT and 320d for sure. But will take the call when right time comes.

[Dr.AD]

"Monsoon Drive" and Service Updates

At Maravanthe Beach, in a BMW Group Drive

A couple of weeks ago we did an exciting "Monsoon Drive" with a local BMW 3-series owners group. We had a total of 10 3-ers driving together, amidst torrential rains and flood conditions, to Coastal Karnataka, Goa, and Maharashtra. That drive is described in details in this separate travelogue.

Please allow me to share a few pictures from that drive here, to keep this ownership thread up-to-date.

A convoy of BMWs through scenic roads:



Convoy in Agumbe Ghat:



In Agumbe Ghat:



An Outlier in the group of Red and Blue 3ers:



The convoy at Maravanthe Beach:



At Cape Goa Restaurant's parking:



"Stranded in front of Sawantwadi Palace" - see the full travelogue for that story:



Mud from three states accumulated at the end of the trip:



Extremely dirty, but totally worth it after a great trip in the peak monsoon across three states:



A cleaning session after the memorable and eventful drive:

Service Updates:

The car was due for oil change, according to CBS, exactly at the end of this drive.

This was the first time the oil change interval matched nicely with an end of a long drive. Most of the times in the past, the oil change interval was falling in the middle of a planned long drive. On many occasions, I have changed oil about 1000km in advance, just because otherwise the oil change interval would fall in the middle of a 2000km drive! With that history, it was nice to have an oil change interval exactly at the end of a drive!

The car is now at just above 98,000km. This was the 10th oil change total. Thus, on average I got about 9,800km per oil change, following the CBS strictly, and that is not too bad at all.

During this last monsoon drive, as described in that travelogue, the wipers were running non-stop, and they were indeed overworked. It has been almost three years since I changed the wipers last. They were still doing the job fine, and worked fine in the latest monsoon drive which as an extreme test for the wipers. However, given the age of the wipers, I decided to change those this time, along with the oil change service. So got a new set of wipers installed. The cost of the new set of wipers, at the official service center, was about ₹6,000.

As always, this service was carried out at KUN BMW (previously Navnit BMW) in Bangalore. As always, great experience with them this time too. They did the job well, on time, and with polite attitude. Overall very happy with the BMW service experiences at former Navnit and now KUN BMW.

So with the service done, new wipers, and in general all maintenance done, the car is totally fine and still ready for the next challenging long drive, at 98,000km. I hope to cross 100,000km in the next drive.

Will keep this post updated as I cross 100,000km, hopefully soon. That is all for now. Thank you very much for reading!

[abhjain]

Got inspired by this thread and picked up a 2014 F30 in Mumbai in March this year. The vehicle was sweetly maintained and periodically serviced at AUS. The vehicle had done about 38K when I picked it up. I have driven it to 42K kms now.

Works done so far :
1. Floor mats from Amazon
2. Changed from RFTs to CONTINENTAL 225/50 R17 CSC
3. Changed rear suspension with SACHS

Wish to check the below :

1. How and when to change the transmission oil ?
2. Any other checks to be performed ?
3. Is it worth going for a 360 Check at BMW AUS? Quoted price is 15K + GST

[el lobo 6061]

Originally Posted by abhjain

1. How and when to change the transmission oil ?

8 years or 1,20,000 kms. Whichever is earlier. ZF recommended.

BMW workshop will say filled for life; which is wrong.

Originally Posted by abhjain

3. Is it worth going for a 360 Check at BMW AUS? Quoted price is 15K + GST

You have already drive 4,000 kms. Why would you want to get 360 check done now?

[ssjr0498]

I guess for the ZF8HP its ~8years or ~50k-75k miles, so I guess, 1.2L km will be the upper limit. Would it not be better, keeping in mind the traffic conditions in our country, we get it serviced at about 50k-60k miles?

Originally Posted by el lobo 6061

8 years or 1,20,000 kms. Whichever is earlier. ZF recommended.

BMW workshop will say filled for life; which is wrong.


You have already drive 4,000 kms. Why would you want to get 360 check done now?

[el lobo 6061]

Originally Posted by ssjr0498

I guess for the ZF8HP its ~8years or ~50k-75k miles, so I guess, 1.2L km will be the upper limit. Would it not be better, keeping in mind the traffic conditions in our country, we get it serviced at about 50k-60k miles?

Given the Indian road and traffic condition, you can do it earlier as well.

8 years or 80,000-1,20,000 kms which ever is earlier.

[Dr.AD]

Another Casual Morning Solo

After a couple of hectic and adventurous long drives, first in a group of BMWs and then in a group of SUVs, I felt like going for a simple, casual, relaxing solo drive to break the pattern.

So I went out early morning, took my car and went for a relaxing, slow and solo drive on the scenic roads in the hills of Tamil Nadu, bordering Bangalore.

There was no plan and no agenda. Just a casual drive. I enjoyed the forest roads and the views, breathed fresh air (one of those rare times when I could drive with sunroof open), took some photos, and came back. On the way had a breakfast at one of the village restaurants and enjoyed their fresh hot idli vada in the morning.

The rural roads in Tamil Nadu are very nice - well marked smooth roads with trees lined on both sides, and lovely forests and hills in surrounding areas. These simple, rustic roads make for a perfect morning to enjoy a relaxing drive in a nice sedan.

Although the drive was simple and casual, I could not resist taking plenty of car photos because the locations and the roads were so photogenic. Please allow me to share these photos here.

The tree-lined roads, characteristic of roads through the hills of Tamil Nadu:



On some scenic roadside:



The lovely forest roads:



Corners to enjoy a nice sedan:



Green trees and a red car:



The roads were as photogenic as the landscapes around:



Another lovely corner of the road:



Another frame from the same location:



Views from windshield:



Another corner that looked tailor-made for the car:



The same theme again - green trees, red car, and a lovely corner (I could never get tired of photographing this combination):



Another shot from the windshield:



Next to a small lake:



Views of the lake:



Another composition there:



Parting shot that summarizes the same theme again, green trees, red car and a corner of the road:


That is all from this casual morning drive. Thank you very much for reading!

[Raghu M]

Just reminded me of the Srisailam drive from Hyd. Scenic, lots of trees and a nice car to drive - what else do you want in life!

[chaitanyakrish]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

[h3]Another Casual Morning Solo

Great pics as usual. Could you please share the location or route details.

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by chaitanyakrish

Great pics as usual. Could you please share the location or route details.

Thank you!

This was all in the general area of Hosur-Denkanikkotai-Hogenakkal etc. Most roads in that area are amazing. So just exit the main highway from Hosur and explore roads around that side. You will find these and many other similar roads and spots. I did exactly the same.

Best to avoid weekend crowds near Hogenakkal waterfalls main area. But any area about 5km away from that is fine and there are plenty of lovely roads there.

[sknair]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

Another Casual Morning Solo.

Great pics Dr. AD; I got to do this route, the pics are so relaxing!
Any good breakfast options on this route?
thanks.

[that_sedate_guy]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

Most roads in that area are amazing.

These forest area roads are pure driving and riding heaven. Be it the winding twisties near Anchetty or the tree lined straights near Hogenakkal, the surroundings, especially in early monsoon mornings are exceptionally therapeutic.
The roads to the side of Denkanikotai, particularly the one through the Ratnagiri forest to Panchapalli reservoir is really lovely to drive. Very narrow indeed but you'd be twisting your way through mountainous forest roads with a river flowing alongside!
The only gripe is that these regions can get quickly dark and insect infested in the evenings because there're so little light sources anywhere and the place turns into complete wildlife territory so it's best to enjoy the belt in daylight
A shot from a few years ago from a de-stress ride on that route

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by sknair

Great pics Dr. AD; I got to do this route, the pics are so relaxing!
Any good breakfast options on this route?
thanks.

Thank you!

No, unfortunately there is no proper breakfast option on this route. There are a few small shacks - sort of like small restaurants in the villages. I had my breakfast in a similar small place. These places serve excellent hot food, but nothing fancy. You may have to stand and eat. You grab your food and move. These are not the places where you can relax with your breakfast and spend some time.

However, near Denkanikottai, there is one special place called "Rocky Ridge Cafe". They serve excellent breakfast, along with many other activities. It is sort of a homestay/resort run by one gentleman from Bangalore, who runs this place in his farm on the weekends as a hobby. Therefore, you have to call him in advance and confirm the breakfast plans before showing up there. A great place and the owner is a great person to meet and talk to.

Here is the Google Maps link: https://maps.app.goo.gl/hoJrj4JXYYUoSgtF8

Originally Posted by that_sedate_guy

The only gripe is that these regions can get quickly dark and insect infested in the evenings because there're so little light sources anywhere and the place turns into complete wildlife territory so it's best to enjoy the belt in daylight]

True. It is best to enjoy this area in the morning hours. That is why I usually do morning drives there and be back to Bangalore before lunch time.