[mobike008]

Originally Posted by asterix

My headlights have a blue segment running across the light and it is indeed the laser package, which has all the adaptive LED features (cornering, auto dim on approaching vehicle etc) plus the 600 m throw of laser.

Have seen the lasers in action and it is quite the night and days difference in illumination when compared to the lights on my E70 X5. In India, the auto dim feature is impractical at high speeds and i prefer to switch to manual mode. When in manual, am not able to figure out if the lasers are activated or not.--the local dealership is not very clear on this either.

Yes, I know Laser lights are the latest technology and are much improved over the LED lights. Lucky that you have them, I could only wish it was available on my model. But, no regrets as Adaptive LED's are brilliant as well

As Turbanator mentioned, it is recently allowed on BMW cars and I think the BMW X7 and a few other models have these here in the US

Originally Posted by Vid6639

Just did some checks on BMW airbags

Originally Posted by graaja

+100 to others who have pointed this out. Please remove this contraption. Yes. It looks very good. But totally not worth the risk!

Well, Well. Being fellow BMW owners, You decide to visit my thread only when you see an issue with what you see here but, never made an attempt to congratulate me on my new acquisition

Originally Posted by Turbanator

Best will be to take off, at least from social media

I agree with your point. I need to be careful what i post on the forum. Will make a note of it. Thank you Turbanator

[graaja]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Well, Well. Being fellow BMW owners, You decide to visit my thread only when you see an issue with what you see here but, never made an attempt to congratulate me on my new acquisition

Ah. That is my bad! Please accept my apologies

Congratulations on the beast. Wishing you tens of thousands of miles and smiles

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by graaja

Ah. That is my bad! Please accept my apologies

Congratulations on the beast. Wishing you tens of thousands of miles and smiles

No need for apologies. And, thank you for your good wishes

In other news, I was looking for some M design grille badges. There are multiple options here right from painting it to cheap plastics to some really good quality stuff that are expensive

After scouting for a while, decided to go with an expensive material with colors that look like true M colors as some options are not true M colors as shades don't really match real M colors

These came in over the weekend and were simple to fix. Just press them to the grille and it locks with a nice "click"

Seller is guaranteeing no color fade under bad weather conditions (harsh sunlight, snow or rains) and also comforted me saying that washing the car won't fade the colors.

Let's see how long it lasts. For now, All I can say is- "I'm Lovin' it"

[mobike008]

Last weekend was a truly petrol head weekend as it was spent purely discussing cars and enjoying some quality time with our respective families. Nikhil drove down from Pittsburg for the drag event in Detroit and stayed over at my place on Saturday.

This gave us a great opportunity to know each other well and also spend sometime hanging out in some nice places in Detroit and not to mention I enjoyed driving the sedan version of B58 (M40i) and he took the wheels of the X3M 40i. Entire weekend we drove each other's cars and this gave me a good perspective of how the BMW M40i behaves compared to my car.

Sunday was the drag event and after meeting at a designated place, I decided to take over the wheel of the mighty Dodge Challenger Scatpack (a 485hp beast with stick shift) that I drove until the drag strip which was around 55 miles away.

It was wonderful to drive a manual car after more than 3.5 years and it took me quite a while to get adjusted to a manual as I would keep forgetting to press the clutch whenever I had to halt at a stoplight and a totally funny incident happened while driving to the event.

Challenger has it's parking brake under the instrument cluster on left and when I was trying to release that to drive, I accidentally opened the hood and continued driving. In a few minutes, I get a call from Scatpack mentioning that the hood is open. We were on a freeway and it was terribly risky to stop on the shoulder as they were that broad so had to drive carefully for about 5-6 miles and pull over on a broad shoulder to pop the hood back in its place.

Enough of talk, here are some pictures of the meet and more pictures of the drag event can be found on the “Detroit Meet Thread”.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/team-...ml#post5048502 (Team BHP USA meets in Detroit)

P.S : Due to MB restrictions, most of the pictures are in reduced size format so the quality might not be the best. And, all taken from my iPhone !!!

[scatpack392]

mobike008, wonderful pictures there. It was a wonderful experience driving your X3 that day, I love the SPORT mode!!

[nikhilarni]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Nikhil drove down from Pittsburg for the drag event in Detroit and stayed over at my place on Saturday.

This gave us a great opportunity to know each other well and also spend sometime hanging out in some nice places in Detroit and not to mention I enjoyed driving the sedan version of B58 (M40i) and he took the wheels of the X3M 40i. Entire weekend we drove each other's cars and this gave me a good perspective of how the BMW M40i behaves compared to my car.

True. Had a fun weekend. Made my first long drive on the M340i. Got a chance to drive Avi's X3 M40i, like any petro-head, we had to exchange notes.

Other than the usual stuff about an SUV vs a Sedan, considering its the same engine, I was pleasantly surprised to note that the X3 M40i has a louder and more pronounced exhaust note ( grumble, gurgle and the pop ) as compared to my M340i which is fairly subdued.

Originally Posted by scatpack392

mobike008, wonderful pictures there. It was a wonderful experience driving your X3 that day, I love the SPORT mode!!

Hi Abhijit aka Scatpack392,

That Sport and Sport + Mode transforms the car into a Beast. Given its power to weight ratio, she just lurches and flies. I wish we had more time at hand, I was so tempted to drive your Scatpack. Maybe next time.

Been a while since I have driven a MT vehicle as well.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by scatpack392

mobike008, wonderful pictures there. It was a wonderful experience driving your X3 that day, I love the SPORT mode!!

Thanks Abhijit. Glad that you enjoyed driving my car !!

Originally Posted by nikhilarni

I was pleasantly surprised to note that the X3 M40i has a louder and more pronounced exhaust note ( grumble, gurgle and the pop ) as compared to my M340i which is fairly subdued.

Nice to know you noted this difference. Yes, the X3 exhaust note is much louder than the M340i and crackle and pop drama is very prominent in the sports mode especially when you deaccelarate or brake

Now we both have an experience of how our respective cars drive

Originally Posted by nikhilarni

Been a while since I have driven a MT vehicle as well.

Trust me, it will take getting used to as we forgot how to drive a manual.

I struggled for at least 10+ miles as I kept forgetting to use my left leg and almost stalled the car at one traffic signal

But, once you get used to it. It is a pleasure to use the stick shift and go through the gears as that's what our brain was tuned to all our car owning history

[scatpack392]

Hi Abhijit aka Scatpack392,

That Sport and Sport + Mode transforms the car into a Beast. Given its power to weight ratio, she just lurches and flies. I wish we had more time at hand, I was so tempted to drive your Scatpack. Maybe next time.

Been a while since I have driven a MT vehicle as well.

Sure Nikhil, in our next meet, please take her for a drive

[mobike008]

It’s been 3.5 months since Blau Rakete came home and it completed just 2500 miles.

I noticed I have crazy relationship with tires for almost all new cars that I bought in my life. Brand new car getting punctured or a nail going into it etc has been a historical scenario and this time it was no different

Well, We made a few trips out of town like Cleveland and Columbus in the last month but, didn’t take my car as my friend prefers we ride with him in his massive Traverse so both our families can enjoy talking and kids playing in the back-seat and out of ear-shot of our gossip stories

Last weekend, I was in the mood to drive as we were planning to visit our annual ritual spot in Spring (Holland, Michigan) to enjoy the Tulip Festival ( I believe there are only 3 places in entire US where you can enjoy Tulip Festivals (Washington, Michigan and New Jersey)

I never checked air pressure ever since I got my car, I casually stopped at a Costco outlet to check air pressure. The guy who checked said FR tyre valve was leaking air and he recommended I better go to BMW as they are run-flats. Kaboom, there goes my plan to drive for the weekend as it was late in evening and hard to get hold of BMW folks

I drove 5 miles back home with a new notification on screen of “Low Tire Pressure”

Monday morning, I checked with my friend who has the M340i and he recommended that I go to “Discount Tire” as he said their service is awesome. I called local BMW showroom and left a VM and decided to go to Discount Tire as they are a pretty popular brand and there are plenty of them near home. Called them and took a 1:45 pm appointment and explained the problem and manager there said it’s pretty unusual for a new BMW and said if the valve needs to be replaced it will be $60 for the consumable and labor

I reached there on time and they ushered me in and did a thorough job of checking the valve, tyre and the stem. Valve was broken at the top and perhaps could be due to pressure applied by the Costco air guy. They replaced the valve and got the tyre back on rim but, there was still air leaking, so he replaced the long stem and checked in

This time, it worked and there was no leaking. They checked entire tyre and thankfully said the tyre is not damaged (I drove a total of 15 miles with low pressure with some noise coming from tyre due to its slightly deflated state) and checked all other tires

I checked that notification was still ON, Manager said drive a few miles and it would go away

Asked him “ What are the charges” he told me "No charges and you are good to go"

I was zapped, they spent an hour on the car and replaced consumables and let go off me with a $0 bill (If it was BMW, I wouldn’t have blinked an eye but, some third party store doing this was unbelievable)

Now I know what my friend meant. This was “Height of Customer Service” !!!

P.S : I just reset the TPMS and notification went away and life is back to normal

P.S 2 : These cars are loaded with technology gizmos are just too sensitive so I will never check air pressure just for heck of it and only when I need to. LOL!

[mobike008]

This pleasant surprise came into my inbox last week.

I spoke to them earlier this week and they mentioned they started this program from June 2020 and there are different offers for different BMW New Vehicle Buyers.

They asked for all my purchase details and then mentioned that I have an offer for a full day at any of their 2 BMW Performance Centers in US to experience their "almost full line-up" of M cars on a track guided by trained drivers.

This offer allows me and one another participant to enjoy this experience completely free of cost. However, all expenses to reach the venue and other expenses has to be borne by myself. Considering what's on offer, I still feel this is a fantastic offer by BMW NA.

I will get to experience the M2, M3, M4 and M8. Also, the X3M and X5M

This offer is valid until January 2022 so I have another 7 months to make up my mind which location to visit (Greer in South Carolina or Thermal, California). I need to do some research to check which track is most enjoyable.

Hopefully will plan one weekend before end of this year.

[mobike008]

First blow of owning an expensive machine

A couple of weeks back, had gone on a day trip with some friends and did not take my car along (due to tire valve issue) but, stupidly carried the keys along with me.

I lost the BMW key and got a shocker of my life when dealership quoted $450 to replace the key

It's a totally another matter for some strange reason we lost the home key too and were locked out of the home that night. It was like someone had eye on these 2 keys. LOL!

Anyways just checking in to know if someone had similar experience and is there a workaround for a reasonable alternate? I dont mind coughing up the dough but, just curious to know if someone had similar experience and how they addressed it.

P.S : I am currently using the 2nd key and paranoid that i might lose that as well!

[Turbanator]

^^
Keys are indeed expensive. Not sure if they will change the complete set or just get a new coded from Germany. Do ask, what happens if someone finds the earlier key.

Valve issue seems to be an isolated. Normally, these don’t break while filling Air at least. Exceptional service by Discount Tire. They have got a future customer and many more via you.

Your car doesn’t show air pressure? It will be a good idea to get a good gauge and a portable inflator if not already. It’s a pain checking and filling Air on most pumps. At least in Canada, except for Costco, one has to pay a Dollar or more and the gauges are from early last century.

Track day will be great. The problem I see is that after return, you may be using your right foot more strongly, at least for few days

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

^^
Keys are indeed expensive. Not sure if they will change the complete set or just get a new coded from Germany. Do ask, what happens if someone finds the earlier key.

The price ($450) is per key and not for the set. Need to submit my registration and license to any local BMW dealership and make the payment and they will send the key by mail within 2-3 days. So I am assuming it will be done within the US.

I also understand that old key will be detagged from my VIN so nobody can use that key.

I'm still reeling from the price shock as that's a lot of money for just replacing a key. I have learnt my lesson and will now buy an Apple Airtag ($29/each) to keep the keys safe.

Originally Posted by Turbanator

Valve issue seems to be an isolated. Normally, these don’t break while filling Air at least. Exceptional service by Discount Tire. They have got a future customer and many more via you.

Your car doesn’t show air pressure? It will be a good idea to get a good gauge and a portable inflator if not already. It’s a pain checking and filling Air on most pumps. At least in Canada, except for Costco, one has to pay a Dollar or more and the gauges are from early last century.

I have always checked air from Costco as it's free and there is one about 1.5 miles away from home. Normally, here I check air pressure about 2 or 3 times in a year. Dont know why but, the pressure here retains for a long long time.

TPMS is a pretty basic feature and is available in almost all cars so obviously even I have it. I casually went to check air at Costco as TPMS didnt show I was low on pressure. I reckon that was a mistake. Top up only if the TPMS shows a notification. Till then just enjoy the drive.

You are right, they have found a life long customer in me based on my first experience. I think that is a good strategy to rope in new business

Originally Posted by Turbanator

Track day will be great. The problem I see is that after return, you may be using your right foot more strongly, at least for few days

Well, I always had a lead foot and track day will make it worse. But, I cannot wait to experience it. It's free for 1-day and if and when I make this trip then will probably pay for another day to make it a 2-day affair to make the trip worthwhile.

[landcruiser123]

Great ownership review and amazing pictures as well.

Love your writing style; Wish you many miles of smiles and looking forward to a ride in this menacing machine someday.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by landcruiser123

Great ownership review and amazing pictures as well. Love your writing style; Wish you many miles of smiles and looking forward to a ride in this menacing machine someday.

Thanks for your wishes and glad you liked the pictures. My style of writing is informal. I leave formality for professional purposes...LOL

You can get a ride in this menacing machine on June 19th. Clocking is ticking so join up !


4000 Miles Update

Been an amazing journey now for about 4.5 months and completed 4200 Miles (6600kms) which is a bit low by my standard as like everyone else my driving has reduced drastically due to Pandemic. Also, it’s rarely I drive from Monday-Thursday.

Friday, All hell breaks loose and I enjoy driving over the weekend for long durations.

I love being in outdoors and travel quite a bit (official/personal) and enjoy visiting new places. We are literally going somewhere every weekend (Pandemic or No Pandemic) as nature and outdoors brings that much needed peace that’s needed to remain calm from all the maddening work pressures.

We were looking forward to our first official holiday in 2021 (Memorial Day-May 31st) so planned a road trip to Upper Michigan which happens to be now my most favorite place in US.

We booked an Airbnb and could have driven directly to that location but, nope I planned to take a detour and drive west and then north along the famous Michigan SR 22 which goes along the coast of Lake Michigan for 120 miles. It was a gorgeous and beautiful drive stopping at quaint little towns, enjoying local food and sinking in the outstanding beauty of nature.

We spent 3 glorious days at Lake Walloon (where we stayed) visited some of the popular vacation and honeymoon destinations of Michigan which are 10-50 miles in distance from Lake Walloon, namely :

Petoskey, Michigan
Charlevoix, Michigan
Elke Rapids, Michigan
Harbor Springs, Michigan
Torch Lake, Michigan

After a long time, we enjoyed such beautiful scenery and was a memorable road trip of 950 miles.

After completing 4000 miles with my Bimmer, I’m slowly but, steadily getting to know her better and thought of sharing a revised “ What is good & What can be improved”.

What is Good

1. Driving this car has changed my perspective of how cars should be. I’m totally in love with entire experience which I never felt for any of cars that I owned previously especially the need to find an excuse to drive it (I used to have similar feeling for motorcycles but, never for cars). I’m now what they call “ Bimmer for Life” and that too only M-Performance.

2. Convenience features is helpful like Gesture Control, HUD Experience, Turning Lights and BMW Navigation and since I have an entire Apple ecosystem, everything works seamless with BMW as Apple have a special relationship with BMW. In fact, Apple is working on nice feature of keyless entry for BMW’s by using Apple Wallet (Coming later in the year).

3. Well, people might snicker but, I like to check my car’s fuel average for “every tankful” and that has been a practice for all 11-12 brand new cars that I owned till date. I am amazed at how good FE is for this car. Btw, all of this on 93 Octane liquid gold.

Sports/Sports + : 18mpg-20mpg ( 4.8kmpl-5.5kmpl)
Comfort Mode : 22-24mpg ( 6kmpl-6.5kmpl)
Ecopro : 29mpg (8kmpl)

4. Power is so addictive that it’s difficult to drive in any other mode other than Comfort and Sports. Sports + is quite extreme for day to day as the accelerator pedal literally has no play and the car lunges forward with an urgency even with feather touch of the foot. Ecopro works wonder not just on fuel average but, overall transformation of a relaxed feel which is needed for long highway drives

5. Handling and Steering wheel is razor sharp and supreme for a SAV. And, this does not feel like driving a SUV at all. It’s light as there is literally no body roll for your day to day driving experience, It is compact, extremely agile and darts across lanes and takes corners like a sedan (and, I have thrown it in corners in some unmentionable speeds and happy with confidence it exudes in such situations).

6. Current 19” wheels don’t fill the wheel wells completely but, are perfect for X3 as I drove the 20” version recently and ride quality was quite harsh. So it’s looks vs. comfort preference.

7. For a compact SAV, there is plenty of space inside and good for 5 adults (we experienced that some weeks ago when my sister’s family visited us).

8. Boot space is comparable to larger sized SAV’s. Happy with space available (and, that fancy trick to open the boot work flawlessly).


What can be improved

1. Moonroof does not open completely until the edge which is bit of a disappointment.

2. It’s not really comfortable for long drives (>300 Miles) for my size (6ft. 1in) primary due to the Seat’s side bolsters which curve upwards and pinch into my thighs and I need to keep adjusting to find a comfortable position. This is the only sore point of my experience. Any way around this situation other than losing weight?

3. Paddle Shifters as well as the turning signal stalks are the only standing out quality 
(negatively) features from a luxurious and well appointed interior.

4. I got to know through Bimmer forums-I opted for Carbon Fiber. But, BMW gave my car with piano finish near gear selector console. It should have been Carbon Fiber. They are doing this for many new cars as they are short of that part. I need to visit a local BMW dealership and get that changed. Piano black finish near gear selector attracts lot of dust.

Well, that’s what comes to mind for now. Will keep updating as I grow older with this gorgeous machine

Here are some pictures in no particular order of our Memorial Day trip to Upper Michigan