gangzoom

I think someone has a serious comittment issue!! Barely a few months into ownership and already planning whats next, hope you have a very understanding other half

Sounds like your enjoying the car . If you want your bank account to stay healthy, keep it stock, and don't even look into modding it!!

The exhaust actually sounds fab from the outside, but the cabin is so well insulated its hard to hear it inside. On the plus side you can actually have a conversation with passengers at 70mph without having to raise your voice

My 335 (08) makes all kinds of noises on start up/warming up, as long as it all settles down and pulls nicely through the gears it's not a worry. The seat adjustment depends on what kind of spec the seats are, I'm not too clued up on all the options, the most important option is what's under the bonnet If you have an extended BMW warranty for 3 years than you should have no worries about the mechanicals...I've now realised BMWs are alot less reliable than Nissans!! But a warranty does mean you have to think twice before modding the car Sounds like you got a car with lots of spec, am sure your love it. Quite a few people have now moved from the Z to a 335, and as far as I know no one has regretted the move!!

Sound scary, glad you got away without needing theatre. I hate driving after night shifts, I've come close to crashing several times driving post night shifts, and know of a few colleagues who have crashed whilst driving home after a busy shift. I use to plan things to do post night shifts, as I always felt silly "wasting" a day sleeping, but these days if I'm knackered after a night shift I just go to sleep. Hope you get over your injuries quickly, bits on the car can always be replaced .

Just seen the episode, I had my eye on a Cerb before the Z!! Looks like going for a Z was a good call, I think even you guys would struggle to source and fit a new chassis

Glad to see you liked the 335i I had my Z for 4 years, and spent a fair amount on various bits (as Mitz would testify), but the 335 is simply better in nearly every department. Stock the 335i feels faster than the Z, but once the engine's had a few light modifications (Intercooler, downpipes, ECU tune on mine) it'll give a M3 a scare . Show it a few corners and it's just as fun to drive as the Z, but mine has had a LSD and uprated antiroll bars fitted. On a gentle M road run its alot more economical than the Z, I know people always say "i don't care about mpg" but lets be honest with petrol prices coming up to £1.50 a litre, you have to be very loaded not to care about mpg. Servicing costs are cheap, no more so than the Z, and certainly less than a M car, Early car have some issues regarding turbo wastegate rattles, but these issues should be well and truly sorted by now. In around 2010 cars went from a 3L twinturbo (N54) to a 3L single turbo (N55). The twinturbo engine (N54) is suppose to be more tuneable (and apparently has forged internals), BMW used in the 1M, Z4 35iS and 335iS (which never came to the UK). Over the pond people have hit 600 WHP with the N54 unit!! ( with suitable mods http://www.e90post.c...ad.php?t=651949). The N55 engine isn't far behind though, the M135i has the N55 unit, and by the sounds of it the new M3 will have a N55 lump but 3 turbos stuck on to it!! I've had mine for 2 years now, the only thing I miss about the Z is the looks. The worst thing about the 335 is the fact its a BMW, and people naturally assume I bought it for the BMW badge and start comparing it to their 320D . But bear in mind you can now pick up a used one for £10K, and a £300 remap/ECU chip will see 350-360bhp.....Theres not many cars I can think of that you can pick up for £10K and offer RWD, decent economy, praticallity, relatively modern (the E90 was only replace by the F30 last year), and huge tunning potential. A B8 S4 is a probably the only other car that comes close, but I have no idea how much they cost these days, I choose the 335i over the S4 because the 335i was alot cheaper. You might tell I'm a fan of the 335i...no plans to sell mine for a LONG LONG time yet. Have already bought more parts for Andy/Mitz to fit, that's despite me making a new years resolution not to spend any more money on the car .

Great to hear the you think the overall speed isn't too quick. Theres 5 of us in total, but I cannot get out of work so have to miss a few days in the middle , but will still end up doing a large part of it. Went for a quick ride on the new bike today, no cleats due to my old look cleats not fitting, and seat position was all wrong, still managed to do PB on just about every part of the ride....so the bike might not matter, but it defiantly helps to have a good one . The bike I was going to use for the ride was the weak-link of the group, been everyone else has carbon frames and at least 105 group sets, so overall I think we certainly have the equipment to keep the speed up.... How did you manage to feed your self on the trip?? I can manage a 1hr of hard riding without eating, but any longer and I have to chew on some sweets/bananas otherwise I just end up hitting the wall. Did that once, and had such bad leg cramp had to walk up a hill .

Since a few of us are attempting the Lands End to John'O groats bike ride in a few months, one of my mate's said he would lend me one of his road bikes. It's the cheapest road bike he has, and admits his not really looked after it since he considers it to be his "hack" bike.... I went to collect it from him today and it turns out its a Trek 5500. Full Dura Ace group set, Carbon frame, Mavic Ksyrium wheel set, essentially at one point it was the best road bike money can buy ...I remember looking at one when it first came out, price was north of £2.5K if I remember, always dreamed of riding one....and now I have one sitting in my living room . Been out in it a couple of times, nearly crashed at the first down hill corner due to just how much quicker it is compared to my normal road bike (£300 7005 aluminium frame, Sora groupset, with 105 wheelset). Total weight of the bike is under 7kg!! May have to try and persuade my wife to let me buy the bike off my mate once the ride is over, afterall the bits on the bike is now a few generations old so a tidy discount should be in order . Just need to get the legs fit enough to justify riding such a gorgeous bike .

I'm a bit worried about the bikes we've chosen to ride on the trip....We're all on road bike, no triples, and been averaging 20mph on some training rides, which I think is far too quick..at least thats my excuse when I'm sitting at the back of the group drafting off everyone . One of my mates have lent me his "hack" bike for the trip....A few years ago Lance Armstrong was using something similar (along whole load of drugs) to win the Tour, but my mate considers it to be outdated and slow compared to his other bikes .

Looks like this was quite a trip Me and a few mates are doing the it the other way round LEGOJ, end of May this year (2013). Training has started in earnest, aiming for a rather ambitious 15mph average. Any tips on training??? (we're lucky and having our wifes come along in a support van )

When I came to replacing the Z (wanted something bigger and more economical) getting a BMW was the last thing on my mind, but ended up with a 335i because nothing else ticked all the boxes. Spent about 4 weekends visting random car dealerships and looked at just about everything on the market. 1) Megane/Focus RS: Decent enough cars but horrible interiors and generally felt really badly put together (Megane in particular). If I was 20 I would love one, but not anymore. 2) Evo/Impreza: Again horrible interiors, but main problem was rubbish MPG and needing lots of servicing (and wife said no way) . 3) Infiniti: Not really a "step up" from the Z, same engine but heavier and more expensive to buy. 4) Lexus: The ISF was the only option, but too bad on fuel. 5) Mercedes: My parents in law has one, and just about every well off old person I know has one. Only the proper AMG ones worth looking at but again too bad on fuel. 6) VW: Golf R, very nice, nearly bought one, but luckly realised at last minute spending £32K on a Golf was crazy money. 7) Alfa: All looks lovely, but none were very fast or efficent. 8) Audi: Just about as common as BMWs, S4 looked very nice, could just about afford one....booked into Audi dealer to have a look ....but whilst looking at reviews for the S4 the BMW 335i kept on been mentioned. Looked on Autotrader/Pistonheads, found a 335i that cost £10K less than a similar spec S4 and bought it over the phone . Nearly 2 years on I don't really miss the Z, the Z is definalty still the most attention attractive car I've owned, but 335 suits my needs perfectly.

I don't think Apple is missing your business, its quite funny how most people these days link Apple with iPhone/iPods, when actually Apple as a company has spent most of their existence making COMPUTERS.... My dad had a Mac Plus back in the 1980s (it had a 4MB ram upgrade so it meant you could run programs off a RAM disk...essentially like a SSD which is now all the rage, but this was back in 1980's, and because of the MacOS is so easy to use a 9 year old could set it up ). He also bought the original iMac (1998), it came without a floppy disc drive, and had a new fangled thing called a USB port....who would thought that would catch on . Personally I liked it when Apple wasn't popular and was seen as the alternative choice, these days everyone seem to have an Apple phone/laptop. The computer that I do most of my work stuff on is a MacPro from 2006!! I've just managed to get the latest version MacOS 10.8 installed on it, and it runs great (PhotoShop, Office, Flash, and the occasional StarCraft 2 session). I bet there's not many PCs around from 2006 running the most up-to-date version of windows .

Went to Iceland recently, plan to was see the Northen lights but the weather had other plans, still plenty of otherthings to see!!.....Going back in September to try again The "Cliff" on the left is the edge of the North American Continent, the ground around it is apparently constantly moving, and will eventually sink under the North American plate .

Hope you like the Z4.....wouldn't hold your breath about getting any interest from your saving though

It sort of makes sense.......clearly you want to get rid of your current car, and to only take a £1K hit on px is fab....But for a tiny bit more money you can get a similar spec/aged 335i from a main dealer. http://www.pistonhea...2dr-auto/997422 My 335i is costing me less to run than my Z (excluding mods ), thats despite it been faster and more practical. I think most dealers find 335s hard to shift, so I'm sure your get a good trade in against your car. The only thing I miss about the Z is its better looks, but clearly you like the way bimmers look. Your main compliant about the 320i is lack of power, so why not just get a BMW with a proper petrolheads engine in it??....Trust me a lack of power is one-thing you will not be complaining of in a 335i

Go for it, the 335/535/635d are all great, but I have heard they aren't actually very good for fuel..but than again they are 300bhp cars . Regarding electrics and servicing, its actually not hard to replace bits your self, I can take out my entire iDrive sat nav in about 15 minutes. As long as you got the patience you can also do alot of the coding stuff your self with a £10 lead off eBay (Battery resets/Error Code reading etc). Infact I'm looking at upgrading my iDrive to the latest version myself, but have some reservation about buying a "used" iDrive system from Eastern europe given that quite alot of stolen BMWs in the UK end up in Europe. But if you take it to a dealer (as you might have to if you want a intact warranty/service history), than be prepared to hand over lots of cash!!

Found this OLD video on how/why RWD cars NEED a LSD....interesting how some "Premium" manufactures (BMW/Mercedes) don't bother putting LSD into their RWD cars but Nissan do Skip to 1:50 to start the interesting stuff

I've found servicing on the 335i is no more expensive than the Z, the biggest cost (just as with the Z) is the amount I've spent on mods. Infact I'm alot more confident doing stuff on the car my self these days simply because I couldn't find many garages that wanted to install the various bits I keep on buying for the car . All the trim bits are made from very high quality plastics, and stuff in the engine bay is nicely laid out, and I've yet to break anything (apart from one ECU plug holder thingy) The servicing intervals are almost unbelievably long, the oil surface is every 20,000 miles or every 2 years , the Civic needs has a service interval of 12,500 or every 12 months. Ofcourse if you go the main dealer than the costs are stupidly high...someone has to pay for the posh show room, 'free coffee' and the BMW 'brand'. I would go as far to say my local BMW dealer is simply the worst main dealer I've ever come across, arrogant, patronising, and generally a total disinterest in cars...the fact every time i've dealt with them I was wearing my gym gear might have something to do with their attitude towards me though

Why did they make it so ugly .........otherwise almost perfect, apparently the 235i (or what ever its going to be called) will be ready to order by November may be you should wait to see what they look like

I think this is the biggest issue you have to work on ,...,,as much as I love my 335i, I didn't buy it because its a BMW, I bought it because it is a very good car that does everything I want (speed/rear seats/decent ecnomomy/blends in with the crowd). BMW do some great cars, 135i/335i/1M/M3 etc...but they also do alot of boring cars which they make lots of money from because people buy them for the badge/brand (as you have found out with your 320i). The only Z4 worth considering would be one with a 6 cylinder engine, even than theres no real reason why you should pick a Z4 over a 370Z or Boxster. I know if I had £25 to spend and didn't need to worry about having rear seats/boot I don't think any BMW would get anywhere near the short list

Thanks, hope your well!! Was going to txt you but in the middle of swapping phones at moment so didn't want you to get a random message from a unknown number . Car will need a oil service soon, still don't trust the onboard computer which keeps on telling me the oil will be fine for another 10,000 miles even though the last time it was changed was nearly 12 months ago, so will be in touch..

Bought some Alufelgens 19inch wheels (CLS reps essentially) a while back, been waiting for a chance to fit them, even though its predicted to snow more here next week I thought why not, so fitted them today....have to say they look better than I would have thought, sadly its they are as clean as they will ever get. ..its never going to look as good as the Z, but I'm pretty happy with how it looks now, maybe I can now finally start saving up for the next car instead of spending everything on this one . ....This is now the car looked when I first picked it up to nearly 2 years ago (after waving the Z goodbye ).

I would be very cautious of buying insurance write offs....as tempting as they might be I would really want to see pics of the damage what was done before any repairs. Heres a lovely looking BMW 330D converted to look like a M3 Estate, nicely modded ... On the face of it nothing wrong, apart been an insurance write off................. ..... ..... .... ..... ..... ..... Here's what it looked like towards the end of last year when it was written off :scare: ......and it just wasn't body panels that were damaged!!!! ......I'm sure the car has been repaired to a perfect standard, but would you really be happy paying your hard earned cash to be driving around in it, knowing what it has been through :surrender:.

Had the TV on last night after TopGear, and randomly started watching the program on physics by Brian Cox....couldn't believe he was trying to explain quantum physics to a bunch of celebrities on national TV Did love the program though (most more interesting than this years TopGear), I remember doing a physics equation at A level where I managed to prove to my self the more the information you have about the location of an electron in a Hydrogen atom the LESS you actually knew about where it is Fascinating stuff but far too clever for my brain, cannot imaging what its like to think about the world on an atomic level....especially the bit about how every electron in the entire universe reacts to each other simutaneously