Finally seen and sat in one

[DonM3]

If your going to keep stock wheels, then the 19s are much better IMHO than the 18s.
I personally dont like aftermarket rims. Actually I hate them with a passion.

Originally Posted by Garrett

Why, when your going to replace those with and aftermarket real rim that has some tech in it.... and doesn't look like shit!








-Garrett

[Leg]

Originally Posted by mkoesel

What would you do to fix this? What, specifically, would you change?

A good and valid question. I am starting to think that the cars I saw (black and red) werent the best colours for the car, I mostly looked at the red tbh as we had the keys for that and I havent liked the red in photos and dont in person.

However, apart from thinking that colour choice may have been a key factor in my firstimpression I would make the arches bigger, especially at the back, nothing drastic, an extra couple of inches and make sure the wheels fill the arches. I want to look at the M3 and think 'Woah, now thats a beast' and it doesnt do that at the moment, some extra 'chunk' would help.

A complete redesign of the rear bumper is needed too, that exhaust looks bloody awful. Cover it up and also I would push the exhaust outlets to the edges rather than centre which gives the impression of a wider, lower car.

I would have made the wing mirrors carbon fibre to match the roof.

Possibly make a bit more effort on the rear spoiler, the one that is there cant possibly 'do' anything and looks like some tat stuck on afterwards.

As for the interior. The car I sat in had black leather with aluminium. The aluminium looks cheap and nasty so I would go for a different option. The seats whilst of good quality are a bit bland and I would make them a little more unusual, the RS4 gets away with some great buckets, the M3 wouldnt suffer for something a little more 'sporty' too.

Other than that its hard to say without being stood in front of the car again, I didnt make specific notes, it just left me, well, flat to be honest, I was expecting to be excited and all I felt was disinterest.

Im seriously hoping its going to be like one of those songs you hate, then like, then cant get enough of.

[13eastie]

Originally Posted by Leg

Other than that its hard to say without being stood in front of the car again, I didnt make specific notes, it just left me, well, flat to be honest, I was expecting to be excited and all I felt was disinterest.

Did you make your feelings known to the dealer? If so, what was the response?

If I remember rightly, you have ordered Alpine White... If it is at all reassuring, I have seen and sat in such a car and I honestly thought it looked marvelous.

[mullrat]

Honestly though although you may certainly love the car after purchase, in my opinion this is a sign that you won't be happy with it. For me my first impression is very important. If the car does not drive me emotionally the first time i sit in it, how am I going to feel months or years from now? Probably a bit worse especially after spending that much for it. Too bad you didnt go for a drive. That would prob been a deciding factor. If I was in your shoes and I didn't like it I'd probably cancel my order. At least that's how I'm going to look at my purchase. At this point and time there is too much competition to have BMW as choices 1 2 and 3.

[Leg]

Originally Posted by 13eastie

Did you make your feelings known to the dealer? If so, what was the response?

If I remember rightly, you have ordered Alpine White... If it is at all reassuring, I have seen and sat in such a car and I honestly thought it looked marvelous.

He was quite strange to be honest. I was expecting unbridled passion from a BMW salesman confronted with what is the flagship BMW (I know there are more expensive BMWs but I think it is fair to say that the M3 is the 'figurehead' car for them).

Im a Sales Director so Im naturally critical of sales people, personally I would have enthused much more about the car in his position, picking out highlights and demonstrating bits and bobs. I think he surprised himself when he did the wheel arches thing as mentioned in an earlier post.

When I pointed out the exhaust he said 'I think thats because we are nearer the black one' (which we were as he had reversed the red one so we could open the doors freely and I had just stepped out of the red one right behind the black one) but when we moved back he just said 'hmm, no, you can really see it on both cant you'.

Ah well, all will be clear come the 10th when I go for a proper look round one and a test drive. At that stage I have to commit or cancel and get my deposit back and start all over again looking for another car. Hope I change my mind but Im not stupid eough to buy it if im not 100% sure.

Maybe his manner had an effect on me, I think I need to go back again and take a second look.

[carnuts3]

Originally Posted by mullrat

Honestly though although you may certainly love the car after purchase, in my opinion this is a sign that you won't be happy with it. For me my first impression is very important. If the car does not drive me emotionally the first time i sit in it, how am I going to feel months or years from now? Probably a bit worse especially after spending that much for it. Too bad you didnt go for a drive. That would prob been a deciding factor. If I was in your shoes and I didn't like it I'd probably cancel my order. At least that's how I'm going to look at my purchase. At this point and time there is too much competition to have BMW as choices 1 2 and 3.

I couldn't agree more. Even though I love the M brand, I'm going to keep my options open. I haven't seen the new M3 in person yet but I can tell you that my reaction to what I've already seen in pictures is not very exciting - My very first impression was that it was cheap looking like a supped-up Honda. Not a very good start, is it? I have a deposit down on the M3 sedan and even though I am #1 on the waiting list, I'm not jumping up and down in anticipation at this moment. For good or bad, it's possible that I could end up with the RS4, C63 or even the CTS-V instead. If I would have said this 12months ago I would have thought that I was losing it! Oh well, live and learn.......

[bulletproof]

Originally Posted by Leg

He was quite strange to be honest. I was expecting unbridled passion from a BMW salesman confronted with what is the flagship BMW (I know there are more expensive BMWs but I think it is fair to say that the M3 is the 'figurehead' car for them).

Im a Sales Director so Im naturally critical of sales people, personally I would have enthused much more about the car in his position, picking out highlights and demonstrating bits and bobs. I think he surprised himself when he did the wheel arches thing as mentioned in an earlier post.

When I pointed out the exhaust he said 'I think thats because we are nearer the black one' (which we were as he had reversed the red one so we could open the doors freely and I had just stepped out of the red one right behind the black one) but when we moved back he just said 'hmm, no, you can really see it on both cant you'.

Ah well, all will be clear come the 10th when I go for a proper look round one and a test drive. At that stage I have to commit or cancel and get my deposit back and start all over again looking for another car. Hope I change my mind but Im not stupid eough to buy it if im not 100% sure.

Maybe his manner had an effect on me, I think I need to go back again and take a second look.

Yes, I think the biggest design flaw is the exposed exhaust. This could be a serious eye sour to have to live with.

[Epacy]

Originally Posted by bulletproof

Yes, I think the biggest design flaw is the exposed exhaust. This could be a serious eye sour to have to live with.

Eye sore. For who?

[M3_2010]

Originally Posted by bobbo

I took myself off the list. I am going to get the 135i for now because it's more bang for the buck and invest the rest real estate.

Not a bad idea..... The interior is cheap no doubt on the M3. The only BMW interior I like is on the 7 series.....

[Epacy]

Originally Posted by M3_2010

Not a bad idea..... The interior is cheap no doubt on the M3. The only BMW interior I like is on the 7 series.....

How do you know the interior is cheap on the M3?

[Giles]

Originally Posted by Leg

A good and valid question. I am starting to think that the cars I saw (black and red) werent the best colours for the car, I mostly looked at the red tbh as we had the keys for that and I havent liked the red in photos and dont in person.

However, apart from thinking that colour choice may have been a key factor in my firstimpression I would make the arches bigger, especially at the back, nothing drastic, an extra couple of inches and make sure the wheels fill the arches. I want to look at the M3 and think 'Woah, now thats a beast' and it doesnt do that at the moment, some extra 'chunk' would help.

A complete redesign of the rear bumper is needed too, that exhaust looks bloody awful. Cover it up and also I would push the exhaust outlets to the edges rather than centre which gives the impression of a wider, lower car.

I would have made the wing mirrors carbon fibre to match the roof.

Possibly make a bit more effort on the rear spoiler, the one that is there cant possibly 'do' anything and looks like some tat stuck on afterwards.

As for the interior. The car I sat in had black leather with aluminium. The aluminium looks cheap and nasty so I would go for a different option. The seats whilst of good quality are a bit bland and I would make them a little more unusual, the RS4 gets away with some great buckets, the M3 wouldnt suffer for something a little more 'sporty' too.

Other than that its hard to say without being stood in front of the car again, I didnt make specific notes, it just left me, well, flat to be honest, I was expecting to be excited and all I felt was disinterest.

Im seriously hoping its going to be like one of those songs you hate, then like, then cant get enough of.

I agree with a lot of this based on the cars I saw yesterday in Cape Town. Colours make a big difference, plus the cars I saw were prepped for a photo shoot. The rear wheel arches should be slightly wider given how wide the front is. The exposed muffler is an issue no doubt about it, but not enough to not purchase the car. I like the mirrors, I think they grow on you. The rear spoiler is discrete, which I like, but some might say why bother. Would have been cooler if integrated into the boot lid like on the CSL. I agree that BMW should offer bucket seats as an option like on the RS4 (most people think they are standard on the RS4 - they are not).

These are all relatively small niggles though. IMHO, for the money, there is no other car on the road today that looks as good and has the performance. The new CLK looks like something from the 80s with wheel arches, spoilers and trim looking stuck on. RS4 is nice, but when parked alongside the new M3 it will look boring, particularly from the front. The M3 from the front is streets ahead of anything else on the road today at the price.

No car is perfect. Read Clarkson's article on his search for the perfect car http://www.topgear.com/content/featu...7/08/01/1.html - he concludes that the Subaru Legacy Forester is the closest thing to the perfect car and then he concludes he would never buy one.

[lucid]

Originally Posted by Leg

A good and valid question. I am starting to think that the cars I saw (black and red) werent the best colours for the car, I mostly looked at the red tbh as we had the keys for that and I havent liked the red in photos and dont in person.

However, apart from thinking that colour choice may have been a key factor in my firstimpression I would make the arches bigger, especially at the back, nothing drastic, an extra couple of inches and make sure the wheels fill the arches. I want to look at the M3 and think 'Woah, now thats a beast' and it doesnt do that at the moment, some extra 'chunk' would help.

A complete redesign of the rear bumper is needed too, that exhaust looks bloody awful. Cover it up and also I would push the exhaust outlets to the edges rather than centre which gives the impression of a wider, lower car.

I would have made the wing mirrors carbon fibre to match the roof.

Possibly make a bit more effort on the rear spoiler, the one that is there cant possibly 'do' anything and looks like some tat stuck on afterwards.

As for the interior. The car I sat in had black leather with aluminium. The aluminium looks cheap and nasty so I would go for a different option. The seats whilst of good quality are a bit bland and I would make them a little more unusual, the RS4 gets away with some great buckets, the M3 wouldnt suffer for something a little more 'sporty' too.

Other than that its hard to say without being stood in front of the car again, I didnt make specific notes, it just left me, well, flat to be honest, I was expecting to be excited and all I felt was disinterest.

Im seriously hoping its going to be like one of those songs you hate, then like, then cant get enough of.

Your observations pretty much confirm whatever doubt I had about the appearance of this car--in and out. The exhaust really seems odd on some pics, and I kind of go like "Haven’t they seen what I'm seeing?" By now, most people on this forum know my feelings toward the interior, so I won't repeat myself. And again, I agree that they could have stuck the fenders out by about an inch to further differentiate this car from the rest of the 3-series and give it a stronger personality and so on.

So, why am I still here and considering this purchase? My gut feeling is that it will be a thrill to drive, and that will be the determining factor. That doesn't mean that the interior will ever grow on me or anything, but I am betting the driving experience will make me focus on other things in general. Let us know how your test drive goes.

[2002 Tii]

The thing that makes me happy is to hear the exhaust, engine sound is metallic, I hope more like an Italian V8 and not an American V8.

[m3junkie]

RS4 buckets are a no cost oiption in the UK - or at least they where when the car was sold here!

[fbm3cab]

BUMP. HaHa

[Kung Fu English]

Originally Posted by fbm3cab

BUMP. HaHa

dat necro

[Boostin FD]

I expect that kind of post from the 2014 M3 and M4 as well.

[elitex]

History repeating itself. Sounds very familiar to the remarks regarding the new M3/M4.

[Rupes]

I had to look at the date. I thought this was a review of the new 2015 M3. The guy kept saying V8 though, and I was thinking, "I'm supposed to trust a guy that doesn't even know they switched to an inline 6 for the new M?"

[Someone?]

Originally Posted by elitex

History repeating itself. Sounds very familiar to the remarks regarding the new M3/M4.

Yup, but he must have been a dam fool to think the e92 M3 looked regular and sounded bad,WTF was he smoken?

[flint]

Nice bump. Reminded me I should keep an open mind...

[scutts]

Good bump. Puts things into a different perspective.