Completely agree on the colors. I have an 09 production number and the SGM delete has really left me hanging. Based on the original BMW pics, which looked like a nice metallic red, I was all set to love Sedona Red. In person I did not care for it. This last weekend I drove 40 mins. to look at a fellow 1er's Montego since there are none to be found on dealer lots. I liked it more than I thought I would and it suits the car's character better than the 3-series. Pic below is in bright sun.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BeamerDreamer
I just visited my local dealer and the salesman confirmed with me that SGM is gone for '09 and Space Grey would be the replacement. I looked at a couple of 5 series that he had in Space Grey and wasn't impressed at all. I'm not very happy about it either since SGM is definitely my first choice. Now I have to choose a new color. I'm leaning toward TiAg now.
I also saw the 135 in Montego and Monaco blue. The Montego was too bright for my taste and the Monaco was too dark. The Monaco was half in the shade and the sun. If you saw it in the shade, you might mistake it for black. In the sunlight you can definitely see that it's a dark blue. After having black cars for the past 15+ years, I think I want something lighter in color.
Here is some other pieces of information that I got:
I was told that there hasn't been confirmation of the new iDrive system for '09 in any models other than the 3 series sedan. I found this pretty hard to believe. Can anyone confirm or deny this?
Glacier Silver Aluminum trim will be discontinued. He said the response has not been good and they will get either the Titanium or Brushed Alumium for '09. (Good news because I really didn't like the fish scale effect of the Glacier Silver Aluminum but I like the contrast that it gives with the black dash.)
I mentioned the DCT coming to the 3 series and he had no idea what I was talking about. I am pretty sure that it won't come to the 1 series but if it were, I would definitely pay the extra money to get it.
I know that some other dealerships don't have much information about ordering a car with Lemon or Terracotta leather and you have to educate them that it's available. The salesman that I spoke to said it was no problem to get either and had a SGM '08 with Lemon leather to show me. He also told me that Coral Red is special order only which is understandable.
I asked him about breaking in the car since I plan on doing European Delivery and wanted to really push it out on the Autobahn and through the Alps. He said he has spoken to BMW engineers and they say to push it fairly hard. The cars that were pushed hard during break in are usually more powerful. (I have my doubts about this but I am sure I will push the car pretty hard during my ED.)
He mentioned a chip that he uses in his 335i. It called the Turbo Tuner from Split Second. http://www.splitsec.com/ He said he gets 80hp and 100lb/ft of torque from this plug and play chip that he can install or remove in about a minute. I think he was exaggerating a bit. Does anyone have experience with this part?
So that is what I got out of him. If anyone can confirm any of these rumors or has other information please chime in. |