2011 135i vert. test drive

[marcus]

Hey all,
Just test drove a 135i vert(DCT). Little background info: I had a 2008 135i coupe for about a year.
Anyways, here is what I think:

Exhaust sounds is increadible, definately better that my '08. Much deeper and throaty like others have said. But not too loud for the vert. It sounds awesome driving in between rows of houses.

The DCT works pretty fast. I was driving onto the Autobahn in 6th(non sport mode), i hit the gas and it immediately shifted to 4th and skipped 5th. I definately like the 7th gear. It revs much lower at higher speeds than my 6MT. There is a little lag when you drive in the city and you really want to punch it(which is normal thing for automatics), but really how often do you punch it in the city? The paddle shifters are alot nicer than the old ones. They feel great in the hands and are curve in the back, perfect for a couple fingers. Overall feel of the engine is similar to the twin turbos.

Look wise its still all the same, if you are tall like me(6'4") and you have long legs it is hard to reach the shifter in case you have to reverse. But the iDrive is in a nice position.

I mostly drove with the top down at around 100mph. I also installed the wind deflector, turbulences were minimal in the cabin. When I had the top up cabin noise wasnt loud at all. Nice thing is when your on the Autobahn and it starts raining, you can just drive oto the next parking lot, slow down to about 20Mph and put the top up. The thing I didnt like was that I had to hold the button down the whole time, not sure why that is that way, not a big deal, I just dont like it.

Handling and Suspension......well it;s BMW. Steering is tight as always, Suspension was a little rough but german backroads aren't always the best. Maybe it's due to the RFTs or due to being a new car(400miles).

Anyways, just wanted to share my thoughts.

Pardon my grammar and punctuation. I'm tired and German is my 1st language.
If you have question just ask I prob forgot something.

[sb335is]

FYI your english is near perfect...

[MOCKBA]

Indeed, I can't believe European use feet and miles. They even use different scale for temperature, so the review perfectly adopted for American eyes.
I also like that roof is operable at speed below 35km/h, although this feature isn’t new fro 2011

[BrokenVert]

Agreed at the ride with the vert sucks with the runflats if I remember right...but I haven't had them on for nearly 30,000 km.

And your English is great man, I couldn't tell that it wasn't your first language

[TreDirtyFive]

The 2011 Sport/M-Sport Packs are indeed a tad harsher (esp. in slow speeds it seems) as they have switched over to a supposedly higher spring rate and linear springs instead of the progressive springs in 08-10 cars. Not sure about the actual shocks but it definitely felt that way in my ED experience which I put 1110 miles on the car in under 5 days.