About to order, pls calm my nerves...

[Rawhyde]

I am pretty close to ordering a new 135i, but I'd like to get some feedback from people who already have one.

I am a longtime lurker, and I might have made a few posts, but it was a long time ago. To give a little automotive background, I have a 1995 B4C Camaro (6MT)that I bought new (1 of 310). It has always been garage kept, never driven in rain, and it has 10K miles now. I had a 1994 Impala SS for a daily driver. In 2005, I bought a MINI Cooper S/John Cooper Works with all the bells and whistles. That has been the most fun and enjoyable car I've ever owned. I used it for a daily driver for 3 years and then retired it for recreational use. It has 93K miles and still looks new. My current DD is a 2007 Honda Civic (5MT). Even though I installed Civic Si springs, shocks, and swaybars in its first month, it drives like crap and won't stop in a 40 acre field. It's mission is to get 35-40 mpg, ferry me back and forth to work, and take the knocks of life to keep my better cars in pristine shape.

I am about ready to order:
135i Coupe 6MT in Space Gray over Terracotta Brown with walnut.
M-Sport, Premium, CWP, Hi-Fi, PDC, iPod, Hi-Beam Assist, Comfort Access, and rubber floor mats.


This is a BIG deal to me. I've wanted a BMW since I was in high school. I want to make sure that these are solid and robust cars. I have read enough horror stories about HPFP's and carbon fouling that I am nervous about spending my hard earned money.

I am waffling on getting the Performance Suspension upon delivery, but I haven't made up my feeble mind yet. Is it worth the money? How much should I expect to pay for it?

I was quoted a best price of $46.5K for the car (tax and all, out the door) by checking two dealerships. Am I getting a fair deal? I also am STRONGLY considering getting some sort of extended waranty with coverage to at least 100K miles.

Is this a great car that is reliable, fun, and great looking, or is it a tempremental tinkertoy that'll spend most of its lifetime in a shop somewhere munching up cash and crapping out broken parts?

I do my own maintenance and repair work on all my cars (except for warranty work). I haven't paid anyone to turn a wrench on one of my cars in 24 years.

I apologize for the long post, but I'm hoping some 135 veteran will step up and let me know that it's just pre-purchase jitters or tell me that the thing requires a steady diet of Fabrege Eggs to keep it happy and running right...

Rawhyde

[jibaholic101]

1. dont worry about the HPFP, it is covered under a 10 year warranty now, so you should be fine
2. i dont think the performance suspension is worth it, if you want to get true suspension get some KW V2 or V3 coilovers, outstanding suspension
3. what was the price built online? it would be nice to have that for comparison to the deal you were offered.
4. it is a great reliable car, dont worry about what you read on here about certain people with extensive maintenance. no matter what make or model there will always be the problem children out of the batch
5. i wouldnt do the maintenance and repair work on your car while it is under warranty. why would you when BMW will do it for free? if you do it yourself, you will have to pay for parts and tools
6. you are just having pre purchase jitters, this is an awesome car!

[Jaguar66]

!

[ORIGIN M.]

Drink Vodka, it will make everything seem OK...

[spellbmw]

I pick mine up in Munich six weeks from today (but who's counting? Talking with owners, watching the forum and having taken one out three times for test drives, I can't think of a more enjoyable car in its class to drive. As for price, check out the online configuration pricing on the BMW web site, then check the price lists posted here in the forum. Our configuration is very close, but the quoted prices are not...but then again, we have not sales tax in my State either.

[ulrichd]

The sport suspension comes with the upgraded seats which is worth it to me. I also came from a Mini (03 Cooper S) and if I had to do it over again I'd have waited 6 months and picked up a low mileage 135 for the same price as my 09 128.

[Rawhyde]

Originally Posted by jibaholic101

1. dont worry about the HPFP, it is covered under a 10 year warranty now, so you should be fine
2. i dont think the performance suspension is worth it, if you want to get true suspension get some KW V2 or V3 coilovers, outstanding suspension
3. what was the price built online? it would be nice to have that for comparison to the deal you were offered.
4. it is a great reliable car, dont worry about what you read on here about certain people with extensive maintenance. no matter what make or model there will always be the problem children out of the batch
5. i wouldnt do the maintenance and repair work on your car while it is under warranty. why would you when BMW will do it for free? if you do it yourself, you will have to pay for parts and tools
6. you are just having pre purchase jitters, this is an awesome car!

I built it again online, and it came up to $44,900. We have a 7% sales tax in the county I live. I was also planning to pick it up at the Performance Center...make a nice weekend of it. I really like the car. Even though it's hideously expensive, I don't think there's much out there that can overshadow it without costing mega-bucks. In a way, it's a bargain...but it's still a helluva lot of money. It's enough that I want to give it some serious soul searching thought and consideration.

Also, to address Point #5, I don't fix my cars when they're under warranty, but I do change the oil every 2500 miles, then take it in for it's "free" scheduled service when the dash says so. I just wanted to kinda make the point that I have some experience wrenching on cars.

I want a good looking, fun to drive, good handling, fast car with good brakes that is comfortable and maybe even a little "plush". I think the 135 matches that description to a tee.

I just wanted to know what to expect regarding its dependability. Sometimes, forums can make you nervous...but OTOH, researching this has given me something interesting to do.

This car won't be driven to work, and it won't be driven to the grocery store. I'll just be driving it whenever I get the urge to take a spin in "The Ultimate Driving Machine"

I was planning to get a new car in about 2 years, but I recently lost my mother after an epic battle with MS (my spirits could use a boost); and I'm terrified that all this environmental mania and corporate average fuel economy mania is going to screw up new cars for the next 25 years like it did in the 70's. (Anyone here remember when car prices went up 15-20% each year while horsepower decreased by a similar amount? It wasn't that cool...)

I'm getting closer to calling up the stealership and telling them to just order it, but the butterflies are still there...

[BrokenVert]

As one of the guys on this site that complains about his car a lot. I can still say that I dont really regret the purchase. I got a great deal on it, several K off Invoice, and all the stuff that has been going wrong with it is very rare and sometimes unheard of. As far as the HPFP and carbon buildup go why not try a 128i? It doesnt have any of those issues and its still a fast car.

[jibaholic101]

Originally Posted by Rawhyde

I built it again online, and it came up to $44,900. We have a 7% sales tax in the county I live. I was also planning to pick it up at the Performance Center...make a nice weekend of it. I really like the car. Even though it's hideously expensive, I don't think there's much out there that can overshadow it without costing mega-bucks. In a way, it's a bargain...but it's still a helluva lot of money. It's enough that I want to give it some serious soul searching thought and consideration.

Also, to address Point #5, I don't fix my cars when they're under warranty, but I do change the oil every 2500 miles, then take it in for it's "free" scheduled service when the dash says so. I just wanted to kinda make the point that I have some experience wrenching on cars.

I want a good looking, fun to drive, good handling, fast car with good brakes that is comfortable and maybe even a little "plush". I think the 135 matches that description to a tee.

I just wanted to know what to expect regarding its dependability. Sometimes, forums can make you nervous...but OTOH, researching this has given me something interesting to do.

This car won't be driven to work, and it won't be driven to the grocery store. I'll just be driving it whenever I get the urge to take a spin in "The Ultimate Driving Machine"

I was planning to get a new car in about 2 years, but I recently lost my mother after an epic battle with MS (my spirits could use a boost); and I'm terrified that all this environmental mania and corporate average fuel economy mania is going to screw up new cars for the next 25 years like it did in the 70's. (Anyone here remember when car prices went up 15-20% each year while horsepower decreased by a similar amount? It wasn't that cool...)

I'm getting closer to calling up the stealership and telling them to just order it, but the butterflies are still there...

i would try to haggle them to 46k even out the door, and if they are holding strong at 46.5k make them give you extras free like mats, wheel locks, keychain, etc.

sorry to hear about your mother . aside from the HPFP, which when it goes out will make the car go into limp power mode and you drive it to the dealership IF it happens. These failures were mostly on 08s.

the oil change every 2500 miles really isnt necessary that often, i recommend 3-4k miles for a change.

its a great car, you will have a blast, go for it

[mattssi]

Originally Posted by jibaholic101

i would try to haggle them to 46k even out the door, and if they are holding strong at 46.5k make them give you extras free like mats, wheel locks, keychain, etc.

sorry to hear about your mother . aside from the HPFP, which when it goes out will make the car go into limp power mode and you drive it to the dealership IF it happens. These failures were mostly on 08s.

the oil change every 2500 miles really isnt necessary that often, i recommend 3-4k miles for a change.

its a great car, you will have a blast, go for it

If you do go into limp mode, are you able to use the BT scan tool and reset it and get the car running again? Or is it done for until the dealer does some sort of reset?

[former]

First of all - condolences on your loss.

I can't comment on price other than to say that I would target around $1000 over dealer invoice on pricing in these economic times. You might be able to get better or worse depending on your area and the number of dealers, etc.

As for the car itself, I have been using my as a daily driver now for 10 months and have had some minor issues that I've asked the dealer to correct. But, none of those have been significant enough to impact my enjoyment of the vehicle. None of them have stranded me. The car has made it through trips on the Autobahn through Germany and Austria and from Los Angeles to Vegas through the desert as well as high performance driving events without issues.

I'm enjoying it a great deal and I still look forward to onramps every day. I really don't think you can go wrong with it.

Good luck!

[otterdoc]

I've only got 3300 miles on my 135, but it's been absolutely worth every cent. I'm beyond pleased with the car. It exceeds my 330ci in so, so many ways.

Your option package is pretty well loaded. I opted for the Nav, but I'm using mine as a daily driver, so it's getting a lot of use. For a 'for fun' car you probably don't need it.

I agree that you should aim for $700-1000 over dealer invoice. Check out edmunds.com for a TMV in your area, etc. It gives you some more data points to consider. I went with a different service to buy my car and I'd be happy to give you more details if you're interested. I paid $900 over invoice.

I think anyone who owns a BMW should be ready for the reality of maintaining a car past the warranty/100k mile point. They're expensive to maintain. It's not so much that things 'break' as you have to keep quite a few things in good working order. This sort of thing can be researched thoroughly on forums or in Roundel. With the amount of wrenching you do I'm probably not telling you anything you don't know.

I'm keeping my 135 until the 5 year / 100k warranty expires, then it's sold or traded for the next vehicle. My 330ci was an old car over 100k miles and I just got burned out on the amount of time I spent hanging out at the dealership to get things done to it.

Order your 1. It'll be worth it.

[Angry3]

First, the car is awesome IMO, there's nothing under $50K that's as good a combination of fun and practicality.

These cars do have issues, HPFP and otherwise. I'm leasing mine, and after 3 years it's going back to them unless the current cars have been reigned in performance wise. I'll freely admit there's no chance I would own this car without coverage from either the BMW factory, CPO, or 2OP warranty. I would advise passing on the warranty initially and buying the BMW 2OP warranty before the factory warranty ends. What's the point in paying for that coverage before you have to? I wouldn't touch a 3rd party warranty on these cars with all of their specialized components. Make sure you forge a good relationship with your service writer off the bad, I advise slipping him a bottle of his favorite booze or a gift card to a nice restaurant at some point early on .

Your specs look good, obviously those decisions are very personal. If it were me I would ax the PDC and consider the Nav, and look at Grey Poplar with the Terra instead of the walnut. And do the regular mats, we don't get enough crappy weather here in the south to need the heavy duty ones and your car will have black carpet. I'd say forget the performance suspension, I'm yet to see a review that claims it's worth the significant expense. The car handles very well as it comes.

Price wise since you're doing PCD you can order from any dealer in the country. I would consider using a forum supporting dealer, you'll get great pricing off the bat and get to deal with a CA that eats, sleeps and breathes these cars. I would recommend Jim Wozniak at New Motors BMW (he sold me my car), Adrian Avila at BMW of South Atlanta, or Dave at Ganley BMW here on our board.

Good luck with the purchase!