Hello all. Thrilled owner of this 2013 135is from a forum member. Had 16,000 miles when I took over. Thought I would share some recent photos with you and some quick notes.
I'm somewhat brand agnostic and a few years ago started to buy my childhood dream cars in sequence, one at a time- Audi Ur-Quattro Turbo, E30 M3, E28 M5, Land Rover D90, 993 Porsche C4 and an '86 Carrera. I guess it's the advantage of no kids, etc.
About 3 years ago I assumed the lease of a 2011 135i coupe 6MT for about 9 months and was hooked. It was LeMans blue with grey, felt like I had found the perfect modern car. Everything else faded away. I'll save you all the rest of the details and the few cars in between (got clocked by a drunk driver in a Ford F250 while in my 330 Wagon last year- car saved my life). All the while during recovery I wanted to get back into an E82.
About 1 month into my search and when i was gonna give up, I got a response to a WTB thread I had started here, the sole response, and it was this car. I had never considered DCT so I found a local dealer car to test drive, funny enough another 135is, and decided to go for it. It came off the truck a month ago. I'm hooked on the sound so much.
The exhaust is so intoxicating that I only drive with the windows down. Not planning on making any engine mods, the car basically needs tires and I've made a few small tweaks like running hidden charing cables and swapping out the grill. Added some scotch guard film to the rear bumper deck. I may remove or reduce the tint, as great as it looks, because I love being able to wave "thank you" to people who let me in and they can't see me. Overall I'm so psyched. The exhaust pop sound the DCT makes between shifts is happiness.
The DCT does make strange decisions that had me get stuck on a dirt road (you can't rock the car like you can with a 6MT, and the incline assist and traction control kick in too so the whole situation becomes a comedy of technology) but overall I've gotten used to the Jeckyll / Hyde characteristics of the car and being able to tune out in Drive if I need to or get fully engaged and focused with the paddles. Yes, for the first few days I kept pushing my left foot into the floorboard.
I really feel blessed to have stewardship of this thing.
I'm going to search it but if someone has links to how I can find what number 135is I inherited, that would be great. The owner said it's the only black/taupe he knows of so it might be fun to have ended up with a one-off mass production car.
Enjoy the images.