[chicagofan00]

Originally Posted by P1

All that text and only one pic?

[bri1042]

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

Great post, thank you for sharing.

It's sad that the bmw community tends to trip over itself hating whatever is new. If there is one thing that has been constant in the M3 saga its change, and that's alright.

I have 4 M cars right now but am pending to add a 6mt green G80 just like yours. I give thanks that BMW is still making manual, rwd cars with fantastic chassis, engines and track performance and all that at a perfectly reasonable price.

Ps: please post the HK settings you landed on!

Two folk asked so I will comply. :-)

Note: I don't like upmixing stereo sound. I played with the Surround settings a bunch and did not like the result. One of my biggest continued complaints is the Center channel messing up stereo separation. The settings I've landed on work for my ears and for the range of music I listen to. The Beatles sound decent, Depeche Mode sounds good enough, I can enjoy The Clash or The Dead Kennedys, and more bass-heavy music like Nine Inch Nails isn't missing too much of the expected character.

But I don't know that it would serve EDM or proper Techno all that well.

I've had proper professionally-tuned audio systems in past cars and the HK doesn't have the equipment to even come close to that. This just represents "acceptable to my ears". I'm also pretty sure it sounds terrible to my passengers, probably varying by seat.

[bri1042]

Originally Posted by P1

All that text and only one pic?

Yeah, I've posted a LOT of pics over the last two years and didn't choose to repost a bunch of them yesterday morning. The snowpocalypse this month has also left every car in the area seriously filthy.

But, here's a few more since you poked.

[eddj]

Originally Posted by bri1042

Two folk asked so I will comply. :-)

Note: I don't like upmixing stereo sound. I played with the Surround settings a bunch and did not like the result. One of my biggest continued complaints is the Center channel messing up stereo separation. The settings I've landed on work for my ears and for the range of music I listen to. The Beatles sound decent, Depeche Mode sounds good enough, I can enjoy The Clash or The Dead Kennedys, and more bass-heavy music like Nine Inch Nails isn't missing too much of the expected character.

But I don't know that it would serve EDM or proper Techno all that well.

I've had proper professionally-tuned audio systems in past cars and the HK doesn't have the equipment to even come close to that. This just represents "acceptable to my ears". I'm also pretty sure it sounds terrible to my passengers, probably varying by seat.

Thank you very much for posting your settings!
I completely agree with the "'ve had proper professionally-tuned audio systems in past cars and the HK doesn't have the equipment to even come close to that." part.
For example, I just picked my m240i back in October 2022 and since day 1 I noticed certain buzz noises on both sides of the car coming from my HK speakers at certain tones ( irrespective of the volume level ) of the songs played. I think this is unacceptable from a brand new set of speakers and 1000$ audio system... I still need to identify exactly the speakers from which this buzz noise come , at which tones of the music being played and then show/demo it to my dealership 's service for it to be repaired...

[isenc2]

That is awesome! So glad you were able to get it before everything went nuts. How is the ride quality? It is acceptable on bad roads?

[bri1042]

Originally Posted by isenc2

That is awesome! So glad you were able to get it before everything went nuts. How is the ride quality? It is acceptable on bad roads?

I've been very happy with the ride quality. My SO's 530e is certainly more comfy over bumps, but I'm not expecting that level of comfort in a car that's actually fun to drive.

[T0RM3NT]

Thanks for the great post! Really enjoyed the read.

Just back from Portland last week...how in the world do you keep the car clean? Rained every single day we were there for a week straight. LOL

[bri1042]

Originally Posted by T0RM3NT

Thanks for the great post! Really enjoyed the read.

Just back from Portland last week...how in the world do you keep the car clean? Rained every single day we were there for a week straight. LOL

During the winter? I don't. I get a layer of dirt off of it here and there, but trying to keep a daily driver clean during this half of the year is a way to go insane very quickly.

[jmxtrem]

its veeeery pretty

[DocWeatherington]

In reference to the residual...

Worry about it on the back end, its likely the car will be worth more than you owe. Either you can cash out the net profit and walk or pay the remainder off at the agreed price. Just don't walk away without seeing offers from other dealerships or a possible private party sell.

Bmw isnt in the motto of being negative on lease returns.

Buying out a lease is easy and a 15min process ... Plus depending on state you've already paid 50% plus of the taxes off.

[PKE90]

Super fun post OP and reminded me that my two year anniversary for “pickle” is coming up too! Pix from that day attached.

Same story: G80 MT HEA car (don’t really miss blind spot) and instant love affair with the color. I’ve never owned a car that gets so many compliments from car guys to little old ladies (of course people that think we have no taste just chuckle at us silently). I think that the car is a nice balance of comfort and hooligan. Can take the GF to dinner without complaint (other than “do we have to take the puke green car?”) and then have fun on my own.

I’m lucky enough to own a 718 GT4 so pickle got one day at Watkins Glen and then retired from track work - it’s just too heavy, soft, and not enough tactile feel in the steering - IMO. But I love it on the street. The manual is very good if not p-car or Honda R. The balance is equally very good - I don’t worry that the back end will bite me, with the obvious caveat that you need to know what you are doing with a powerful rear drive car.

My mods: Dinantronics piggy back - great OEM feel and modest but noticeably fun increase; coded out ASD (so that now doesn’t make it number one on my quibble list). Next: possibly the gold 827s as I never warmed to the dark wheels.

My quibbles:

1.) the digital instrument cluster looks positively Pontiac and I pine for the old red glow BMW instruments (couldn’t they have made that a screen option calling it “Classic” or something?)
2) the initial hesitation of the brake pads when wet is always a bit disconcerting
3) the a/c on/off function ought to not be in a sub menu

But back to you OP - happy that you enjoy frog as much as I do pickle!

Cheers.

[bri1042]

Originally Posted by PKE90

Super fun post OP and reminded me that my two year anniversary for “pickle” is coming up too! Pix from that day attached.

Same story: G80 MT HEA car (don’t really miss blind spot) and instant love affair with the color. I’ve never owned a car that gets so many compliments from car guys to little old ladies (of course people that think we have no taste just chuckle at us silently). I think that the car is a nice balance of comfort and hooligan. Can take the GF to dinner without complaint (other than “do we have to take the puke green car?”) and then have fun on my own.

I’m lucky enough to own a 718 GT4 so pickle got one day at Watkins Glen and then retired from track work - it’s just too heavy, soft, and not enough tactile feel in the steering - IMO. But I love it on the street. The manual is very good if not p-car or Honda R. The balance is equally very good - I don’t worry that the back end will bite me, with the obvious caveat that you need to know what you are doing with a powerful rear drive car.

My mods: Dinantronics piggy back - great OEM feel and modest but noticeably fun increase; coded out ASD (so that now doesn’t make it number one on my quibble list). Next: possibly the gold 827s as I never warmed to the dark wheels.

My quibbles:

1.) the digital instrument cluster looks positively Pontiac and I pine for the old red glow BMW instruments (couldn’t they have made that a screen option calling it “Classic” or something?)
2) the initial hesitation of the brake pads when wet is always a bit disconcerting
3) the a/c on/off function ought to not be in a sub menu

But back to you OP - happy that you enjoy frog as much as I do pickle!

Cheers.

"Pickle". HAHAHAHAHAHA. That's great.

[SpinalTap]

Originally Posted by PKE90

Super fun post OP and reminded me that my two year anniversary for “pickle” is coming up too! Pix from that day attached.

Same story: G80 MT HEA car (don’t really miss blind spot) and instant love affair with the color. I’ve never owned a car that gets so many compliments from car guys to little old ladies (of course people that think we have no taste just chuckle at us silently). I think that the car is a nice balance of comfort and hooligan. Can take the GF to dinner without complaint (other than “do we have to take the puke green car?”) and then have fun on my own.

I’m lucky enough to own a 718 GT4 so pickle got one day at Watkins Glen and then retired from track work - it’s just too heavy, soft, and not enough tactile feel in the steering - IMO. But I love it on the street. The manual is very good if not p-car or Honda R. The balance is equally very good - I don’t worry that the back end will bite me, with the obvious caveat that you need to know what you are doing with a powerful rear drive car.

My mods: Dinantronics piggy back - great OEM feel and modest but noticeably fun increase; coded out ASD (so that now doesn’t make it number one on my quibble list). Next: possibly the gold 827s as I never warmed to the dark wheels.

My quibbles:

1.) the digital instrument cluster looks positively Pontiac and I pine for the old red glow BMW instruments (couldn’t they have made that a screen option calling it “Classic” or something?)
2) the initial hesitation of the brake pads when wet is always a bit disconcerting
3) the a/c on/off function ought to not be in [...]

I miss the red gauge cluster too. The screen in my 23 G80cxd is amazing but I like your idea of a classic mode. My only other gripe is that the heated seats are nowhere near as powerful as my ‘13 535xd. Overall, it’s an amazing car, I’ll really loving it.

[bri1042]

And today is two years since I drove her off the lot. I arrived before they opened and sat in the no-longer-mine M2C for a bit to say goodbye.

I drove her over to the nearby coffee shop where I'd sent the lucky email to my sales human, very aware that it had been years since I'd driven a manual. It only took a few blocks to restart my MT reflexes.

I had some coffee, took a pressure gauge to the tires to remove the random amounts of extra pressure out of the tires (which my dealership has done on every car we've bought from them), took a few pictures and then drove home.

The first two pictures I took once the Frog was off the dealer lot:

[DoubleDave]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on your car. It was a fun read.

This is my first true BMW (Supra I had doesn’t count). I got mine so that I could enjoy a manual in a practical package for probably the last time and it’s the most connection I’ve felt with a car in a while. This manual isn’t the best and for me took some recalibration to drive smoothly but now that we know each other,

I don’t think there’s another car that I would trade it for.

[Cruise'n]

So so hate all these vomit grills.
Just sold me m340i and bought a X5 M60i as the M3 I would drive. Why did BMW do this. Oh yeah annoyed the good designer that left.
So glad we have USA BMW division.

[bri1042]

Originally Posted by theseanofsydney

So so hate all these vomit grills.
Just sold me m340i and bought a X5 M60i as the M3 I would drive. Why did BMW do this. Oh yeah annoyed the good designer that left.
So glad we have USA BMW division.

Words hard! SO HARD!

[Cruise'n]

Message to BMW not owners of these cars.
Was looking at a M3 manual but only available with this grill.
The one everyone says you get used to :-)

[T0RM3NT]

Originally Posted by theseanofsydney

Message to BMW not owners of these cars.
Was looking at a M3 manual but only available with this grill.
The one everyone says you get used to :-)

Hey, to each their own. I'm glad there are some folks that aren't digging the grill as there was already a long enough wait to get mine!

BTW, I didn't get used to it, I love it.

[Cruise'n]

I think an apology is in order.
I thought the photo posted saying happy birthday was of a car in a dealership after selling for two years.
Didn't know was someones car.
Didn't mean to insult.

But of the fifty people I ask will get only one that likes.
Wouldn't want to be driving in a car most people don't like or hate.
Also that every car journalist laugh at.

[bri1042]

And yet I've had more positive response about this car from the general public than any car I've ever owned. I said that I dislike the wedge it put in the BMW community but the general public's response has been a lot of fun. I'd much rather take this car to a cars and coffee than a meet run by our local chapter of BMW CCA (especially since they can barely stand anything built later than 1990).

If how a car looks was all that was important, I certainly wouldn't have the CT4-V BW on my list as an alternative choice if something happens to my car as I dislike it from every angle, from the boring front end through the slab sides, to the rear that's as bad looking as the beaver teeth on my M3. I'm certainly not headed over to Cadillac forums to tell them how bad I think their cars look.

The front end has nothing to do with how the car drives, or how great of an experience my two years with it have been.