I have been told I have more money than brain! Well I believe it is exactly the reverse and this makes me a careful, educated, value conscious consumer.

This New car is as fast as the previous M5, cost half as much and can put in their place most sport cars at your nearest red light. I own 5 cars and 2 motorcycles( including the 500hp Cobra in my profile )so performance is most important to me.

However in the quest for a safe car for my wife, I had heard that the current 3series was the safest car of its category ever crashed! Hence the dealer visit, I knew it was more than I wanted to spend but knew that the 325i would be in my price range with a couple of toys. Driving it enlighten me! I got the cheapest 330i I could get - no leather no sport pckge no premium pckge. it was only $1000 than the well equipped leather cladded 325i that was in the showroom.

My experience with most of my cars has been that for resale, my money would be well spent on the next model up with less equipment. If you look at the blue book on a 1999 model year BMW you will see quite a difference between a 323i anda 328, however you could easily have payed as much for you 323i depending on equipment.

My rule of thumb - the added equipment will be depreciate 3 times as fast as the core car so that $6000 grand of toys might only be worth $1500 in 3 years interest included that $145 a month!! Anyway, that means that my 330 should be worth a lot more than that loaded 325 in the showroom actually making my 330i a cheaper car to drive for the next few years.


I digress, Like a good consumer I had to check the competition Yes the MB C320 " the new C " well, it was priced substancially higher look to me like a Japanese, and the interior looked cheap. "OK the cup holders in the beemer are also really cheesy!". Sure the drive was most improved over the C280 sport my brother owns, but it did not hold a candle to the bimmer. Next stop Lexus IS, whats up with that ??? If I want an original painting I would buy an original painting ! not a lithograph this thing is a beemer want to be, even the salesperson kept saying compare to a BMW you get similar performance for less ! Cant the car sell on it's own merit The salesperson who Had no idea I was looking at a BMW mention BMW at least 3 times as much as his product!!

I heard , but dont know if its true that Most manufacturer are happy with their horsepower rating as being the average of their production. While BMW will not be happy till 95% of engine exceed their rating and would consider a shortage of 5 horsepower as bad engine. Apparently put on a dyno you would be hard up to find a 540 with less than 300hp, despite BMW's claim of 282HP.

That might explain that with a lower power to weight ratio the car magasines have without exceptions found the Bimmer a lot Faster thans the Lexus!!!

And what about them Brakes!! Sure the wheels get too much brake dust but what about them brake!!!

If you want what I believe is the best compact luxury out there buy this car!!

if you were thinking of a maxima or camry v6, then at least try the little brothers ( 320, 325) they are all 6 cylinders and have the same chassis as the 330.