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06' BMW 330xi vs. 05' Arc-Long but necessary
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Posted by JonK (more from JonK) on Wed, 29 Mar 2006 05:56:32 Share Post by Email
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I've had my Arc since august of 05' and love it, other than the usual complaints of cheap interior materials, stereo and some rattles(door buzz and dash creak, not bad). My brother just leased an 06' 330xi, after shopping around for anything from an Acura TL(which he previously owned twice), to a G35 sedan, to a BMW X3 and 325. He wouldve gotten another TL but the 06's didnt have favorable leases this time around. Anyway he got a fully loaded 330xi black with terra cotta interior(very cool dark brown) probably running him high 500's per month. I drove it this past weekend and here are my thoughts and comparisons with my 05 Arc: Way nicer interior, from the quality of the materials to the solid structure. It's not even close. The leather is much softer and actually feels like leather, not smooth and slippery like the 9-3. However, the seats are not more comfortable and more supportive--thats about a tie. You can tell the difference in quality of the carpets as well. The dashboard above the speedometer and guages is solid and thick, the same material as the rest of the dash, unlike the cheapo plastic stuff on the 9-3, which really bothers me and is the source of some creaking over bumps in the cold. The stereo is way better of course, although i have come to terms with the 9-3 stereo and have found decent settings that i am more satisfied with. The navigation system in the BMW works very well(I dont have the nav, but from the posts here it seems to have poor software in the 06')--The BMW one knob control in convenient near your right hand , but it seems to be complicated at first and the fact that you have to go through a couple of clicks to get to the item you want to control seems like alot. I like buttons better, and we all know we have a lot of buttons in the 9-3. However, having the ability to control the climate from the mouse like dial is pretty cool. My brother had his phone hooked up by bluetooth already and it works flawlessly! I mean, this is how things are supposed to work. This car doesnt have anything that may or may not function depending on what country you are in, or what software is updated, or what service center chooses to activate or not activate. Daytime Running Lights anyone?! The bimmer allows you to turn them on or off, unlike some other car we know. The interior space was about the same as the 9-3 maybe aven a bit less everywhere, and it seemed a bit cramped in the legroom, and even though i didnt look at the trunk, i know it cant be as spacious as the 9-3. The driving experience is as good as you would expect it to be. Everything is tight and responsive, and the brakes are almost too responsive, it felt jerky with light touches of the brake pedal which would probably need getting adjusted to. I think it has 260 horses and the acceleration was strong and sounded nice. But the bottom line is that it was fairly boring to drive, you know what your gonna get, its unspirited. There's nothing like a turbo as we all know, and I would say the BMW doesnt have much of an advantage in regular driving(of course in a race or slaloms it will win hands down). Overall exterior as most of you may know by now, is fairly boring and not special--the front looks cool but from the back doors to the rear of the car it looks horrible and stubby reminding me of a honda civic or something--BMW needs to change the styling, and it can't compare to the unique classy styling of our 9-3. Overall the interior is great but cramped, the exterior is blah, and the performance is great, but unspirited. The bottom line is, I wish I could package the BMW's interior with the Saab's turbo and exterior looks. I love the way Saab's look and drive, and for $150 less per month I take the 9-3 hands down. For the value I think its as good as you can get in this class and price range. I know this has been a long post, but I have to end this by saying that I had my brother test drive my car after I got back from my test drive of his. His first comment was that the seats felt good. His next comment was that it seems easier to drive than his car. He then started hitting the gas driving more aggressively. This was his next statement: "Whoa." It wasn't like yelling WHOA!! It was like a calm, "whoa." He had never driven a turbo, much less a saab turbo, and we all know that whoa. The experience of having your car accelerate much faster that the engine is revving gives you that sense of being lifted up of the ground by a giant hand or taking off in a plane. I told him "Do not fear the turbo grasshopper". There seemed to be a grin on his face when he exited his car, unlike the look of concentration thats on his face when trying to drive and control his car stereo from one knob in his BMW--That sums this comparison up in one word. "whoa." Be happy with our car people, even with its drawbacks. Sorry for the length of this post, it had to be done.

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