Re: Great post. Any new brochures or pics? (m) (archive)

: : true. due to a fluke at the ticket counter I got in the show about a half hour before it opened at 11am on Sat, and joined the q and a mentioned by Bennett which was already in progress, by BMWNA. After, questions we were allowed to go up on stage and sit in the car. I took 2 turns on the driver;s side and one turn in the passenger side. The good news is you can get virtually the same effect from sitting in a 328ci, if you want a preview. The steering wheel is thick!! Leather will be standard, not the seat on display, which is std on the euro car (as per some prelim. info on SOME of the std equipment for US which is released in print at the stand, and verified by the BMWNA rep.
: : Someone please check if xenons were on that list. elec. seat and sunroof was not.
: : I agree with Bennett about the wheels. I was relieved, they look nice, not as high gloss the pics. Although I am not a Yellow person, the phoenix yellow looked more acceptable in person as well. I think it has brown paint in it. I like it better than the audi yellow I see around. Interior in black seemed stark to me; I think I need gray or a chromatic color interior. My association to the interior was M lightweight; it seemed plain, which I guess is ok. The outside sheetmetal was gorgeous, IMO. Beautiful lines, the side grills seemed well integrated as well as the hood grill. Michelin's looked awesome. There was an M5 nearby and the contrast in styling seemed tremendous, as compared to the previous m3 and m5.
: : Some "bad" news from BMWNA. The dealers will be shipped a number of unordered cars, fairly loaded, to sell to first come first served. I would guess people on the waiting list would get first crack at them, but this does slow down the rate at which the order specification folks will get their cars, if you "pass" on what is shipped and go for your own options.
: : The BMWNA guy quoted 100,000 german marks, or about 51,000 dollars, for the euro car. He expected the US car to come in at a lower price. Remember, the euro and US cars will get different standard equipment, for eg, the leather seats noted above, in the US car.
: : Yes, I still want one!

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the brochure being distributed had nothing on the m3, not even a picture. there was an info sheet on a wooden post in front of the stage. I mentioned it briefly above. It had hp, torque, and a PARTIAL list of standard equipment for the US car. I looked, but they weren't passing out copies. Maybe someone will photograph it and post it. Plenty of folks on stage were snapping photos, maybe someone who is part of this forum. Some were even sliding under the car.

Also, I was relieved to see rubber between the wheel rim and the "road" on the m3. The m roadster's wheels scare me, to me its rims are barely off the roadsurface.

This show car had a wood grain shifter knob. I previously downloaded an interior shot of a yellow car without that detail. BTW the shift throws were tiny; I was really impressed!

I did not like the gray brushed aluminum interior trim on the m3 compared to the plain gray alum. trim on my 328i. The m3's looked like someone raked their fingernails across it before the metal set, but I guess that is how it is suppose to look and I'll get used to it.

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