I had an E92 335d for over 3 years and as a daily driver it was superb - relatively frugal yet had straight line performance that could worry a v8 M3. It had to make way for Lotus ownership, and I made do with a perfectly capable Saab 93, which I kept a lot longer than intended.
A few years ago I had a good drive out in a 640d Gran Coupé. Adding the ZF8 speed autobox to that incredibly torquey 3.0 twin-turbo diesel unit was a stroke of genius. Plus I thought for a large saloon (coupes are not 4 door in my mind) it was actually a particularly attractive looking car. Inside it had a level of refinement a world away from a 3 series that I had been accustomed to. Leather trimmed dash - that sort of stuff. A very nice place to be.
Oh yes I thought, some day I'll have one of them.
Like many of you I have been known to browse AutoTrader, Used Cars NI and the rest for vehicles I have a passing interest in. Next thing I know I see a 640d, reasonably priced, local, and being sold by an RMS member no less.
Knowing rightly I shouldn't even think about it, next thing I was test driving and doing a deal for an Imola Red 640d Coupé in M Sport guise of course.
Imola would not have been my first choice - White, Silverstone, Silver, Space Grey - BMW do these in some stunning colours. And in the dealer photos it looked washed out... so when I saw it IRL, I was pleasantly surprised and thought I'd take a punt.
Needless to say as time has went on I've really warmed to the colour. It suits the dull autumnal days we are having at the moment.
Oh and the roof. Yes it has a 3M carbon fibre wrap. I can hear the eyeballs rolling in your sockets already. Look my first thought was the same, get it off immediately. However after washing the car a few times and living with it in the real world. It actually looks pretty damn good. It's one of those "Oh yea it actually doesn't look ****" thoughts you may have if you ever see the car in the tin.
It also has privacy glass and M performance kidney grilles, which suit the shadowline trim. Letting it down is the granda spec chrome around the side repeater and the chrome strip on the door handle, which I'm painting gloss black and colour coding respectively. That should help tidy it up.
She's rolling on the 19" factory M Sport wheels. As much as the 20s would be nice, these have plenty of beef on them so at this point it makes sense to run them over the winter as is. An Eibach or H&R kit would definitely be on the menu to tidy up that arch gap and help sharpen her up in the handling department. A cheeky map is also on the cards, as AutoTune worked wonders with my 335d.
Inside is fantastic - ok its the older spec steering wheel. I may retrofit the Sport 2, but its a fair chunk of cash so we'll see. The CIC Idrive is grand but I'm in discussions with a company to get one of the first retrofit wireless carplay boxes (without having to rip out CIC for NBT6) so watch this space.
Driving it - at almost 5m long it has taken a bit of getting used to. Parking spaces are on the short side, and the long front end certainly to start with made negotiating tight carpark islands interesting, but after a short space of time it soon became natural. PDC all round and a decent display showing obstacles really helps.
On the open road it's just brilliant. At over 200kg heavier than a 335d I was expecting to be disappointed but she hides her weight well. It has 4 driving modes. I have it in comfort 99% of the time, however on the occasional blast in sport+ the ZF really does thump through the gears and swift progress takes on a whole new meaning. Out of the box these are 320bhp and 465 lb/ft. Wonderful.
Anyway this yoke is for commuting in comfort, podcasts and coffee. It dispenses this with aplomb and in the few weeks I've had it made every journey a pleasure.
Andy
A few years ago I had a good drive out in a 640d Gran Coupé. Adding the ZF8 speed autobox to that incredibly torquey 3.0 twin-turbo diesel unit was a stroke of genius. Plus I thought for a large saloon (coupes are not 4 door in my mind) it was actually a particularly attractive looking car. Inside it had a level of refinement a world away from a 3 series that I had been accustomed to. Leather trimmed dash - that sort of stuff. A very nice place to be.
Oh yes I thought, some day I'll have one of them.
Like many of you I have been known to browse AutoTrader, Used Cars NI and the rest for vehicles I have a passing interest in. Next thing I know I see a 640d, reasonably priced, local, and being sold by an RMS member no less.
Knowing rightly I shouldn't even think about it, next thing I was test driving and doing a deal for an Imola Red 640d Coupé in M Sport guise of course.
Imola would not have been my first choice - White, Silverstone, Silver, Space Grey - BMW do these in some stunning colours. And in the dealer photos it looked washed out... so when I saw it IRL, I was pleasantly surprised and thought I'd take a punt.
Needless to say as time has went on I've really warmed to the colour. It suits the dull autumnal days we are having at the moment.
Oh and the roof. Yes it has a 3M carbon fibre wrap. I can hear the eyeballs rolling in your sockets already. Look my first thought was the same, get it off immediately. However after washing the car a few times and living with it in the real world. It actually looks pretty damn good. It's one of those "Oh yea it actually doesn't look ****" thoughts you may have if you ever see the car in the tin.
It also has privacy glass and M performance kidney grilles, which suit the shadowline trim. Letting it down is the granda spec chrome around the side repeater and the chrome strip on the door handle, which I'm painting gloss black and colour coding respectively. That should help tidy it up.
She's rolling on the 19" factory M Sport wheels. As much as the 20s would be nice, these have plenty of beef on them so at this point it makes sense to run them over the winter as is. An Eibach or H&R kit would definitely be on the menu to tidy up that arch gap and help sharpen her up in the handling department. A cheeky map is also on the cards, as AutoTune worked wonders with my 335d.
Inside is fantastic - ok its the older spec steering wheel. I may retrofit the Sport 2, but its a fair chunk of cash so we'll see. The CIC Idrive is grand but I'm in discussions with a company to get one of the first retrofit wireless carplay boxes (without having to rip out CIC for NBT6) so watch this space.
Driving it - at almost 5m long it has taken a bit of getting used to. Parking spaces are on the short side, and the long front end certainly to start with made negotiating tight carpark islands interesting, but after a short space of time it soon became natural. PDC all round and a decent display showing obstacles really helps.
On the open road it's just brilliant. At over 200kg heavier than a 335d I was expecting to be disappointed but she hides her weight well. It has 4 driving modes. I have it in comfort 99% of the time, however on the occasional blast in sport+ the ZF really does thump through the gears and swift progress takes on a whole new meaning. Out of the box these are 320bhp and 465 lb/ft. Wonderful.
Anyway this yoke is for commuting in comfort, podcasts and coffee. It dispenses this with aplomb and in the few weeks I've had it made every journey a pleasure.
Andy