Sorry everybody, I've been very busy with life and have been unable to write here for a few months. A series of many truly unfortunate events since October have led to many changes in plans and events. I never did get the 335i xDrive I was eagerly looking forward to getting. After making the deposit, I convinced my wife that it was a great car and we should purchase it. I then proceeded to obtain the funds, which proved much more difficult than anticipated. There were some problems withdrawing from my securities, and by the time I had the money, a week had passed. During this time, I had called the BMW dealer multiple times to explain my problem and ensure that the sale would continue. Right after I had the money, I went directly to the dealer. When I arrived there, they told me without very much emotion that the car had been sold (!?!?!??!). I questioned them about the deposit I had made and they said that we were not in a legally binding contract or some nonsense like that. Apparently some guy had come in the day before with a great offer in cash, purchased the car, and drove away in it the same day. Needless to say, the car would not be mine and finding one identically equipped would very next to impossible. Anyway, I took back my deposit and scurried away as fast as I could.
At this point, we were both rather dejected about the turn of events and decided, due to both this and a generally busy life, to stop our car search until the Spring. About 2 weeks after this, in early November, our 2006 BMW 330ci was pretty much totaled. It was one of the first frosty/slick mornings of the season and my wife was driving on the Trans-Canada at about 6:30. Normally she doesn't drive this early, especially when it is dark, but she had to pick a friend who was going to surgery. Anyhow, the road was a bit slippery and some idiot driving too fast sideswiped the car at approximately 100 km/h. Unfortunately, the car was pretty much totaled and would need about 20,000$-25,000$ of repairs, but thankfully, and far more importantly, my wife was fine. The car was hit on the passenger side and her friend hadn't yet been picked up, so there was nobody in the place of the direct impact. My wife was very shaken up and was in a state of shock but didn't suffer any injuries besides a few bruises from flying debris. I'm actually quite sad to see the car go because it was one of my favorite generations for the 3 Series. The car we had was a great example with a nice color and almost all of the options, and we were planning to keep it for a long time.
After this accident, my wife wanted to take a little break from driving, which was perfectly fine with me considering we now only had one 20+ year old car. Fortunately, after about two weeks, she recovered from her shock, got over her fear that she would be in a high-speed accident next time she went driving, and decided to drive again. Unfortunately for me, I had to begin to take public transportation to work (Montreal's high quality public transit, NOT). After spending over an hour each way to and from work in the cold for a few weeks, I had enough. We decided to resume our car search earlier than expected so I wouldn't have to take the bus to work when there's a blizzard or when it's -30.
At this time, which was by now early December, I took a trip to the BMW dealer (a different one than before) to see what I could get quickly. Unfortunately, they only had 4 new 3 Series coupes on their lot, none of which I wanted. Other dealers apparently didn't have very many either, and I certainly was not interested in purchasing pre-owned, so the 3 Series coupe was basically off the list. Based on this, I decided to look at the next-best, closely-related 1 Series Coupe. I was impressed with the engine in the 335i, so I decided to go with the same one in the 1 Series coupe, available in the 135i. Unfortunately the 1 Series is not offered with xDrive, but hey, beggars can't be choosers. Luckily, the dealer had many 135i's available on the lot. On the contrary, most of the cars didn't interest me. It seems like the main purchasing group of these vehicles is younger people and tuners who want a performing and flashy vehicle. This is shown through the majority of 135i's on the lot (M Sport Package? Not for me. Black exterior with red leather interior? No. Red exterior with almost-white leather interior? Absolutely Not). There were really only 2 cars that interested me. One had a Blue Water Metallic exterior (very nice color) with a beige interior. It had the premium package as well as the premium sound package, but lacked the executive package as well as the navigation package. Not having a navigation system is not really a problem for me, but I don't think I could live with a beige interior (gets dirty very easily) that was upholstered in leatherette (slippery, hard, sticky/sweaty in summer, etc...). The other car was painted Space Gray Metallic on the outside, with a black Boston leather interior. I really liked the black leather interior but hesitated on the space gray metallic because it seems every BMW these days is that color. It had all of the packages I wanted, including the Premium package, Executive package, and Premium Sound package, as well as a few nice extras such as the alarm system, automatic transmission, heated steering wheel, comfort access, and the walnut light wood trim. I decided to go with the latter vehicle due to it's higher number of options. It was really a beautiful car and I appreciated everything about it except the all-too-common paint color. I like the color, it just looks boring because it's on so many BMWs. I even managed to get them to throw in the OEM winter tire package that includes winter tires mounted on 16" wheels with hubcaps.
I didn't want to take any chances and wanted to avoid a repeat of my recent BMW experiences so I picked up the car ASAP, just 2 days after I decided to purchase. I haven't driven the car (besides a test drive) on the all season tires so I can't really comment on the drive. Also, my wife hasn't let me drive it very much, I've only driven it about 5-6 times since we've owned it. The engine certainly is great, with good pickup and passing power, and the ride on the winter tires is surprisingly smooth. The steering and handling is great, just like all BMWs, and overall, it drives like a sports car while providing a luxury experience inside the cabin. Compared to the 330ci, it seems a little more sporty. The 330ci was never a complete comfort cruiser offering no sporty intentions, but the 135i seems faster and more zippy. It also seems to be a little smaller than the 330ci, but still offers BMW comfort that one has come to expect over the years. It doesn't really compare too my old BMW from 1990, given the fact that it's over 20 years newer. One thing I noticed is that the 135i, known as the baby BMW, seems to be bigger than the 325i coupe, which has always been assumed as the bigger vehicle. It really shows how much the 3 Series has grown. I'll try to take some pictures of the 135i ASAP; right now it's extremely dirty due to a recent snow here in Montreal and is not at it best-looking time due to the steelies and hubcaps. Maybe I'll catch a few of the old BMW before it goes.
On that note, it seems as if the old BMW will be around for yet another winter; I hope it will last that long mechanically. I'm completely fed up of car shopping and I'm more than happy to give it a break (and so is my bank account) so I think we'll leave that until the Spring. We were originally thinking of perhaps another 1 Series (maybe the 128i?), the current 3 Series Coupe, or maybe wait a little longer and get the new 3 Series Coupe (A.K.A the 4 Series?), but it seems like we may have a change in plans. My son, who is a single father, is in the process of accepting a job that would require him to be out of the country for 3 months every year for the next 5 years. He doesn't want to uproot his kids for that time period and would rather have them stay in the same school. Since his ex-wife is out of the picture (thankfully!), we offered to take care of the kids and have them live with us for 3 months every fall from late August to early December. Since my inner conscience tells me that having two kids aged 10 and 7 and two 70 year olds travelling around in a 1 Series Coupe won't be the best idea, we may end up replacing the old BMW with a more "family-friendly" vehicle while keeping the 1 Series. If this in fact becomes the case, we will probably look at replacing the old BMW sometime next Spring/Summer with one of BMW's small SUVs. The X5 and the X3 are way too big, so we'll probably end up with an X1. I looked at it very briefly on a recent trip to the dealer (you're there quite often with a 20 year old BMW) and liked what I saw. It seems you can get a nice one (with xDrive, luckily) for around 50,000$. I don't know how happy my wife will be about driving a (small) SUV after driving a small coupe for 20+ years, but at least it's a BMW. She'll need some convincing it this happens, which seems increasingly likely at this time. Anyways, the old BMW will be out for sure next Spring/Summer, and it's replacement is TBD, possibly the X1, which I happen to like.
Anyways, my wife is calling me now (what does she want now!?!? Women are so demanding.) so I have to run. Hopefully I'll be able to catch up with everyone quickly than last time, I'll try my best.
