[webby318dEMS]

Looks beautiful, the only thing I would've changed is to upgrade the wheels, but I guess that's a personal preference. Love the new facelift shape at the front!

[Skid]

Lovely looking car mate.

Nice exterior colour and interior colour combo.

The wood does look more orange than in mine though.

[Geoffo]

Lovely color..

[Penyfan1960]

Originally Posted by magic77

Looks really good makes me second guess now I think I should have ordered my LCI Msport with this color instead of the silver, but hey its done now,

Just stick some bmw performance black kidney grills on and you have a complete look

No worries magic77. My recent 55 reg 320i was T/silver, had it 3 ½ years. I washed the car every 7/10 days and during that time, am bit ashamed to say, I never applied wax polish other than what might have been in the shampoo. But when I sold the car the buyer remarked that he thought the paint work was as good as new! Well, to keep le Mans Blue looking nice, I guess I will have to apply proper wax polish a couple of times a year. Am not looking forward to it! So you are saving yourself a lot of toil!
Thanks for suggesting black performance kidney grills. Will be making some enquiries.
Cheers!

[Em135eye]

Peny - try black then! Last car was "lightning metallic" (sort of silver with a tinge of blue) - SO easy to keep clean. Car before that was also black - and in London it was a bitch to keep clean (hard water made it worse).

I reckon the blue should be fine. That leather could be trickier though!

[Oil Burner]

leather on mine is not too bad to keep clean, but you can get marks off jeans, but these do seem to come off easily. What I am having more issues with is keeping the beige trim clean, especially the open "deck" piece behindf the back seat on the vert that has a grained effect that seems to attract dirt evertime you have the roof open, and shows up badly against the light trim colour

[Penyfan1960]

Thanks for all your comments. The colour of the Red Brown Figured Eucalyptus XE3 is slightly brighter than the colour of the centre consul in the second pic. The main thing is, everyone here is very happy with it. In my last motor I had Burr Walnut and it was thought that the shade of colour was a little on the dull side for ‘Burr Walnut’. They could be right. It didn’t have much ‘life’ to it.
On Sunday lunchtime went out for new car celebratory lemonade and in the car park was a magnificent brand new black M5. Its brake discs I swear were almost as big as my wheels. (it must have been the lemonade! PS My Wife did the driving). Black upholstery, fantastic.....but, it had a brushed ali dashboard. It looked somewhat dull and dismal. To think what the motor must have cost, yet the cockpit lacked something. It looked flat and dead.
If you want to see what can be done, have a look at a Jag XF, where Burr walnut trim comes as standard. Quite magnificent cockpits/interiors and have engines which can equal 335i’s & D’s in power with road holding to match. And that’s from a BMW contact who reckoned the XF could certainly ‘sort’ the 335i’s & D’s. Also the XF price includes all the ‘goodies’ standard in the price.
When you're in the outside lane, watch out for the XF behind you!
But everyone to their own taste whether its facias or cars!

[Em135eye]

XFs are slightly slower than 335ds and even 535ds.

A fact that can be verified by many.

Nice motors but only if you're over 45.

I like your Beemer more.

For really good walnut, it has to be Bentley or RR.

[Penyfan1960]

Originally Posted by 335diesel

XFs are slightly slower than 335ds and even 535ds.

A fact that can be verified by many.

Nice motors but only if you're over 45.

I like your Beemer more.

For really good walnut, it has to be Bentley or RR.

You are quite right. They are for the over the 45's and for Mr Big. I cannot personally vouch for the max speed but they certainly seem to corner as flat as a pancake. However, I much prefer what I have! There is no doubt about that! I just could not imagine myself in an XF. In any case, I am much to young!
Cheers!

[Penyfan1960]

Originally Posted by webby318dEMS

Looks beautiful, the only thing I would've changed is to upgrade the wheels, but I guess that's a personal preference. Love the new facelift shape at the front!

I much like the upgrade M-Sport 18" wheels, unfortunatly I just could not push the budget any further. To make matters worse I placed my order, then a couple of weeks after the cut off date they advertised the 'Business Edition'. I missed out on the free 18" wheels plus lost about £500 or more!
But that's all water under the bridge now. The 17" wheels currently give a very nice ride and if I went to 18", it might possibly not be as good. I don't think the look of a wheel is necessarily everything Burt a good set of wheels certainly makes the motor look nice!
Cheers!

[magic77]

I decided to stick with 17" for 2 reasons one was the cost of the upgrade and second the acual higher cost of the tyres, with the high milage that I do I wanted to put comfort over the looks.

As for the grills get in touch with Sytner Ascot they seem to be able to source them very quickly

[ss134]

Congrats! Lovely car, great colours. Just out of interest, did you consider the oyster interior? I went with it and have no regrets and as all the carpets etc are black its easier to keep the interior looking clean.
Le mans blue looks fantastic on LCI!

[Em135eye]

Peny/Magic - I also like the look of a few 18" alloys but it's easy to forget ride comfort in pursuit of looks. Small wheels also fractionally help acceleration...

[Andrew@DTUK]

Thats a gorgeous looking car you have there, the LCI really suits Le Mans

[Skid]

Originally Posted by 335diesel

Small wheels also fractionally help acceleration...

Don't think so, the rolling radius should be the same otherwise the speedo would be out.

[Em135eye]

Originally Posted by Skid

Don't think so, the rolling radius should be the same otherwise the speedo would be out.

In this case you are right as we run 45 profile tyres rather than 40/35s. But people often fit bigger wheels that do alter the radius without looking at the speedo adjustments needed.

Ride comfort can't be ignored though. Nor can vastly lower rubber costs! I'll be getting top notch tyres for mine next (Conti 3s or PS2s - still not decided). I looked at the costs for top end 18" 255/35s rubber and my eyes almost popped out!

[R1200RT]

Congrats! Wood looks nice! Like the exterior color too, although it's not feasable for me since my wife insist on black each time again.

Be carefull wearing jeans though! My Oyster Grey, which is just as light as your leather is starting to become blueish again and I already cleaned it once!

As for the banks: it's no news that they are as flexible as a stick. Couldn't you have used e-banking?

As an alternative: Wouldn't it have been possible to pay through a POS-terminal at the dealer upon receipt? That's what I arranged for, because in these days, you never know when a dealer goes bankrupt!

[Penyfan1960]

Thanks ss134 & R1200RT(that's a rocket!) Thanks for the advice! I will wear mainly my well washed jeans. Oyster was seriously considered together with Merino Champagne which with the le Man Blue was thought to be the best combination, but at an extra £1000+? Even at this extra cost the leather did not cover the footwells and the extra money, in my opinion would have been better spent on Logic7 hifi. But the budget did'nt run to it! Am satisfied with the Business hifi. Much better than the standard set-up.
Regarding payment. I paid by debit card, on collection of the car, with the method of money transfer as suggested by the bank.
I collected and paid for the car on Friday am, yet on Monday early pm the full car payment was still in my bank account
Cor! I could have done a runner!

[- Paul -]

Originally Posted by 335diesel

Peny/Magic - I also like the look of a few 18" alloys but it's easy to forget ride comfort in pursuit of looks. Small wheels also fractionally help acceleration...

Originally Posted by Skid

Don't think so, the rolling radius should be the same otherwise the speedo would be out.

The difference in acceleration is normally down to the weight of the wheels and how that weight is distributed around the wheel. This includes the width of the tyre.

I.e - a 16" has less metal at the centre and more rubber at the edge
a 19" has more metal at the centre and less rubber at the edge. Could be heavier if material and structure are similar to its 16" counterpart.

All comes down to how much rotating mass there is.

Lighter (thinner) wheel - quicker movement of it from the engine. Quicker acceleration - presuming it doesn't spin.

[Em135eye]

Paul - does it make much/any difference in a car though? I know it makes a big difference on a bike (pedal) - I just had lighter, stiffer wheels stuck on my road bike and it's much livelier - but unless the weight difference is massive, I can't see it being an issue on a heavy car like a 3 series.

Trouble with light, thin wheels is their tendency to break. Think old model RS4, some of the cracking issues on M Sports, etc. If there's one thing I want to be bulletproof, it's my rims!

But ride comfort is an issue - most reckon the E46 was better on 18s than 19s yet most went for 19s because they "look better." The Evo IX FQ360 I tested, still the fastest point to point car I've ever driven, coped very well on 17s with modest (but very grippy) rubber. There is no doubt big alloys look good but too many go straight for 19s or even 20s and totally wreck the cars ride quality.

[- Paul -]

I've gone from 19" bbs to 16" bmw and there is a difference - more wheelspin! Same width

Oh - and worse handling - more roll in the tyre!

[ss134]

Penyfan 1960 -
Just a tip on keeping your leather clean.... buy some meguiers leather wipes from amazon for around £8 and keep them in the space under the boot. Whenever you notice any dirt or staining just pull one out and wipe the seat straight away, it takes seconds and is very effective in keeping your leather in great condition (it cleans and conditions/protects). My pack has lasted me 3 months and i have kids that ride in the car.....my oyster leather is spotless.