Well, I pulled the trigger. Picked up a 335i Convertible tonight. The car had been ordered, every option available!, and the folks that ordered it backed out for some reason. I wasn't sure about the white exterior but it's now grown on me and I'm in total lust.
This thing is pretty fast! I knew they were quick but dayum. ;-)
The '02 330cic this one replaces has been given a tearful, fond fairwell.
Here's a couple of pics if you wanna see it:
Very nice car indeed. I like the color of the seats, what are they?
Another thing, are those orange reflexes on the front left and right required by law in the US? It doesn't sit well on the car, IMHO.
I was wondering about that reflector gizmo on the front fenders? Why? Is it because US drivers don't see other cars?
Once upon a time running lights were the norm and all cars looked like Christmas trees at night. Still they have improved on the headlamp issue and done away with the 25Watt per headlamp thing. Now I think it's 35W and you can have HID units but only 35W - is that true?
Hugh
Those front and rear side reflectors are a federal requirement as far as I know. They can be a bit jarring, depending on the car and the colour.
At least he (and I) live is a state where we don't need a license plate messing up the lines of the front of the car. I always thought that front license plates on a car are pretty pointless and ugly.
Pointless for the owner, very useful if the government enjoys fining you with Automatic Traffic Cameras (ATC) which is in abundance here in Norway. Now they are even considering ATC that uses your average speed between two so you cannot break in front of one and then speed up as soon as you have passed.
The ways of Norwegian government are insidious, twisted and evil and roots in envy of others. Or so it seems at times. :-/
Water is clean and the hills are green though, so they may have a point.
The problem is that, here in the US, running (adjective) lights used to be the norm, but now running (verb) lights is the norm.
Quite common called Specs in the UK.
Used on roads where they put in three lanes to save costs (but not lives) like the A616.
The isolationist Norge's twice voted not to join the EU. Now they have taxes and prices that make residents of 'expensive' cities like NY, Paris and London blanche, but let's be fair they chose this for themselves.
I remember being on a Norwegian ferry once. The naive Norge's were queuing up to buy "duty free" whisky at 40% over the sky high price they could have bought it for tax paid in the UK.
Medicine is more helpful than prayers?
You haven't been to France then?
Here they are used on roads. Period. We don't have the luxury of roads with lane dividers. Well, there are some, but too little. Even though a new 2 lane motorway with dividers have been built and there have been no lives lost on that road since it was built the government still refuses to built more, but put up ATC instead to force people to drive at a brain rotting speed of 70-80 km/h. On the _main_ roads.
Yeah. I voted yes.
Yep - silly isn't it. We had a couple of friends visiting from the UK, and they were absolutely astounded over the prices here. 0.5l of beer cost around 60 NOK, 1 litre of gasoline about 12 NOK.
Why of cource.
Ditti, thiough if a CHP officer is haveing a particularly bad day he could give me a fix-it ticket. The dealer doesn't install them. They leave them in the trunk (boot) with the fasteners to install yourself.
I thanked them kindly. ;-)
The reflectors took a little getting used to. I don't know why they are where they are other than perhaps Mr. Bangle thought they'd look good there? ;-)
Dunno. Wasn't a major factor for me anyway.
Either one works for me.
I believe that's saddle brown; looks a bit orangish in the pics.
FloydR
Thanks - I was wondering about the orange tint. Looks very nice on the BMW site where I just configured a car just like that one. In Norway it would cost, and I shit you not, approx. US$ 213000. No there is not a typing error. Twohundredandthirteenthousand!
Which makes it an unobtainable dream, at least for me. There is a saying in Norway: When you buy a new car, you really buy three cars. One for your self, and two for the goverment...
About 8 years ago in Stavanger I saw an e36 318iC being used as a driving school car! that must have been some way of writing off the tax ;-)
Enjoy such a beautiful machine!!
It's quite common to see BMWs as school cars here, but not many are convertibles. :-D I guess they get a huge writeoff.
Wow.
At least you folks have your health and your not in the bottom third in infant mortality. Oh, and you're all really tall too. ;-)
Big downer, just for a laugh ask him how much a pint of beer costs in Norway............
One side effect of the car prices over there is that folk seem to take much better care of them.
Hehe - well, it aren't so bad it isn't good for something. ;-)
Depends of course where you buy it, but it ranges from NOK 30 to around NOK. That is approx US$ 6 to US$ 10-11.
Possibly - my Audi 100 2.3E and my BWM 318i is 14 and 17 years old respectively. I expect to have them for some more years still - knock on wood. I've just built a new house. ;-)
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