View Full Version : stepping up from the tC


draxcaliber
07-28-2010, 11:12 PM
i got something with more doors, more gears, more cylinders and more turbos!

so a few short weeks ago, i had an autocross scheduled that i decided to skip since it was raining that day, which meant the course would be a rain course with miserable kinked turns and almost purely technical with no room to just have fun, and a friend of mine asked me to give her a ride to pick-up a newly used car she was buying. I drover her to a luxury used car dealership down in manasas VA to pick up a used mercedes benz e350 sedan. while i was there, i noticed they had some very nice BMW 335i's for sale. i browsed them and saw their options and how much they wanted for them and i couldn't believe how much they were selling for. it started to make me wonder, so i started playing with finance calulators and doing research and managed to convince myself that this would be an awesome and logical car to buy.

so i purchased a 2007 BMW 335i sedan. black on black, premium and sport package, GPS navigation, six speed manual, twin turbo 3 literdirect inject inline six with 36k miles on it.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs238.snc4/39261_568000700403_52201770_32705412_3635922_n.jpg

car has some normal wear and tear for a 3 year old car, but for the price i got it for, i can tolerate and fix it. current plans are new floormats and tint job. don't really plan to modify it very much as it is damn near perfect as is. all it really needs is an LSD, and a good bolt-on intake exhaust and retune. add a boost gauge and maybe upgrade the speakers.

car is a blast to drive. it has so much low end torque and such tall gears and drives so effortlessly i am stupified. it can pretty much do everything the tc does without breaking a sweat. acceleration is disturbingly stealthy. punch it and you can barely hear the engine, you just feel it plant you in your seat and the speedo just sky rockets. i though that it being heavier and less powerful than the tc would mean it is just a few ticks slower, but i am starting to believe the bmw is much faster. you can't even tell the car has a turbo. the power just swells and never lags or tapers off.

gotta play it safe though, i know this car has way different handling dynamics than the tc. gotta be prepared for the quirks of an almost perfectly balanced FR car.

i'll still be on this forum, i still have the tC. gotta take my time and find a happy buyer for it.

Sciond
07-29-2010, 02:03 AM
sweet upgrade

Prototype_xB
07-29-2010, 02:14 AM
sweet buy! I would have gone with a 135i myself though.

draxcaliber
07-29-2010, 02:28 AM
sweet buy! I would have gone with a 135i myself though.

yeah, the 135 is smaller, lighter and probably more nimble, but i can't stand the looks. it looks like a cartoonish characature of the 3 series. headlights are not to my liking. also, i'm 6'3", so i might get cramped in the tiny 135.

G2Low
07-29-2010, 03:54 AM
very nice...congrats sir

XIEmperorIX
07-29-2010, 03:13 PM
nice upgrade..lol damnit all these people buying new cars makes me want to upgrade..grr...focus..focus..:lol:

GQQSE13
07-29-2010, 05:43 PM
very nic eupgrade!!!

hotbox05
07-30-2010, 06:12 PM
I just wish they looked less pedestrian.

draxcaliber
07-30-2010, 09:10 PM
yeah, i'm not crazy over the styling of this generation. i think the last gen looked better, but i just can't come up with enough cons to outweigh the pros of this chassis. it looks blander in pictures than it does in person though. looks a bit sharper when you see it in real life.

highvoltage1
07-31-2010, 06:14 PM
Nice upgrade!!!

RusWolf
07-31-2010, 07:50 PM
so how much was it ? :)

1GreeKtC
07-31-2010, 07:57 PM
Class! This should do you justice. Enjoy man!

draxcaliber
08-01-2010, 01:24 AM
so how much was it ? :)

$26.8 grand.

XIEmperorIX
08-01-2010, 02:00 AM
That's a pretty good deal. Out here a car like that would still probably fetch about $32k

draxcaliber
08-01-2010, 02:52 AM
That's a pretty good deal. Out here a car like that would still probably fetch about $32k

yeah, i got hooked up through a friend with a dealership scout. normally he goes to auctions for used vehicles, which are usually previously leased, buys them and sells them to the dealership to sell to the public. i told him what i was looking for, he found me this car, and i bought it directly from him, so it is almost like getting it for wholesale instead of retail since i paid his mark-up and not the dealership's mark up.

i wasn't hard to shop for. i just wanted a 335i coupe or sedan, (preferably the sedan since it is more useful, and slightly cheaper to insure, i checked that before buying) in almost any color minus the possibility that BMW makes some lame brown, champagne or lame green colors. interior could be almost anything minus beige interior or mud brown. and i wanted the premium and sport package, heated seats and adaptive xenon headlights. oh, and absolutely had to be a manual.

strangely enough, this pretty much narrowed the field down to this one car. there were a few other candidates, but they wanted too much for them, or they had bad car fax. went and saw the vehicle, test drove it and it was pretty much a done deal right then and there.

CXTKRS1
08-01-2010, 11:20 AM
Very Nice.

highvoltage1
08-01-2010, 03:15 PM
Wow thats a very nice deal.

Ace83
08-01-2010, 04:03 PM
awesome deal.. nice car. for sure its a different level as the tc, its not even a fair comparison.. glad you didnt get rid of the tc though.. or did you? haha.. but the scion is still a different experience though, something you can tell a story off someday haha

draxcaliber
08-01-2010, 04:27 PM
i still have the tC for now. i think i want to sell it. otherwise it may end up just sitting there. also, be nice to sell it and buy some parts for the initial modding of the bmw.

Ace83
08-02-2010, 04:29 AM
haha your tc isnt enought to cover some good mods on the beemer! so you are right, INITIAL mods lol..

draxcaliber
08-03-2010, 12:16 AM
probably not. i'm not going to mod the bmw like i did the tc. just a few mods to put my signature on it. although...if i keep both cars, i can afford some occasional extended down time now and then...

TxtC112
08-05-2010, 02:02 AM
that a great upgrade, i wouldn't modd the 335 until the warrenty is over at 50k miles. you get free maintance until then. also if i were you i would try to find out if the high pressure pump has been replaced in it. the 335's have a problem with the high pressure pump.

i work at a bmw dealer in the parts department and we have alot of the high pressure pumps go out in the 335.