Quote:
Originally Posted by KillerBee370
Alright so having driven it a bit today, here's my short take on things.
Pro's
1. BRAKE ASSIST!! WOO HOO!  I'm getting a kick out of this. What can I say? It comes in handy.
2. Seats. Much better than the Z. Not that the Z was bad but these are p-l-u-s-h. It's like my old Evo Recaros mixed with plush leather. Win win.
3. MOAAAR powaaaa!!! What can I say about the V8? Oh I know... when I hit the "power" button, VAVOOOOOM! Damn... what a difference over the normal driving mode. Normal driving mode definitely feels like less torque than my Z (granted my Z was modded and tuned). I'm guessing that pressing that magic little button changes the air/fuel mapping. With power mode engaged, all thoughts of "will this pecker in the CLK next to me at the stop light show me his tail pipe when the light turns green" go away. Far away.
4. Shifting. Hmmm... Silly thing but I'm pretty much re-learning it since I don't have rev-match. Goddamn I loved rev-match!! That and the throw is longer of course but since I had a short throw shifter in the already short throw Z, it feels a mile long. It's getting better though.
5. Suspension. The car feels every bit on rails as my Z. Honestly. But this is just normal driving around town with the occassional spirited corner. I took my Z to the track 4 times so that is where the proof is in the pudding so to speak. But for a 4 door, I am quite pleasantly surprised to be honest.
6. It's got every creature comfort and the controls are within easy reach. Also, it feels as if it were hand crafted for a person with legs as long as mine.
Cons:
1. The idrive is a bit of a mystery. Alright... it's a total F'n mystery  but I'm starting to get the hang of it slowly.
2. The gas guage is normal and not just a bunch of lights. That's cool. The fact that I actually literally watched it go down without really even driving anywhere major today isn't. 
3. It sits on 19's so replacing rubber is going to require a refi.
4. I can't think of anything else yet. 
A couple side notes...
I don't think whoever owned the car before me ever drove it in the rain. I checked out the underside of the car pretty extensively and there's not one hint of rust. Anywhere! I mean not even on any of the exhaust. In 17.5k miles you would think that something would have at least a smidge. Alas.. no. They DID however drill the front bumper to mount the front plate... sunuvabitch! Oh well... can't win 'em all  |
Great minds think alike! I too just bought an 08 e90 m3 today to replace my Z that was wrecked last fall. fully loaded with edc, idrive/nav/mdrive, executive package, extended novillo leather, gray paint, black interior, 18 inch wheels.
I'll post a more detailed comparison later, but I agree with a lot of your points. Seats are terrific and offer tons of lateral support. brakes are actually better on the Z. Can you believe it, bmw still uses archaic single piston sliding calipers on their M models?
The engine is terrific! Have you tried taking it over 8000 rpm yet? Note though that neither sport nor sport plus throttle modes affect the engine tuning in any way. These are just throttle maps. These are just throttle maps that affect the ratio of pedal displacement to butterfly valve angle. You can get the same response in normal mode, but you just have to push the throttle a bit more. This isn't like the M5 where the power button actually did produce more power. In the M5 full throttle pedal only gives about 80% throttle valve opening, releasing about 400hp or so. The power button allows 100% throttle valve opening and releases the whole 500 hp.
Personally I found sport to be good for fun drives, and normal to be good for tame cruising, and also probably for adverse weather conditions with low traction. Haven't yet tried sport plus but i read it's very twitchy and makes the car undriveable.
I'll trade you a gas gauge for a dipstick. the M's analog gauge is way better than the Z's stupid LED gauge, but the Z had that magical mysterious device called the dipstick. None of that stupid digital gauge crap.
The iDrive is appalling!!!!!!!!! Whoever the hell came up with this stupid nonsense?!?!?!?!?! I love all the adjustability and customization you can do with it, but you need a computer engineering degree just to figure out how to navigate those endless lists of menus, submenus, inframenus, etc........... Can you imagine operating that damn knob scrolling through menus while going down the highway surrounded by speeding cars????????? Apparently 09 and newer cars have an updated system that is a bit simpler and more user friendly. Oh, you also forgot to mention that 08 nav is dvd based. There is no hard drive, so you can't store music and stuff like that.
Nevertheless, getting idrive is very important because it gives you Mdrive which enables access to sport steering, sport plus throttle, and the programmable M button.