my new 645, with pix, and write-up!
#1
04-28-2008, 01:35 AM
my new 645, with pix, and write-up!
Hey Everyone-
Thanks to a successful lemon law claim for my E46 M3 Cabrio, I was lucky enough to find this unbelievably clean, low-mileage (only 28K!), fully-loaded (sans HUD) 645 Cabrio.
Here's some pix and a write-up of my first impressions and overall thoughts.
Enjoy!
INTRO
So i'm sitting here after having made myself a yummy dinner and a few glasses of wine, and i realized it's time to write up my long-promised review of my new 2005 645 cabrio. i'm too tired to do any more bar prep so i figured now's a good time to write up this little "First Thoughts" piece.
In the interest of remaining drama-free and getting straight to the point, i'm going to be blunt: there's NOTHING obviously wrong with the car. That said, there's a few quirks that just bug me.
ANNOYANCES
For one thing, being a 2005 model, the auto tranny doesn't yet blip the throttle on downshifts. That said, it slushes into the lower gear far better than any non-blipping tranny has ever done.
Another thing is the curious absence of cubbies here and there to store items like cell-phone and parking meter coins. Fortunately for me, the ash tray is EXACTLY the size of my cell phone, so i'm lucky. But it also has to do double-duty for the quarters. Not a huge deal, but still a bit strange an omission since even the E36 back in the day had that awesome spring-loaded coin holder for each type of coin.
BLUETOOTH
Bluetooth actually works quite well provided you speak at a very quiet volume, at least according to those on the other end. I can hear them just fine. In fact, it even works quite well with the top down -- but windows up -- until about 40 mph.
TRUNK VOLUME
Trunk volume is waaaaay better than my E46 M3.
REAR SEATS
Rear seats are actually exceptionally good .......... for girls, watermelons, or very small children without legs.
Ok ok now onto the juicy bits.
ENGINE
The engine. And oh, what a thing it is!! Drive it grandma style, and you're rewarded with that satisfying low-end torque where the car will upshift by 2,000 RPM through every gear. I dunno, i just love that feeling of knowing i never need to go above 2K for normal city driving. It's just a cool feeling of torque.
The fact that you can tow a small moon behind you is simpy an added convenience for those times when you need to, you know, tow a small moon. Or maybe just an asteroid. Whatever.
TRANSMISSION
The transmission is smooth to the point of being perceptible only i you TRY to perceive it. The 1-2 shift happens VERY quickly under normal driving -- and is thus sometimes a bit abrupt -- but you're in 2d gear before you even know it. Accordingly, it's sometimes the most obvious gear change, with 2-5 being almost CVT smooth. I daresay it's smoother than my parents' E350 Benz with the 7G-Tronic or whatever it's called. Strangely, however, the shift from 5-6 at anything more agressvie than grandma style is met with a rather abrupt CLUNK. Strangely, my old 2001 X5 4.4 had the same issue shifting into its top gear as well. Does BMW have issues with top gear?! lol.
The aforementioned occasionally abrupt 1-2 gearchange is amazingly completely lost at full throttle launches: floor the gas pedal, and keep it floored, and the car will nail each upchange with nary a dip in power delivery, the accelerative g-forces only gradually giving way to the increasing frictional drag of the air. Put another way, the only thing that realy lets you know a gearchange has occurred is the change in the RPM. Remarkable.
SUSPENSION/CORNERING
To be honest -- and this may be the most astonishing thing about the car, if you take my meaning -- i've barely pushed the
car that hard, indeed, i've only tried a few on/off-ramps here in SD. The point is, the car excels so astonishingly at what it seeks to accomplish -- namely, being a true Gran Turismo -- that even at my relatively young age of 28, I find I drive it slower than any other car, so comfortable is it to just crusie about in.
That said, i *HAVE* pushed it round a few on/off-ramps and to be honest my feelings are mixed, but for all the wrong reasons. The physical abilities and limits of the car are astonishing. The extent to which you can bite into a corner totally belies its size and mass. This then is where the X5 analogy is most appropriate, using an old SAT analogy where X5 : SUV :: 6er : GT.
Seriously. Just think about the astonishing way in which your X5 can carve up corners now and then when you ask it to. Not only does it do the seemingly impossible whne you ask it, but it also does so with no drama, and most atonishingly, with no effort! So it is with the 6er: i feel like i could carve up Buttonwillow, Thunderhill, or Laguna Seca with just my pinky finger on the steering wheel. It's that easy to drive at the limit.
That then is also, obviously, it's drawback. It, like so many modern cars today, is almost TOO good: indeed, i humbly admit it is probably better than i am, as a driver. For starters, it's got more acronym-based safety systems than i can recall. But for fun, let me try: ABS. DSC. DTC. ABC. Hm. That's all I can recall. The most welcome is the DSC/DTC system, with DTC bacially being an "intermediate" mode allowing for a little bit of fun. ABC, however -- or is that the Benz name for it?! lol -- is basically Active Body Control, where the front and rear sway bars dynamically stiffen during cornering. Result? Hardly any body roll. Effect? A bit an eering feeling really, as what you expect to feel simpnly isn't there.
As for comfort? Wow. It just cruises along soaking up bumps like i've never experienced before. It's got almost Benz comfiness, but without the float. In a word: PERFECT.
DYNAMIC STEERING
Honestly, i don't see what all the fuss is about. All it really seems to do is boost the power steering at low speeds to make it easier to park. Effect? Makes the car "feel" more luxurious lol. At normal driving speeds, it's just like any other BMW. Nice and weighty. I love it. The fact that, in conjunction with DSC, it helps counter-steer you should you manage to get the tail in a slide, is a bit disconcerting, although i'd love to try it on a track to see if it really works.
STEREO
The stereo is amazing: one sub-woofer under each seat means you can pull a Howard Stern Subwoofergasm on your girlfriend. Combined with the butt warmers, she'll be quite happy indeed. Already tested. Works brilliantly.
CONCLUSION
Well i don't know what else to say really. Simply put, the car is amazing. I don't thinjk it's fair to call it a driver's car per se -- it's just too electronic, and far too isolated and perfect; put another way, it's no M3 -- but the fact that it lets you do so much, so fast, so well, and so easily, in juist hte same way the X5 did, all the while offering an open-top driving exeprience, with a proper, useable trunk, an intoxicating exhaust note, fantastic stereo system, and luscious supple leather seats, totally explains why it commans the respect and desire that its received.
I had no idea how great a car it was. I had been looiking for a comfy, sporty, comfy, comfy, comfy, and sporty convertible, and had naively thought the SL Benzes were the only way to go. I couldn't be happier that i discovered the 6.
God bless California Lemon Law.
At last........ I have a car that I love as much as I loved my X5. And that's saying a LOT (for those of you who have/had an X5, or for any of you who are also on X5world, I know you can relate!).
Thanks to a successful lemon law claim for my E46 M3 Cabrio, I was lucky enough to find this unbelievably clean, low-mileage (only 28K!), fully-loaded (sans HUD) 645 Cabrio.
Here's some pix and a write-up of my first impressions and overall thoughts.
Enjoy!
INTRO
So i'm sitting here after having made myself a yummy dinner and a few glasses of wine, and i realized it's time to write up my long-promised review of my new 2005 645 cabrio. i'm too tired to do any more bar prep so i figured now's a good time to write up this little "First Thoughts" piece.
In the interest of remaining drama-free and getting straight to the point, i'm going to be blunt: there's NOTHING obviously wrong with the car. That said, there's a few quirks that just bug me.
ANNOYANCES
For one thing, being a 2005 model, the auto tranny doesn't yet blip the throttle on downshifts. That said, it slushes into the lower gear far better than any non-blipping tranny has ever done.
Another thing is the curious absence of cubbies here and there to store items like cell-phone and parking meter coins. Fortunately for me, the ash tray is EXACTLY the size of my cell phone, so i'm lucky. But it also has to do double-duty for the quarters. Not a huge deal, but still a bit strange an omission since even the E36 back in the day had that awesome spring-loaded coin holder for each type of coin.
BLUETOOTH
Bluetooth actually works quite well provided you speak at a very quiet volume, at least according to those on the other end. I can hear them just fine. In fact, it even works quite well with the top down -- but windows up -- until about 40 mph.
TRUNK VOLUME
Trunk volume is waaaaay better than my E46 M3.
REAR SEATS
Rear seats are actually exceptionally good .......... for girls, watermelons, or very small children without legs.
Ok ok now onto the juicy bits.
ENGINE
The engine. And oh, what a thing it is!! Drive it grandma style, and you're rewarded with that satisfying low-end torque where the car will upshift by 2,000 RPM through every gear. I dunno, i just love that feeling of knowing i never need to go above 2K for normal city driving. It's just a cool feeling of torque.
The fact that you can tow a small moon behind you is simpy an added convenience for those times when you need to, you know, tow a small moon. Or maybe just an asteroid. Whatever.
TRANSMISSION
The transmission is smooth to the point of being perceptible only i you TRY to perceive it. The 1-2 shift happens VERY quickly under normal driving -- and is thus sometimes a bit abrupt -- but you're in 2d gear before you even know it. Accordingly, it's sometimes the most obvious gear change, with 2-5 being almost CVT smooth. I daresay it's smoother than my parents' E350 Benz with the 7G-Tronic or whatever it's called. Strangely, however, the shift from 5-6 at anything more agressvie than grandma style is met with a rather abrupt CLUNK. Strangely, my old 2001 X5 4.4 had the same issue shifting into its top gear as well. Does BMW have issues with top gear?! lol.
The aforementioned occasionally abrupt 1-2 gearchange is amazingly completely lost at full throttle launches: floor the gas pedal, and keep it floored, and the car will nail each upchange with nary a dip in power delivery, the accelerative g-forces only gradually giving way to the increasing frictional drag of the air. Put another way, the only thing that realy lets you know a gearchange has occurred is the change in the RPM. Remarkable.
SUSPENSION/CORNERING
To be honest -- and this may be the most astonishing thing about the car, if you take my meaning -- i've barely pushed the
car that hard, indeed, i've only tried a few on/off-ramps here in SD. The point is, the car excels so astonishingly at what it seeks to accomplish -- namely, being a true Gran Turismo -- that even at my relatively young age of 28, I find I drive it slower than any other car, so comfortable is it to just crusie about in.
That said, i *HAVE* pushed it round a few on/off-ramps and to be honest my feelings are mixed, but for all the wrong reasons. The physical abilities and limits of the car are astonishing. The extent to which you can bite into a corner totally belies its size and mass. This then is where the X5 analogy is most appropriate, using an old SAT analogy where X5 : SUV :: 6er : GT.
Seriously. Just think about the astonishing way in which your X5 can carve up corners now and then when you ask it to. Not only does it do the seemingly impossible whne you ask it, but it also does so with no drama, and most atonishingly, with no effort! So it is with the 6er: i feel like i could carve up Buttonwillow, Thunderhill, or Laguna Seca with just my pinky finger on the steering wheel. It's that easy to drive at the limit.That then is also, obviously, it's drawback. It, like so many modern cars today, is almost TOO good: indeed, i humbly admit it is probably better than i am, as a driver. For starters, it's got more acronym-based safety systems than i can recall. But for fun, let me try: ABS. DSC. DTC. ABC. Hm. That's all I can recall. The most welcome is the DSC/DTC system, with DTC bacially being an "intermediate" mode allowing for a little bit of fun. ABC, however -- or is that the Benz name for it?! lol -- is basically Active Body Control, where the front and rear sway bars dynamically stiffen during cornering. Result? Hardly any body roll. Effect? A bit an eering feeling really, as what you expect to feel simpnly isn't there.
As for comfort? Wow. It just cruises along soaking up bumps like i've never experienced before. It's got almost Benz comfiness, but without the float. In a word: PERFECT.
DYNAMIC STEERING
Honestly, i don't see what all the fuss is about. All it really seems to do is boost the power steering at low speeds to make it easier to park. Effect? Makes the car "feel" more luxurious lol. At normal driving speeds, it's just like any other BMW. Nice and weighty. I love it. The fact that, in conjunction with DSC, it helps counter-steer you should you manage to get the tail in a slide, is a bit disconcerting, although i'd love to try it on a track to see if it really works.
STEREO
The stereo is amazing: one sub-woofer under each seat means you can pull a Howard Stern Subwoofergasm on your girlfriend. Combined with the butt warmers, she'll be quite happy indeed. Already tested. Works brilliantly.
CONCLUSION
Well i don't know what else to say really. Simply put, the car is amazing. I don't thinjk it's fair to call it a driver's car per se -- it's just too electronic, and far too isolated and perfect; put another way, it's no M3 -- but the fact that it lets you do so much, so fast, so well, and so easily, in juist hte same way the X5 did, all the while offering an open-top driving exeprience, with a proper, useable trunk, an intoxicating exhaust note, fantastic stereo system, and luscious supple leather seats, totally explains why it commans the respect and desire that its received.
I had no idea how great a car it was. I had been looiking for a comfy, sporty, comfy, comfy, comfy, and sporty convertible, and had naively thought the SL Benzes were the only way to go. I couldn't be happier that i discovered the 6.
God bless California Lemon Law.
At last........ I have a car that I love as much as I loved my X5. And that's saying a LOT (for those of you who have/had an X5, or for any of you who are also on X5world, I know you can relate!).
Last edited by crosvs; 04-28-2008 at 01:57 AM.
#2
04-28-2008, 10:19 PM
Nice write-up. I always like to hear about how someone takes to not just a new car, but a new type of car. Coming out of an m3 that I loooved, I'm enjoying some of the finer points of GT cruising myself. That 6 is clean, enjoy.
#3
04-28-2008, 11:41 PM
thank you! glad you enjoyed .... and glad you can relate!
EDIT: just read that you grabbed an S5 ...... NIIIIIIIIICE. congrats! But i'm guessing you haven't yet fallen in love with her? give her time lol ......... you gotta get to know each other!
glad you enjoyed .... and glad you can relate!EDIT: just read that you grabbed an S5 ...... NIIIIIIIIICE. congrats! But i'm guessing you haven't yet fallen in love with her?
give her time lol ......... you gotta get to know each other!
#6
04-29-2008, 07:48 PM
Registered User
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Chester County, PA
Posts: 5,897
Rep Power: 283 
Very nice write up - thank you for taking the time to share that with us. Sounds like you are a true car guy and also sounds like you got just the car for you
Enjoy it in the best of health and have fun with that top down!!!
Enjoy it in the best of health and have fun with that top down!!!
#7
04-29-2008, 08:00 PM
The s5 is an awesome car. The looks are great, the finish of the car is top notch, but my m3 set a pretty high bar for the around town terrorism that was my daily drive. With that said, the m3 started looking dated, and the ride was faaaaaar from comfortable. I can't deny missing the responsiveness of the m3...but there is so much to love about the s5.
Trending Topics
#9
04-29-2008, 10:02 PM
Very nice write up - thank you for taking the time to share that with us.
Sounds like you are a true car guy
During my UCLA years I modified a 2000 V6(!) Mustang by stripping out the rear of the interior including the rear seats; totally re-doing the suspension; and getting some better rear-end gears in. All said and done, i deleted about 300 lbs while enjoying several open track events at Thunderhill and Buttonwillow! Ok ok so my laptime at Thunderhill was only a 2:21 lol ........but hey I only managed a 2:19 in my Dad's 996 C4S a few yrs ago. So either (a) I drove the hell out of the Mustang; (b) had no idea how to drive a Porsche lol; or (c) sucked at both haha. Whatever, it's all in good fun and to continue learning and improving, right?!
In any case, I think law school is aging me lol ..... I just really wanted something more comfy, and as INSANE as it sounds -- God forbid even, lol!! -- I really wanted a nice comfy automatic over a manual for all my daily driving even though, besides the X5 (and sorta the M3 which was SMG), I've always only driven manual my whole life.
But you're right, in my heart, I'll always be a purist, and once I start making corp law money by the start of the new year -- we don't get bar results until Thanksgiving!! -- i'll definitely be picking up a track car again for some weekend fun!
Last edited by crosvs; 04-29-2008 at 10:05 PM.
#12
04-30-2008, 01:11 PM
So this is a summary of all the problems i had with my m3:
In the past 12 months:
* 33+ days in shop
* 5x for faulty trunk lid
* 4x for front alignment issues
* 3x for (a) faulty right catalytic converter; (b) faulty o2 sensor; (c) faulty replaced o2 sensor; (d) swaped (replaced?) injectors
* 2x alternator problems and filure
* 2x stereo/nav unit
* and bunches of other things
Note that just before BMW NA graciously OFFERED to buy back my car (props to BMW NA!), the check engine light went on AGAIN!! for the FOURTH TIME!!!!
Anyway ..... so yeah. It was definitely a very annoying 14 months or so of ownership. AND i never even managed to get her out to any track days
In the past 12 months:
* 33+ days in shop
* 5x for faulty trunk lid
* 4x for front alignment issues
* 3x for (a) faulty right catalytic converter; (b) faulty o2 sensor; (c) faulty replaced o2 sensor; (d) swaped (replaced?) injectors
* 2x alternator problems and filure
* 2x stereo/nav unit
* and bunches of other things
Note that just before BMW NA graciously OFFERED to buy back my car (props to BMW NA!), the check engine light went on AGAIN!! for the FOURTH TIME!!!!
Anyway ..... so yeah. It was definitely a very annoying 14 months or so of ownership. AND i never even managed to get her out to any track days
#14
04-30-2008, 09:41 PM
Registered User
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Chester County, PA
Posts: 5,897
Rep Power: 283
#15
05-01-2008, 12:14 AM
ugh...that sucks
Not hard to tell - it takes one to know one
Dont forget the little people
Last edited by crosvs; 05-01-2008 at 12:18 AM.