Ownership Verified: Finally someone bought a car recommended by FinalGear: My BMW 123d Coup?

blackman

Active Member
Joined
Mar 1, 2007
Messages
388
Location
Bochum, Germany
Car(s)
'06 Cooper S / '89 316i / '15 MT09 Tracer
Hey Everyone!
As some of you might know I asked for advice here on which car to buy in this thread:

http://forums.finalgear.com/general-automotive/help-me-find-a-rwd-sportscar-in-germany-49388/

Well now I've taken delivery of my 123d Coupe, and first things first I love the car!
The ride and feel of it makes me wonder how I could live with my old Seat Ibiza for seven years :D

But let's see some pictures:

https://pic.armedcats.net/b/bl/blackman/2011/07/03/IMAG0328.jpg
Obligatory proof of ownership

https://pic.armedcats.net/b/bl/blackman/2011/07/03/IMAG0326.jpg
One more just to be sure ;-)

https://pic.armedcats.net/b/bl/blackman/2011/07/03/IMAG0002.jpg
https://pic.armedcats.net/b/bl/blackman/2011/07/03/IMAG0003.jpg
This is how it looked when I spotted it on the dealers lot.

https://pic.armedcats.net/b/bl/blackman/2011/07/03/DSC_0020.JPG
https://pic.armedcats.net/b/bl/blackman/2011/07/03/DSC_0022.JPG
This is how it looked when I picked it up, a week later.

As you can see the car is pretty much immaculate. It's three years old, was the third car of the first owner, so it has barely done 15000km. Buying from the BMW dealership gets me 1 year of full warranty and new MOT. Aside from that every possible service was performed, like oilchange and change of brakefluid and the likes.
It's got a lot of goodies like 18 inch forged BMW Performance wheels, xenon headlights and adaptive lighting, rain sensor and all kinds of clever gizmos I'm still discovering.
But even all of that put aside, BMW does not boast when talking about "Freude am Fahren". It is a blast to drive. The engine is superb and definetly the best of the 2l turbodiesels. It generates 204hp and 400Nm of torque, and has the most usable powerband I've ever seen on any diesel, thanks to the twin turbochargers. And it does that using 6.3l per 100km, or 37mpg us or 44.8 mpg imperial, when driven hard (which is basically all I do, it's way to much fun to be driven slowly :D)
Top speed is 250kph, 0-100kph is done in 6.7s.

So there you go, people of finalgear I bought the car you guys recommended and it was a perfect fit! Thanks a lot!
 
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You're very welcome. :D
 
1er Coupe is probably the best looking BMW at the moment and I after I experienced 120d I was already suprised by how it went, so the 123d must be rather excellent compromise between performance and fuel economy!

May I suggest spacers for the rear wheels and a gentle drop for the suspension? It has great lines and good wheels, but the stock stance could be a bit more BMWish. :)
 
Nice one! I am just a tiny bit jealous - YOU BASTARD. Dibs on testride though! :) Need to pick up the spare Ibiza parts from you too - are you doing the Extraschicht on saturday?
 
Nice car, I might get one of those next.
 
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nice, now tune the hell out of that engine!
 
What a great car. Better mileage than my MINI, too! Are those bi-xenons, and do they self level? I think I have those same headlights, if so. They're phenomenal!
 
Business CD is srs bsnss! :lol:

I love it--looks like fun!
 
Are those bi-xenons, and do they self level? I think I have those same headlights, if so. They're phenomenal!

Yes they are! Once you switch to high beams it's almost like daylight :D
 
First Mod!
I am pretty keen to keep the mods down to a minimum, I want a clean look on this car inside and out, but some things are just necessities. Since the BMW only has the "Business" Radio, I can't connect my phone via bluetooth, so no handsfree phonecalls and no music streaming. Upgrading the radio would have been in the 1000? range (It's a BMW after all :D) so I decided to try the el cheapo method:

http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Bluetooth-Hands-Free-Blackberry-Smartphones/dp/B004EHZUYG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1312102253&sr=8-1

And it's only 35? here in good ol' Germany!

This plugs into the aux-port of the car stereo and connects the phone via bluetooth. It includes a remote to take calls and control the phones music player.

I installed the remote onto the center console, and hid the cables attached under the interieur panels, this is how it turned out:


The ring changes color when a phone is connected, if you get a call, etc.


Fits the Interieur lighting perfectly:


All the cables are hidden under the armrest, plus you get a usb port you can use to charge your phone.


I'm very pleased how this turned out, the quality of speech during hadnsfree phone calls is excellent and so is the music streaming!
 
Wait, you have woodtrim in your car? You old man! :p
Then again, that Belkin does look quite nice, I wonder if I should get it for my mum's 1 Series. How is the audio streaming quality for music? Do you have to set the radio to Aux or does it recognize it as phone? I personally hate that radio with all my soul, it feels like it got developed in 1995 (which it probably did, as we already had that in our 2001 3-series compost) and left like that, at least it has RDS........:p
 
Wait, you have woodtrim in your car? You old man!

Funny enough at first I didn't wanna buy the car because of the wood trim, but now I really like it. Mind you it's not some cheap plastic imitate, this is the real deal with about 839 layers of clearcoat on it :D



I wonder if I should get it for my mum's 1 Series. How is the audio streaming quality for music?

Yeah the radio is pretty shit, but the belkin device makes the best of it. Streaming is seamless und quality is limited by the radio, not by the bluetooth connection. You have to switch the radio to AUX manually though. But the belkin lets the phone ring and flashes the led-ring, so you will notice an incoming call.
 
Great car, enjoy it and drive safe ;-)
 
Funny enough at first I didn't wanna buy the car because of the wood trim, but now I really like it. Mind you it's not some cheap plastic imitate, this is the real deal with about 839 layers of clearcoat on it :D

Yeah the radio is pretty shit, but the belkin device makes the best of it. Streaming is seamless und quality is limited by the radio, not by the bluetooth connection. You have to switch the radio to AUX manually though. But the belkin lets the phone ring and flashes the led-ring, so you will notice an incoming call.

Yeah....I think radio was the first thing to go if I bought that one....or at least replace the speaker with something that actually plays the range, not just the middles ;) (dunno if you have upgraded speakers?)
 
Damnit didn't I say I wanted no mods?

Damnit didn't I say I wanted no mods?

Well here goes another update. Had to replace my tomtom satnav, so I thought what the hell: I'll have a nav BMW Style.

It is basicly a Garmin N?vi 3790LMT, BUT: It's integrated well within the car. Audio comes via the cars speakers, it switches on and off with the cars ignition, connects to my phone via bluetooth, is completley voice controlled and sits in a cradle on the dashboard. Apart from being an excellent satnav, it has a neat feature called "ecoroute HD" which uses a bluetooth dongle connected to the cars OBDII port to read out data and fault codes and what not.
Enough reading, lets have some pictures:

https://pic.armedcats.net/b/bl/blackman/2011/09/19/IMAG0369.jpg
As it sits in the car.

https://pic.armedcats.net/b/bl/blackman/2011/09/19/IMAG0407.jpg
Display is the best I've seen yet in a portable device. You can even set the little car on the display to be a black 1 series coupe, how cool / unnecessary is that? Bonus: you now know where I live :p

https://pic.armedcats.net/b/bl/blackman/2011/09/19/IMAG0367.jpg
You can see the engine readouts, top left is engine load, lower left is boost pressure, revs in the middle, top right is coolant temperature, lower right is intake air temperature.

https://pic.armedcats.net/b/bl/blackman/2011/09/19/IMAG0408.jpg
When in the phone menu, it has complete acess to the phonebook, missed calls etc...
 
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