Project: 2014 328i xDrive Wagon F31

[Steve85]

OK, I got carried away telling the story so here is the BLUF

TL/DR – I bought a car when I wasn’t really looking to buy because the right one came up. It’s a 2014 Estoril Blue II 328i xDrive Sports Wagon with M Sport Appearance, Brake and Suspension options. The previous owner is the GM at a Lamborghini dealership and took me and my son for rides in a Huracan. I am ruined.

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The story:

Why – I was getting tired of the SUV life, it has its advantages and my wife has a CX-5 so it was time for me to go a new direction. The SUV isn’t fun to drive, the one I have isn’t particularly great to look at, and for those warts I still don’t get P/U truck utility. It is however, roomy and comfy. I was going to go pick’em up truck thinking of the comfort, space and great utility but realized I don’t need that much utility often enough to continue sacrificing daily enjoyment. Having growing boys (12 and 14) that are very active in sports plus our family stuff I still wanted utility on demand in something good looking and fun to drive. I was never a big wagon fan, but the Germans are good at them. 

What I was looking for – I really thought if I was going to own a wagon, it had to be manual. Unfortunately that would take me back to older Audis, previous gen BMW or Subaru. I wanted something current, not Japanese, and prefer the F31 looks inside and out to the previous gen BMW. The focus was narrowed. I still have a 6 speed car at my disposal and quite frankly I’ve been driving stick long enough that commuter shifting is as mindless and thrilling as breathing at this point. So now it just had to be M Sport for the better look, seats, brakes, and suspension. Or not so fast…turns out those brakes and suspension are additional options. And not many people ordered them all and those who did are not turning the cars over frequently. It had to be blue or red with white a very close second if it had everything else and ideally the deep brown leather. The scope was pretty narrow which played a part in accelerating the purchase.

I really wasn’t looking seriously but this thing popped up listed only on F30 Post with a link to sellers dealership, Lamborghini Carolinas. It did not show up on Autotrader, Cars.com, etc. He "sold it" to the dealership to get in a Golf R, his 15th Golf of various GTi levels. It had everything but the interior color and was priced well for all the comparison shopping I did.

The deal - I call the guy (Chase) and we had a great conversation about how he found it, why he was selling and some enthusiast talk. I told him about my son’s obsession with Lamborghini, our trips to VIR for the IMSA and Super Trofeo race and he told me they run three cars there! The XBOX sponsored IMSA GTD and two Super Trofeo cars.
One of my boy’s favorites from the weekend:





We got to numbers and he agreed to remove any dealer fees, it was a fair price so I was happy. We talked about the other cars on the market and he knew he didn’t have to budge. Then I went in for the kill – if I bring my son to pick up the BMW, can he get a ride in a Lambo? Without hesitation, he said, “Absolutely, always looking for a reason to take one out”. And then he volunteered Super Trofeo VIP tickets that include food and beverage all weekend in the tent for the 2018 VIR race. I was pleased.

The buy – The dealership is closed on weekends but he was more than happy to come in and do the delivery on a Saturday so we picked Jan 6. I rented a car and he agreed to pick us up at the Enterprise drop off. Bonus: We got a free upgrade and they removed the $100 drop fee so that was nice!
Chase picked us up in this:


So fricking nice!! Things were off to a good start.

We get to the dealership and yup, lambos everywhere, a white Porsche GT3, Cayman GT4, R8 and so on. We sat down at the table and he fired up the big screen and grabbed what was basically a tablet configurator linked to a big screen and told my son to build his dream car on it. We hit a snag adding the car to my insurance so while I was on the phone, he walked over and asked Michael if he wanted to see the “secret stash”. He showed Mikey upstairs and told him to just come down when he was ready. They have a mix of inventory and dealer owner private cars upstairs:








We saw the red Countach at VIR last year,  the owner drove it to the track Friday to get some pics of it with the race cars. It’s from a time when seeing a Lamborghini was a moment - pre-C&C, pre Google images. They made something like 2100 from 74-90, contrast that with like 1500 Gallardos per year from 03-13.

I finished with insurance and we were good to go. Since he hadn’t mentioned anything, I wasn’t sure we were still on for a joyride, I mean, there are signs on all the cars not to touch, there is salt on the roads and it was about 17 degrees out. (Which I would have understood and never told Michael there was a possibility so all would have been good) 

Chase grabbed the BMW keys and looked at Michael and said “I’ll bring it around, then you want to go for test drive?” He said “Sure” with a little shoulder shrug, thinking it’s no big deal since we are about the drive the car 6.5 hours the next two days.
 
We got outside, Chase parked the BMW then opened up the big folding glass wall, and Michael was like “What’s he doing?”. Chase turned to Michael, pointed to a gray Huracan on the floor and said, “I thought we’d test drive that instead”. The boy lost it! It was incredibly satisfying to watch him just in disbelief and pure excitement as the car was started and pulled out of the building. Off they go: (PS – these cars have an exploding exhaust note on start-up, that accurately foreshadows the upcoming experience)



When they got back, Michael got out and was beside himself. If I overpaid for the car, I just got my value. 

Chase came over to me and asked if there was anything he could do for me, I thanked him and said no, I think we’re good. He told me get in the car…umm...OK!  

I hopped in, the interiors are really nice and just look cool. He pulled out not very aggressive, but you could already tell this was special and the sound was just unreal. We had to go through a neighborhood, so he hit the steering wheel switch to the comfort mode which also quiets the exhaust. 

We did a few miles on a divided two lane highway. He jumped on it at about 40-50MPH and it was sick, just sick. We made a U-turn and he did it again, much to my amazement, it seems he was not foot to the floor first time. The acceleration is other worldly. We went through two gears (from about 50mph) and there was no drop-off, I slid up in the seat, my stomach felt like cresting the hill in a roller coaster. It was only a few seconds, but holy shit balls, it’s hard to explain, there’s just not much to compare it to. The feel, the sound…it’s intoxicating. (quite literally actually as your brain tries to catch up)

We shook hands, he handed Michael a new t-shirt and Lamborghini book, and told me to look him before the IMSA race next year. Michael and I headed out to my brother’s house about 90 minutes away just outside Raleigh.  The bar for a car buying experience in the future is set high…realllllly high J.

And my brother apparently had just sold his orange 200x Mach 1 for this Rousch 427R. Supercharged and sounds ridiculous!


 
Oh yeah, I bought a car or something while I was down there....

The car – Love it. It is an absolute pleasure to drive. I did get on it leaving a stop sign and we just kind of laughed at how nothing is going to feel fast for a while. Highway ramps are fun and kidding aside, it does pretty good to get around slow pokes and get up to speed. It’s roomy enough but I will have to adjust as there really isn’t excess space like in the Edge. So little things like having a good place for my phone, drink, reading glasses, sunglasses will have to be figured out. I think the best way to describe how I feel is the only reason I want to stop driving it is to get out and look at it.

The mystery - In the owners manual, there are receipts of the car getting paint protection (CilaJet?) at a dealership called Pentagon Motors just outside if Rammstein Air Force base and a receipt from Hilton Head BMW for changing all the nav and radio "US States".

The plan – 
First order of business is heavy duty mats, WeatherTech style.

Second, it came with BMW roof cross bars so I’ll be looking for a box that is good for skis and general luggage. Something like this: (lalalaladontlookatthewheelslalalal)


Then hopefully a remote start – partly for convenience but I also think it helps longevity by allowing things to warm-up in low stress conditions.

In the looks department, I’ll pick up a splitter which I think ties the front end together better. Wheels will be more long term because the factory are actually pretty nice. Those up there are 20s I would probably not go bigger than an 18. 

For lowering Dinan has .75 drop as compared to the others with 1.5+. That up there is also too low for my taste.


It could use a little bump in power and there are a couple options from Dinan (thanks RJ) and BMS that are plug and play to give a nice conservative bump. IIRC, they also allow you to run with the more aggressive tune or not pretty much on demand. 

Better pics to come soon so I'll throw this one in here too for now.