Project: 2014 328i xDrive Wagon F31

[Steve85]

Purchased at 45,266 now at 47,341.

The honeymoon is over...and I am still digging this thing. It really is fun to drive for something that is also  so versatile. The miles are a mix of a couple highway ski trips, acouple drives into Chantilly and Germantown and a lot of in town running around, to and from school and so on. Mileage has ranged from 21 to 25mpg, the roof box seems to have a 2-3mpg hit, I suspect the bars have an impact too. The min octane is 91 and there is a noticeable difference when running 87...ooops. We either get 87, 89 or 93 so I run 93. 

Steering wheel heater is so money. And so are the turning headlights. The roads where we ski are very bendy and it made a noticeable difference driving them at night. 

I am getting used to the 4 cylinder just inherently not as smooth as a v6. The sport brakes do squawk when it's very cold and that is pretty annoying. I've seen some mixed results from taking it in to the dealer for this. If we get another cold spell, I might make an appointment and see if I can get some pads out of it. I have C5 brakes on my C4 and they don't make noise and I'm pretty sure the C5 Z06 does a fine job of stopping without the ringing. I had some squeak when I had XP8s on it (maybe they were actually XP10 up front...) but I doubt the BMW factory pad is that aggressive. Could be though, the dust is pretty evident. Sonax knocks it right off though.

I was a bit torn on the M adaptive suspension because it's likely a nice set of coils and aftermarket sways are better and you get the lowering. But I'm happy to be able to ride comfortable and then as mood and situation warrant, switch over. It's not a huge difference between comfort and sport but noticeable, pretty sure they use damping to reduce some of the roll. I haven't messed with Sport+ much, mostly because it really wants to hold the engine way up in the revs. With Sport mode you can select whether it impacts chassis, engine or both, can't do that in Sport+.  Overall, from where I sit, they do a hell of a job maintaining as much of the BMW magic as they can while delivering everything people and the regulators want in their car. Steering could be heavier on center for a more confident feel for sure.

Up next, oil change. I'll take it to the place that did the inspection and might have them give it a good look to see if there is anything I should get done before 50k warranty. Also still toying with possible extended warranty through BMW.