New Member

newbold1 · May 28, 2005

I just traded my 2004 Cadillac CTS for a new 2005 BMW 330Ci Convertible. This is my first BMW and I have to say... WOW!!! Talk about an upgrade. This car is fantastic. This evening my wife and I had the top down and drove around downtown Nashville, TN. A ton of people on the street were checking out the car and some were actually shouting out to us how much the liked it. That never happened in the CTS. What a cool car! I think I am going to love being a BMW owner!

Here are a few pictures.

deutsch100 · May 28, 2005

Congratulations!!! Your new Bimmer is beautiful...I always think black or really dark blue looks amazing with the beige leather. A timeless and elegant combo.

Enjoy your new ride!!! I remember my first BMW...I wanted to sleep with it in the garage. Spousey thinks I am already weird, and that just sealed the deal [:D]

Freude am Fahren [driving]

newbold1 · May 29, 2005

Thanks! We just love it!!! I have to drive from Nashville, TN to Atlanta next weekend and the weekend after that I am heading from Nashville to central Florida. I wasn't looking forward to making the drive but now I can't wait! [:D]

theBMWenthusiast · May 29, 2005

very cool, congrats on the purchase, looks awesome

drkeng · May 29, 2005

Great choice. Probably won't miss the Caddy. Have you tried putting the top down with the key remote?? rock on in ur new bimmer [headbang]

Big Daddy · May 29, 2005

Very nice looking car. Welcome to the bmwboard!

///M SPEED · May 29, 2005

Congrats on the purchase and welcome to the board! Great choice and IMO upgrade....

My next-door neighbor has a Pearl White CTS and his wife always comments how she loves my car. If it wasn't for the great deal they got on the Cadillac (bought from father-in-law cheep) they would look into getting a BMW....

Chesty Bonds · May 29, 2005

Very nice indeed.

newbold1 · May 29, 2005

Thanks everyone! The 330Ci Convertible was a definite upgrade. I can't believe how great it is to drive this car! My wife and I took a short road trip today from Nashville, TN to Bowling Green, KY and back... top down of course. [driving2] It was great! Driving the CTS was never such fun.

I had a 1996 Cadillac Seville SLS and it was a great car. Lots of power, comfortable, quiet ride. But... it was getting old and so I traded for the 2004 CTS, my first new Cadillac. I figured I would be getting a great car plus with the warranty I wouldn't have to worry about any problems that might develop. Boy was I wrong. I owned the car 10 months and in that time the following problems developed. [:(]

Center tail lamp assembly began leaking water into the trunk.
Car developed a fuel vapor leak.
Transaxle began whining and it took me about 3 months to convince them that it wasn't the tires and it needed to be fixed. They just fixed it a few weeks ago.
Car recalled due to PCM (onboard computer) had a bug and needed to be reprogrammed.
Car recalled due to washer in steering linkage made from wrong material and could break causing loss of steering control.
Car recalled due to computer problem that could cause air bags to deploy when car is started.

I usually keep my cars for many years (ie: 5-7 years is typical). But, in this case, I had finally had enough. I always wanted a convertible and I always thought the BMW's looked sharp. SO... I bit the bullet and made the trade for the 330Ci Convertible. I know its only been 300 miles so its early to know how its going to be but so far the car seems to be OUTSTANDING! [thumb]

I just wish I had been more serious about looking to BMW sooner.

///M SPEED · May 30, 2005

You will never go back. BMW's do that to people....

Chesty Bonds · May 30, 2005

///M SPEED said:

Yeah sometimes this can be a massive problem! I'm always looking at ways to scrape together more funds with which to buy BMWs. An Alpina B9 3.5 is next in my sights...

Kirby · May 30, 2005

Congrats!!! Sounds like you are going to be hooked!!

Consider getting the rear wind deflector. It extends the top down season, especially those cool autumn evening drives.

Steve176 · May 30, 2005

I have the same car as you and love it as well. The only difference I can tell from your picture is I have the gray interior. Have fun with it, I am certainly enjoying mine!

TheBry · May 31, 2005

Congratulations on the new car!! I love reading posts like this

I'm a first-time BMW owner too -- bought my car a little over a year ago -- and have been loving it. I did look at the rest of the field when I was considering a new car (CTS, G35, A4, etc...) but kept coming back to BMW. I'm so glad I got this car -- and, especially glad I got the 330. It has a bit more ooomph. I love it! Beware of high miles though. I just turned over 32,000 miles in my car; it's that much fun to drive. I own it outright (paid off earlier this year) so I'm gonna keep it until it dies. I live in San Francisco but frequently drive it to Los Angeles. It's fun on the road.

Have fun on your upcoming drive!

newbold1 · Jun 1, 2005

I also checked the competition. I was seriously considering the Audi A4 because I really wanted a convertible this time around but I really need to have a back seat. I have a 12 yr old and although she doesn't need much space... the two seater just wasn't going to work. [:(]

The Volvo C70 was just kind of blah. Price-wise all three cars were about the same. Since the money was about the same it really came down to which car looked best, drove best, and seemed to have the most repeat customers... as far as I could tell. In my opinion the BMW was the clear winner.

The other convertibles that I could find with 4 seats were either way too pricey (ie: Mercedes CLK320 started at $54K before options, Jaguar XK8 $75K [:0]

before options), not really luxury cars, or were just too ugly (ie: Saab 9-3 Convertible ).

I researched and thought about this purchase for about 6 weeks. [idea]

I had plenty of time since it took so long to get my CTS back into good working order so I could trade it. [?|]

I am very happy with my purchase and I don't imagine that I will have any regrets about it. I never had so much fun just driving around in a car. [:)]

The only thing I need is to have the CD changer installed. Probably in a few weeks I will go back to the BMW dealership to have one put in. My guess is that the changer along with installation will probably run about $700 - $800. Anyone have any experience with adding the changer?

Average Jae · Jun 2, 2005

congrats on the purchase, and welcome aboard David.

i would sooo love to get a convertable, had it not been for the michigan weather.. well that and i prolly would've opted for a hardtop m3 had i been able to afford a decked out 330cic.

cd-changer. consider looking into an ipod option. (not sure how much of a techie you are, but having the ipod instead of the cd changer might work out well.) altho bmw's version is a bit of a pain in the butt, as you only get 5 playlists. and you can only update it on your comp under the name bmw1-bmw5. there are other solutions out there.. thought i'd throw that in as something to think about.

seadzz · Jun 2, 2005

I second the iPod option over the CD changer. My player has a shade over 300 CD's on it and it sure beats having to carry a large collection of CD's with you. That number is for a 20gb player. Now larger ones exist (60 gb) so you could fit your entire music collection into the player if you are so inclined.

Good luck with the car.

sdz

newbold1 · Jun 2, 2005

I am somewhat of a techie. I have a wireless network at home with computers, hubs, and printers all in different rooms. And, I usually buy the desktop components and put together my own PC. BUT... I have very little experience using an ipod. I bought one for my wife to use when exercising and it seems pretty each to add songs to it.

So... how do you install one on the car? Is this something that you can do so that it seems like it was done by the factory or at least hidden so the car still looks normal? I remember adding a CD changer to a car and the controller had to be "taped" somewhere on the dash board. It worked fine but ruined the clean look of the dash.

I suppose I need to go out to the car and grab my owner's manual. I was just looking at the new car brochure and it says that it is standard for the 330Ci to be compatible with the auxiliary audio input adapter for audio connection of portable music players. So... I guess that means that I need to buy the adapter and then I can hook up an ipod? Where do you hook up the adapter?

drkeng · Jun 2, 2005

Another option is an Alpine 6-CD changer that will work through the radio display/controls. They also make one that will play MP-3 files from the CD's; the only drawback is finding the song on a CD full of MP3's, so people have said they don't fill the CD to capacity with MP3's. I almost got that, but I find the music on Sirius pretty good and listen to CD's less than in my previous cars.

TheBry · Jun 2, 2005

newbold1 said:

The "iPod your BMW" cable is really cool -- it keeps your iPod charged and uses the "true" audio-out (on the bottom of the iPod) to pass songs to your stereo. It's a completely separate set-up from the AUX port you're talking about. One problem though -- not sure about 2005 models, but my 2004 330Cic isn't supported since I have the BMW Navigation option with LCD display. Do you have Nav?

Anyway, since that wasn't an option for me, I kludged together my own solution and it's working great (BMW AUX input in glove box and a power adapter plugged into flashlight charger). It's all tucked neatly in my glove box and I'm able to skip through songs using a wireless remote I keep in my ash tray.

Having ALL my tunes with me is far better than shuffling through six CDs. I highly recommend the iPod solution.

BMW has more details here:
http://www.ipodyourbmw.com

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