The Bimmerfest Long Term Review F30 328i is Officially on Order!

We are excited to announce that the Bimmerfest / F30Driver project car has been ordered and is awaiting production in Munich, Germany! This is the first car that has been officially marked as a long term review vehicle and has been optioned up to ensure that we will be able to help answer questions and guide potential F30 buyers through the decision making process.



We chose to go with a 2012 328i in Melbourne Red Metallic based on the impressive shots coming from all the press releases and because of the unknown long term drivability of the new N20 motor featured in the 328i model. Other options on the car include:

• Melbourne Red Metallic
• ZMT - Manual Transmission
• ZSL - Sport Line Trim
• 4AD - Brushed Aluminum Trim
• 4DN - Matte Coral Red Highlight Trim
• LCL3 - Black Dakota Leather with Red Highlight
• 2VF - Adaptive Suspension
• ZDA - Driver Assistance Package
• ZPK - Parking Package
• ZPP - Premium Package
• ZTP - Technology Package
• 2VL - Variable Sport Steering
• 465 - Split Fold-Down Rear Seats
• 522 - Xenon Headlights
• 6NL - BMW Assist
• 6NR - BMW Apps
• 8TH - Speed Limit Information

A special thank you goes out to Jon Shafer and BMW Santa Barbara for working with us to ensure an extremely early delivery to the Performance Delivery Center in South Carolina. We will be organizing a get together at delivery in South Carolina and hope to see a big group of BMW enthusiasts at the Peformance Delivery Center!

We look forward to helping the community get some answers to their questions about the next generation 3 series BMW F30, including making those tough decisions about what options are really worth getting when ordering.

What options are you most interested in hear more about? Do you have some burning questions on your mind already? Let us know!

Very cool! Thanks!

Do you get the car for free? how does that work? nice specs

Definitely not free...I wish

Just a standard order like everyone else really; the purpose of the car is simply different. I am personally very interested in seeing how the car drives with the 6-Speed. I have an E92 335i that I drive daily and I owned an Audi A4 w/ the 1.8T motor back in the day. Very interested to see how the 328i with a stick handles the roads!

Originally Posted by pix335i

Definitely not free...I wish

Just a standard order like everyone else really; the purpose of the car is simply different. I am personally very interested in seeing how the car drives with the 6-Speed. I have an E92 335i that I drive daily and I owned an Audi A4 w/ the 1.8T motor back in the day. Very interested to see how the 328i with a stick handles the roads!

Yea, let me know...i was planning on ordering the stick, but then after trying the ZF sport 8 speed with the N20 in the Z4, i was sold on it.

do you have an estimated delivery date?

No estimated dates yet but I wouldn't expect to see any deliveries before February 11, 2012. From what we had heard, most cars were set to be in production the first week in January 2012. Figure in about 4-6 weeks for delivery and it puts arrivals in the first two weeks of February. We will have a better idea when we get the first person gets their F30 delivery status updated to "En Route"...though that doesn't mean they won't stockpile them at the ports before delivering to dealers.

Originally Posted by justinnum1

Do you get the car for free? how does that work? nice specs

Not free, but invoice!

Sorry, but only my Bimmerfest partners qualify for this deal...

You should go the full Monty and do ED with PCD.

Pardon me, does bimmerfest always retain a long term 3 series project vehicle? Is it a long-observed tradition or something out of the blue?

Originally Posted by bayoucity

Pardon me, does bimmerfest always retain a long term 3 series project vehicle? Is it a long-observed tradition or something out of the blue?

This is novel project for us...

ED to PCD would be an awesome opportunity but we wanted the car as soon as possible and ED doesn't start until March...the next best choice was PCD as soon as possible!

As for the idea of a long term review car, as Jon said, it is a new project that we are taking on with the F30. We took a look at the order sheets when they came out and were surprised with how it was set up. There is so much more technology on these cars that it is even harder to figure out what is worth getting these days. We are confident that the enthusiast driving elements are still going to be there but hopefully this test car will allow us to provide some good feedback to everyone on the site in terms of value.

It is a new concept so there might be some speed bumps along the way but we hope this helps a ton of people in the buying process and ownership phase!

This is an excellent idea!
With so many options, conbinations and budget concerns, we want to choose wisely without sacrifycing something worth getting.

Originally Posted by jmnbmw

this is an excellent idea!
With so many options, conbinations and budget concerns, we want to choose wisely without sacrifycing something worth getting.

+1

Status 150 now VIN has been produced and things are looking good!

Can't wait to see the reviews and comments about the various options, especially the steering option.

Pix335i,

Nice car, and glad you got the manual transmission. However, could you give a bit more thought to the interior selection? You ordered "LCL3-Black Dakota Leather with Red Highlight" and that can be changed for a few weeks yet. Why pay around $1,500 for someone to execute a thinking, feeling animal so that it's skins can be treated with toxic chemicals and then wrapped all over your new seats? The leatherETTE is available at no additional cost, plus, in a few short years the animal skins will look pretty worn; leatherette will look like new. As a blogger/journalist I suggest you take a "deep dive" into this subject and let us know what you find. I'm certain it will reveal the truth: it's not morally or ethically supportable to order leather. Thanks, and please, let us know of your order update soon.

pylt: While I agree with you, I'm interested to know if your thinking carries to your choice of food and clothing.

Originally Posted by Robert A

pylt: While I agree with you, I'm interested to know if your thinking carries to your choice of food and clothing.

I think this should be obvious from the nature of the post, no?

Originally Posted by pylt

However, could you give a bit more thought to the interior selection? You ordered "LCL3-Black Dakota Leather with Red Highlight" and that can be changed for a few weeks yet. Why pay around $1,500 for someone to execute a thinking, feeling animal so that it's skins can be treated with toxic chemicals and then wrapped all over your new seats? The leatherETTE is available at no additional cost, plus, in a few short years the animal skins will look pretty worn; leatherette will look like new. As a blogger/journalist I suggest you take a "deep dive" into this subject and let us know what you find. I'm certain it will reveal the truth: it's not morally or ethically supportable to order leather. Thanks, and please, let us know of your order update soon.

Not again.

Originally Posted by pylt

Pix335i,

...Why pay around $1,500 for someone to execute a thinking, feeling animal so that it's skins can be treated with toxic chemicals and then wrapped all over your new seats? The leatherETTE is available at no additional cost, plus, in a few short years the animal skins will look pretty worn; leatherette will look like new. As a blogger/journalist I suggest you take a "deep dive" into this subject and let us know what you find. I'm certain it will reveal the truth: it's not morally or ethically supportable to order leather. Thanks, and please, let us know of your order update soon.

This is what happen when school is out of session.

Originally Posted by pylt

Pix335i,

Nice car, and glad you got the manual transmission. However, could you give a bit more thought to the interior selection? You ordered "LCL3-Black Dakota Leather with Red Highlight" and that can be changed for a few weeks yet. Why pay around $1,500 for someone to execute a thinking, feeling animal so that it's skins can be treated with toxic chemicals and then wrapped all over your new seats? The leatherETTE is available at no additional cost, plus, in a few short years the animal skins will look pretty worn; leatherette will look like new. As a blogger/journalist I suggest you take a "deep dive" into this subject and let us know what you find. I'm certain it will reveal the truth: it's not morally or ethically supportable to order leather. Thanks, and please, let us know of your order update soon.

My ass sweats a ton. I cant even imagine what faux leather would do. That dakota leather feels great

The poor cow has already been executed so I can have a nice prime rib for Xmas dinner. It doesn't care at this point what's done with its skin.

Originally Posted by pylt

Pix335i,

Nice car, and glad you got the manual transmission. However, could you give a bit more thought to the interior selection? You ordered "LCL3-Black Dakota Leather with Red Highlight" and that can be changed for a few weeks yet. Why pay around $1,500 for someone to execute a thinking, feeling animal so that it's skins can be treated with toxic chemicals and then wrapped all over your new seats? The leatherETTE is available at no additional cost, plus, in a few short years the animal skins will look pretty worn; leatherette will look like new. As a blogger/journalist I suggest you take a "deep dive" into this subject and let us know what you find. I'm certain it will reveal the truth: it's not morally or ethically supportable to order leather. Thanks, and please, let us know of your order update soon.

While my personal preference would be for the leatherette as well for the reasons stated (durability and "feel good" factor), in defense of Pix335i, we can also see that the car has ZPP. ZPP includes the leather and you can't get some of the parts of ZPP a la carte, e.g. the auto-dimming mirrors, the lumbar support, universal garage door opener, and the comfort access keyless entry. So Pix335i can't drop the leather without dropping all of that equipment as well.

Back when I was considering an E90 and they had the Value Package thing going, I checked with the dealer about ordering the value package and deleting the leather from it. I was told it can't be done...you either get the entire package or nothing. I didn't much care for the smell of the leather in the E90...somehow leather in the F10 felt different.

Originally Posted by jgrasty

The poor cow has already been executed so I can have a nice prime rib for Xmas dinner. It doesn't care at this point what's done with its skin.