# First ED Trip...



## windnsea00 (Feb 13, 2005)

Jspira said:


> Ja, you are correct. If in doubt, say ,,Sie`` and if the other party thinks ,,Du`` is better, he would say so.
> 
> If you talk to children or teenagers, you can safely say ,,Du``.
> 
> I too am very surprised at how casual some people are in the U.S. Perhaps we can start a trend towards formality here.:angel:


So for example if the person's last name was Hans, I would say "Sie Hans" correct?


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## JSpira (Oct 21, 2002)

windnsea00 said:


> So for example if the person's last name was Hans, I would say "Sie Hans" correct?


Hans is usually a first name so let´s take a typical last name, such as Braun (pronounced ,,brown``).

You would say Herr Braun.

,,Sie`` means You. ,,Du`` means thou.


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## MB330 (Oct 18, 2005)

imrans said:


> 1-2: Monaco
> 3: Ride across the street while I do the tourist thing and take more pics of Monaco
> 4: :bigpimp:
> 5: imagine the possibilities...:tsk:
> ...


Nice writing!Congratulatuin with your new car and first ED.:thumbup: 
even with NAVY I lost few times at night time in Monaco


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## jcatral14 (Aug 4, 2003)

Great writeup! Bravo! Nice pics as well.
I'm glad you had a blast  
All this time I'm exchanging email with Mr. Raffelsieper and just calling him Rolf :tsk::rofl:


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## jcatral14 (Aug 4, 2003)

.


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## IrvRobinson (May 10, 2006)

imrans said:


> Thanks - the trip was very uncharacteristic for me (very risk averse). However, I wouldn't have had the confidence to do it solo were it not for the wealth of info on this forum. In the end the trip exceeded expectations. Next time (yes, already thinking ahead) I'll try to enjoy/experience more of the various cultures and spending less time in the driver's seat/day.
> 
> Driving a 6-MT was thrilling and also humbling. The funniest moment was when I was attempting to reverse for the first time in Rapallo. I couldn't get the car into R. After quickly consulting the manual (yes, I did) while scooters buzzed around me and I held up car traffic I found out that I had to apply more force to get it in reverse (I was initially afraid I'd damage the shifter) :rofl:. I won't be at the race track anytime soon; however, I'm much more competent - another positive I can attribute to the trip.
> 
> ...


I really enjoyed reading about your journey and looking at your pictures.The towns do seem closer together when you're doing 155, even that picture came out great,mine came out too blurry since I was steering with my knees and trying to hold the camera steady and just missed the shot.I was also very impressed that you were able to go all the way to Rapallo,before you needed reverse..


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## emdreiSMG (Dec 10, 2003)

nivki89 said:


> Nice writing!Congratulatuin with your new car and first ED.:thumbup:
> even with NAVY I lost few times at night time in Monaco


Nivki you are Borat, Ja?!


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## imrans (Jul 19, 2006)

IrvRobinson said:


> I was also very impressed that you were able to go all the way to Rapallo,before you needed reverse..


Prior to Rapallo I'd been lucky in Bolzano where the space I parked in was such that I was able to drive through it to take off and in other locations (Munich & Bardolino) I was fortunate enough to have an incline where I just had to put the car in neutral and release the break and it would roll backwards :tsk:. I did test drive the Auto at the dealer; however, in retrospect it would have been a wiser move to test drive the manual (in my case) and read the car's manual pdf in more detail. There were all these goodies about the nav that I didn't find out about until midway through the trip.


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## disden (Aug 1, 2006)

I really enjoyed reading about your adventure. It seems like you had a blast. It reminded so much of my first European trips with my college buddies; driving around cities/countries without any clue where we were going, with no maps and that was pre-NAV time!

Glad you made it home safely, and without any damage to your new ride.


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## mdsbuc (Mar 17, 2005)

Great write-up! I felt like I was tagging along for the journey. :thumbup:


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## imrans (Jul 19, 2006)

For what it's worth I'm 2 miles short of official break in I believe (1198) - I'll need to make sure I take it really easy for those next 2 miles :angel:.

I'll caveat this by saying I'm not going to critique every single aspect of the car - just what I thought stood out in my mind. I must say though I was somewhat conditioned to expect some sort of car trouble when I began opening up the car in Northern Italy (over heating, etc) but fortunately I detected nothing out of the ordinary.

*General:*
The seatbelt valet does seem flimsy; however, if you take your time retrieving the seatbelt from it all should be well - I think it's cool but I'm a gadget guy. I was worried the Aluminum trim would be too stark and tried to change it at the last minute to grey poplar but it was too late - the car was already in production. I wasn't disappointed with the Aluminum and now I'm happy I got it - it never once rattled either as has been reported. I am a proponent of I-Drive but it could be more responsive when accessing the nav disk. I'd never used it prior to the trip and within 30 minutes I'd probably explored all its features without any difficulty. BTW, it crashed on me a couple of times but quickly forgave it for that. Ergonomically I thought things were all well placed (or satisfactory placed) - including the controversial cup holders - they're really not that far out of the way and retract cleanly when not in use. Same with the window controls - I don't mind the extra effort to extend my arm a few inches to reach them; small gripe in the bigger picture. The ambiance lighting is a nice touch and so is the lighting for the door handles on the outside . Comfort Access: I was one of those people that initially though are people that lazy that they really need this feature? Being a gadget guy again, I thought what the heck for $500 so I ordered it. I'm still grinning at how I would deliberately find reasons to visit the car; never having to take the key out of my pocket was more gratifying than expected (I'll get this feature again without thinking twice next time). As one person had mentioned on Bimmerfest, since you do have the two key fobs with you (or you should during ED), the system seems to randomly select one of the two so if you have settings/preferences associated with one fob vs the other you won't get them sometimes and would have to cycle the power on the car which usually picks up the other key fob. I heard one way was to remove the batter from one of the fobs but I didn't care to bother.

*Handling:*
The car's steering wheel was stiffer than I expected (though same as the auto I had test driven a while back) but I quickly got used to it. The car (and perhaps all BMWs?) is incredibly stable when turning. I'm back at home now driving my Honda Accord while I wait and I feel like I'm going to flip over each time I take a turn . The only time my confidence in the car was shaken was when following the E90 and going over the expansion joints on the Italian overpasses/bridges - I could feel the car skipping and once almost found myself in an adjacent lane  (change of underwear would have to wait)! It could be the result of the RFTs; however, besides that little incident they performed very well even after hitting some pretty nasty pot holes that I thought would have damaged the rims :yikes:. BTW, I was surprised to see very visible signs of wear on the front tires - more so than I was expecting but perhaps the RFTs are softer than the all seasons I have on my current car.

*Styling:*
The styling though VERY subjective (I'm not 100% head over heel in love with it - yet - but do like it very much) clearly was popular as I'm not accustomed to smiles and grins from strangers when driving around - as was the case. I really wanted the style 230 wheels; however, given that this is a lease I don't see the sense in spending another $4k in getting those&#8230;besides the style 189 wheels have grown on me rather quickly. Next stop, the tint shop.

*Engine:*
The engine - well, what can I say that hasn't already been said? Perhaps my most memorable moment was when driving through the tolls on the Autobahn I my window would still be down from having paid/grabbing a ticket and as I would take off I would hear this very unfamiliar but aggressive sounding engine note. I would look around to see which car was coming up my sides so that I could avoid weaving into their lane but only later realized after a few more tolls that it was my car all along! What a beast - I love it! It does idle rather rough...my Accord (again the only other car I'm really qualified to compare it to) idles silky smooth and VERY quietly - not so with the 335; but whatever. This thing has so much torque that I could simply leave it in 4th and sometimes 5th and rarely needed to change for the few times when I felt nostalgic of my automatic.

*Breaks:*
My second favorite component of the car (besides the engine) would be the breaks. In my Accord I can feel the breaks turn to jelly after heavy use - not nearly the case with the 335. It's a level of safety for which I'm very grateful. I was easily able to outbreak the E90 (but to be fair he did have ~500lbs of passengers which I didn't so not really apples to apples).

Now that I think about it...I ordered the cold weather package but I don't recall seeing the ski bag nor did I verify that the rear seats had the split fold down thingy.  Guess I'll need to sort that out when it gets here with the dealer - I'd actually prefer to get something else rather than the cold weather package (as I already have the heated seats) b/c I can't imagine taking this car up into the mountains for snowboarding (not sure what I was thinking when I ordered the full cold weather package). Perhaps tints instead.


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## jcatral14 (Aug 4, 2003)

Wow! A very thorough writeup. Thumbsup again. Btw, when are you getting the "beast" back?


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## OC 335i (Oct 5, 2006)

Great write-up and trip. I appreciate your well thought out responses. What kind of camera did you bring on your trip? Your pictures are excellent. I'm debating on which camera to bring (or buy) on the trip.


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## acf69 (Oct 2, 2006)

I really like your write-up. Not the "I am going 160mph and I am so cool" kind of write-up, but a very honest and may I say humble experience.

Keep up the good work, we all had to learn how to drive a manual and how to put the car in reverse! :thumbup:


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## JayK330 (Feb 11, 2006)

Excellent write up and great pics!


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## imrans (Jul 19, 2006)

OC 335i said:


> Great write-up and trip. I appreciate your well thought out responses. What kind of camera did you bring on your trip? Your pictures are excellent. I'm debating on which camera to bring (or buy) on the trip.


My camera is a Pentax Optio S5i. It's very compact and that is the primary reason I brought it along; I wanted to be able to take it with me everywhere without feeling like I had a new body appendage I was dragging along or even worse might opt to not bring to certain places b/c of its inconvenience (bulkiness). The fact that I had such a small camera with me meant that I'd be more inclined to take pics and then blend in (as much as is possible for me ) with the locals . That said, the obvious trade off was picture quality as with a more substantial camera with better optics I'm sure the pics could have been better but to my untrained eye they look good enough.


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## Yay-Z (Aug 13, 2007)

Funnies Story Ive read!!! lol lol


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## BRAISKI (Jan 25, 2010)

Congrats!!! Sounds like you had a great time!


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## JSpira (Oct 21, 2002)

BRAISKI said:


> Congrats!!! Sounds like you had a great time!


You are congratulating someone for a trip from 3.5 years ago as if it were yesterday . :dunno: :dunno: :dunno:


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## BRAISKI (Jan 25, 2010)

JSpira said:


> You are congratulating someone for a trip from 3.5 years ago as if it were yesterday . :dunno: :dunno: :dunno:


 what da! didn't even check the date lol good read though...


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