Would you believe my CA gave me a little crap about it? He says that they never order cars with combinations like that, because people never buy them. I looked at him sideways a little, then asked him, "What kind of people do you service here?"
Sure, I'd believe it. Bold, unusual or interesting combinations often have more limited appeal than familiar, safe and boring ones. A few months ago my local dealer took a trade-in on a Montego Blue/Chestnut Brown E90. They were more than a bit worried about moving it out again--it's pretty loud. As luck would have it, some guy fell in love on sight and snapped it up, within days. Pretty sure I've passed him on the road a few times since...I doubt there are two around here. Curious: Where'd you get the blacked-out model badge? Is that black chrome, anodized or painted? It's a nice touch (I'm not a fan of de-badging entirely).
It's funny because they would never sell that color combo here, either. The most common colors I see here are: White/beige, Black/Black, Silver/Black Now I'm sorry, WHO THE HECK LIKES WHITE ON BEIGE? There is NO contrast there WHATSOEVER! Personally I think the ugliest combination ever offered, other than Bronzit/beige on the E30 (sorry Marshall )... It's kind of funny how so many people buy such a horrendous color combo as white/beige, and how nobody buys the really cool colors like Space Grey/Fox Red or Lemans Blue/Oyster! Cost probably has something to do with it. At any given time, I could look at the list of cars for sale at my local dealership, and 9 times out of 10, there'll be at least one white/beige combo, 328xi, with an automatic transmission, because it is the cheapest AWD configuration you can get here. Oh, and why there are so few RWD cars here is another story... I salute you sir for getting a proper color combination.
what about the abundance of E36s (or any car from the 90's really) in green on tan? that has to be my least favorite color combo ever
Green on tan is OK, as long as the green is maintained properly. Green is actually one of the few colors that I think tan looks OK with, probably because it's one of the only (if not THE only color) that contrasted the green properly. Grey, no. Black, no. Yes, black matches everything, but contrast brings out the fine details! (I have to stop now, before I offend some white/beige owners who hate red/black... lol)
Mine is Alpine White with a black interior! I like it! My previous car was an 1981 Alpine White E21 with a Medium Blue interior. I don't know how these white BMW's FIND me! Sadly it drowned under 12 feet of water from Hurricane Katrina! Long live my 750iL! I plan to get another E21 of similar vintage. I second Stig's question though: How'd you get the black badge? That looks really cool!
http://www.jlevistreetwerks.com/p941/Shadow-Vehicle-Emblems-for-BMW/product_info.html There are 2 options..glossy and matte. I found that I liked the matte better, as a pairing with the matte black grilles, and then the contrast to the shadowline trim. The transition took about 20 minutes with a blow dryer, some floss, and some gentle prodding to get rid of the stickiness. I would, but I resized them already (the originals were taken with a 10MP camera). I figured 1280x1024ish would be best to view...any smaller, and I feel like I'm doing the car a disservice.
Jeez, I hate you already. Just kidding. Nice car! Enviable gas mileage. I have my own formula for gas mileage. Helps keep the computer in check. It's a bit complicated but it works like this: Fillup #1: Jot down mileage. Fill up the car. Drive until the amber fuel indicator comes on. Repeat for Fillup #2. NOW, do your number crunching as follows. Subtract the amount of fuel you paid for from the total capacity in your tank (this should be listed in your owner's manual, or you can find out your car's specifications online). This is the total amount of fuel consumed. Now subtract the mileage recorded on Fillup 1 from Fillup 2. This is the total miles traveled between fillups. Divide miles traveled between fillups by the total amount of fuel consumed. This is your actual MPG. Repeat this whole process a few times and you should be able to get an average MPG figure. Using this formula, I discovered I average about 18 mpg when on the highway, but it dips down to around 11 mpg when I am doing in town city driving. It ain't a Prius, but my car does pretty respectable for a five-liter V12 (certainly a heck of a lot better than Chrysler's V10 Viper and Ram truck products, which only get half that with a 60 percent larger displacement, the same power, while my car spots it two cylinders).
Alig-- thanks for posting the pics; great work! Have a couple, well 3- questions: 1) Are those headlight icons for the "adaptive headlight" feature? I have not seen both of those come up on my car yet...I should read my manual, huh? 2) Still no DEF indicator on your car-- and you're way north of 10K now...that's good! 3) Do you miss, or ever regret, not getting the full NAV system? My 328i didn't have it, but the 335d does. I am glad I paid the extra for NAV and iDrive-- it's going to get a good workout later this month when I drive the 'd' to Illinois... Thanks again for your informative/interesting posts! Bob