The Coupe
It's all about The Coupe. There just isn't any other way to put it when you thing about Da Guy's ultimate toy.
Da Guy will get back to you ASAP when you email the Webmaster |
Note that you can use "*" and "?" as wildcards. Enclosing more than one word in double quotes (e.g. "San Diego") will search for the exact phrase across this site. |
Da Guy's Favorite Place to Shop |
Da Guy has had a 2-door coupe starting with the first ride he ever owned. Thanks to his friend Yolanda, while he was living in Paradise back in 1995, Da Guy stepped up his game with a wonderful Lexus SC300 and has never looked back. This love affair with quality, service, luxury, performance, and technology, continued to grow as he "caught the passion", placed an order, and waited nearly 8 months to receive his first Lexus 2002 SC430 luxury convertible.
The passion continues to this day with his decision to divide his previous Lexus allegiance and jump for the first time into the BMW family with a new 2009 335i convertible. It's all about current technology WITH luxury ...and wow, what a new ride it is!
For Da Guy these days, his coupe is all about a balance of performance, the latest technology, luxury and reliability. All elements in unison, trading off some things perhaps, but not too much of any one for another. After all, The Coupe is his biggest and best toy. It is babied, secured at all times, parked away from others in those scary lots, never machine washed, always kept detailed and polished, and when not on the road, remains under a dust cover in his garage waiting for the next ride that will surely bring a huge smile to Da Guy.
Da Guy's new toy was manufactured to his specifications and arrived late in October 2008. According to Motor Trend, September 2008, the 335i is "still the definitive sport sedan". Since Da Guy tends to keep his rides for an extended number of years and still gets his thrills with the latest gadgets to keep his geekie-side in check, this one will have a lot of bells and whistles -- perhaps too many. Some, likely, only he will ever know or care about. THAT is what a big boy toy is, after all. Don't you think?
2009 BMW 3 Series 0946 335i 2-door Convertible (3.0L 6cyl Turbo)
Check out how Da Guy takes care of his ride on the Detailing page, and look at the Hints & Tips tab for the steps he went through in the first 24 hours of ownership.
Call him a non-conformist. Call him a worrywart. Call him an overly cautious kinda fellow that wants improved confidence his ride will last for the duration. Whatever you call him, Da Guy does not plan to take advantage of only the free "scheduled" service during his warranty, but supplement it with additional maintenance he'll pay for as well. "Why", you ask? Well, Da Guy plans to keep his ride for a while, not just for the 4 years covered by the initial warranty. It's interesting to him and some others that have done this BMW thing a whole lot longer, that BMW like most car manufacturers still today, had a more proactive maintenance regime until it started including it's 4-year free "scheduled" maintenance with the warranty. Now, "scheduled" becomes controlled by what the car's computer indicates, which of course is programmed only by BMW. This service interval is far, far, greater than what was previously required. Did technology really change that much for the better, at exactly the same time this change in marketing approach happened, so that almost no preventive maintenance is required within the first 4 years? Da Guy thinks not. Given this, why would anyone that leases ever do anything more? They wouldn't, and hence why Da Guy wouldn't think of buying a used leased vehicle, regardless of it's CPO qualification.
Everyone has a different opinion. Based on his research and for what it's worth, this is what Da Guy tentatively plans to proactively have done in addition to whatever his ride's computer recommends to make the maintenance of his E93 more like the traditional service approach BMW used in the past. Even if he can't prove it will make his ride more reliable in the long term, it will sure feel better having tried.
Overall, Da Guy loves his BMW. His number one dislike is the spotty or poor service (sales to service, online system accuracy during the ordering and manufacturing process, no sales follow-up after taking delivery, significant variance between dealer performance as described over and over in many forums). BMW focuses on the ride, and that's a primary reason why Da Guy ended up switching from Lexus after more than 13 years of loyalty, but with a premium brand, the buyer should not have to compromise as you will with customer service. BMW could be so much better if they would spend more time on improving and providing a consistent long-term customer experience as seen with other premium brands. BMWNA also needs to do a better job adapting how cars are sold in the US from a real US consumer perspective, e.g. it's frustrating to see, pay and negotiate on independent line items such as "training and MACO" when it should just be built into the base cost as other competitors do. When doing comparative shopping, a lot of people are not fooled by tactics like this looking at a true "base price".
Of a more physical set of "dislikes", Da Guy's list is a pretty small, but would turn a great car into something exceptional:
The net is: Just because things have been a certain way for a long time, does not mean it's the best today for every consumer around the globe. Da Guy is of German heritage himself, and can be pretty set in his ways, but BMW would do well to open their aperture and focus a little more on today's consumer view, as the Japanese have proven they could do in the last 20 years or more with continued attention to quality and detail. The little things do count helping you become #1.
Hailed as the "Sexy Lexy" by Road and Travel upon it's introduction in early 2001, the Lexus SC430 was the first luxury hardtop convertible of it's time. After weeks of research, months before it's debut, Da Guy knew he had to have one, put his deposit down before introduction, and got in line on the waiting list with no estimated time to arrival.
Da Guy was living in Atlanta in 2001. When Fall rolled around, he had been on the infamous waiting list more than 6 months after delivery of the SC430s had begun, with still no estimated delivery date in sight. He would wait. One day, Da Guy was at the airport headed off to a week's vacation in Paradise, when his friend Charlene called, saying she had found a SC exactly like what he was looking for, at a dealer across the street from her dentist in Mission Viejo, California. Better yet, the SC was not already allocated to someone on the growing waiting lists. Upon return from his vacation, Da Guy called the dealer in California. While he waited on hold for the salesman checking into status of the car, he found an email from Delta highlighting a special last minute $200 weekend round-trip fare to the airport not 10 miles from the dealership on the west coast. Amazingly, as the salesman talked to Da Guy, the SC430 pulled up on a delivery trailer at the dealership. The stars surely had lined up. Da Guy faxed a few documents to hold the SC and flew out that Saturday morning to test drive what would be his new Lexus SC430 for the very first time. Of course, the transaction was sealed on the spot. The prize would be on a transport the next week to his home in Atlanta.
At last, the day arrived when Da Guy had his 2002 Indigo Ink Pearl, Ecru and Birdseye Maple beauty. As fate would have it, just seven months later, he was transferred with his work, back to San Diego. Rather than go through the pains of having a mover damage his coupe again, he drove his new toy cross-country, only to be living less than 40 miles from the dealer he had purchased it from less than a year before.
"The Coupe" was a terrific performer and stylish every day that Da Guy owned it. Lexus had leapfrogged all of it's competitors in so many ways when the model was originally introduced. After the first two years of backlogs and booming sales, volumes continued to drop off significantly in the following years, while competitors such as BMW and Audi began introducing their new convertibles with all the latest bells, whistles and style improvements. Unfortunately, Lexus had a proven quality and luxury product, but didn't keep up with improving the vehicle's technology in later model years as it did with other lines. It was aging. By July 2008, there were increasing rumors of a new lower-end, as well as a much higher-end pair of Lexus performance convertibles in the works, and questions if the SC model line would survive into the 2009 production year (which it eventually did, once again). Of course, nothing could be substantiated and there were no timelines with the limited information that had been officially made available.
Babied and kept inside the garage with it's cover on when not on the road, The Coupe had seen only 22K miles after nearly 7 years of original ownership and remained in like-new condition. Da Guy was perfectly happy with his toy for the longer run, until one day when he received a letter from the Lexus dealership wanting to purchase his SC in trade for a new vehicle. There were supposedly dealer and factory incentives on both ends of the transaction. Da Guy got the bug to at least "take a look". What is there to loose? The appointment was made for the first available day Lexus had for this campaign the following week. As any informed consumer should do before heading off to the dealership, Da Guy started checking out what the forums were saying about the SC430 and what the competition had to offer as negotiation points -- never thinking he'd switch from his beloved Lexus brand or really get rid of The Coupe.
Fast forward now, two days after a disappointing appointment at the Lexus dealership that lasted just over 30 minutes, when Da Guy made a move that no one thought he could, or ever would, including himself. After hours of research and deliberation since receiving that letter from Lexus less than ten days before, Da Guy sold his prized possession and placed an order for a new 2009 BMW 335i Convertible with his exact options, to be one of the first off the Bavarian line the first week of the new production year. When he got home that evening, while Da Guy was excited with the thought of a new toy in his future, it was also sad with an empty stall in his garage and no coupe to his name in more than 25 years. He had joined the BMW family with his next generation toy.
There will always be a soft spot in Da Guy's heart for his original Lexus SC430 convertible. In his opinion, no one will probably ever beat Lexus with their design priority on luxury and reliability, nor how that ride was such a joy to him and his passengers for so many years. It was stellar, and oh so quiet to listen to that awesome Mark Levinson sound system, and quite the looker to it's very last ride. Hopefully it's new owner felt the same.
Oh, those Europeans and the advertising we'll never see in the US. Go BMW!
-- Day Guy is known as WDW1Fanatic on the boards of BMWCCA
on BimmerPost is a Series 3-specific place where Da Guy can also be found as WDW1Fanatic. It's another of this favorite BMW board hang outs.
- Da Guy is known as BertL around Club LexusThe places where Da Guy goes for his auto accessories, detailing stuff, parts, and the like
-- lot's of speciality branded products. When you want the best, you'll probably find it here. Great service
and a lifetime 100% money back guarantee.  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
See how Da Guy takes care of his rides on Detailing and a lot more general information on Automobiles
