Posts Tagged ‘m3’
Calgary BMW Staff Joyride In Customer M3
It’s well-documented that dealing with any BMW dealership in Calgary is like spinning the big Roulette Prize Wheel Of Terrible Customer Service. Will you get charged hidden fees or added repairs without your consent? Will they attempt to weasel their way out of warranty work? Will your car actually be fixed? You may not find out until it’s too late. Some owners have gone as far as to create a website about the terrible service they’ve received from Calgary BMW dealerships.
However, BMW service is always expanding their horizons, and there’s always room on that Wheel Of Customer Service for another imaginative way to screw over you and your vehicle.
Today we have a report that there is a new diagnostic procedure in the BMW Service Manual:
Section 76(b)
When a customer brings in a heavily modified high-performance BMW to have basic electrical work done, bag the shit out of it in the parking lot.
Nice car, time for a joyride!
That’s right. Our own rage2 owns not only beyond.ca, he also has an HPF BMW M3 that puts out over 750HP with methanol injection. This is not a car you let your mother drive, much less random hoons from the service department. Rage2’s car was damaged earlier this year by an inattentive driver, and after some repair work was done at an independent shop it needed the foglight wiring harness replaced. A simple enough job that one would expect the Calgary BMW service facility could handle it without incident, but the level of brutal customer service at Calgary BMW just keeps on surprising us.
Rage2 had the car flatbedded to Calgary BMW so as to avoid marring the fresh, unprotected paint job. A few days after he left the car in the capable(?) hands of the dealership, a fellow Beyond member called him and let him know that he had seen the car being joyridden around the dealership at approx. 4:00PM on October 17th with no front bumper. While this is outrageous to begin with, it should also be pointed out that a car of this performance level needs to be driven properly, and that does not include being flogged around by some numptys in a parking lot. The car’s owner is suitably pissed, and hopefully we’ll hear some updates when he gets ahold of the service manager. Will the joyriding punks get nailed to the wall? I damn well hope so.
Update 1
Not only did the morons take it for a spin in the parking lot, a report from another Beyond member indicates that the car was seen being driven erratically (thrown through corners, launched from stoplights, etc.) in SE Calgary near the dealership. The green line in the image below represents the path they were seen taking.
Discuss this incident in the forums
Mileage Shootout: M3 vs Prius
Looking through the car photo and video galleries today, I stumbled onto this video of the M3 vs Prius battle on Top Gear. They had the Prius in front going for the fastest lap with the M3 trailing behind it. They then measured the average mileage over 10 laps.
The result is not surprising at all, but the video does spark some interesting discussions over hybrid cars such as the Prius. Join in on the discussion: M3 more efficient than a Prius
Proof that Car & Driver Is In Bed With BMW
I’m sure you have all read countless comparisons of the GT-R vs. every other car in the world and whether you like the Nissan’s latest sports car or not, the truth is, the GT-R slaughters much of its competition.
That is, until Car & Driver released their latest comparo pitting the GT-R against a Porsche 911, and a BMW M3. The Car & Driver test drivers chose the M3 as the winner in the comparison citing the fact that it is a more practical package that both the 911 and GT-R.
A naturally aspirated 4.0-liter V-8 can’t deliver the massive torque of the blown sixes, but the M3 delivers its 414 horsepower in a linear and consistent manner from idle to its 8300-rpm redline. No lurching, no drama, no sudden explosions of boost. And the sound the BMW V-8 makes is due a Grammy. It’s a V-8 note not often heard outside racetracks, while the Nissan and the Porsche both sound as though they could wear a Dyson label.
The author is quick to point out that the M3 is the cheapest of the three, and near the end when explaining why the M3 is the best of the trio, he again mentions the M3 was able to offer the “hassle-free” performance at a price that undercuts the GT-R. Seriously, the M3 is only about $6,000 cheaper than the GT-R. I could see this argument being made if the price difference was similar to the price gap between the GT-R and the 911 (the 911 in the comparison was about twice as much as the GT-R) but a difference of $6,000 on a $70,000+ car is peanuts especially when $6,000 buys an ass whopping.
In this group of radical cars, the M3 emerged quickly as the voice of reason. The extremist voices of the Porsche and the GT-R are just not present in the M3. It never shouts, utters complaints, or makes any unbecoming demands. Road and tire noise are subdued, the fabric-covered seats are perfect, and there is a back seat and a real trunk.
In my mind, I have always thought that car magazines were paid off by car manufacturers. There has never been any solid evidence and I chalked it up to the differences being small and subjective that would allow a comparison to sway in anyones favor (ex. C32 vs E46 M3 and C63 vs E92 M3). In a comparison of sports cars, who would suggest that the car that was most practical would win?
Whats next? Throw in a Toyota Prius into a sports car comparo and say that the Prius is the best because it had the best mileage? Car & Driver FTL!
Oh and if you want a translation of the article, hit up this analysis on our forums:
M3 Beats GT-R and 911 Turbo
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