How I do love this car. I mean, anyone with the sense God gave a chimp would have gotten rid of it long ago. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed to see how far it gets me before the next problem crops up when the extended warranty expires, probably around early next year at the current miles-clocked rate. Fortunately that CPO warranty came through again and I’m only out-of-pocket for the cost of a new battery + registration and 4-wheel alignment.
It had a bad January. Around the middle of the month I failed to avoid the largest-ever pothole, no – pot canyon, on the I-36 eastbound Boulder entrance ramp. I pulled off at the next exit to inspect for damage because the steering wheel was cocked noticeably to the right after hitting so hard it almost threw me into a skid as I rounded the turn at 50mph. You have to be extra careful about tire damage under these circumstances as well, because run-flats are so good people have been known to unwittingly drive them until they come apart. You might not even know you have a flat without a TPMS warning. Another benefit of the run-flats is great wheel protection. Conventional tires suffering this hard a hit would have also incurred serious wheel damage.
So the next day I gave it a rough alignment adjustment by guesstimate to hold it over until I got an opportunity to have it done properly. Then in my infinite wisdom due to a stretch of bad weather, I drove the 2500 and left it sitting in the garage for over 2 weeks and the battery died. Ordinarily not that big of a deal. Sometimes I miss the days of purely mechanical vehicle maintenance. It gets a little dicey when the computer-controlled magic specter of intelligent charging systems and carefully synchronized electronic creature comfort rears it’s angry head. After a full re-charge the car seemed fine from a cranking, starting and running perspective, but the iDrive was unresponsive – lights on, but nobody home.
That iDrive controller (little round joystick control knob with buttons in the center console) is an $800-to-replace BMW-only item. So I left the “D” with Gebhardt the day before yesterday, and they expect to have it until Monday. The 428i loaner they gave me is a pretty sweet car, but it ain’t no E90 335D.
