My first week with the Bimmer was both good and bad. Obviously good since it's fun to drive. I've always liked driving, but now it's a completely new realm. My Civic was a good, trusty car, but it wasn't the Ultimate Pretension Machine. The bad part of Week 1 was two-fold. First, after having the car for about three days, I got a fucking big-ass rock chip in my front windshield. Welcome to Colorado. Then, a couple of days later, I pulled a corner too tight and scraped up one of my wheels. The amazing turning radius on that car can sometimes be a little too good. It's not horrid, and it can be prettied back up rather easily, but it still pissed me off.
The past two weeks have been much, much better. Fun, but without any annoying little damages. I'm doing pretty good with the manual. Still slow off the clutch, but not stalling out like a motherfucker. I got to discover the magic of brake dust and how much fun it is to clean that shit off. It was kinda neat in a way, because after getting it off they looked like totally new wheels, and I was saying, fuck, those are some good looking wheels. Still, I really need to be more vigilant to keep it from getting that bad (and it doesn't take long since BMW's are notorious for this). I also need to get into the habit of more regular cleaning now that I have a nicer car. Not that my Civic was a total mess all the time, because it wasn't. It was fairly easy to keep things pretty clean since it's just me day-to-day, and my only other regular passengers are ETP and BOETP, and it's not like they bring along a bunch of disease and garbage. Still, the Bimmer demands better, and that should mix nicely with my OCD.
I haven't gotten too caught up in the pretension... Yet. I'm more concentrated on just having fun and getting to know my new girl. Right now I'm more concerned with getting used to having a rear-drive, manual six-cylinder after years of nothing but front-drive, automatic four-bangers. Later I'll continue my work on how much better I am than everyone.
Speaking of FWD, I came across this amusing graphic, probably in the Bimmerfest forums:
As you can see, the sense of elitism -- already strong B.B. -- is building. I'm on my way to realizing my true potential. For months I'd been seeing 3ers out on the roads, looking with hungry eyes, even at 325s. Now, I look with condescending eyes, even at other 330s. The 325 drivers are not as cool as they think they are, and 323 people are to be pitied after they're mocked. Sure, some of those people might have some worthless options like a Nav that I don't have and don't care about, but I've got the 330i ZHP with leather, so they can't touch me.
Every time I look at the car, I'm like, fuck was red ever a good idea. I originally wanted that sexy Oxford green, one because it was slick as shit, and two because it was somewhat unique. If I didn't know better, I'd say that 3ers only come in silver, steel blue, and black. The rare individual pulled some strings to get navy or white (although I will never understand the desire to get a white car). Even though the 3er looks sharp in any color, it would have been nice to have something that stands out from the pack. Well, the Imola red stands out pretty nicely. Also, recently I've seen someone driving around in a green 330 (which I know is ZHP-less) close to where I live, and it certainly wouldn't be acceptable to have a car in the same color as that loser. So the choice just keeps looking better and better.
One of the coolest little things I discovered about the new ride is that the CD player is capable of playing MP3s. Somewhere along the way, I got the impression that it couldn't do that, so I was pleasantly surprised when I finally verified otherwise. Unless I'm feeling saucy, all I need now when I'm out driving around is one CD -- filled with Fluke, of course. This also pretty much abrogates my desire to get a CD changer, which should be standard on a car like this but isn't because it's BMW.
My first regular payment is due soon, and that's gonna be painful. I had to get snow tires since the summer/performance tires are awful on snow and ice, and that'll be a painful bill to pay. Then there will be registration at the beginning of March, and that too will suck. All reasons why I wanted to wait for a couple of months, but oh well. At least this is the most rewarding stupid thing I've ever done.
So yeah, even if I have to "take it easy" at this point, that hasn't stopped me from enjoying the Ultimate Driving Machine. It's just incredible. You know what? When I drive that BMW, I know how God must feel... When he drives a BMW.
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