Hey guys, It's been a while since I posted in here so I figured why not give a nice review of the Oil Burner. Back in early July i posted a thread (BMW Audi - Ultimatecarpage.com forums) about the car when we first got it. It had about 1,000 miles on it as it sat on the dealers lot for some time. The car was originally custom ordered but the person who ordered it decided not to take delivery of it but got something else instead. Being a fully loaded car with a rare color not many people were interested. Eventually the dealer wasn't making money on it so they wanted to sell. Thats where we came in! Ever since it has been an amazing car. I don't even know where to start. For a 3800lbs car it is very nimble and agile. It handles really well and it is solid on the road. Drives just like a BMW should and how they are known for driving. The car has an insane amount of power. 425 ftlbs for torque from 1750 RPM. It hits peak horsepower of 260 and about 4200 rpm and redlines at 5k. It's weird driving a diesel because all the power is downlow and when you decided to open it up you feel the torque cut out then the horsepower kick in til its time to shift well beyond redline. Very different from a gas engine as i'm sure many of you on here already know. The transmission is incredibly smooth too. at 80 MPH the car is just touching 2k rpm in 6th gear. The engine makes an amazing deep note under acceleration and while cruising it just hums along. It's weird how there is no exhaust note. There is a chip out for it here in America, the JBD that would plug and play give me an extra 80 horses and 100 ftlbs of torque which would put me at the operating limit of the transmission and i'm afraid it will also create problems with soot build up especially in the complicated sequential turbo setup. In first gear the car limits the amount of torque it puts out. It would just roast the tires. I find the car pulling off in second gear most of the time. I also noticed that the car in second gear runs a faster off the line time. most magazines rate it high 5 seconds to 6 flat 0-60. It can do it in 5.2 seconds. with that chip it will do a 4.7 0-60mph. quarter mile is high 13's to low 13's chipped.
My favorite thing about the car has to be the excellent gas mileage. It's rated at 23 city and 36 highway but i easily get those numbers and then some. I recently did a drive to Pittsburgh to see the Jets play in the AFC championship game. Coming home at night I set the cruise at 95 MPH on very hilly roads, i opened it up occasionally, eventually getting to 145 MPH and i still managed 32 mpg with an average speed of 82 MPH. that is insane. all in a performance sedan. My biggest gripe about the car would be the runflat tires it came with. However for winter i'm running 17" rims w/ Dunlop Winter Sport 3D's. Great tire on the highway and very good in the snow too. They are not runflat though so they ride a lot better.
I really am impressed with this car. Here is a review of it from my 700 mile trip to Pittsburgh I posted on another forum:
Last Saturday my friend and I decided we'd take a drive from Staten Island here in New York City west for a few hours to Pittsburgh to watch the Jets play the Steelers since we are big Jets fans. We managed to snag some last minute tickets and set off that morning to Pittsburgh. No other car to take but the 335d, nice long drive. Google maps told me about 6 hours to do the 370 miles to get there. I left around 7:15 in the morning and got to Pittsburgh at 12:30. A little over 5 hours drive time. It was a fun drive because a lot of fellow Jets fans were driving out there to the game to do the same thing we were doing. I took some blue tape (should have used the green frog tape) and wrote on the car so people knew we were Jets fans. Everyone on the road was cheering J-E-T-S, JETS JETS JETS as we were driving and people were driving very fast. Sunday morning traffic usually moves quickly anyway. I was cruising around 85-90MPH most of the way. Had a few runs to 100 MPH plus, Took her up to 130 MPH at one point, Just being filled w/ excitement, I'd pull up along side Steelers fans and just take off! I was wearing an LT jersey hence my speed. I got a thumbs up for an X5 35d towing a trailer. Diesel brothers! When I got closer to Pitt the cops started coming out but my V1 sniffed them out on the PA Turnpike from miles away as they ran constant K, (strange, id figure they use KA). I slowed it down and just cruised along. Pittsburgh is a very nice city actually. I visited a friend who goes to Carnegie Melon University. I finally got to use the winter tires because I had to park in the snow on a hill. It gave a little trouble to get out but it wasn't bad.
I watched the game and was very disappointed the Jets didn't play the first half and ultimately lost the game because of that. I thought this was their year. I really thought we had a shot at winning and that's why I went. I don't regret it as I had an awesome time.
I got out around 1030 and by the time I got in the car and got going it was about 11. I had to be up for class in the morning so my goal was to get home relatively fast. Once the highways opened up and thinned out I was able to get some good speed going. My rule was pretty much 30 over. I had the cruise set at 95 the whole drive home. For those of you who have driven through PA you know its a very hilly curvy drive that the Bimmer handled well. It was very dark and the high beams are VERY bright. I was glad to have seen the road during the day so I knew how curvy it was. It's very difficult to judge it when you come up on it so fast. I could have rode the hills to get better mileage but it was late and i was tired just trying to get home. I had a guy in a e92 335i, looked black or a dark color, w/ rims behind me following. He was a jerk though because he was following me only 3-4 car lengths behind. If you're gonna follow me, follow me a bit further back please, thats how you use a rabbit. You let them get away and keep your distance just in case but that's not what bothered me, what bothered me was he had one headlight on low beam and the other projector was on high beam. It was annoying, all that glare for no good reason. I hope this guy is on here and reads this. He did take off in one of the tunnels that cut through the mountains and that exhaust sounded good. Too bad the diesels don't have exhaust noises so I couldn't do the same. If any of you have drive the PA turnpike you'll know how nice of a road it is. It was built on an old train line (hence the tunnels to prevent steep grades). The road is 2 lanes up, 2 lanes down, a concrete divider in the middle and guardrails most of the way. Very nice to speed on. Hard for cops to hide. I saw my nav clear a long straight and no other cars were around and I decided to open her up from 95 MPH I just floored it, kickdown switch and all. I got it up to about 145 MPH. I let off right away and slowed back down. That is the fastest I've ever driven (previously 135 in my old G35) The car was solid as a rock as i expected too. It probably takes getting used to going that fast as the expansion gaps and bumps hit so quickly its surreal.
As I was going through one of the tunnels the dreaded gong noise came about and I look down and i see the engine half sign on. My I-Drive comes up w/ the half power warning. Something I've only seen pictures of when HPFP's fail. I was worrying what to do, i was 300 miles from home when this happened on my drive back. Before I could panic the light went away but what triggered it in the first place? I just kept doing what i was doing hoping it was just an electrical glitch. It happened while I was inside one of the tunnels, maybe the change in pressure or something? Temperature? It was very cold, like 0 degrees out. Sometimes the car would say -7. My SES light also came on. This was the first time filling diesel outside of my comfort zone of my area. Since i was burning through it all so fast I ran out sooner than expected. I pulled up and there was no car diesel w/ the gas like i'm used to. So I was expecting to use the adapter that came w/ the car to go from big nozzle to little nozzle. Only big rigs are around me. I went inside, handed the lady $20 and she looks she's my car asks if I need a little nozzle tells me which pump and all is good. Filled up and on my way! My SES came on but I was too tired to worry. I thought about why it was on, figuring since it is emissions related my metering valve had crapped out again. That's the only thing I could think of. I did start the car up quick and turn it off when I moved it to fill up and it was cold, maybe it froze? It was cold. Or maybe since i drove so far my active heated urea tank was depleted and my passive one was frozen so the system wasn't working? I couldn't figure it out. The SES stayed on all night, stayed on all day Monday but Tuesday morning it went away. Another crisis averted.
I got home around 3:30 in the morning. 4.5 hours to do 370 miles w/ stops = an average speed of 82 MPH. At that speed, I hand calculated 32 mpg. I'd love to see another car do that in the comfort and handling I had. I had driven down to Florida once in an 8th gen Honda Civic 1.8 liter 4 banger and averaged 80 mph and my mileage was only 30.5 mpg. In a car that has half the power and 3x less torque but is lighter. If i did the speed limit I could easily get close to 40mpg.
The car had 10,000 miles when I left, now it's close to 11,000. I drove her in the snow yesterday and w/ the Winter Sport 3D's it did excellent. 4" of snow, no problems going, went up the hill driveway into the garage w/o a slip. It truly is an amazing machine the way it just hums along, it makes an excellent sound too. I love it.
Enjoy the story guys! Some pics too!
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Originally Posted by coolieman1220
). 335d's are hard to come by where I live, let alone nicely equipped ones.
