"Careful sir, this is a very powerful car!"
Discussion
McSam said:
CraigyMc said:
McSam said:
ORD said:
I don't know what is the funniest part - the bulls
t kerb weight (it isn't a kilo under 1350kg and, I was told when driving one, more like 1400kg).
He's close - BMW quote 1370kg for the three-door, which is including 75kg driver and 90% fuel, so unoccupied it's more or less the 1290kg mentioned. "Weight" is so stunningly unqualified that it's easy to play around with.t kerb weight (it isn't a kilo under 1350kg and, I was told when driving one, more like 1400kg).Which BMW do, with the actual mass of any one of their models being considerably higher than quoted. For a base-spec 116i, the real kerbweight with driver and 90% fuel would be around 1430kg.
This was taken with me in it (I weigh about 85Kg including shoes etc).
The car had about 3/4 of a tank of diesel in it.
This is what's written on the V5C. I was astounded to find it's pretty much on the button.
Also for the record, the car isn't a "cloth seats and electric nothing" BMW - it's got lots of options fitted, which are presumably heavier than the standard bits in most cases. Here's the list:
Vehicle specification:
BMW 3 Series E90 4DR SALOON
320d 4DR SALOON 2.0 EFFICIENT DYNAMICS
Colour: Black Sapphire Metallic
Trim: Black Dakota Leather
Factory Options:
SNIP
Scanning through your options list, again quite roughly and not being certain of everything included, I get to almost 20kg of spec mass. It's got lots of bits on it but not mega heavy ones, though if the HK system comes with an amp and/or subwoofer please add about 3kg for each!
Hence the figure quoted by BMW suggests your car should have been approx. 1517kg when weighed in your condition, and it was 1580kg. My estimate would have been 1586kg, so actually you did alright!
rscott said:
Sterillium said:
Went to view a Saab Viggen once, turned up, conspicuously, in my TVR.
On the test drive, the private seller immediately said "Be careful, it REALLY takes off when you give it some..."
At this point I was driving completely normally, accelerating to 60mph on a clear and empty dual carriageway, and he was pushing himself back into his seat with his legs, assumingly pretending the steady, reasonable acceleration was doing it to him.
Then he began warning me of twitchiness, of the power surge, and of how it had SO MUCH POWER when overtaking and just to "take it easy it a bit at first..." as I was doing a steady 59 and overtaking nobody at all.
I just think he'd convinced himself it was something superpowered and special, I kept mentioning the TVR and dropping hints that I might be OK with a little twitchiness or some sudden power under my right foot, but to no avail.
To be fair, if it's a standard Viggen, then it would happily torque steer you into the nearest ditch if you get full boost and aren't pointed dead ahead! On the test drive, the private seller immediately said "Be careful, it REALLY takes off when you give it some..."
At this point I was driving completely normally, accelerating to 60mph on a clear and empty dual carriageway, and he was pushing himself back into his seat with his legs, assumingly pretending the steady, reasonable acceleration was doing it to him.
Then he began warning me of twitchiness, of the power surge, and of how it had SO MUCH POWER when overtaking and just to "take it easy it a bit at first..." as I was doing a steady 59 and overtaking nobody at all.
I just think he'd convinced himself it was something superpowered and special, I kept mentioning the TVR and dropping hints that I might be OK with a little twitchiness or some sudden power under my right foot, but to no avail.
I can't say I've ever experienced this to be honest. I have owned quick cars - a couple of Toyota Starlet Glanzas, and my current bike - Daytona 675R.
In the past couple of months I've been car shopping, looking for a replacement for my current company car, which is a 14-plate Renault Captur (lol).
Now what usually goes against me is only being 24, and rocking up to dealerships in jeans and t-shirt, tattoos and piercings on display, so it's fair to say, some pre-judgement is passed before I've initiated conversation.
However when I pointed out the nearly new car I arrived in, and subtly explained that I was serious about buying and not just looking for a free hoon, I was basically handed the keys to a new MX5 2.0, Fiesta ST, F56 Mini Cooper S..
In the end I ordered the Mini, due next week.. But I've never seen given the 'be careful' line, although I've never really tested a 'proper' sports car or anything properly powerful.
In the past couple of months I've been car shopping, looking for a replacement for my current company car, which is a 14-plate Renault Captur (lol).
Now what usually goes against me is only being 24, and rocking up to dealerships in jeans and t-shirt, tattoos and piercings on display, so it's fair to say, some pre-judgement is passed before I've initiated conversation.
However when I pointed out the nearly new car I arrived in, and subtly explained that I was serious about buying and not just looking for a free hoon, I was basically handed the keys to a new MX5 2.0, Fiesta ST, F56 Mini Cooper S..
In the end I ordered the Mini, due next week.. But I've never seen given the 'be careful' line, although I've never really tested a 'proper' sports car or anything properly powerful.
Sterillium said:
rscott said:
Sterillium said:
Went to view a Saab Viggen once, turned up, conspicuously, in my TVR.
On the test drive, the private seller immediately said "Be careful, it REALLY takes off when you give it some..."
At this point I was driving completely normally, accelerating to 60mph on a clear and empty dual carriageway, and he was pushing himself back into his seat with his legs, assumingly pretending the steady, reasonable acceleration was doing it to him.
Then he began warning me of twitchiness, of the power surge, and of how it had SO MUCH POWER when overtaking and just to "take it easy it a bit at first..." as I was doing a steady 59 and overtaking nobody at all.
I just think he'd convinced himself it was something superpowered and special, I kept mentioning the TVR and dropping hints that I might be OK with a little twitchiness or some sudden power under my right foot, but to no avail.
To be fair, if it's a standard Viggen, then it would happily torque steer you into the nearest ditch if you get full boost and aren't pointed dead ahead! On the test drive, the private seller immediately said "Be careful, it REALLY takes off when you give it some..."
At this point I was driving completely normally, accelerating to 60mph on a clear and empty dual carriageway, and he was pushing himself back into his seat with his legs, assumingly pretending the steady, reasonable acceleration was doing it to him.
Then he began warning me of twitchiness, of the power surge, and of how it had SO MUCH POWER when overtaking and just to "take it easy it a bit at first..." as I was doing a steady 59 and overtaking nobody at all.
I just think he'd convinced himself it was something superpowered and special, I kept mentioning the TVR and dropping hints that I might be OK with a little twitchiness or some sudden power under my right foot, but to no avail.
The Vig is particularly bad at coping with the power in standard form. The flex in the steering rack mounting makes life interesting to say the least - it was bad enough on my old 9-3 and that was a lower powered version. The torque steer in mine was far worse than in my later 9-3SW with 90 more bhp, plus the power delivery was a bit .. wait, wait ,boooost .
Sterillium said:
Went to view a Saab Viggen once, turned up, conspicuously, in my TVR.
On the test drive, the private seller immediately said "Be careful, it REALLY takes off when you give it some..."
At this point I was driving completely normally, accelerating to 60mph on a clear and empty dual carriageway, and he was pushing himself back into his seat with his legs, assumingly pretending the steady, reasonable acceleration was doing it to him.
Then he began warning me of twitchiness, of the power surge, and of how it had SO MUCH POWER when overtaking and just to "take it easy it a bit at first..." as I was doing a steady 59 and overtaking nobody at all.
I just think he'd convinced himself it was something superpowered and special, I kept mentioning the TVR and dropping hints that I might be OK with a little twitchiness or some sudden power under my right foot, but to no avail.
On the test drive, the private seller immediately said "Be careful, it REALLY takes off when you give it some..."
At this point I was driving completely normally, accelerating to 60mph on a clear and empty dual carriageway, and he was pushing himself back into his seat with his legs, assumingly pretending the steady, reasonable acceleration was doing it to him.
Then he began warning me of twitchiness, of the power surge, and of how it had SO MUCH POWER when overtaking and just to "take it easy it a bit at first..." as I was doing a steady 59 and overtaking nobody at all.
I just think he'd convinced himself it was something superpowered and special, I kept mentioning the TVR and dropping hints that I might be OK with a little twitchiness or some sudden power under my right foot, but to no avail.
I had a very similar experience when buying our 9-5 aero. It was a private sale and the owner, who was definitely old enough to know better, was quoting so many fictional 'facts' that I had to really bite my tongue. I drove to his in my old 540i which is fairly discreet and he started our test drive by telling me to be careful as my old banger (
) isn't in the same league as his Aero which should the mood take you, would annihilate any performance car of the same era and could hit 60mph in under 6 seconds. It couldn't, and it's an Auto so it comes into its own when it's rolling. But this didn't stop him pointing at random cars whilst on the test drive and telling me how this Saab would "have 'em". I endured about an hour of this but the car was in good order, had great history so I ended up leaving a deposit in view of picking it up 2 days later. He called me the next day to tell me that snow had been forecast and that I should pick it up ASAP as it's too fast to drive in the snow. I thanked him for his concern and picked it up 2 days later. In the snow.
Oh and in the interest science, I've ran the 540i against the Saab and the old banger of a BMW was significantly quicker in every single area. It wasn't even close!
zarjaz1991 said:
I suppose the speed thing can be relative. My Mondeo is certainly not a "rocket", or whatever other silly phrases people use. However, it does feel like one after driving my mates' silly 1.0 Corsa.....
I agree with others though...these stories of salesmen chucking the keys to a sports car at a 19 year old and saying "go and have fun, kid" are just daft pup talk.
I certainly wasn't 19 when I bought my MX5, but it was a pleasant case of being handed the keys and sent on my way (with my part-ex parked outside the dealership). Off into Northumberland for a spin and back, deposit paid that night. It was an enjoyable time although I was surprised the dealer didn't want to tag along.I agree with others though...these stories of salesmen chucking the keys to a sports car at a 19 year old and saying "go and have fun, kid" are just daft pup talk.
Robatr0n said:
Sterillium said:
Went to view a Saab Viggen once, turned up, conspicuously, in my TVR.
On the test drive, the private seller immediately said "Be careful, it REALLY takes off when you give it some..."
At this point I was driving completely normally, accelerating to 60mph on a clear and empty dual carriageway, and he was pushing himself back into his seat with his legs, assumingly pretending the steady, reasonable acceleration was doing it to him.
Then he began warning me of twitchiness, of the power surge, and of how it had SO MUCH POWER when overtaking and just to "take it easy it a bit at first..." as I was doing a steady 59 and overtaking nobody at all.
I just think he'd convinced himself it was something superpowered and special, I kept mentioning the TVR and dropping hints that I might be OK with a little twitchiness or some sudden power under my right foot, but to no avail.
On the test drive, the private seller immediately said "Be careful, it REALLY takes off when you give it some..."
At this point I was driving completely normally, accelerating to 60mph on a clear and empty dual carriageway, and he was pushing himself back into his seat with his legs, assumingly pretending the steady, reasonable acceleration was doing it to him.
Then he began warning me of twitchiness, of the power surge, and of how it had SO MUCH POWER when overtaking and just to "take it easy it a bit at first..." as I was doing a steady 59 and overtaking nobody at all.
I just think he'd convinced himself it was something superpowered and special, I kept mentioning the TVR and dropping hints that I might be OK with a little twitchiness or some sudden power under my right foot, but to no avail.
I had a very similar experience when buying our 9-5 aero. It was a private sale and the owner, who was definitely old enough to know better, was quoting so many fictional 'facts' that I had to really bite my tongue. I drove to his in my old 540i which is fairly discreet and he started our test drive by telling me to be careful as my old banger (
) isn't in the same league as his Aero which should the mood take you, would annihilate any performance car of the same era and could hit 60mph in under 6 seconds. It couldn't, and it's an Auto so it comes into its own when it's rolling. But this didn't stop him pointing at random cars whilst on the test drive and telling me how this Saab would "have 'em". I endured about an hour of this but the car was in good order, had great history so I ended up leaving a deposit in view of picking it up 2 days later. He called me the next day to tell me that snow had been forecast and that I should pick it up ASAP as it's too fast to drive in the snow. I thanked him for his concern and picked it up 2 days later. In the snow.
Oh and in the interest science, I've ran the 540i against the Saab and the old banger of a BMW was significantly quicker in every single area. It wasn't even close!
omgus said:
Arriving in an Elise and getting warned about a boggo A3 is good start, having to explain to a salesman that yes the ST170 is a little sporty but that the car i've just got out of has about double the bhp so i should be ok to keep it on the road is also a good start, but surely someone must have been even more patronised.
I had quite the opposite experience when I turned up in my Sagaris to test drive an M135i.The salesman said (something along the lines of) "Normally I would ascertain a customer's level of driving ability before a test drive. But if you drive one of those then I don't really think it's necessary. Will a 1 hour unaccompanied test drive be sufficient for you, sir?"
JonRB said:
omgus said:
Arriving in an Elise and getting warned about a boggo A3 is good start, having to explain to a salesman that yes the ST170 is a little sporty but that the car i've just got out of has about double the bhp so i should be ok to keep it on the road is also a good start, but surely someone must have been even more patronised.
I had quite the opposite experience when I turned up in my Sagaris to test drive an M135i.The salesman said (something along the lines of) "Normally I would ascertain a customer's level of driving ability before a test drive. But if you drive one of those then I don't really think it's necessary. Will a 1 hour unaccompanied test drive be sufficient for you, sir?"
Did he also say "I bet women want you as much as I want to be you, Sir"?
ORD said:
Did he also say "I bet women want you as much as I want to be you, Sir"?
Um, no. Why would he say that? 
He was just acknowledging that if you're used to an 1100kg car with 400bhp and no drivers aids, that something like an M135i would be an easy drive in comparison.
Having said that, he did feel the need to mention that the M135i can get out of shape and not to rely totally on drivers aids - but said it in a very non-patronising way.
Triumph Man said:
I don't think I would have had the staying power that you did, and if somebody referred to my car as a "banger" I think I'd certainly call him out on his BS.
For a brief moment I did consider setting him straight but god knows how he would have reacted and to be fair, quoting my car's facts and figures would have made me almost as bad as him.It's not always about what you're used to, it's about what they're used to.
During my 'two weeks' (
) working for Ford we had a Fiesta ST come in P/X, the old square shaped one. It looked quite good and had nice seats (Recaros I seem to remember) but it didn't go particularly well (the new one is in a different league). The other salesmen however were in awe of this thing, and I was advised to be 'very careful who I let drive it'.
Then a 20ish year old young lad turned up and wanted a drive so I got the trade plates. I think they figured that's the last they'd ever see of me!
What actually happened was he drove it very sensibly, gave it a bit of beans a couple of times where it was safe to do so, and concluded (as I had) that it looked better than it went.
No, if you want a REALLY scary test drive, you need at least an octogenarian. fk me I had a couple of seriously frightening moments with them!
During my 'two weeks' (
) working for Ford we had a Fiesta ST come in P/X, the old square shaped one. It looked quite good and had nice seats (Recaros I seem to remember) but it didn't go particularly well (the new one is in a different league). The other salesmen however were in awe of this thing, and I was advised to be 'very careful who I let drive it'.Then a 20ish year old young lad turned up and wanted a drive so I got the trade plates. I think they figured that's the last they'd ever see of me!
What actually happened was he drove it very sensibly, gave it a bit of beans a couple of times where it was safe to do so, and concluded (as I had) that it looked better than it went.
No, if you want a REALLY scary test drive, you need at least an octogenarian. f
k me I had a couple of seriously frightening moments with them! Robatr0n said:
Triumph Man said:
I don't think I would have had the staying power that you did, and if somebody referred to my car as a "banger" I think I'd certainly call him out on his BS.
For a brief moment I did consider setting him straight but god knows how he would have reacted and to be fair, quoting my car's facts and figures would have made me almost as bad as him.Fortunately I haven't experienced this, quite the opposite actually.
Recently I was looking around at hot hatches and went to look at a Focus ST. I turned up in my diesel Audi A6 Avant so nothing special nor sporty at all.
After looking around the ST I asked for a test drive to see how it handled. The seller came out on the test drive with me and was constantly telling me to go faster; along with telling me to hold it in gear longer as I was short shifting.
Brilliant test drive and enjoyed the car but didn't buy it and ended up with a 3 series in the end.
Recently I was looking around at hot hatches and went to look at a Focus ST. I turned up in my diesel Audi A6 Avant so nothing special nor sporty at all.
After looking around the ST I asked for a test drive to see how it handled. The seller came out on the test drive with me and was constantly telling me to go faster; along with telling me to hold it in gear longer as I was short shifting.
Brilliant test drive and enjoyed the car but didn't buy it and ended up with a 3 series in the end.
10 yrs ago turned up at a small ford dealer to look at a puma. The (future) Mrs was keen on them and bored of her 1.25 fiesta.
I arrived in my Elise, but parked round the back.
24 yrs old. Jeans and t-shirt.
Salesman refused to let me test drive because of "the risk to his insurance".
I made sure he saw me leave.
I arrived in my Elise, but parked round the back.
24 yrs old. Jeans and t-shirt.
Salesman refused to let me test drive because of "the risk to his insurance".
I made sure he saw me leave.
Vladikar said:
I bought my GTR at 23 and didn't realise you had to be 25, needless to say, the salesman was really good about it and took me out for a good 25 minutes.
I picked it up the weekend after and never looked back.
I've always wondered about this.I picked it up the weekend after and never looked back.
I saw this in a lot of places, when I was under 25 I did test drive a number of performance cars - 911 Turbo, SLS AMG, R8 V10, Ferrari California, and many more all at main dealers. I saw the '25 years old' thing written down on the paper but they just seemed to ignore it, sometimes didn't even both taking a copy of my driving license. Not quite sure what flexibility they have there... Or of they just though I looked like I wouldn't crash!
Edited by sealtt on Monday 22 September 17:04
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