hey, new ti owner here!

[vsonix]

I just picked my new toy up today.... 2000 (X reg) e36 318ti sport, Avus Blue metallic, Mtech body kit etc.... so expect to see me on here a lot more. Actually the first car I have ever chosen for myself - I've only ever driven hand-me-downs (last car was a 97 Vectra SRI - like driving a wheelbarrow compared to a ride-on mower, hehe). Got the BMW bug after having one as a company car for a while, made my mother upgrade her old Vauxhall to a e46 320 and just had to have one myself. She's in great condition for the age (the car, not my mother), i picked e36 over e46 as I like the look a lot better. Only downside is it looks like the driver's door panel is gonna fall off, from what I have read that is basically to be expected though, hehe.

[trikzta]

Welcome to the Org dude how about some Pics

[vsonix]

I haven't taken any myself yet - I only got it home a couple of hours ago and it's been raining pretty heavily ever since... I will take some arty ones tomorrow, meanwhile here is the ****ty pic from the classified ad, doesn't really do it justice though, the colours are all wrong.

[chudzikb]

Looks sweet to me. Is there ash coming down with that rain? And if so, what does that do for your paint? I can not imagine what it would be like. Mental note, do not live down wind from an active volcano!

[vsonix]

there has been, but coincidentally when the main cloud thing happened they were doing major roadworks in my area so the air was even thicker with dust. Terrible for the paint and windscreen, had I cared any about my old car I would have hosed it down before driving anywhere but as it stands the Vectra was leaking round the trunk seals anyway, so I'd have been making things worse. I actually had one of those bracket-fungus mushroom things growing out of my left tail-light cluster at one point! So cool to have a watertight car again!

Actually the Spanish have the worst ash problems in Europe right now, they're a few thousand miles south of us. It'll be over Morocco/Algeria by tomorrow, although it's dusty there anyway so they probably won't care so much.

[chudzikb]

Can't imagine that it is too good for your windshields either now that you mention it. They say if you hit it in an air plane the windshield becomes so bad that you can no longer see through it. That can not be good. Guess keep the car in the garage?

[vsonix]

Originally Posted by chudzikb

Can't imagine that it is too good for your windshields either now that you mention it. They say if you hit it in an air plane the windshield becomes so bad that you can no longer see through it. That can not be good. Guess keep the car in the garage?

lol, this is England, 80% of us park on the street, we don't have a lot of room for garages. You wouldn't believe some of the crazy places I've seen people park brand new DB9s and stuff!

here are some better pics for anyone that is interested.
Check out the beautiful mid-may British weather....

[roadrash]

Hey, you've got the Black/Blue interior! Congratulations! :-) Most blue 318ti's that I've seen have Black/Gray or solid black.

[vsonix]

Originally Posted by roadrash

Hey, you've got the Black/Blue interior! Congratulations! :-) Most blue 318ti's that I've seen have Black/Gray or solid black.

hmm, if I was speccing it from new I'd have chosen full black leather, but the blue's not too bad I suppose! At least it's not that horrible pale grey that seems to end up in a lot of the blue cars... if it had a grey interior I'd have walked on by, for sure...

she's pretty though, isn't she!

[vsonix]

Took the car for a full diagnostic at my local indie BMW specialist, mostly for peace of mind but also partly because of a slightly lumpy idle. Picked up three issues - failed/faulty oxygen sensor, cracked/degraded prop shaft bearing and a dead thermostat in the cooling system, so a few hundred quid's worth of repairs but no worse than a full service.

Have also now upgraded to xenon bulbs in the headlights, replaced the remote key fob, given her new rear tyres (Kumho Ecsta SPT), new floor mat that doesn't ride up the accelerator (most annoying thing on every BMW I have ever driven), fixed the door panel clips (yay!), fixed the drivers window regulator and cleaned the upholstery.

Next thing to look at is unblocking the rear wash/wipe as it seems to be very reluctant to squirt anything on the windshield, and with all this volcano-dust all over the place I fear for the glass...

[ti-billy]

welcome to the .org, that's one pretty clean ti, love the interior