Excellent Driving Machine

Author's Rating:

Pros: Perfect blend of sportiness and comfort, reliable, and good dealer support, great phone system

Cons: Paint chips too easily, door seals make noise, poor gas mileage, high purchase price

The Bottom Line: 
Definitely buy this car! The best blend of reliability, sports car handling and performance, safety, and comfort.

Author's Review
I bought a 540i with the sport package, navigation, premium stereo, and fold down seats in February 2001. The car has been very reliable and fun to drive. It is the perfect blend of sportiness and comfort!

The car has excellent looks (mine is black on black). I think it looks as sporty and aggressive as anything on the road aside from a Porsche 911. The car drives as fast as you can comfortably stand take it, while providing ample comfort and thoughtful conveniences. I had previously owned a 1993 325is (manual) which was an excellent car. The 540i is a better car in almost every way, without taking anything away from the unique desirable qualities of the 3 Series. I never really consider other makes. I like the 9-3 and 9-5, but am not sold on SAAB's reliability, even though improvements have been made. Lexus and Mercedes aren't as sporty.

I added the BMW Motorola phone which was expensive (about $2,000), but well worth it. Make sure that you buy the compensator and hand's free kit. My system is so clear that clients think that I am in the office when I use it! The ability to work the phone from the steering wheel is a great feature, as well as the hands free aspect.

Reliability is important to me. My only problems after 32,000 miles have been:
- paint chipped off of back trunk lid and chips too easily in the front hood area of the car (the dealer perfectly fixed the problem on the trunk lid at no cost)
- an electronic diode failed on the climate control system, but was fixed easily
- the BMW phone cradle shorted out and had to be replaced
- the window seals get dry at times and cause too much noise. Not much the dealer could do (they replaced the window regulator on one side, and all of the seals, but nothing really helped much)
- the fold down seats were a little loose when latched, but the dealer fixed it so they are completely rigid and quiet.
- a few times the car's autostart feature would crank but not start the car. No fault was detected, and the problem has gone away.

These items were all fixed by the dealer quickly, with no hassle at all. And they provided transportation to and from my work through a shuttle or free rental.

I recommend the sports suspension, although if you regularly commute over rough freeways, you might want to consider the standard suspension (which also has the standard torque converter which adds about 3 MPG to your mileage).

The navigation works well, although sometimes it doesn't have an address correctly. The air conditioning works great, even when going to Palm Springs in the summer. This is the only car that I have owned that keeps putting out cold air even at plus 100 degrees.

The back seat is fine, unless you regularly drive around very tall passengers. The 540i is a much more refined car than the 3 Series, yet has the luxury of the 7 Series. I would only get the 7 Series if you regularly drive around a lot of clients, or just want a bigger car aimed at bigger, less sporty ride. The old 7 Series is not as fast as the 540i.

Gas mileage has not been good, at about 12 - 14 MPG city, and 21 - 23 highway. The sports suspension torque converter takes its toll on mileage, I think.