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Originally Posted by lamborghini Actually I'd beg to differ! I think given his requirements, the 330i GT is a very balanced choice.
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His heart will have fun every time the tail slides out, and his head will be at peace whenever he goes on a long trip with his family! |
Thanks a lot, lamborghini. What you described is exactly my situation!
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Originally Posted by androdev Why this Kolaveri Di. |
On a lighter note, so that I dont have to bear the Kolaveri of home ministry
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Originally Posted by androdev Sometimes it is easy to lose sight of the forest for the trees. Can you write an enthusiastic "review and initial ownership" piece if you bought a 3GT? You will be in tears when you go through the photos and try to pick few good ones to be used in the thread. There is a reason why everyone has gone quiet on this thread, it is out of politeness... |
I greatly appreciate your concern on my choosing the GT. I think I owe you (and everyone who has given their inputs) an explanation.
"Sometimes it is easy to lose sight of the forest for the trees."
Your above quote exactly defines my situation, but in the opposite way. When I started the car search, I had just one thought in mind - upgrade to a complete performance car and hence only the 330i and the VRS. But as I started researching on the cars and took test drives, I started realizing that I was losing sight of the big picture - the overall happiness of the family. When the family's comfort came into picture, now I needed a car that can also strike a balance between driving pleasure and practicality. In short, I wanted to have the cake and eat it too.
That is when I started considering seriously the suggestions of going for a used 530D or 530i. These 5 series cars offer performance and at the same time are more practical for the family as well in terms of ride quality, space etc. And the 330i GT also got added to the list, as it sits between the 3 series and the 5 series in every aspect.
In the end, it came to the choice between 330i, 330iGT and 530i. One bitter truth I found in this car selection process is that even if you are paying 50+ big ones, every car comes with a compromise. There is no car that checks all the boxes. Each car had its positives and negatives.
530i Positives: Very comfortable interiors, adaptive suspensions that make tha car feel a lot smaller than its size, large boot and good rear leg room
Negatives: Two major negatives. 530i does not come in the M Sport version and misses on many features like adaptive LED headlights (this is a very important feature that matters to me) and Heads up display. The deal breaker however is the ground clearance. During the test drive that I did with a 520D, the car was scraping many regular speed breakers, and I was told that I have to get used to driving such a low slung long wheel base car. Also, the car scraped the ramp to my parking space.
330i GT M Sport Positives: Very comfortable interiors, large boot with 40-20-40 rear seat folding, ample leg room, comes loaded with all features - Heads up display, adaptive LED headlights, digital instrument cluster, M Sport body kit, staggered tire setup and very compliant ride quality
Negatives: The controversial look and poor handling due to the raised ground clearance
330i M Sport Sedan Positives: The best in terms of handling, fastest of the three, M sport body kit, staggered wheels (which will make even better handling), decently loaded with features like Heads up display
Negatives: Non existent boot space, harsher ride that may not go well with the family on those very long road trips.
I had to weigh all these and had to choose within my constraints. 530i had to go simply for the reason that I cannot have it scraping every time I park it in my portico. 330i had to go because it was not practical. So, that leaves only the 330i GT.
A very good friend and TBHP member Dr.AD, who is a genius in mathematical analysis and AI systems, described my choice:
"Mathematically speaking, what you found is a "pareto-optimal solution". For a small relative loss in one objective function (handling - drop from 99 percentile score to say 95 percentile score for handling compared to all cars in India), you get so much more in practicality and gadgets (that score up from say 50 percentile to about 75 percentile, again compared to all cars available in India)."
Having said that, in this pareto-optimal solution, I still have the freedom to further improve the optimization by upgrading the suspensions to the sport version
I did exactly that in my Polo GT with the KW coilovers. Now the Polo GT that had lots of body roll handles like a charm!