Hi all, we moved to Cincinnati a month ago. Insofar as finding a car, my wife and I had decided we wanted a BMW. We spent a lot of time looking at specifications, costs and general all-round feasibility. I had not driven a BMW since 1991 (my Dad's) and I had to learn most things from scratch. I read a lot on this forum and a lot of what I read was eye-opening, for which I am grateful to the people here on Bimmerforums.

Eventually, we decided we could not do this alone - as we all know, there are cars, and then there are cars. Rebuilt cars, thrashed cars - anything can be made to look nice and then be a nightmare to own. We needed to find someone who had a passion enough to make it happen. We began approaching car dealerships. Somewhere in this time I learnt of a company that was earning a solid reputation in used BMWs - Enthusiast Auto. We went over and had a chat with them.

The gentleman we met there - Evan Keller, it seemed at the time, was meticulous to the point of being fastidious. In those 3 weeks after he put himself on the search, I saw a lot of E39s online and on the road, some of which were really lustworthy. In the meantime, the price of a rental Corolla was killing us. I was getting antsy. Could Evan have been setting his sights too high? Apparently not. Thanks to him, we are now the proud owners of a Cosmo Black Y2k 528i that lives up to every expectation.

This is our little story. I am happy to join this forum and the league of drivers who make love driving enough to make it an experience. Our car comes with some Dinan enhancements. I intend to (tastefully) customize it further. I will be asking questions from time to time and I look forward to your replies.

Regards,

Vik

Welcome! post pics when you can, I think you need 8-10 posts, not sure. What part of Cincinnati are you from? and what Dinan upgrades does your car have?

oops you mentioned Oakley

Hello, I'll post pictures once that's allowed.

I've a Dinan cold air intake with the matching performance software. I see you have an M3 coupe. Gorgeous!

welcome to the site
another good one is ohiobimmers.com there are plenty of guys from your neck of the woods

Welcome to the board! Watch those bimmers in the snow around the Kenwood cut in the hill as Avinash (activfoxy) learned! Look forward to seeing your car around....Im not too far from you in silverton.

Hi Mossive, I'll check out that website.

Kevin - having just come from 95-degree Singapore, I learnt firsthand last Friday, the relationship between Bimmers and snow!

hello from akron
as a queen city native i say welcome my grandmother lives in oakley near the old drive in not that that means anything to you but hey welcome!

Hi Mossive, I'll check out that website.

Kevin - having just come from 95-degree Singapore, I learnt firsthand last Friday, the relationship between Bimmers and snow!

Yeah, that gets old real quick. I cant count how many times i had white knuckled experiences in my M!

Hyde park here. Almost bought a house on Drake but backed out after the inspection. If you ever see a red E30 M3 honk and wave because its probably me.

white 318ti sport with cali roof here in Mariemont- pretty close!

Hyde park here. Almost bought a house on Drake but backed out after the inspection. If you ever see a red E30 M3 honk and wave because its probably me.

was that you behind/next to me on delta the other day? i was driving a silver 645 with a dealer magnet tag stuck to the roof, i turned right onto erie and you turned left...

Hi all. We drove up last weekend from to Philly. We're right on the 71, so we tanked up at the Shell on Edwards, zeroed the miles, and off we went. 600 miles and 9 hours later, we'd completed our first long drive in the car. What was most obvious is neither of us felt any more weary than if we'd taken a ride across town. We had a similar drive back a few days later.

Interestingly, I don't think we saw many Bimmers along the way, maybe 5 in all, including a lovely M3 convertible. Either way, we averaged 70 to 80 mph and decided not to push it. As I mentioned earlier, this is the first time in 18 years I've driven a Bimmer, though I've been a passenger in a '99 320i, '02 330i, '06 730i, '06 M3 and '07 645i (souped up). {Heck, I remember all of this?!} So it's like getting to know again an old friend you last met when he was a kid.

On the way back, I experimented with Sport and Manual modes. I can't say I'm truly comfortable with this yet, but if you'd like to hear of my subsequent experiences, let me know. I know the car better now. There are some things I'd like to improve over time. What became glaringly annoying over the hours was the sound system, which was an unfocussed mess - nowhere near what my Dad's system was like years ago. I found it best suited to Classical. With more contemporary material, I had to be aggressive in shaping the sound by trimming bass and treble, and fading most of the sound to the front speakers. I don't know who in Cincinnati I could see about this. Some people say its the Business system's speakers, some the electronics. Maybe its a little bit of both.

Have a nice weekend, and happy driving!