>> Yep, some days are better than others. Out by the bay, gunmetal gray, 335 I retractable, Golden Gate Bridge, leather the same color as the bridge. Well, let's go for a ride in one of my favorite cars on earth, the 335I Metal Drop Top.
[ Music ]
Now I figured out early on I could never have one of these cars. Because I'd wear it out. I'd be sitting in my garage working the top all the time. I could watch thing do its thing all day. Look at the madness here. All these hard panels, a full glass back light. Look at the dance that they do to get into place. Now it takes about 22 seconds, but when it's done, it's worth it. I mean, that is a beautiful roofline. You know it's a good thing we love this car so much, just as a road machine. There's not a lot of tech in the model they sent us. So visualize with me with our romper room mirror, we're going to imagine the tech that can be on this car, because it's quite a bit. Now, the wide screen navigation system is one of the most interesting options on this car. That'd be a 16 by 9 display nicely tucked back into the dash. And of course would be controlled by the iDrive controller. The audio system in our car, Even Bass, is one of my favorites. First of all, I love this simple head unit. I've said it before and I still like it in every Beemer I see that has this one. You get an in dash CD slot that is MP3 capable. The iPod adapter is back. Remember, BMW and Apple were the pioneers in iPoding your car. And then when this model got relaunched, the iPod adapter dropped off the option list for a while because they changed the data buss in the vehicle. Now it's back and even better, it's an iPod USB adapter. Love that. Here's the base gearbox on this car. 16-speed manual, ZF and this is a real nice transmission. However, if you want the automatic, it's also available. It's one of their Skeptronics that gives you a standard mode, a sport mode and a manual mode and you can also have it with or without steering wheel mounted paddles. So you don't have to have the paddles when you get the 6A. But of course my favorite feature about this car is what that transmission gets its orders from. That 3-liter inline 6, twin turbo mystery machine. I can't believe an engine runs that smoothly and feels that good. 300 horse, 300-foot pounds, oh forget it, let's go drive it.
[ Background noise ]
Now I don't care how much this car costs or if it's a three series. To me, BMW's high trimmed, three series convertibles have been the most accessible looking cars, and driving it is just pure job. That's a great motor with no turbo lag. Every car we shoot has a single word that I would apply to it. The Honda S2000, firm. The Rolls Royce Phantom, plush. This car, springy. Everything about it just feels like it's ready to leap forward. The transmission and the power train are beautiful. The suspension has that feeling of new athletic shoes. And the whole car just wants to go where you want in a way that feels like it's ahead of you. Let's price our 335 I retractable, but hold on, this is not an exercise for the faint of heart. It may be a three series, but it's a retractable. 50000 dollars is basically your base price. Then you've got an option sheet ala carte that reads like literature for a techy. 16 by 9 navigation with real time traffic and iDrive is about 2100 dollars. IPod USB adapter, that's 400 dollars more. I would also look at a 6 disk CD changer, that's from the dealer. We've also got adaptive cruise for 2400 dollars. Active steering for 2100 dollars and of course if you want the automatic is 1300 and another 100 for the steering wheel paddles. But all in there's a lot of tech to love or just go bare bones, drive this bad boy.
^M00:03:37
[ Music ]
