[pacificsky]

Hi everyone,
Recent M235i owner here. We bought our car on Christmas eve actually, so you could say it was our Christmas present to ourselves.

We drove the car off the dealership lot - it had almost all the specs we wanted plus we didn't want to wait the 10 weeks for a custom order. The price was great and below invoice with the December incentives.

Specs
2016 BMW M235i RWD 8AT in Black Sapphire
Coral Red leather interior
Tech pkg
Driver assistance pkg
Heated seats
Harmon/Kardon audio
Aluminum hexagon trim
18" Orbit grey wheels with Michelin PSS staggered set
Enhanced Bluetooth+USB
Black kidney grilles
M performance steel pedals

It would have been nice to have the full cold-weather pkg with the heated steering wheel, but it's not the end of the world

The first thing I did after getting the car was to put a square set of Michelin Pilot Alpin PA4's in 225/40/18 on it for the winter. I put the winter tires on the stock wheels - come spring I'll likely get a different set of wheels for my summer tires. I highly recommend Costco for winter tire installation - I bought the tires off of Costco.com and had them shipped to the nearest Costo Tire Center, and they were on my car within a week. TireRack and most other retailers had extended delays on the availability of this specific tire, but I was able to get them speedily from Costco.com

We got a great price on our M235i. We ended up buying it in California because this car is ridiculously overpriced in the Seattle area. NorCal has a lot of competition (10+ BMW dealerships in the SF bay area alone) and there is a lot more choice as well. If you're in the market, PM me and I can recommend the dealerships I had a good experience with as I was shopping around. If you're located in WA, you should definitely consider buying your car in CA.

If there are other M235i enthusiasts in the Seattle area, I would love to get together.

[Transfer]

Congrats! I'm in an alpine white xdrive on staggered PA4s for winter and I virtually never see any other 2ers in Seattle, but I know they're out there. I'll keep an eye out for you. Feel free to hit me up if you want to go for a drive.

[SMB F83]

Congrats!! Black/Coral Red was one of two options on my color list, but I finally went with Mineral Grey/Coral Red. (it's a M235i convertible, if I was doing a coupe I probably would have swung back to black, it just looks so good on those lines) I also had to go out of area to get the car ordered (Portland) as the Seattle dealers seem to want to hold their allocations for nearly full MSRP buyers.

One quick question for both of you. Are you doing heavy winter/snow driving (regular runs up to the passes for skiing and such?) and thus the Alpin PA4 choice? Or are those just for Seattle's cold/rainy weather versus the PSS Staggered?

I don't commute (walk to work downtown) so I've been debating tire strategy as driving the car is optional (no forced driving commute) in most situations. If something A/S or the Alpins really are necessary just for seattle's typical wet/cold winters, I'll pick some up. But I've been wondering about the feasibility of just leaving the PSS's on, and not driving when there is the risk of snow/ice. Any thoughts/input considering you both deal with the same weather patterns?

Also, I'd be up for getting together for a drive after my car gets here. (should be another couple of months)

[Sportstick]

Alpin would be for moderate snow. Michelin makes XIcexi3 for the conditions you describe.

[pacificsky]

Would be great to go on a drive soon. Looks like it's going to be sunny next few days. Have any time off? :-)

I'm not planning on doing any heavy ice/snow driving. I've had really bad experiences with high-performance summer tires on a previous car and our occasional winter snowfall and black ice. Even after just the first 15-20 mins of snowfall, the car (Infiniti G37s) had zero traction and I was all over the road - I was super lucky there weren't any other cars around or it would have been a bad crash. Following that I got a 335i xDrive with all-seasons, which were just meh tires for driving pleasure, but had superb traction. Now I'm going the dedicated summer/winter tire route, and I would suggest getting a winter set unless you're not planning on driving much Jan-April. It's not just snow that's dangerous - you could hit a patch of ice on a bridge or overpass and lose traction very very quickly.

Even with the winter tires, the car is really fun to drive. I just drove up from Cali and we encountered everything - snow, rain, snow, gravel and the traction was great. And with the $70 rebate on Michelins currently at Costco it's a pretty sweet deal and way cheaper than TireRack for the PA4's. Of course, you'll need a second set of wheels (I used the OEM's for the winter tires and will get a separate set of wheels for the PSS come summer).

[Solarphil]

Family and I are enjoying the rare sunny weather combined with school break for a drive out on the peninsula - went to Cape Flattery today and the sky and water was incredible. Hwy 112 was even better - amazing roller coaster.

@ vert_lover, it's not just the snow and ice, it's the cold as well. I wouldn't trust summer-only tires any time it gets cold, much less cold and nasty. If you have other transportation options that's one thing, but I'd hate to get caught out on that one time that you absolutely, positively need your car and it's Seattle slush outside, especially if you haven't been driving for some time and your muscle memory remembers Summer-level grip. I'm a huge fan of winter tires, I think they're the best thing since sliced bread. If you have the space, they're the cheapest security you can buy. Btw, great color combo :-)

[Transfer]

Originally Posted by vert_lover

Congrats!! Black/Coral Red was one of two options on my color list, but I finally went with Mineral Grey/Coral Red. (it's a M235i convertible, if I was doing a coupe I probably would have swung back to black, it just looks so good on those lines) I also had to go out of area to get the car ordered (Portland) as the Seattle dealers seem to want to hold their allocations for nearly full MSRP buyers.

One quick question for both of you. Are you doing heavy winter/snow driving (regular runs up to the passes for skiing and such?) and thus the Alpin PA4 choice? Or are those just for Seattle's cold/rainy weather versus the PSS Staggered?

I don't commute (walk to work downtown) so I've been debating tire strategy as driving the car is optional (no forced driving commute) in most situations. If something A/S or the Alpins really are necessary just for seattle's typical wet/cold winters, I'll pick some up. But I've been wondering about the feasibility of just leaving the PSS's on, and not driving when there is the risk of snow/ice. Any thoughts/input considering you both deal with the same weather patterns?

Also, I'd be up for getting together for a drive after my car gets here. (should be another couple of months)

If you want maximum traction all year, run a summer (PSS) and winter (PA4) set. If you want close to maximum traction all year except snow/ice, check out the Michelin AS3. These 3 options from Michelin are astoundingly good if you use them in their intended environment. I've owned all 3 and the Xice3. The Xi3 is not even close to a sporty tire compared to PSS, PA4, and AS3 but it is better than all of them for real snow and ice, albeit marginally better than PA4 in that scenario.

I'm going to post up on the PNW 2er forum for a possible meet up this weekend. Locals post up there if you're interested.

[SMB F83]

Thanks for the great input. That makes perfect sense. Sorry to threadjack your intro thread pacificsky, but considering you all run the same weather (Seattle), I wanted to ask.

Now what to do about rims...

[mike@x-ph.com]

Congrats, let see some pics!!

[rams]

Originally Posted by pacificsky

Hi everyone,
Recent M235i owner here. We bought our car on Christmas eve actually, so you could say it was our Christmas present to ourselves.

We drove the car off the dealership lot - it had almost all the specs we wanted plus we didn't want to wait the 10 weeks for a custom order. The price was great and below invoice with the December incentives.

Specs
2016 BMW M235i RWD 8AT in Black Sapphire
Coral Red leather interior
Tech pkg
Driver assistance pkg
Heated seats
Harmon/Kardon audio
Aluminum hexagon trim
18" Orbit grey wheels with Michelin PSS staggered set
Enhanced Bluetooth+USB
Black kidney grilles
M performance steel pedals

It would have been nice to have the full cold-weather pkg with the heated steering wheel, but it's not the end of the world

The first thing I did after getting the car was to put a square set of Michelin Pilot Alpin PA4's in 225/40/18 on it for the winter. I put the winter tires on the stock wheels - come spring I'll likely get a different set of wheels for my summer tires. I highly recommend Costco for winter tire installation - I bought the tires off of Costco.com and had them shipped to the nearest Costo Tire Center, and they were on my car within a week. TireRack and most other retailers had extended delays on the availability of this specific tire, but I was able to get them speedily from Costco.com

We got a great price on our M235i. We ended up buying it in California because this car is ridiculously overpriced in the Seattle area. NorCal has a lot of competition (10+ BMW dealerships in the SF bay area alone) and there is a lot more choice as well. If you're in the market, PM me and I can recommend the dealerships I had a good experience with as I was shopping around. If you're located in WA, you should definitely consider buying your car in CA.

If there are other M235i enthusiasts in the Seattle area, I would love to get together.

Can you recommend a dealership in NorCal I should talk to?

Thanks

[supernova72]

Congrats and i ran into the same thing when trying to find a car in the Seattle area---even buying it used. Ended up finding a 6MT car in NC which added $1300 to the overall cost to ship it.

You're going to love the car. Only challenge I've had so far is one blow out (right rear) and one nail in the left rear. Pot holes! First world problems : )

[Exmil]

Congrats��