Non-footy question re snow, ice and driving....

Are you sure you didn't mean... "For certain on my old Peugot 407 coupe the snow mode really did make a difference and the car moved away much more slowly to start than in a normal car"?

(sorry as I once had a 406 (or was it a 5) and for some reason the pedals were offset and I got really bad backache. Had to get rid after 6 months and it cost me a fortune. Hated French cars ever since (Irrational I know)

 

My sole selection (Finian's Oscar) alas ran with as much enthusiasm as Gary Gardner, Tekktyke. This is not problem - he becomes one of the 65% rather than one of the 35%!

 

What makes you think that I didn't ' cos you are wrong?

 

Was it a 5 series with M Sport trim eg 525i M Sport, or the fire breathing version of the 3 series i.e. M3?
It can't be both. I think the former.

 

Apologies - you are correct. I bought it years ago 2nd hand low mileage from BMW specialists Andrew Town in Sheffield. It WAS an M factory Sport apparently (originally bought new from Sytners Sheffield by some footballer) with some expensive extras and a few internal accessories with the Tri colour M badging and something about the suspension being tuned to make it more 'sporty' but the standard engine. I know it was not 'pimped' i.e. retrospectively to make to look like an M3 on the outside as there was no M badging of any kind visible externally. Until you posted this I never realised the M badging was pretty much just that- badging ' although I did notice once with a BMW courtesy car (after my wife had decided she did not like the front of the car and so... ahem ... kindly'redesigned' it for me by running it into the back of somebody ) that the replacement car power was no less but the suspension was a bit softer and less responsive.

What I do remember is it made a glorious sound when you floored it and kick down dropped it a couple of gears and it went like the proverbial sh*t off a shovel. Trouble was you could only do that rarely. It only used to do about 18-20 at the best of times on a long runs and muh less if driven hard and as we no longer needed 2 cars when I started using hire cars/train we sold it. I loved that car and the shape was the last one before Chris Bangle started designing them with all the creases and folds which, for me ruined the shape.

 

The E36 5 series was/still is a bonny car. My son, who used to be a BMW tekky, still runs a 525 diesel. The only thing that puts me off it is that the infamous Tommy Tyke had one.
Even though it's a Bangle design, I'm happy with my E61 fishingmobile, still going strong after 190,000 miles and with care it can tackle most of the snow we get in the UK on summer tyres.