By: Chris Dotur
I hopped off the Paris subway at the stop for the show, paid the 9 Euro entry fee, and then went straight in the closest door. By luck, the 2nd auto manufacturer positioned as I walked in was BMW.
And there she was.
WOW! Immediately, I was blown away. She looked lower than in pictures, aggressive, and very stylish. Love at first sight for sure. It was like meeting a woman that you've only seen pictures of, and had doubts about, and being amazed at her physical appearance in person. One of the first things I did was walk up to a sales lady and ask for a brochure. They were "out", and I had to schmooze the French girl there to get an unauthorized copy that was being held for "only those people that were REALLY interested". Geesh, what do you call everybody on this entire forum? The gentleman next to me heard me talking in my obvious Can't-Hide-That-I'm-An-American English, and asked if I was Wild Blue. What a coincidence! 'Tim UK' was a great guy, and we had a blast for what must have been well over an hour picking over the car in detail as well as grilling the poor BMW reps for every bit of info they had. He's making a post-show report himself, so please excuse any repeat info here.
Since so much information has already been posted on this site, much of what I'm going to write here will be
expressing my opinion. Therefore, so you know where I'm coming from, let me give you some information about be
up front. I am a 2 time BMW owner, a bright red 1999 328i sedan and a silver 2001 525i Touring sportwagon. The
525i has the Navigation system among other features, which I love. I'm a pilot, so I like having lots of information
displayed tastefully in the cockpit for me to assimilate.
I have become a BMW lover, for three distinct reasons: Quality, performance, and style, in order of importance to me.
If I ever have to choose between form and function, I choose function. I am a little concerned about the direction
that BMW seems to be going in styling in the future. I prefer my cars to be slightly angular in appearance instead of
the "bulbous" round cars like the Audi TT that I don't like nearly as much. I always buy manual trannys.
