[Tenchi]

Having driven the 03 330 for a week now I have noticed subtle differences between them. Here is a list of things I have noticed. Now keep in mind, I don't think these differences are same for other cars, just mine.

1) 03 330 engine is smoother. No jerking or sudden bursts of power (don't know if anyone remembers my date and the lipstick thread)

2) 01 330 has a louder exhaust**stock** (used to get complaints). The 03 sounds like my 328 even when the windows are down

3) 01 330 had a tighter feel around corners, they 03 feels a little...bouncy (tires are also different. Conti-crap on the 01 versus Eagle RS-A on the 03)

4) 03 330 feels lighter when taking off from a stop.

5) xenons on 03 330 are brighter

6) 01 330 looked a bit lower

7) 01 330 had a rougher ride over the smallest bumps, 03 330 does not (bad suspension or just new car difference?)

8) I can fast forward my cd on the steering wheel, very cool

 

[akhbhaat]

Err...I can fast forward the CD on my aging 2000, too. :eeps: Press the "m" button on the radio and then the track buttons on the wheel fastforward or reverse through each track. It's always been able to do that.

 

[Tenchi]

Err...I can fast forward the CD on my aging 2000, too. :eeps: Press the "m" button on the radio and then the track buttons on the wheel fastforward or reverse through each track. It's always been able to do that.

mine too

but now I can do it without having to push "m" and then using the steering wheel.

 

[Dieselboy]

my old 01 330ci had the worst steering feel. The older a car gets the louder it will get. My 01 xenons were actually ral bright.

 

[dbtheo]

I noticed you didn't really mention anything about steering feel... the 2001 version didn't seem lighter to you?

 

[Tenchi]

I noticed you didn't really mention anything about steering feel... the 2001 version didn't seem lighter to you?

steering feel.....the 03 seems lighter to me. the 01 felt really tight whereas this one feels kinda floaty and the 01 was more responsive


maybe I am not understanding what you mean by steering feel.

 

[dbtheo]

steering feel.....the 03 seems lighter to me. the 01 felt really tight whereas this one feels kinda floaty and the 01 was more responsive


maybe I am not understanding what you mean by steering feel.

Less effort, the 2001 (to me) feels like there is virtually no effort to turn the wheel. It's overboosted. This version is commonly referred to (akhbhaat) as the "ultimate parking machine".

 

[Tenchi]

Less effort, the 2001 (to me) feels like there is virtually no effort to turn the wheel. It's overboosted. This version is commonly referred to (akhbhaat) as the "ultimate parking machine".

oh....no definitely the 03 has or rather needs less effort to turn it. My 01 was rather stiffer than my 03. And it didn't have sports suspension either.

 

[dbtheo]

oh....no definitely the 03 has or rather needs less effort to turn it. My 01 was rather stiffer than my 03. And it didn't have sports suspension either.

hmmm, interesting, it's supposed to be the other way around :hmm:

 

[Tenchi]

hmmm, interesting, it's supposed to be the other way around :hmm:

maybe I had a retrofit? dunno actuallly. All I know is that my 01 had a stiffer steering wheel and it was more responsive than my 03

 

[akhbhaat]

steering feel.....the 03 seems lighter to me. the 01 felt really tight whereas this one feels kinda floaty and the 01 was more responsive


maybe I am not understanding what you mean by steering feel.

Tires, perhaps? That's interesting.

BMW was supposed to have changed the steering again towards the latter half of the 2001 production run, to something more resembling the earlier cars, but not quite. Sort of a compromise between the lightened early 01' steering and the 99-00 cars...so there are some 2001 cars that don't have the ultra-boosted steering (but it's still somewhat lighter than that of the early E46 cars). To my knowledge, it's remained that way ever since.

 

[Tenchi]

Tires, perhaps? That's interesting.

BMW was supposed to have changed the steering again towards the latter half of the 2001 production run, to something more resembling the earlier cars, but not quite. Sort of a compromise between the lightened early 01' steering and the 99-00 cars...so there are some 2001 cars that don't have the ultra-boosted steering (but it's still somewhat lighter than that of the early E46 cars). To my knowledge, it's remained that way ever since.

maybe. the Eagle RSAs seem a little more bigger than the conti-craps I had one which were thinner

 

[SST]

maybe. the Eagle RSAs seem a little more bigger than the conti-craps I had one which were thinner

I very much dislike Goodyear Eagle RSA tires. I had them on my 2000 Eclipse and they sucked. At 10k miles 2 of 4 had very bad lateral tread movement from poor belts in the construction. They had decent wet grip but the sidewall was marshmellow soft (a bit over exaggerated). They would squirm on anything even closely approaching a hard turn. They did seem to hold on to their tread forever, hmmmmmm...
I didn't like them at all.

TT