Went to my local dealer yesterday just to check out the new 3series. Been reading about it here and looking at all the pictures, I don't think i've actually seen one on the road yet. I had a lot of preconceptions in my head, so i wasn't exactly sure if I'd like it.

Before, I went over to carmax next door to look at some of the other 2000-2004 E46's that they had just for reference. Mostly I was looking at the interiors since that's important to me and my main complaint with my current car (celica, great car, no luxury). The first thing I noticed when looking at the 5series that they had was that the window switches were on the arm rests, not the center console. People here have been bitching about this with the E90 and I'm not sure why. Why are 3series owners so unhappy when 5/7-series owners have had it this way for at least 5 years....

Then I headed over to the dealer and.....WOW. This car is sharp. I was impressed. It definately looked like a bmw, and not goofy and bloated like I expected. It did look a bit from the side like an acura TL, but that's not a bad thing necessarily...those are sharp cars too.

I figured the console would be "just like every other car" since it's no longer titled towards the driver, but I still go the feeling that everything was where it should be and was uncluttered and clean (no nav/iDrive on this one). The steering wheel said "I *am* the ultimate driving machine." I expected the "one hump" dash to look dumb, but in person it didn't look all that bad. I was pleasently surprised.

I got into the back and wow....I had headroom! I'm "only" 5'10, but generally when i get into the backseat of a "sport" car my head is against the rear window. I could actually drive people around in this car. I dont' recall what it's like in the E46 coupe which is the other varient I covet.

I told myself I was going to hold off for the coupe, but now I'm not so sure. Of course, i didn't take it for a drive, didn't have the time, but nobody here is arguing about how it drives. Now I just have to convince myself to pay $45k for a *car*.

-Mike