gabman

Hello to All,

I just registered for this forum, so if I posted this incorrectly or in the wrong place, please bear with me.

I need some help from my fellow Canadians or any one else that can answer.

I was about to lease an Infinti M35X when this deal on a new 2004 545i surfaced. I have to make a decision by today.

I am a bit concerned about winter handling of the 545i. I have read many posts on different forums about this but am not getting a sense if this car handles ok in snow or not. I had the good sense to neogtiate 4 winter tires into the lease, although, rims are not included. Have also read the good the bad and the ugly on run flat tires. After reading many posts about R/F on this forum, I have to check on what kind of winters they are throwing in.

Am I to understand that with run flats you do not get a spare tire and jack?

Is it possible to ask dealer to change run flats to regular all season tires and is this a wise move? I always lease my cars and get winters & all seasons so I can only go through I set of all seasons for complete lease, from what I am reading it looks like I will never make it through the lease with one set of R/f's

My lease will be for 39 months and I do pretty high mileage. Expect to put on about 90,000 kms during the lease.

Would also like to know how you guys are enjoying your cars and if there is anything else I should be aware of with this vehicle. I am ever so close to jumping on this deal. 545i will be about $140.00 more a month than Infinti M35X

Thanks

Take-Heed

Welcome Gabman,

I can't give you any direct information on the 545i as I am still waiting for mine.

I can tell you that my experience with the previous generation 540i over six years is that it performs well in the snow with winter tires. The only time I have problems was in deeper snow (greater than six inches) when it was difficult for the tires to bite down through to the pavement. I have had sport suspension on both my previous cars and I think this could have exacerbated this problem.

I am happy with the car for winter driving and will be buying snows for my new 545i.

I also looked at the new Infinitis before deciding on the BMW. Once I realised that the lease deals were much better for the BMW's because of the high residual values and the good lease rate (plus the half-percent loualty bonus), it became a no-brainer for me. The technology in the M45 was impressive, but I still love the way the BMW's drive.

Hope that helps.

gabman

Thanks for the reply, am curious if I am getting a good lease deal, how is your 545i going to be equipped and can you give me any lease numbers?

Canada545

I also don't have my car yet, but my dealer said that if you have the sport package, you must have winter tires ...

I got the dealer to give with winter tires and rims (my choice) for invoice cost ... I recommend not swapping the tires on the same rims, did that with my other car and it takes a toll on the rims ...

Also, I got the dealer to give my a spare tire, tools and a jack even though I have RFTs, just in case I wanted to change out the RFTs sometime in the future ...

Take-Heed

Gabman,

Please check your PM's for a message.

gabman

Thanks for the reply, as it turns out the 545i in question does not have run flat tires on it, salesman gave me wrong info. There are 17" all season continentals plus they are throwing in a set of Toyo winters which I will not put on this year as I will be getting the car (if I ever make a decision) by March 7/05. I guess I will by winter wheels next Dec when I change over. In as much as the car I am deciding on is a new 2004, I am trying to determine if I got a good lease deal. Very hard to get any pricing info on Canadian cars and don't want to post numbers here until I confirm. Can I sound the deal off to you on a priivate message?

gabman

Got it, have replied, thanks, will look for your reply

Iceman

Welcome aboard, gabman !

Dantheman

Im from Quebec..Do I qualify? My I-drive is in English though French is not a good language for cars lol

Iceman

French is not a good language for anything!