Tag Archives: bmw 5 series

Lincoln Had it Right in the Lincoln LS

There’s all this noise about Lincoln renaming itself as The Lincoln Motor Company. There’s noise about Lincoln not having the innate connection to luxury that Cadillac has always enjoyed. Or that Lincolns have always been an old conservative man’s car. lincoln ls 09 Lincoln Had it Right in the Lincoln LSWell, they already had it and lost it in one of my favorite cars when I see them on the road, the Lincoln LS. I have a 2001 BMW 530i and the Lincoln LS reminds me of a true European sedan. lincoln ls 14 Lincoln Had it Right in the Lincoln LSI don’t know about performance or build-quality (and that’s the rub) but based on the look it had on the road, it was a very handsome car — the kind of sedan I might have considered instead of my prized e39 body-type 5-series.

2001 bmw 530i 1600x1200 image 1 1024x768 Lincoln Had it Right in the Lincoln LSI haven’t really looked at the 2013 LINCOLN MKZ yet — as in noticed them at all on the road, which is important to me (do I love to look at it? I still love looking at my decade-old Bimmer). So, Lincoln, you had it right. Hey Ford (hey Scott Monty), you had it right.

2013 lincoln MKZ Lincoln Had it Right in the Lincoln LSWhat you need to do with the new Lincolns is make a car that appeals to the gang at Top Gear UK. And please don’t even try to ape the Cadillac CTS-V. Yes, it’s an impressive beast and worthy of admiration as it is arguably a worthy competitor to the M3, the RS4, and the CLK 63 AMG Black Series (but not really at all).

2008 Mercedes Benz CLK 63 AMG Black Series 1024x768 Lincoln Had it Right in the Lincoln LSIf you guys at Ford Motor Company and your subsidiary, The Lincoln Motor Company, can create another LS — in other words, something that competes well with the BMW 5-Series, the Audi A6, the E-Class Mercedes, and the (I was going to add Volvo and Lexus and Infinity here but I really don’t know these cars at all — they just don’t register to me and I am sorry for that).

2003 lincoln ls 100005655 l Lincoln Had it Right in the Lincoln LSAnd don’t waste your resources trying to match the Mercedes-Benz S-Class or the BMW 7-Series to say nothing of wasting your time matching the Audi A8 or its gorgeous and lust-worthy doppelgänger, the VW Phaeton. So, anyway, good luck, to you guys.

Lincoln Had it Right in the Lincoln LSIf you can create something at attractive and well-designed as the Lincoln LS with good handling and a well-appointed cabin, you might very well woo me back to Made in America (or Canada, or whatever — I guess Made in North America).

Good luck and Godspeed, Detroit.

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An Overheated car is why I am still in Ogallala, Nebraska

UPDATE: I just got a call from Bob Collins, owner of T&A Alignment, and he tells me that replacing the “2001-2003 BMW 530i Radiator Coolant Overflow Tank (E39 Chassis Type)” fixed it — I am ready to roll!!! Woo-hoo!

I really don’t drive enough in the desert or everyday to know not to stress test the coolant system of my 2001 530i BMW “e39″ sedan, but now I know what not to do: Idle in noonday, historically high, 105F heat, AC blasting, while taking a business call on my cell because I was afraid to drive for fear that the West Nebraska cell phone service was going to be too spotty.

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Well, the result was pretty catastrophic, or so I have been fretting for the last couple days. The above picture is taken in the first bay at T&A Alignment, owner Bob Collins.

Here’s the deal that I wrote down to post onto the BMW enthusiast forum, Bimmerfest, Overheat to Red and then Fail During Idle and Crack in Radiator Coolant Overflow Tank:

Of course I am already freaked out that this is a cracked cylinder head but let me just post what happened.  I am driving through Nebraska and got a call so instead of staying in the restaurant and taking the call, I jumped into the car and idled and had the AC running for 20 minutes in the noonday heat.  I noticed the AC was off and just the blower/fan and then noticed the temp was not in the middle, like always, but in the red, with the light on. All the way in the red. Instead of turning the car off, I started driving to get some air in it and it got worse, so I stopped the car, opened the hood, and there was coolant all over the inside of the hood/bonnet. The temp gauge went all the way to hot and turned off, actually. And stayed all the way right.  I had a rural mechanic come over and look at it and it had cooled but there was no coolant in the reservoir.  I drove 1/2 mile to the garage and their first diagnosis is a crack in the Radiator Coolant Overflow Tank, which I will replace, so they can do the test to see if it is, in fact, just that crack or if the pressure backup from a cracked cylinder head.  What is your intuition.  I know that I should not have been idling in 100F heat in the car with the AC on — and I also know that I should have turned the car OFF when I saw the overheat and left it there for at least 1/2 hour.  But I didn’t.  But I will do from now on.  What does your intuition say? Replace the Radiator Coolant Overflow Tank or the whole engine?

They’re going to check a couple things to make sure there’s structural damage to the engine — a real possibility — or if replacing the cracked Radiator Coolant Overflow Tank with the one that I ordered and had drop-shipped from 1A Auto (I had a feeling right away that Bob wouldn’t be able to find one so I made sure there was a plan B) fixes everything or will I need to take advantage of my 200 mile tow with AAA Premiere and have her towed to Tom Dinsdale BMW in Grand Island, Nebraska, for some more serious work.

Wish me luck!

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And yes, indeed, I am still in Ogallala, Nebraska, where everyone’s really nice and friendly and the beds in the Comfort Inn are the comfiest because they all have pillowtops. I am sleeping like a very worried and neurotic baby.

An Overheated car is why I am still in Ogallala, Nebraska

BMW is a Stinking Lying Liar!

300px Bmw f01 wiki paultan.org 5 BMW is a Stinking Lying Liar!
Image via Wikipedia

I spent the day at the Roswell, Georgia, BMW dealer with my friend S as he shopped for 7-Series BMWs and I must lodge a complaint as the owner of a 2001 BMW 530i “e39″ with a 3 Liter inline six motor.

The complaint is based on the two numbers after the series number of each car. For example, in the past, a 750i had a 5 Liter engine, a 328i had a 2.8 Liter engine, and the 318i had a 1.8 Liter engine. The engine displacement has always been kept in the two numbers after the 3, 5, or 7 Series number.

Now, as we test drove a 2011 BMW 740Li and a 750Li I discovered that the 2011 528i has my car’s engine, a 3-Liter inline-6, and is just sporting the 28 “out of tradition.” What? What’s more, the 740Li sports a twin-turbo 3 Liter 6, not a 4-Liter, and the 750Li sports a 4-Liter 8 and not a 5-Liter!  Even more, the 2011 BMW 335i is a 3-Liter inline-six with a twin-turbo and not a 3.5 Liter engined car.

The first thing the dealer did when we shot off in the 740LI was, “doesn’t feel like a six, does it?”  The tail doesn’t at all designate that the traditionally and historically naturally-aspirated award-winning BMW engines are now often turbo and twin-turbo-assisted, though this is not represented in the new alpha-numeric nomenclature.  Since “i” means fuel-injected and “x” means all-wheel-drive and “L” means long-wheelbase, shouldn’t “t” mean turbo or “b” mean biturbo?

Am I silly or are you as appalled as I am?

BMW is a Stinking Lying Liar!

New Yokohama Shoes for My Old Beemer

Still here at Mr. Tire getting new Yokohama shoes for my old Beemer.

IMG01086 20101005 1453 New Yokohama Shoes for My Old Beemer

Apparently the down-side of telecommuting and running a distributed virtual agency and not commuting every day is that all that sitting and not rolling “breaks” the tires and “eggs” them.

So, en route to NYC for my big Manhattan Sales Tour, Fall 2010, on 95, at speed, my wheels went crazy-nuts. Off to the Maryland Welcome Center rest top, got the Exxon guy to check the tires, and they were toast.

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So, here I am in Aberdeen, Maryland, at the Mr. Tire, swapping out my trust old Continentals for a slick pair of Yokohama tires. Then, safely, back onto the road.

Oh, and after 8 years of city-driving, I have killed 3/5 mag wheels / rims — already tossed the spare’s rim but now I am told that 2/4 of the remaining rims are shot and need to be replaced.

Off to eBay to see if I can get 3 used true model-appropriate mag wheels for my 2001 e39 BMW 530i.

I hate to love nice cars at moments like this.

New Yokohama Shoes for My Old Beemer