Hello all!
Two weeks ago I purchased an '06 330xi with a 6 speed. I am a car enthusiast and not a fan-boy of any particular brand although BMW is certainly very near the top for me.
Previously I have always owned a Pontiac. I'm an active member of three Grand Prix clubs, SCCA and two LS4 forums. Starting with a 1991 Grand AM, that thing kept going all the way through college for me but it was a massive pile. I then purchased a 2005 Grand Prix GTP. The modding bug bit me with that car and I had it setup almost exactly like I wanted it to be. I replaced that car with a 2006 Grand Prix GXP. It was loaded, Nav, heads up display, paddle shifters, very powerful V8, Bilstein Monotube shocks as well as upgraded suspension components all around.
Well, the GXP started having massive maintenance problems. I knew I needed to make a change and I started 10 months ago to search for a vehicle.
I re-learned how to drive a manual in an '04 M3, so I knew I wanted a 3 series. Living in Minnesota a daily driven M3 is not really an option. I started to search for anything with a stick in the 3 series trim. One of my best friends picked up an '06 330Xi with a manual for around 7k more than I wanted to spend and after searching for a couple of months I deemed it impossible to find and gave up.
I was test driving trucks, Audi's, an Impreza and several others. The trucks were because I have been considering starting SCCA racing. I've been a member of a two car national points series SM team for a few years and in that time I've learned a few things. Among them was that you must have a trailer.(Had a friend that used to drive to sanctioned events in their race car. )
I had settled on going to test drive this A6 that had been sitting for sale over two weeks. I knew the dealer would be willing to make a deal on it and it looked okay. I woke up on that Saturday morning and I just could not bring myself to leave and drive that car. Before leaving to go drive it I did one final search on autotrader. <$22,000, AWD, Manual and Sort by mileage low to high. What did I stumble across on the third page back? 6 speed? AWD?! '06?! 51,000miles?! Too damn good to be true. Turns out that the car was listed 2 hours prior to me finding it. I test drove it one hour later and purchased it the next business day. I really like this car a lot.
I'm sure I'll have a lot of questions for you guys so I thank you in advance and I look forward to helping where I can!
Yeah, it snowed the day after I purchased the car so it's dirty but here's the pics.
