While in Europe on a quick business trip this week, I decided to pop into the main BMW dealership in Amsterdam to check out the E90 in person. I have a week 14 build 330i on order for pick-up in Munich on May 4. I was very excited to see how the car looked in person and check out in details all the "nooks and crannies" of the car..

They had 3 E90s in the showroom:
320i - Jet Black w/ Grey Cloth and Titan Matt Trim
320i - Monaco Blue w/ Grey Cloth and Titan Matt Trim
320d - Sparkling Graphite w/ Beige Leather and Burl Walnut Trim

First, the Monaco blue looks very similar to Orient Blue - might actually be a tad bit darker...The Sparkling Graphite is really stunning in person - it seems to have a glow to it!

The car looks awesome in person - proportionally, it's perfect. That's a detail that's hard to make out in the photos. The rear looks good in person, the light clusters really fit the body shape and it has good balance. The front looks very aggressive in person. The interior is stunning - very nicely upgraded.

On the same floor were a couple of E46 sedans. Sitting right next to the E90s, the E46 looked very dated indeed. Don't get me wrong the E46 is an awesome design, I've owned a few of them - but the new car makes a stronger statement and is unabashedly a 3-series!

Since we've seen tons of photos of the cars from the launch and various test drives, I chose to focus on pics of details that we have yet to see. Most importantly, I was curious to see if the radio display is larger on this car no that Bluetooth is standard - I was considering getting NAV just to be able to read the phone display better. To my delight, the radio display has been enhanced and is significantly better than the E46 radio display. The car has 5 cupholders if you count the the climate controled one in the center console - which appears to be about the right size for a 12oz. can of soda. Another nice surprise: (at my count) 5 power ports! There's one in the dash, one in the center console, 2 in the rear of the center console and one in the trunk. That's pretty impressive! Please no flames about this not being a minivan or SUV, the reality is that for everyday convenience these are great enhancements that have been added to the car.

Enjoy!

Roup1

See all of the photos here: http://members.cox.net/e90