BMW 320i Delivery

The other day, the BMW 320i (F30) finally arrived at our home. It’s a 2014 model with a manual transmission. By the way, this is my very first car ever, and I never dreamed that my first car would be a manual. (Why that happened is explained here)

人生初の愛車を購入！BMW 3シリーズ（MT）に出会い、注文するまで。

While waiting from order to delivery, my husband kept saying,

Are you really going to be able to drive it? Won’t you end up wanting to buy back the Golf or something? lol

But I kept reassuring myself, “No, this time it’s going to be fine, absolutely fine this time (-_-),” and kept replying like that the whole time.

According to the weekly weather forecast, the delivery day was supposed to be “heavy rain.” I had already given up, thinking “of course,” but the forecast changed to sunny the day before. Just like the recent touring trip to Fukui, which was supposed to be rainy but turned out sunny… maybe I’ve finally stopped being a rain woman! lol (Though saying that might make it rain again)

On the day, the BMW sales rep drove the 320i to our home, and we were going to swap it with our Golf, so I emptied all the stuff from the Golf and vacuumed it in the morning, ready for the handover. Seeing the two-shot with the Panamera for the last time felt quite emotional.

From Delivery to First Drive

The delivery was in the evening, so my husband left work early to be home. As the delivery time approached, we all got a bit restless, waiting with “any minute now, any minute now,” when the rep called to say he had arrived in front of our house. The whole family went outside and…

Oh wow, it’s finally here!

Still, it didn’t really feel real yet… After a while, the rep gave us a full rundown of the car’s controls. The iDrive system was easy to use, and the audio sounded pretty good. I also learned for the first time that you can switch driving modes between Sport, Comfort, and Eco that day! lol

Afterwards, the rep checked the Golf, and since everything was fine, he said, “Thank you very much, I look forward to working with you,” and drove off in the Golf. Goodbye, Golf… I’d felt this before, but goodbyes are surprisingly quick and simple.

After seeing the Golf off, I thought, “Well then, might as well try driving it!” so I let my husband take the wheel first. As soon as he started driving, he laughed and said,

What is this?! It’s totally different from the Boxster! This is so easy! There’s no way you can stall this thing! Mina-chan can definitely handle this one!

Is that so…? Even watching from the side, it looked easy, and the shift shocks were barely noticeable. Then I noticed the fuel gauge had dropped a bit, so we decided to head to a gas station on the national road.

And now, it was finally my turn to drive.

Telling myself, “I can do this, I can do this,” I adjusted the seat and steering wheel. I moved the shift lever through “1, 2, 3, 4,” thought “No use overthinking it, here goes!” and bravely set off.

I managed to get moving… but I had zero room to enjoy any conversation. At one point, I said, “I’m trying to shift into 2nd but it just won’t go in (ﾟдﾟ)!” and my husband said,

Why? The shift lever is so light! You’re just gripping it too hard!

Then I said, “I have no idea what gear I’m in! There’s no display!” and he said,

Why not? You can tell by the engine sound or if the car feels strained — just by feel!

Meanwhile, my husband was laughing hard beside me,

Seriously, you’re so stiff. From the side, you look like that comedian’s bit where he says, “So stiff!” lol

Ah… that’s the Zabungle Kato bit, right? The “So stiff!” joke (–_–) But at that moment, I really was “so stiff!” and couldn’t deny it, so all I could do was laugh. Without a moment to recover, I kept driving, and then stopped at a gentle uphill traffic light.

Here it comes — hill start.

I slowly let the clutch out while giving it some gas, and somehow managed to start moving without rolling back. “Alright! Not bad!” I got a bit cocky, then failed again… and kept repeating that as I drove on.

Later, I cleared the biggest challenge for me — the hill in front of the station — smoothly on a green light, but by then I was drenched in sweat (lol).

After that, maybe because I was getting tired, I stalled again starting from a normal stoplight. “Oh no, oh no!” I thought, but when I pressed the clutch, the engine automatically restarted.

Wow — such a wonderful feature! I felt relieved. Despite stalling and being stiff, I somehow made it back home, when my husband said,

Let’s test if the auto-hold really doesn’t work on hills. Better to know before you drive tomorrow.

So we switched drivers and tried it on the hill in front of our house. The hold worked for about 2 seconds, then the car jolted backward. We tried several times with the same result, and my husband said,

I’ve heard about this “Hill Start Assist” that holds the brake for about 2 seconds after you take your foot off the pedal on an uphill. This BMW has it! That’s great!

…So that’s why I didn’t roll back earlier — it wasn’t my skill after all (–_–). Despite all my worries, that was the end of my first drive.

The next day, I drove the BMW to drop off my eldest daughter at kindergarten, but I was still stiff and stalled multiple times, causing trouble for the cars behind me.

However, that afternoon when I picked her up again, I was much calmer and drove smoothly. It’s definitely a matter of getting used to it. Looks like I can manage after all. Alright, time to practice hard!

By the way, I’ll share my husband’s first impressions of the BMW 320i (F30) in a separate article.