BenFenner's 2004 Silver SUV

[BenFenner]

Pics with Wagon | Album

I regret not getting enough group pics with my previous cars, so here are some I got of the two, shifty 5-doors.
It's a whole ordeal to get them in the same place for pics, so this won't happen again any time soon.

[BenFenner]

Pics with Coupe and Wagon | Album

18 inline cylinders, 9 pedals, 8 driven wheels, 3 German money pits.

[guntherrex]

so which one gets driven the most?

I love that Z3 (though I could probably wear it with my size)

[BenFenner]

The coupe was a daily driver for 5 years after purchasing it, then we got the wagon and it was good enough to take over (and the coupe is always under the knife), and now we have an infant so the wagon is still solid daily.

The X5 is new to the line-up and has seen some use, but I try to keep it to a minimum. Mostly MTB and wood hauling if needed. If/when it gets EV swapped (keeping the manual) in about 10 years then it would become the daily.

I work from home now, and my wife's been on maternity leave so I'm actually looking into battery tender solutions since nothing gets driven these days except the wagon once a week.

[guntherrex]

ah I see, yeah these days transportation is a bit different. My 4.6 was supposed to do the minority of the miles, but with the harsher winter and a vacation home that I'm redoing an hour and a half away it's racking up the miles much faster than anticipated. Not the most economical of commuters

what's the legroom like in that Z3?

[BenFenner]

Leg room in the shoe is totally fine, and no one really complains about it. The headroom can be iffy if you're over 6-feet but there are a few things people do to deal with that (seat-tilt mod, rear carpet foam removal).
It's a bit silly the steering wheel doesn't tilt, let alone telescope. So this can be problematic for some.
The rear seat-back doesn't tilt back far enough for most, but we just deal with it (seat-tilt mod helps).
Luckily I fit decently well and only have minor complaints.

[Happy]

Originally Posted by BenFenner

Pics with Coupe and Wagon | Album

18 inline cylinders, 9 pedals, 8 driven wheels, 3 German money pits.

Nice Fleet!

[BenFenner]

Thank you.

[BenFenner]

Recharge air conditioning | Album

Well, the giant theater hat has been getting much more use than I'd expected for all sorts of reasons that aren't really important. So when the HVAC vents started blowing warmer on one side of the car than the other during the summer of 2020 (yes, I am that far behind posting updates) it was time to get the A/C situation looked at. The system was down to about half the correct amount of refrigerant, so it got filled up (this time with UV dye to track any future leaks). I think only one of the fill valves were in stock, so only one got replaced. I will revisit this whole situation about another year later.


Supplies:
$95.00 | A/C evacuation and recharge R-134a refrigerant (with UV dye)


Parts:
$14.81 | A/C service port valve | 64509177577


Pics:

[BenFenner]

I have more updates coming of course, but I just wanted to point out that I have finally recorded at least 20 fuel tank fill-ups (22 actually) for city driving so I'm going to stop recording city fuel economy as I feel I have enough data now. I'm confident saying my vehicle gets ~13.5 MPG in city driving. I have mixed and highway economy figures to flesh out still.

Here is what things look like at the moment:

Originally Posted by BenFenner

Up-to-date fuel economy record:

x.xx mpg - Worst track economy
xx.xx mpg - Average track economy (Raw - xx.xx/x)
xx.xx mpg - Best track economy

11.80 mpg - Worst city economy
13.41 mpg - Average city economy (Raw - 294.92/22)
14.93 mpg - Best city economy

12.90 mpg - Worst mixed economy
16.29 mpg - Average mixed economy (Raw - 162.85/10)
20.04 mpg - Best mixed economy

20.31 mpg - Worst highway economy
20.31 mpg - Average highway economy (Raw - 20.31/1)
20.31 mpg - Best highway economy