So, I really don't know all that much about BMW sedans. I went to look at a slightly modified (usual suspension, brake, and engine hop up stuff, nothing radical) E36 with my wife the other day, thinking it would be a good car for her. A friend of ours had let us know about it and had said it was a solid car. Since it was a coworker of his that has it, he set it up for us to meet the guy and test drive the car.
I figured since it would be my wife's commuter car, she should drive and let me know how she likes it. Right off the bat, though, we noticed a potential deal breaker. It is a manual transmission. While my wife can drive a stick if she has to, she really prefers not to. Especially in traffic. The guy assured her that it was probably easier to shift than what she was used to in a stick, so, what the hell. She agreed to drive it. She actually did take to it fairly quickly. Unfortunately, the traffic we started out in was a bit heavy. My wife commented that it looked just like I-5 at rush hour, so it wasn't really all that big of a deal to her. She's grown used to driving in Seattle rush hour traffic.
In spite of what felt like pretty strong acceleration, it took her awhile to get clear of all of that traffic so she could get a feel for how it drove. Once we got it out where she could get it rolling at a decent clip, we both became a little bit worried. We both think the transmission sounded funny. It was kind of on the loud side.
Anyway, I was recording our test drive on my video cam, so I was hoping some of you guys that are familiar with BMW's could take a look and tell me what you think. We both really like the car, but the transmission noise has us worried. Here is a video clip: