Quote:
Originally Posted by ASAP
Ah - you're one of those that likes ancient tech... well no problem, just continue to drive and maintain those cars... leave the newer stuff for us... i'll say though, if you are saying they all drive like buicks, when your current BMWs expire, just buy a prior gen Toyota, they will be massively reliable like you ask and will also drive like Buicks and theoretically there should be no difference, right?  |
As an owner of an E90 335i (N55, Performance Package)…
There’s a reason why E90s and F30s are worth practically the same on the used market. It’s because most F30s pre-LCI are junk. Not worth the BMW roundel. Exception might be a correctly-optioned F30 335i. But how awful is it that you had to option out an F30 just to get it to somewhat feel like a BMW?
The N20 is better off being used as an anchor for a ship, the F30s chassis is too floaty, etc. The LCI fixed many of these issues with the added chassis reinforcements, Bxx motors, and software updates to the steering, but it’s telling that it took BMW nearly 8 years to fix the F30. The F30 is much like the W210 was for Mercedes, compared to the W124. When you have near-perfection, really the only way to go is downhill. The G20 was a much better effort than the F30, thank goodness.
The E90 is hardly ancient. It was ahead of it’s time, and still gets decent mileage, handles extremely well (again, better than its successor), has classic looks, and is extremely reliable (even the N54 isn’t as bad as people make it out to be. I should know, I owned one until 150K miles).
The G chassis is nice, but quite synthetic. Compared to other contemporaries, it may be a “drivers car,” but let’s not kid ourselves, an E90 is still a better sports sedan than an F30 or a G20. Now is it a better luxury sedan? Well that’s debatable, and given the delta in tech, probably not. But if one wanted a luxury sedan, wouldn’t you go for something with a 3-pointed star on the grill? Put another way, it’s an asset for an F30 or G20 to have active cruise and lane departure — it’s the kind of car you want to drive itself at times. An E90? Way too much fun to have a computer drive for you!
I have access to a 997.2. The E90s steering is right on par with the 997. An F30 or G20? No. Not even close.
This all to say that a driver-oriented BMW is no longer the 3er - the Z4 and the 2er are really the last two model lines that really embrace the BMW ethos. Not saying that the rest of the lineup isn't better than their competitors, but it’s a shame to see how much further ahead BMW used to be with respect to the competition.