Quote:
Originally Posted by Cgm9999
The steering is a joke and as anybody who has been smitten by a BMW before can attest, steering feel is a lot of what makes a BMW a BMW. It's kind of like the disastrous strategy Coca Cola had when they introduced "New Coke" in the 1980s. Not only did they reinvent the wheel for the worse, but they threw out the old wheel so that you couldn't even enjoy normal Coke even if you wanted to. Note to BMW: Bring back the hydraulic steering as an option or supply it as standard on the Sportline and M-Sport trims. Please. Like, right now...
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And you know why Coca-Cola made that mistake? Because they were doing 'focus group testing' and the testers took one sip of original Coke and one sip of New Coke (without knowing which is which) and prefered New Coke. The company made it's decision based on that.
Then when people drank an entire can they preferred old (Classic) Coke. Some people think Coca-Cola did it for publicity. They're not that clever. It was actually one of the biggest and most costly product blunders ever made by a major American corporation.
BMW -used- to be about designing a car that would reveal itself to you as superior after you drove it for a significant amount of time. Especially for American drivers used to big heavy floaty boat-cars.
I've got a base level F30 328i as a loaner today. No sport package
. I should hopefully be back in my E92 335i 6MT tonight. A good A-B-A test.
So far I can report initial impressions:
F30 is the same exact size as my E39
Steering is WAY too light and dead of feel
Non-sport suspension is comfortable on bad roads but way soft and lets the car "float" which I think is so un-BMW-like
N20 engine has decent power and good fuel economy but feels slow compared to N54 and sounds like a Diesel when idling
ZF 8spd Auto is the best auto I have ever driven. I like the stick-style shifter. But I still find myself letting it be in "auto" mode and rarely using the manual shift, just like in my girlfriends VW Jetta 2.0T DSG (neither car has shift paddles).
What I don't like is that it's too clever. I had a frustrating minute trying to get it in gear before I realized that if the door is just slightly ajar, it won't go into gear.
-seriously?- You engineers mean to tell me that there is no reason ever that one might want to creep the car forward with the door open?
While this was happening (I'm trying to get into my storage unit) there is a strange guy coming up behind me. He wasn't a threat, but what if he was? I can't get my damn car in gear to get the hell away?
What if I'm a woman or other person who doesn't think so logically when a potential threat is approaching. Because the door is not perfectly shut the car won't move forward??? What if a freaking dump truck with bad brakes is coming up behind the car?
I don't want my car dumbed down to protect the stupid from themselves.
Thank the car god I have a manual E92!