Quote:
Originally Posted by montreal red
i am not surprised that these are your thoughts on the 328.... dont forget that this car is for the masses. lots of older folks buy these cars and they want a comfortable daily commuter, not a 'sporty' car. i am guessing the older ladies would like the numb and soft electric power steering and probably equate it to 'luxury'. also the R and the cooper S are aimed at generally younger owners who like to drive spiritedly or even track the car so tuning is going to be quite different.
we'll see what they do with the upcoming M3/M4.... thats the car that will make or break BMW's reputation to the enthusiast. i lost faith in M division after they started to put engine noise through the car's radio speakers in the new M5. but then again, they did come up with the 1M recently, which has been highly praised by many (even though i havent driven one before). so we'll see.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tonybest
I have to agree with montreal red here. Your expectations are not at all what a 328 is aimed at. But the rear seats thingy for the small children is sad.
a 328 is not a sports car. It is a luxury car with a "sporty" feeling.
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So I would tend to agree with all of the above... but for a huge caveat. The 328 is definitely a "luxury car with spunk". The problem is that most of the "tangible" components carry over to the 335, which would be my basis of comparison, for the reason that the M falls into an entirely different product line, while the 335 still technically defines the maximum 3-series. And here we have a problem. The seats wouldn't change to the 335; neither, I should think, would the steering response - the cars aren't different enough to justify it (unless they're separating the 335 out more in this model year and all of those will actually differ). I would almost even wonder if the 335 even has a different suspension - the 328 and the 335 shared them before, which would simply be tragic if it were the case here.
For what it's worth, one of the main reasons I bought a BMW the first time was my boss at the time heard I was car shopping, threw me the keys to his e28 and said "let's drive". Five minutes later it was a done deal.
I'm not sure I'd be as impressed now.