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Originally Posted by impulsE89
Well said Stooker!
If you added up the pages of advertising in recent Car and Drivers, Alfa Romeo, G.M,Ford, would dominate. Clearly there is a feud going on between BMW and C&D, probably because BMW doesn't spend enough. For a while they were Mustang fanatics. Lately its Camaro.
As for the decline of the Ultimate Driving Machine, don't drink the Kool Aid. Yes they are going for overall volume and have become a SUV company in volumes and profit that sport sedans could never achieve. Be happy for SUVs with M features. Have you ever followed an X5? Glad I don't have to buy those huge tires. How about the 600 hp twin turbo "hot v8". BWM still has performance center activities and training for owners , they heavily support a road racing program that is very successful. They make beautiful practical high performing cars. The capabilities and power of these cars is so effortless that yes, it is more fun to drive the MT, low torque, high winding, early model that came to us when almost everything else was a joke. They still sell some good affordable cars like that. If you can afford any BMW drive it and be happy. And give the media jerks our very own BMW finger.
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I have to disagree. The M-series SUVs kill the 3-Series and we get stuck with a stupid 4-cylinder turbo (like everyone else has) car. Mega M SUVs kill the BMW corporate CAFE numbers, so they make up for them with the 3-series (their highest volume seller) and a crap engine and automatic trans for fuel efficiency.
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A manual transmission can be set to "comfort", "sport", and "track" modes simply by the technique and speed at which you shift it; it doesn't need "modes", modes are for manumatics that try to behave like a real 3-pedal manual transmission. If you can money-shift it, it's a manual transmission. "Yeah, but NO ONE puts an automatic trans shift knob on a manual transmission."