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I don't think you get what I'm trying to say. But you should really drive both cars before you make your decision
$10K to be slower 0-100, have an interior that does't look like my kids fisher price toys, stop from 70 a car length shorter, have better handling, better mpg and not be a Dodge? Sure.
I'm not sure I understand your fixation with 0-100 acceleration, except that is the metric that works for your argument. The speed limit in my AO is 70, the fact that the Dodge pulls ahead somewhere after 85-90 mph is largely a moot point for me. If it matters so much, a piggyback tune will entirely erase that deficit.
Man that is pretty. Even with the stripes. What museum? I'll be in Germany in a few weeks traveling all over; might have to stop and see.
Simplicity = fun is certainly a point. Exhibit A: Miata. Hard to find more grins-per-dollar. Is it the omega of cars? No. But it doesn't need to be.
In Munich, BMW has their Museum which is pretty cool and it is connected to BMW Welt which is a big display of all the new vehicles in the BMW group including Mini and Rolls Royce and BMW motorcycles. They host lots of events there and have a restaurant and shops. Just outside and attached to BMW Welt is their performance center where they had the cars in the picture lined up with lots of M accessories. They were closing so I only snapped a few pics before they kicked us out. But that is the first M2 that I actually thought looked decent. It all boils down to the wheels, lowering springs, front lip, and side spoilers that finally made that car look aggressive to me.
The Miata is definitely a lot of fun for the money. It is a great car to learn how to drive fast and how to approach the limits of a car too. Then you learn those limits and buy something faster. You get bored of that performance and start tuning the living bejesus out of that car. You improve your driving ability again. Then you get a faster car and on and on. It's a vicious, but fun cycle. Unfortunately, it also seems to get more and more expensive as you progress up the ladder. But for me, there is nothing like the thrill of driving a car just over the limit on a race track. Oddly, enough it is great therapy like walk in the woods and totally puts me at ease. You would think just the opposite with everything at stake with a simple mistake, but it works.
This is my favorite thread, not because I started it, but because it provides me the much needed release of discussing all the vehicles I consider before I actually buy one with other like-minded enthusiasts rather than just having a constantly running discussion in my head, like usual. So thank you very much for keeping this thread going and providing me with many new ideas. I hope I have done the same for many of you. This is not the place to try to end the age old argument of muscle car vs. import or argue about subjective styling. Remember, beauty is in eye of the "beer holder" and there is no replacement for displacement- unless you have some nice ball bearing twin scroll turbos. Now let's get this back on track and keep in mind the original intention of the thread. Thank you.
I get your point about a lot of the new cars being so digital and I really dislike the fact that most performance cars are turning to DSG transmissions to eek out an extra 0.10 or so on the 0-60 sprint, but I understand the idiotic, hard set in our ways bench racing bragging rights of 0-60 and horsepower and that probably has a lot to do with the development of a lot of modern car tech. In the real world the numbers often look a lot different. I am old school and would much rather shift my car, heel-and-toe downshift, and have more control over the handling. I know it takes an extra 0.10 to 60, but it also takes more skill and more involvement and is much more rewarding when you get it right. If we make the cars so simple to drive that anyone can be fast it removes the fun. I think we agree on all of that. I cheered when I read Car & Driver's review of the M2 Competition that the manual transmission was actually faster than the DCT.
But have you driven a new M3 or M2? I have yet to drive the M2 Competition, but I have driven the M3 and M3 Competition and they are easily 10 times better at everything than the E46 M3. The steering is great in the new M3. I get that you can add more modern technology to the E46 M3 like a supercharger to try to keep up with a bone stock new M3, but doesn't that go right in the face of what you just said about the older cars being better if you have to add new tech to them to keep up? As good as the E46 M3 was it was a flawed car. It can easily shear the rear subframe with stock power and with 500 hp it would decimate the chassis. The vanos system of that generation is garbage and who wants to waste the time adjusting their valve lash anymore? Not to mention the newest models left of the E46 are 14 years old now. There is no way you could upgrade an E46 M3 chassis to replicate the materials and construction processes used in a new M3 and that affects the steering, handling, ride, acceleration, braking, etc. The E46 M3 is still stunning to look at though and still sounds great. But so does the new M3 (see below). I agree, I don't like the look of the M2 as much, but the styling of the Competition model is growing on me.
Don't worry, not all hope is lost on a new car. The M2 Competition is supposed to be a simplistic anolog car in a digital world. This review by Motor1 conveys that pretty well: https://www.motor1.com/reviews/36367...tition-review/ Again, I have yet to drive an M2 Competition, but if it really is better than the new M3, then I think it will be a really good car. It just needs some more aggressive rims like on the M2 CS and front splitter or different front bumper cover similar to this one I saw at the BMW museum in Germany. (I could do without the ugly M stripes though.)
I'm beginning to like you already man 0-60 is the dumbest thing people judge a car on. Same with quarter miles. I don't understand what it is about Americans being obsessed with going quick in a straight line for a few seconds. It's absurd, and reading someone mention the Audi A4 just had me chuckle. No disrespect to the man, really, but I've been there, done that, have a shirt. I have sat and drove a new F80 328i before. I compared it to an E46 330i sedan my buddy had a while back. The E46 feels a lot more better, and driver orientated. With the new one, I was just disgusted knowing that this car is a BMW. No BMW magic at all. I actually, coincidentally, bumped into an E39 M5 owner by my neighborhood a few hours ago. Even he himself said that new BMWs suck, and mentioned the same thing we both agreed on about the E60 M5 having a good motor, but just being butt ugly. Funny how the old school owners hate Bangle. The new ones are good cars, but just no magic and no driver involvement like you mentioned before. The feeling felt like a Camry, sorry. The E46 felt like a dart and much more planted and secure in my opinion. I felt confident in that, even though it was a 330i, instead of the new 328i. I like the feeling of it a lot more compared to the new ones. Maybe just different tastes between us? They just don't have that feeling anymore, and probably never will. I do not have any hope for that M2 personally, but that is just me and my preference. It already has a screen, so it is bad news for me. But if you get your hands on one, and like it. Go for it man, since I'm pretty sure you have a family and want to go have a new car of your dreams. I mean, I'll still criticize the new cars on the internet forums. I'll just stick with the older cars.
And my friend, it's not just the subframe that would bust. You forgot about the rear view mirror, seat twists, vanos failure, automatic gearbox failure at 150,000, MAF sensors, pixels on the speedometer But those things have become so cheap to fix, and there are much more resources compared to the newer model BMWs that virtually have nothing to offer when something goes bad (there's quite a lot more). And you'd be surprised how many people have done pretty good builds on the E46 chassis to make it handle all that power. I read a few build threads, wow wow wow! I want one now. I do believe some company started making new subframes for them a few years ago for a really good price. What I did hate about the E46 were the seats. That's pretty much it.
Originally Posted by RMB5190
You're completely delusional as to what it takes to build those cars to the point where they are putting down that much power. Look into any build that is pushing those blocks to 600+ whp and it's going to have considerable internal work. Sorry to burst your bubble but they are far from stock internals my friend. That said, you can build any block to withstand that power. It's like you won't even consider you can build the motors of new cars too.
Not sure why you have to be condescending if someone has a differing opinion. Saying someone isn't a 'man' if they don't like what you do? Alright guy.
Lastly, you honestly believe you were giving a F80 M3 any competition in your G37? Do you have a FBO 2002 Civic EX as your other race car?
I don't care that we have different opinions, I'm just saying that you can modify an older car to handle, brake, and accelerate better than any new car due to them having a huge range of aftermarket support, while the new cars have barely anything and die out quick due to the buttload of electronics they put in them. I would disagree with someone if I had to endure the pain of owning a car designed by Chris Bangle
I looked into the builds of the L28ETs multiple times when choosing to swap one into a 280ZX with just an L28E. I don't know of an owner who is running forged internals on their 600 hp L28ET build. Different heads, yes, like the E31s or N42s which are super reliable. You could put forged internals if you are going for big power league and large amounts of boost. But yet again, you can rather go with the L6 block instead since it has more potential past that point. This isn't like the VQ37 that requires the forged internals and a new transmission if you go even higher. Even old 90s Skyline can handle that power with their 5 speed transmissions and they are old AND can be daily driven like one of my mates back in Wales.
Wasn't meant to sound condescending. It's just what is said between the old school bimmer men as a joke so don't get your panties in a bunch. I mean, I can make fun of the E90 range celery stick dashboards but it isn't to hate on you personally You've got to be absolutely insane thinking that the E90 range will rise up in value. They literally have no resale value at all, hell many BMWs don't. Only reason the N54 engine has become popular is because of a few big name youtubers modifying them with chips, breaking them, complaining about them. One of my neighbors across my community owns one. Really nice dude, no problems with him, and the car sounds nice tuned and everything. Cylinder compression is off and one of them doesn't fire after a while. These new tunes and downpipes are just little modifications done to new cars. What else? Turbo/Supercharger kits are astronomical for them, and might not even be made.
What's bad about Civics? Pretty damn good cars and I had the pleasure of owning one before. The 2014 was the last good year of them. I stayed a car length behind him the whole time, that is an accomplishment to lose gracefully for a 10 year old V6.
In all honesty didn't mean to offend you man, it's just friendly teasing honestly, don't have to take it personally. New cars suck and have no swagger, just have to accept that reality.
Now I am going to look at some sort of project to do to my G37. Engine swap is almost already set in stone now until I get the plan all built up completely. Or just replace it with an E39 and LS swap that bad boy.
Last edited by Joyryde; 11-08-2019 at 05:33 PM.
Reason: Posted the VK
Disagree on the A4. For a Quattro A4 money you can get a Charger R/T, which is faster (sounds better (cooler looking(and fairly luxurious)))
BETTER THAN AN A4 QUATTRO
V8 5.7L sound never gets old.
All the relevant features.
Still a head turner with the HEMI badge on the fender.
I'm with you on the Charger R/T. In my opinion it looks much sportier and more aggressive than the A4. And, having driven both, as an every day driver I would take the Charger R/T hands down. That said, the Charger interior is not even in the same league as the Audi. Just last year we purchased a 2018 Durango R/T for my wife and I absolutely love the way it drives and the sounds from the 5.7L Hemi is intoxicating... we even added a Corsa exhaust recently to further enhance that Hemi sound. When we bought the Durango, we looked at everything from the Mazda CX9 to the Jaguar F-Pace including BWW, Audi, Subby, VW, and nothing offered the amount of performance and technology for the price. Not to mention it drives nicer and feels more composed and expensive than anything else we drove, even the F-Pace, which was almost $20K more expensive. But were the Durango falls short is the same place where the Charger falls short and that's the interior. While the interior doesn't look too bad it still uses lots of cheap plastics and fit and finish on the interior just isn't as nice as our other cars. The interior is definitely due for an update. FCA is definitely capable of nice interiors... We also own a newer Ram 2500 Limited and the interior on that rivals some of the nicest interiors out there and is nicer than even some of the $100K German interiors I've been in recently.
$10K to be slower 0-100, have an interior that does't look like my kids fisher price toys, stop from 70 a car length shorter, have better handling, better mpg and not be a Dodge? Sure.
I'm not sure I understand your fixation with 0-100 acceleration, except that is the metric that works for your argument. The speed limit in my AO is 70, the fact that the Dodge pulls ahead somewhere after 85-90 mph is largely a moot point for me. If it matters so much, a piggyback tune will entirely erase that deficit.
I wouldn't be so quick to sell Dodge short, Lego.... I've never been a Dodge fan, or much of an american car fan, but right now my wife and I own a Jeep Wrangler, Ram 2500, and Dodge Durango R/T, in addition to my Infiniti and Porsche. Out of all of our cars the Durango and Ram are by far the nicest highway cruisers, which also means we drive those two way more than we do the other cars. As an everyday driver I would take the Charger R/T over an Audi A4 in a heartbeat. IMO the Charger just drives better, has more space, sounds amazing, and feels just as tight and well put together as the Audi. Yes, the interior is due for an update, but the R/T model still comes packed full of technology, including heated and cooled seats and Apple CarPlay... standard! The Charger also handles pretty well for it's size, but it's definitely not a canyon carver... the A4 would definitely pull away from it in the twisties. It's just very hard to get past the visceral feeling you get from that Hemi V8... I know I can't. I think if you were to drive both back-to-back you might come away singing a different song.
I wouldn't be so quick to sell Dodge short, Lego.... I've never been a Dodge fan, or much of an american car fan, but right now my wife and I own a Jeep Wrangler, Ram 2500, and Dodge Durango R/T, in addition to my Infiniti and Porsche. Out of all of our cars the Durango and Ram are by far the nicest highway cruisers, which also means we drive those two way more than we do the other cars. As an everyday driver I would take the Charger R/T over an Audi A4 in a heartbeat. IMO the Charger just drives better, has more space, sounds amazing, and feels just as tight and well put together as the Audi. Yes, the interior is due for an update, but the R/T model still comes packed full of technology, including heated and cooled seats and Apple CarPlay... standard! The Charger also handles pretty well for it's size, but it's definitely not a canyon carver... the A4 would definitely pull away from it in the twisties. It's just very hard to get past the visceral feeling you get from that Hemi V8... I know I can't. I think if you were to drive both back-to-back you might come away singing a different song.
I got to drive the Dodge Ram 2018, with a 5.7 hemi a few months ago! What a truck! I liked it a lot more than the new F150s with the crappy ecoboost engines. I would definitely take the Dodge Ram over any new German car in a heart beat, and the interior in them is so much better than the overpriced German cars that break down faster than they hit a quarter mile time the followers rave about. The Ram was probably the ONLY new vehicle that I felt had soul left in it. I'm not a truck guy by any means, but if I had to choose one I would have the Ram on my list and the 2006 Duramax. Did you get the chance to look at the new Nissan Titan trucks with the cummins engine? Holy crap, getting one of the best truck motors in a Japanese company's truck. And since the cummins motor has been used in many trucks for decades, imagine how much power you could make with those since the aftermarket parts are plenty!
I'm beginning to like you already man 0-60 is the dumbest thing people judge a car on. Same with quarter miles. I don't understand what it is about Americans being obsessed with going quick in a straight line for a few seconds. It's absurd, and reading someone mention the Audi A4 just had me chuckle. No disrespect to the man, really, but I've been there, done that, have a shirt. I have sat and drove a new F80 328i before. I compared it to an E46 330i sedan my buddy had a while back. The E46 feels a lot more better, and driver orientated. With the new one, I was just disgusted knowing that this car is a BMW. No BMW magic at all. I actually, coincidentally, bumped into an E39 M5 owner by my neighborhood a few hours ago. Even he himself said that new BMWs suck, and mentioned the same thing we both agreed on about the E60 M5 having a good motor, but just being butt ugly. Funny how the old school owners hate Bangle. The new ones are good cars, but just no magic and no driver involvement like you mentioned before. The feeling felt like a Camry, sorry. The E46 felt like a dart and much more planted and secure in my opinion. I felt confident in that, even though it was a 330i, instead of the new 328i. I like the feeling of it a lot more compared to the new ones. Maybe just different tastes between us? They just don't have that feeling anymore, and probably never will. I do not have any hope for that M2 personally, but that is just me and my preference. It already has a screen, so it is bad news for me. But if you get your hands on one, and like it. Go for it man, since I'm pretty sure you have a family and want to go have a new car of your dreams. I mean, I'll still criticize the new cars on the internet forums. I'll just stick with the older cars.
And my friend, it's not just the subframe that would bust. You forgot about the rear view mirror, seat twists, vanos failure, automatic gearbox failure at 150,000, MAF sensors, pixels on the speedometer But those things have become so cheap to fix, and there are much more resources compared to the newer model BMWs that virtually have nothing to offer when something goes bad (there's quite a lot more). And you'd be surprised how many people have done pretty good builds on the E46 chassis to make it handle all that power. I read a few build threads, wow wow wow! I want one now. I do believe some company started making new subframes for them a few years ago for a really good price. What I did hate about the E46 were the seats. That's pretty much it.
I don't care that we have different opinions, I'm just saying that you can modify an older car to handle, brake, and accelerate better than any new car due to them having a huge range of aftermarket support, while the new cars have barely anything and die out quick due to the buttload of electronics they put in them. I would disagree with someone if I had to endure the pain of owning a car designed by Chris Bangle
I looked into the builds of the L28ETs multiple times when choosing to swap one into a 280ZX with just an L28E. I don't know of an owner who is running forged internals on their 600 hp L28ET build. Different heads, yes, like the E31s or N42s which are super reliable. You could put forged internals if you are going for big power league and large amounts of boost. But yet again, you can rather go with the L6 block instead since it has more potential past that point. This isn't like the VQ37 that requires the forged internals and a new transmission if you go even higher. Even old 90s Skyline can handle that power with their 5 speed transmissions and they are old AND can be daily driven like one of my mates back in Wales.
Wasn't meant to sound condescending. It's just what is said between the old school bimmer men as a joke so don't get your panties in a bunch. I mean, I can make fun of the E90 range celery stick dashboards but it isn't to hate on you personally You've got to be absolutely insane thinking that the E90 range will rise up in value. They literally have no resale value at all, hell many BMWs don't. Only reason the N54 engine has become popular is because of a few big name youtubers modifying them with chips, breaking them, complaining about them. One of my neighbors across my community owns one. Really nice dude, no problems with him, and the car sounds nice tuned and everything. Cylinder compression is off and one of them doesn't fire after a while. These new tunes and downpipes are just little modifications done to new cars. What else? Turbo/Supercharger kits are astronomical for them, and might not even be made.
What's bad about Civics? Pretty damn good cars and I had the pleasure of owning one before. The 2014 was the last good year of them. I stayed a car length behind him the whole time, that is an accomplishment to lose gracefully for a 10 year old V6.
In all honesty didn't mean to offend you man, it's just friendly teasing honestly, don't have to take it personally. New cars suck and have no swagger, just have to accept that reality.
Now I am going to look at some sort of project to do to my G37. Engine swap is almost already set in stone now until I get the plan all built up completely. Or just replace it with an E39 and LS swap that bad boy.
Hey guys, don't want to take this too off topic but I've been PMing with 4DRZ about what car I should buy and I wanted to get some more expert opinions from you all. Currently I have an old '99 Maxima 5MT that I love but I think it's time to upgrade.... The G37 seemed like an obvious choice and I always wanted a "real" RWD car.
I bike commute to work (faster than driving where I live, and far more fun than sitting in rush hour traffic) and the main reason I use my car is road trips and the occasional errand around town. I live in Portland, Oregon where it rarely snows, but I drive up to the mountains several times a month which can involve treacherous snowy/icy roads at times. More often than not the main frustration is the traffic itself.
I have gotten stuck in B2B traffic on an uphill slope in my Maxima (open diff) even with winter tires, trying to start from a stop on a road with no sand/salt, and 4DRZ suggested that a G37 could be considerably worse in such a situation even with LSD and VDC. Rochester, would you agree?
So I've been looking at other options for used cars in the $10-20K range. My requirements are manual transmission, practical (ideally wagon), and now AWD or FWD. That leaves few options. Mainly VW or Subaru (I would like to steer clear of older Audi/BMW because I'm not convinced the reliability is adequate for me; Volvo seems to have very limited options for MT in the past 10 years).
Right now I'm considering a 2016+ GTI or a Golf Sportwagen or Alltrack. The idea of an AWD wagon with a 6MT and the potential for major power bump from IS20 turbo swap and a tune is pretty awesome. However, the Sportwagen 6MT AWD only comes in the base trim with uncomfortable cloth seats, no sunroof, no navigation. So the Alltrack SE or SEL could work, though I don't like the plastic SUV-style cladding and lift (obviously could swap suspension to lower it), and they are more costly (well over $20k at this point).
Golf R would be sweet but I'd have to get a Mk6 to find one in my price range. It seems like the GTI Mk7 with LSD would be fine and a better car for me than the Golf R. Lego or anyone else have opinions on this? Thanks for any suggestions/corrections/thoughts!
Yea, 10-20k limits the choices but it isn't impossible to meet your criteria.My limit was 5-10k when I picked up my Volvo.
The Volvo S40/V50 T5 is the last AWD, manual car Volvo made. The Haldex system is the same set-up that was in the Mazdaspeed 6. I wouldn't exactly call that system reliable based on what I've read. The FWD versions are near bullet proof. They have a STC that brakes the wheel losing traction so it acts like an open differential while not actually having an open differential. I've seen the motors go to 200k+ with ease and the M66 manual transmission is bullet proof as well. It's the same power train as the European spec Focus RS. The coolant hoses would be the biggest problem and silicone replacements are a must (easy replacement). Other than that, the timing belt needs service every 100k miles. It's an interference set-up so if it snaps - boom goes the engine. The car is extremely easy to work on though; I did the clutch and flywheel in my garage (no lift). You will need some...'special' tools to work on it but you can cross that bridge if you get there. Forums are still active and there's a ton of info and DIY out there for them.
Have you looked at the Gen 2 Mazdaspeed 3? Tons of nice examples with your 10-20k range and they have ample aftermarket support if you ever wanted to go that route.
Focus ST also falls into that price range.
Maybe a Mitsu. Evo? Good luck finding one that isn't clapped out though.
Hey guys, don't want to take this too off topic but I've been PMing with 4DRZ about what car I should buy and I wanted to get some more expert opinions from you all. Currently I have an old '99 Maxima 5MT that I love but I think it's time to upgrade.... The G37 seemed like an obvious choice and I always wanted a "real" RWD car.
I bike commute to work (faster than driving where I live, and far more fun than sitting in rush hour traffic) and the main reason I use my car is road trips and the occasional errand around town. I live in Portland, Oregon where it rarely snows, but I drive up to the mountains several times a month which can involve treacherous snowy/icy roads at times. More often than not the main frustration is the traffic itself.
I have gotten stuck in B2B traffic on an uphill slope in my Maxima (open diff) even with winter tires, trying to start from a stop on a road with no sand/salt, and 4DRZ suggested that a G37 could be considerably worse in such a situation even with LSD and VDC. Rochester, would you agree?
So I've been looking at other options for used cars in the $10-20K range. My requirements are manual transmission, practical (ideally wagon), and now AWD or FWD. That leaves few options. Mainly VW or Subaru (I would like to steer clear of older Audi/BMW because I'm not convinced the reliability is adequate for me; Volvo seems to have very limited options for MT in the past 10 years).
Right now I'm considering a 2016+ GTI or a Golf Sportwagen or Alltrack. The idea of an AWD wagon with a 6MT and the potential for major power bump from IS20 turbo swap and a tune is pretty awesome. However, the Sportwagen 6MT AWD only comes in the base trim with uncomfortable cloth seats, no sunroof, no navigation. So the Alltrack SE or SEL could work, though I don't like the plastic SUV-style cladding and lift (obviously could swap suspension to lower it), and they are more costly (well over $20k at this point).
Golf R would be sweet but I'd have to get a Mk6 to find one in my price range. It seems like the GTI Mk7 with LSD would be fine and a better car for me than the Golf R. Lego or anyone else have opinions on this? Thanks for any suggestions/corrections/thoughts!
If you can indeed stretch your budget to 20K, that would put you in a pretty decent WRX or GTI. If you're looking on the lower side of the range, I'd say GTI, just because they don't retain their value like the WRX. 20K is close to putting you in a '18 GTI which would have the 6/72 B2B warranty. I'd probably be tempted to go with a MK7 and snow tires over the WRX because I think you'd get more for your money.
Don't forget Acura made the TL with a 6MT and AWD for several years--might be in your budget.
AWD is where it's at for snow and hills. I don't honestly think I'd ever buy a DD that isn't AWD or 4x4 ever again. Take a look at a Legacy GT, same powertrain but doesn't have the WRX premium, also gets you a nicer interior.
Well. It’s been 14 months and 17k miles since I took delivery of my Tesla Model 3 Performance. Since then, no trips to a gas station, no oil/fluid changes. The only maintenance I’ve done is to switch over to my winter setup twice. Many firmware updates with new features added. I can now watch Netflix/Hulu/YouTube while parked. There are several games as well. Centipede, Lunar Lander, Missile Command, a beach buggy racing game, and Cuphead. And can’t forget the two updates that increased hp/tq by 5%. That makes a 10% increase in power since I got the car. No need for a tune/exhaust/intakes etc. I’m not complaining at all.
11-08-2019, 02:54 PM
Now let's get this back on track and keep in mind the original intention of the thread. Thank you.
0-60 is the dumbest thing people judge a car on. Same with quarter miles. I don't understand what it is about Americans being obsessed with going quick in a straight line for a few seconds. It's absurd, and reading someone mention the Audi A4 just had me chuckle. No disrespect to the man, really, but I've been there, done that, have a shirt. I have sat and drove a new F80 328i before. I compared it to an E46 330i sedan my buddy had a while back. The E46 feels a lot more better, and driver orientated. With the new one, I was just disgusted knowing that this car is a BMW. No BMW magic at all. I actually, coincidentally, bumped into an E39 M5 owner by my neighborhood a few hours ago. Even he himself said that new BMWs suck, and mentioned the same thing we both agreed on about the E60 M5 having a good motor, but just being butt ugly. Funny how the old school owners hate Bangle. The new ones are good cars, but just no magic and no driver involvement like you mentioned before. The feeling felt like a Camry, sorry. The E46 felt like a dart and much more planted and secure in my opinion. I felt confident in that, even though it was a 330i, instead of the new 328i. I like the feeling of it a lot more compared to the new ones. Maybe just different tastes between us? They just don't have that feeling anymore, and probably never will. I do not have any hope for that M2 personally, but that is just me and my preference. It already has a screen, so it is bad news for me. But if you get your hands on one, and like it. Go for it man, since I'm pretty sure you have a family and want to go have a new car of your dreams. I mean, I'll still criticize the new cars on the internet forums. I'll just stick with the older cars.
But those things have become so cheap to fix, and there are much more resources compared to the newer model BMWs that virtually have nothing to offer when something goes bad (there's quite a lot more). And you'd be surprised how many people have done pretty good builds on the E46 chassis to make it handle all that power. I read a few build threads, wow wow wow! I want one now. I do believe some company started making new subframes for them a few years ago for a really good price. What I did hate about the E46 were the seats. That's pretty much it.
You've got to be absolutely insane thinking that the E90 range will rise up in value. They literally have no resale value at all, hell many BMWs don't. Only reason the N54 engine has become popular is because of a few big name youtubers modifying them with chips, breaking them, complaining about them. One of my neighbors across my community owns one. Really nice dude, no problems with him, and the car sounds nice tuned and everything. Cylinder compression is off and one of them doesn't fire after a while. These new tunes and downpipes are just little modifications done to new cars. What else? Turbo/Supercharger kits are astronomical for them, and might not even be made.
