Quote:
Originally Posted by philbert
Before I say anything: Flamesuit activated
This is a video for those of you who are **interested**. An educated and mature discussion would be ideal. This is an E60 M5.
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=83626
Mods of both cars are listed in the thread. I'd say about no more than 6.5k worth on the 335i
This inevitably raises the question: Now we know for sure that a 335i could be considerably faster **in a straight line** when compared to the E92 M3 with a few- relatively cheap mods. No big hardware modding e.g. turbo conversions and the works.
Sure the 335i, will never be the ///M, but most of us do regular, around town driving. No track days here. Is the 335i still the poor man's choice, or the wise man's choice?
Sorry if this is a repost. |
Wrong forum yes, but this sort of reasoning has a problem. Buying a car for mods is not necessarily a wise man's choice given warranty issues, durability and the like. It certainly may be an enthusiast's choice. You imply that for "around town driving" the 335i is enough, and that is certainly a reasonable opinion. If so, why do you need mods for straight line driving? Does your around town driving involve regular stoplight races? Purchasing a 335 over an M3 because the 335 is better for around town driving is certainly a very arguable opinion (if not the opinion of everyone here
) but it doesn't make sense to buy a car that is sufficient for your driving needs and then mod it to make it comparable to a car you think is overkill. Either you think the 335 is good enough or you don't, and if you don't, are mods really the way to go for most people? Aside from the hobbyist, I think not.
Mods involve an increase in the total cost of ownership on the car -- they increase your total ownership expenses (purchase price of car+purchase price of mods+all service fees+fuel+insurance, etc) but do not increase the return on the car when you sell it. The total cost of ownership of a modified 335 and an unmodified M may not be that far off. Going on initial price alone is not the only way to look at it. I could be wrong as you do not see a full analyis here
, but a cheap guesstimate:
2005 330ci coupe
Used "good private party" = 26570 with typical options, no NAV
Original price, guesstimate = $42k
TCO now: (service free, let's say 8% tax like here), 19k
2005 M3 coupe
Used "good private party" = 38220, stick, no 19's, no NAV
Original price, guesstimate = $54k
TCO now: (service free, $1600 gas guzzler, 8% tax), 21.6k
Again, this is just an estimate, but the point is if you mod a 3 to get M3 performance, the low ROI of mods makes the 3 more expensive.
I also don't think that one video is terribly meaningful given all the reproducible data we've seen here suggests that "now we know for sure that a 335i could be considerably faster in a straight line" is not only poorly worded ("know for sure...could be") but also incorrect, given your criteria of no big engine mods.