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      02-27-2020, 11:30 AM   #22
Cortexiphan
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Drives: 24' BMW iX
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tetsuo111 View Post
(understated and sophisticated styling, lightweight handling dynamics, RWD, high-revving NA motors) are absent in current BMW products.)
No they're not absent in current BMW products, they're absent in the world. I mean even if all the gas stations close down, I'm pretty sure a few dinosaurs would keep whining about lack of NA engines in BMW line up.

Also, I lived the first 30 years of my life outside of US. I've never, ever heard 'Lightweight' next to 'BMW' other than E46 CSL.

I think this misconception is based on the era when BMW first started to get popular in the US, the 80s. When all other cars in the US market were huge, heavy with steel V6s V8s, E30 came with 4 cylinder engines and small and light structure relative to other cars in the US market. The thing is though, in Europe, 3 series has never been considered to be 'Small, lightweight'. It was always a mid-size luxury saloon. At that time, Europe had legendary sporty lightweights like Renault 5, Peugeot 205, VW Golf which were all below 1500 lbs, so it would be ridiculous to call E30, which was about 2400 lbs 'Small and lightweight'. E30 was positioned in the middle, and it was competing with Mercedes 190E and Audi A4 which were similar in size to E30. And today, its size and weight is actually at a LOWER spot relative to the market than it was in the 80s. In 80s, An E30 was about 70% heavier than small-size vehicles such as Golf and Fiesta. Today, G20 is about %10-15% heavier than Golf or Fiesta. Also, it's worth mentioning that 3,5 and 7 series platforms have all been getting lighter in the last 1 or 2 generations.

So this 'BMW used to be lightweight' argument is misleading, 'Cars used to be lighter' would be correct. They used to be lighter, but you would die whenever you crush, your headlights were like candles, you had lead in your gas, and you would do 10mpg with a 200HP engine. Times have changed.
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