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Was in a similar situation as you are about 6 months ago. I actually put $$$ down on a 550i RWD. I drove 4.5 hours one way to pick the 550i up, after one test drive, I turned around and drove home... not in the 550i. Unfortunately, here in Ohio finding a RWD 550i was impossible. I drove xdrive versions of the 550i and they didn't feel that great but I kept telling myself a RWD 550i with every single handling aid that BMW made available would make it a nice tight ride. Boy was I wrong. The 550i offered no visceral feed back. It was a nice tight car but it was too quiet, too heavy, too blah for me.
I actually called my local dealer on the drive home and setup a time to come in and sign for a custom ordered 335i. So glad I did. After 3 months of waiting my 335i M sport arrived last night. It is everything I wanted and then some. With the DHP it handles great and the sound is perfect. Not to mention the MPG is way better in the 335i compared to the 550i.
The other thing that kept me away from the 550i was the rear leg room. I am 6'6" and when I adjusted the multi-contour driver seat to my liking there was literally 2" between the seat back and the edge of the back seats. It rendered the rear seats absolutely useless. A 3 year old kid would have a hard time sitting behind me. In the 335i, with sport seats, I can actually sit behind myself. The seat backs on the 335i are much thinner than the multi-contour seats on the 550i.
At the end of the day I really really wanted to like the 550i. I told myself it was a modern day muscle car in a tuxedo. But after spending some seat time in one it was really very easy to walk away from it. It's just a completely different driving experience compared to the F30. Now that I have my 335i I have not had even a twinge of second though about my decision.
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