[r3dbimmer89]

Originally Posted by Propagator

Thanks. I agree BMW really shot itself in the foot with the tire choice. The chassis I'm sure can handle a whole lot more grip.

My personal take on this is that, compared to the new 5er, X3, and Z4, all of which got seriously more luxurious and seriously less engaging, the F30 really turned out to be much truer to its "core" values than I expected. I suspect by the time LCI rolls around, even the EPS will improve substantially.

However, the way this car is marketed/configured at the last stage (such as the marketing emphasis on the gadget/fuel economy, the separation of lines, OEM tires, etc) again reminds me that BMW continues its push to become the new/better Mercedes. BMW started out as a maker of non-harsh, non-cheap driver's cars. I believe it's slowly transforming itself into a maker of non-boring, non-old-people luxury cars. Not the same thing.

I agree and I think it has something to do with BMW's growing market in China and other developing markets where luxury overcomes sport. I think BMW has stopped engineering cars with solely the Euro market (which leans toward sport) in mind and is now taking in the entire world, as its world wide market has grown tremendously over the past 10 years. The F10 is a prime example. Another similar example is how VW thinks the US and China prefer soft and boring over sport, thus, they gave us the US/China Passat which is far less engaging than its Euro counterpart. But BMW needs to readdress it's core values because I'll be hopping on the Audi train soon which is now becoming the BMW of the 21st century. Sad I know