[jpoet]

Today I went and test drove a 2012 335i with sport auto transmission, and a 2012 328i with the standard auto transmission. The 335i had less "lag" off the line. How much of that was due to it having 60 more HP, and how much of that was due to the different transmission?

I have to admit, I am not positive what mode I had the cars in, so it could also be due to the difference between "comfort" and "sport"...

I am leaning towards a 2013 328i m-sport with sport auto transmission. My current car is a '97 M3, that still drives great, but I am ready for some modern conveniences

Sandia BMW is having the Olympic test drive promotion this Saturday. Talking to them today, they basically offered my ~2% off MSRP, plus the grand from the Olympic promotion. I realize that is not as good a deal as larger markets get, but Sandia has no other competition in the whole state. One advantage of living in New Mexico, the sales tax on motor vehicles is only 3%.

John

[bcl0328]

both cars will default to comfort when started so unless you changed it, both were in comfort.

[Elk]

What do you define as lag? In my experience, all automatics have lag from a dead stop; the RPMs are low and the transmission needs to come on line (in a sense). Even cars with manuals feel a bit dead off the line unless you launch at higher RPM and use the clutch aggressively.

Is the lag you describe significantly different than what you experience with other automatics?

[jpoet]

I don't have much experience with automatic transmissions. My current car has a standard.

I am guessing that what I experienced was the lag before the turbo kicked in. I should clarify that the lag is very brief. I am just used to a pretty much instance response, in my current car.

John

[TrueBlue12]

you were in comfort mode thats the problem

[jpoet]

Originally Posted by TrueBlue12

you were in comfort mode thats the problem

Seems like a good bet. I will be test driving again on Saturday, so will have another chance to get a better comparison.

I do have to wonder how many people actually drive these cars in Echo Pro mode. The trade off between performance and fuel economy seems high.

Given my typical driving, I estimate that the 328i could save me $50-$60/year in gas. If that was the only difference, I would go with the 335i. However, I don't really want to spend +$4k extra for the 335i.

Thanks, everyone, for your input.

John