Quote:
Originally Posted by Red Bread
I've never had issues getting to ski resorts, or to my family in Santa Fe with rwd. Even in my M Coupe. I'd rather drive cautiously five days of the year than be saddled with awd I don't need for 360 days. But I agree, if it wasn't my daily driver, and I just needed a utility car, an xi would be a fair consideration, long before any SUV.
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It's not about the difficulty of driving in the snow, I'd be happy with RWD + snow tires + LSD as you say. But when the storms hit, we have chain control in the mountains. I'd rather lug around AWD all the time than freeze my nuts off chaining up at midnight when it's 15 degrees out.. not to mention driving slow, worrying about shredding my fenders with wayward chains, etc. I've been considering picking up an AWD beater of some sort so I can go skiiing when the GF needs her Subaru for something else, but I'd rather get 2 cars in one.
The F31 will not be a DD. I don't really have a commute, actually. I just *want* a roadtrip car, definitely not a 'need' kind of thing. And particularly with the diesel, you'd barely pay a mileage penalty for lugging around the weight. Sure, it won't handle well, but to me the F31 is a HUGE car. I've never owned anything larger than an E36, so I'm not really looking for 'sport' out of this vehicle
Audi and BMW want to push us towards their huge trucks if we want diesel/AWD.. shame
I definitely hope xDrive is an *option* rather than the standard, though. It would be a shame if BMW forced xDrive on everyone as they did with the E61.. speaking of which, I guess I can just pick up a cheap E61 535xiT/6 (if I can find one) if BMW disappoints on the transmission/xDrive fronts with the F31.