Quote:
Originally Posted by SteVTEC
My wife and I bought his and her 2011 E93 335i and 2012 E70 X5 35d Bimmers back in the day, and I guess these were the last and best of breed "every day" BMW's with that perfect balance of sport and comfort in the suspension, great feedback from their hydraulic power steering racks, and overall incredible combinations of performance and fuel efficiency.
They lost the plot with the Fxx cars. Loose and pinky light steering, base suspensions more suitable for a Buick than a BMW, tachometers that were noticeably out of sync with the engine especially on a cold shift, and an overall disconnected feeling with the cars. You could still get a properly driving BMW from this era, but had to check the right boxes for MSport/DHP suspensions, etc.
BMW's explanation at the time was that they sold more cars in the Asian market and especially China, than all of Europe and North America combined. These were the preferences of that market, and so that's how they oriented the design of their cars towards super isolation and very light effort steering. I'll never forget the time I dumped a loaner F30 328i into my "high speed cornering test" at 80 mph. It was nearly a code brown moment. Another loaner F33 328i I had was an MSport with DHP and was far better.
I had planned to swap my E93 335i for an F80 M3, but life got in the way and bought a Chevy Suburban instead, so have yet to check the M box. Basically the same price at the time too. 
Just picked up a CPO MY22 G05 X5 for mostly my wife to drive, and while I can't speak for other Gxx era cars yet, it's fantastic to drive [...] |
This is part of it too - they invest way more into SUV’s. IMO the X3 m40i and x5 (all trims) are their most compelling cars. They nailed them and both offer similar feedback if not more than their sedan brethren, the exact opposite of what it should be.