Quote:
Originally Posted by aelahi
I have to disagree, I believe the M3 only shares about 40% with the regular 3 series... everything else was exclusively designed for the M badge. The heart & sole of the M3 is completely different than the regular 3 series badge.
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I am not arguing that the M3 is not a clone of a 3 series, but it is built off of that platform. My point is simply that the price has increased significantly on the E9x over the previous generation. And considering that you still have to pay to add the iDrive, or even something as simple as electric seats or auto dimming mirrors it makes even less sense. I would expect a car that is the caliber of the M3 and that starts around the $60k mark to have iDrive and power seats standard. The math just doesn't make sense for me personally. You can tune a 335 for a couple of thousand dollars, get the same performance as a stock M3 and still be $10k under an M3 price. Is it an M3, no. But with the additional torque and power and the removal of the limiters it's a lot of speed and power for the money. And it still has all of the amenities added for less than a base M3 without any of those features costs. Again, it's just my opinion, but part of what always made the M3 the perfect car to me, was the amount of car you got for the money. Nothing in the $50k class could touch one. But the scale changes dramatically from $50k to $70-80k for me. Is it still a great car, absolutely. Is it worth $20k more than the 335 I bought? After driving both, it just isn't to me. I drove an M3 for a couple of days before I ordered my 335 to help me decide what to buy, and I just couldn't honestly say that the M3 was $20 grand better. Many may agree or disagree and that's fine, but to me there are just too many options out there at the $80k price point, and it just doesn't make sense to me anymore.