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Originally Posted by BASELINE
You are absolutely right. And it would be great if that is what we could expect from them these days. Unfortunately, their traditional advantage in the handling, balance, and feel department are not alive and well in their current line up. Just look at comparisons between the new M5 and M6 vs it's competition. Even the non-M cars are not the clear favorites they used to be, and in fairness to the boys and girls at ///M, this is what they are given to work with as starting platforms. They are still great cars... But today they are almost as far from the core characteristics that made them great in the past as their competition. Almost as if there is an entirely different philosophy behind their engineering practices. Their latest offerings, be it from ///M or not, are not quite the Ultimate Driving Machine... So as much as I truly hope they get these cars right... I think this generation run of cars might be BMW's least competitive in history. Not sure if it has anything to do with an ex Mercedes guy now running their chassis development team (forget where I read this lol). I hope we get a great M3/4 as it really is the flag bearer of the M Division... But wouldn't be surprised if BMW races on next gen 3 and 5 series to fix the bloated heavy shits they've put on the road this time around.
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I agree with you totally. I went from reviewing every car magazine and journalist praising the current M3 and previous generation M5 as having surgical precision and being great cars to drive. Now, many reviews place BMW poorly and question the tag line "Ultimate Driving Machine". Someone from the new Lexus IS team was quoted as saying that they felt the IS is a better drivers car compared to the new 3 series and that BMW is becoming more of a touring car company. Normally this is laughable, but with all the bad reviews it is concerning.
The M division has to make the new M3/M4 outstanding and I believe they will, otherwise it will seriously hurt their image from a performance car standpoint (IMHO). I am betting on them and I will be purchasing the M4 as soon as it is available at my dealership. I do believe this to be a safe bet, but I will let you know as it goes!