Quote:
Originally Posted by Dylan86
The performance gap between base trim levels and full performance cars has simply been filled by a new line of "M" variants.
We should all look at it as another option as opposed to the "M is best, and that's it" philosophy. I've owned both, and see both sides, this isn't such a big deal but the M fan club seems disgruntled about the gap getting filled by these new models 
If you remember when the m235i came out, the M2 was still a myth for NA. The m235i was all the rave by reviewers and enthusiast alike simply due to its interior size and near 50/50 weight, power and essentially E46 M3 chassis dimensions. There was no other M variant available yet (m550i was still in development) and no one barked at the fact that this non-M car was putting lengths on the 1M, and previous generations of M3's on track.
Now that they've diluted a bit further with added variants, it seems like most are chalking these up as rebranded "m-sport" models, which simply they are not. |
Sorry, but it's not. BMW simply tagged the ///M badge in front of the top base series variant. That trim/performance level has always historically existed in the line-up, it was just branded differently. The same applies to AMG and Audi-S. It is solely a Marketing thing, not an engineering nor a performance one.