Annnnd now let's try to have a 3 series vs G37 discussion without personal attacks. It'd be one of the first in the history of automobiles.
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I'm all for reasonable discussion. I've owned many cars of different brands (Saab, Mitsubishi, Mazda, Infiniti) and driven quite a few more (Porsche, MB, BMW), so I'm not a fanboy of any brand. What bothers me is fanboys/shills on many of these car forums.

Discuss, not BS.

 

I think it's interesting that the spy shots of the F80 M3 doesn't have some of the design elements that are signature to the current e92 M3. No hood bulge or hood vents. Hood is more like the F30 sedan, plain. Unless that's just the hood they're using for testing. Anyway.
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I love the M3, M5, 335i and 7-series. I'm not going to give a bias opinion because I like both Infiniti and BMW. I do feel that for the cost, there are a bunch of other alternatives that you could get besides a BMW if you're looking for new. If I was looking at a price-tag of 54k, you better believe I'm not getting a base 3 series. It's either going to be a few year old M3 or an M5.

 

It's true BMW has a brilliant marketing campaign, but so do many other car companies.

Saying the empires has no clothes is plain false, when BMW has garnered the number 1 position from almost every magazine for the last 10 years. Their engines have been in wards 10 best for years on end. BMW makes several variants of their vehicles at every level.

They are as the best seller in the Ellps for the last many years.

So while everybody is entitled to their opinions the world does not see BMW the same way.

While the poster made some good points, you can make similiar judgement calls with almost any car maker.

Ultimate driving machine? Nobody has to like their cars, but they sure sell a boat load of them and the mags generally regard their overall handling and performance as the benchmark.

 

Thanks everyone for your comments, and my apologies if I offended anyone’s delicate sensibilities about BMW. I didn’t know my rant would inspire such strong feelings.

All enthusiasts should be saluted for having the passion and cajones to enjoy driving in a society and age that seems to be devolving towards automotive homogeneity and boredom. Both Infiniti and BMW should be commended for continuing to offer manual transmissions when many manufacturers have long ago given up. Even the holiest of the holy, Ferrari and Lamborghini, now only offer “paddle shifters”. To me this is the ultimate sacrilege – shifting with Atari-like toggle switches, while perhaps faster and more ‘efficient’, is just not the same as rowing a lever through a gearbox and feeling the gears. But, that’s just my *personal* taste, and not ‘right’ or ‘wrong’.

It’s a simple fact that car companies are businesses. They make their products only as good as they must in order to sell them. I’m in business too (though started in engineering), so I completely understand. It just seems to me that some companies take this farther than others, and are obsessed with maximizing short-term profits. Either they don’t care about long-term loss of market share and owner loyalty, or perhaps out of arrogance thinking they can put their logo on anything and people will still buy it.

We live in a free country, and we are all free to buy (or lease) anything we like, as long as we can afford it (or convince a finance manager that we can). We are all just expressing our *personal* opinions and should lighten up. There is no ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, vanilla and chocolate, it’s just cars we’re talking about and not religion or politics. Whatever floats your boat, go for it, enjoy it, and have fun driving.

But, though I’ve owned BMWs, I personally could never bring myself to buy another car from a company that cut structural integrity corners so closely that the rear end could literally separate from the car. And if someone can’t have a light-hearted, objective discussion about cars without making it personal, well, maybe the old joke about *some* BMW owners and porcupines is true….

 

What old joke?

I agree we are supposed to be discussing cars, not people.

I don't know about structural integrity, this is 2012. Hyundai is on a roll. A few short years ago their engines were falling out. So is Kia. Acura a few years ago almost killed itself with the tranny debacle. Lexus had a real bomb on its hands with the first generation LX. Audi nearly died with it's unintended accleration issues. Toyota is on the mend after it was accused of all sorts of issues.

So would you buy a car from any of these manufacturers?

I'm waiting for the safety ratings on the F30 until I pass judgement they are cutting corners. Until I read that type of statement written by someone who has some credibility, I say hooey that BMW designed cars knowing they would fall apart.

I appreciate your contribution though.

 

You bought up a good point but let's not forget it's not like every single car broke down. Yes there were some few people who got bad cars as to every car maker in the world has. Let's take Infiniti for example, have they produced a car that never broke down for all customers who bought it? No right? I also recall Nissan/Infiniti calling back many of the models in the past due to wires shorting out.

Also, if you really think about it. It's the luck of the draw (in this case luck of the car) when you are going car shopping because you never know if you buying a car that will break down within the first 10k or a car if it is going to last you 100k.

Every car maker is going have problems with every single model. No such thing as a perfect worry free car but now comes the question. Which company produces the least amount of problems for their models.