As a parent who literally was just reading Curious George “The Kite” to his 4-year old before seeing this, I can honestly say that the hairs on my neck are still standing up.  Insane.  So glad for everyone out there that the little girl was unharmed (relatively).

I may be off on the details on the 40k discount, but the point is that they designed the car to be its pinnacle competitor’s equal at a significant discount (both from a revenue and a gross margins standpoint). The success story behind the LS400 propelled Lexus into a luxury brand that excelled to the highest degree,…

The LS400 is an engineering old wives tale that has been passed down for generations now. But they most definitely did not sell it at a loss. The original story, if memory serves me correctly, was that Toyota had planned to sell it as their MB S-class competitor. And the model name supposedly equated to “Less than…

This. I was always able in a kart, but had trouble modulating in a real car. Finally just decided to start LFBing whenever I drove the wife’s car. Just like relearning how to ride a bike ... you suck the first few times you’re out there, but the adjustment curve gets real steep after the initial break-in.

There’s always the DIY route.  I remember the ATS-V chief engineer stating in an interview that the LT4 fits in there.  Just sayin’ ...

Likely very intentional from the beginning. Bigger than a Model 3 but smaller than a Model S. Better performance than both, but will cost you more than the both combined.  That’s classic Porsche.

Odyssey owner with 3 kids who do sports and outdoor stuff. Had a Camry when we were only 2 kids and FML I hated getting kids in/out of that thing. You absolutely cannot beat the convenience of the minivan for ease of transport and ingress/egress. And if you’re a coach who hauls stuff, or happen to transport more…

This is basically the Samsung Galaxy vs iPhone stupidity debate except with cars. There are a large contingent of us “idiots” paying extra for a phone that does exactly the same (and sometimes not as well) as it’s competitor and for 50% or more cost. I imagine that this marketing strategy was heavily employed by the…

Drive a C4 Corvette and you’ll get a feel for what the 8-series feels like. The nose/hood seems like it goes forever from the driver’s seat. I had some seat time in an M850i at a BMW Track Day ... felt big, drove big, slowed down like it was big.  And that was after stepping out of the X4M.

TBF, I’ve had an F90 M5 at ~140 on the back straightaway at COTA .... it’s plenty darn stable.

Ditto. That don’t look right.

This is comically untrue for each and every new generation of M car. Every generation has gotten progressively better in terms of build quality/reliability. Yes, comparing any BMW’s service history to a Lexus is a fool’s errand ... but say an E9x or F8x M3 to an E36 M3? Yeah, like 100x better.

I hope you’re right, but I’m doubtful. The wood-paneled minivans were symbols of my pre-teen youth that would be anathema to most buyers today. Yet, Honda and Toyota quietly and slavishly kept tweaking the minivan concept until it became the defacto choice for kiddo hauling. And because of the ease of…

Just adding context. I’ve turned the wheel in anger in an M4, an M5, and an X4M. And I had an X3 M40i xwhateverthehellelsepackage as a loaner while my M3 was getting a recall done. The X4M was very much the fast SUV, but only that. Similar to zoomy’s experience, I didn’t care for its cornering mannerisms and it…

Yep. Door handles are going to look weird no matter what with those dueling arcs. Almost requires them to go into the b-pillar and c-pillar areas.

BMW just gets it on the car feel and overall package.  But it certainly doesn’t absolve them of poor design and cheap manufacturer sourcing.  The newer cars are getting better and better about that ... meanwhile, they are loosing that feel that made them special.  C’est la vie.

Agreed. The average buyer considers reliability as a function of maintenance costs over 10 years (never mind the fact that most buyers don’t own cars for that full duration). BMW has improved their reliability sequentially in the each generation of their mass market vehicles. F30 > E90 > E46 > E36. They still don’t…

I recently attended an M Track Day and got to play with many variants of M vehicles, including the X3M and X4M. The S58 is fast ... in that turbo laggy, boost induced speed up way. The trick AWD system from the M5 is really neat on the track when you’re trying to get the car to claw out of corners. Combining those…

A true pedant would not mistake the usage of pedantic as a noun.

I thought they were reviving this ugly duckling: