I hear what you’re saying, but where does it end? First it was “MKV will suck” based on sheer hate and ignorance regarding its partnership with BMW. Then there was frustration Toyota didn’t “man up” and chase the 911 Turbo like Nissan did with the GTR. And 335hp was an insult. Then it was “BMW engines suck!”, even…

I agree with sending "ringers" to CD.  I have owned an '87 Merkur for 6 years and looking back at the magazine test cars, they were much quicker than the ones people purchased.  However, I'm not of the impression that works as well today with the enormity of voices in the car community to call out such silliness. And…

Probably for insurance reasons to be honest. There hasn't been a gentleman's agreement since the 90s.

actually Dinan dyno’d the 2.0L in the 328i/528i at 270hp while BMW says 240. The 535i was dyno’d at 311hp (300hp according to BMW)

Yup, lots of places have “heartbreaker” dynos that read low. Mustang branded ones are notorious for it.

You make good points, but for the last one, it seemed incredible that they could get a 4 second 0-60 with “only” 335hp. There are many vehicles on the market with a 10lb/hp ratio, and the vast majority of them can’t touch that time, even with AWD, which this doesnt have. 

Also they tested one car on one dyno... still sounds like it’s underrated but hardly a scientific approach.  

It’s better to under-promise and over-deliver.

That means it’s probably making 400ish HP at the crank.

Yep. My Evo only dyno’d 215 at the wheels new. When I asked the tech he was all “All Evo’s are around 215 on this dyno, it’s a (Mustang? IDK) and they read low”. Now, it was dead easy to get another 110 hp to the wheels, so there’s that.

3) Sending ringers to Car and Driver isnt new. *Cough Ferrari Cough*

A couple of things... it’ll make 330HP even on a hot day at altitude, so that’s the minimum power you should expect. People who don’t really know how cars, or things in general, work will assume the performance is some feat of unmatched German engineering - I’ve heard this way too many times for companies not to…

Its because BMW (and the other Germans) guarantee rated HP regardless of outside conditions (hot/high). The turbocharged engines do much better at sea level or normal temps.

There’s so much variance in how to measure HP that it might really just be an honest mistake and under-promising and over-delivering.

1) The 15% loss is an extremely antiquated assumption. Modern drive trains are much more efficient.

I thought understating the horespower was so they won’t get into a horsepower war with other brands. Nissan might see this car and think they will have the a huge advantage if their next Z had 400hp/400tq, when in reality it’s about the same.

I don’t understand what BMW/Toyota gains in understating the engine power. That means it’s probably making 400ish HP at the crank.

I mean $4,000 is like the entry point for ultra high end, custom racing set ups - but yea I don’t think my dude put JRZs on his Passat

Correct but AT is one of the major listing sites, it is incredibly rare for a listing to appear on a place like CarGurus and Cars.com and not already cross-listed on AT. It happens but not often, so there could be a few more cars out there, but there isn’t going to be like another 50 manual G70s.

Tom, not all dealers list their cars on Autotrader, correct? So the actual number of cars could be more?