Just buy an Infiniti, traditionally it has been 95-105% of BMW performance for 75% of the cost and 171020912% more reliability. It remains to be seen if new twin turbo VR engines will be as reliable as old VQ.

G35, Miata, Camaro, Acura CL/TL Type S(fwd but pretty amazing with a stick). Not to mention that although any 540 you find for $3k may run and need maintenance, it will also have loads of broken parts in and out or look like a POS for $3k. Any decent one will be above $6k.

Man, if you’re scared I have no hope.

I’m in the same boat. I’d really love an E60 M5, but I’m scared to death of the engine eating itself.

Someone needs to come up with the VQ swap for these. BMW engines are obviously trash but LS1s are played the fuck out. But I think it’s important for a BMW to have a 6 pot under the hood. With a true dual exhaust VQs sound like Porsches!