BMW confirmed the 3GT will die with the F30. There will be no G20 GT. 

I was actually shopping around for an E39 M5 and was surprised to feel the steering. I thought it was R&P but later learned it was a steering box. I mean, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t what I was used to. I think the 3 series and the M3 represent the core of what most people refer to when they talk about the BMW…

Yeah, I’m aware as I’ve been following the rumors for a while now to replace my current car. I just meant that some trims do get a manual and those happen to not be offered stateside. 

It’s pretty simple. BMW made its reputation as being the Ultimate Driving Machine. They had a distinctive steering feel and suspension tuning relative to other luxury sedans. The suspension was very sporty, and the steering was very communicative. More communicative than any other sedan on the market.

5th is still useful for mild acceleration on the highway. I don’t want to downshift to 4th but OD (6th) might be too slow. 5th is a goldilocks gear for relaxed passing on the highway.

How do you think you know that container ships and fossil fuel power plants are huge polluters? Because that research is everywhere. I’m not sure where you’re getting that the media only focuses on cars. It’s just one of the only things that we can see with our own eyes and change directly.

I thought GM skip shift was 1-4. It is on the SS sedan.

I don’t see the logic of offering the transmission in Europe but not in America. These days America is the larger manual market for non economy cars. Also, it’s a Bronco. 

It’s not like the transmission will fail if it goes 1 lb over spec. The transmission rating is probably pretty conservative. 

You can only make first gear so short. Also, if you have a low range transfer case, why does it matter?

In terms of engineering? Maybe. In terms of real-world usage to consumers? No. Crash tests ultimately exist to tell me how safe my passengers and I will be. I don’t care if it’s easier to make a safer EV. That said, I can still appreciate how amazing ICE cars are considering they do have a large basically…

Did I say tariffs? I said taxes.

Usually car taxes are pretty high in other countries. A BMW 340i costs $100k NZ and the M3 costs $160k NZ.

The American V8 is the smaller base V8. The SRT in NZ looks like it uses the 396.

There’s this thing called an exchange rate. 1 New Zealand dollar is only worth 65 cents. So that cost is actually $65,000 USD. Also, countries outside of the U.S. tend to have high taxes on foreign cars. So $65,000 doesn’t really seem to unreasonable. Even the non SRT V8 300 in the U.S. costs $41k. I’m assuming the NZ…

it’s far slower than their current M3 and will be about on par with the upcoming M340i. I appreciate handling so I’m not necessarily saying it’s underpowered, but their acceleration figures are nothing to be proud of. It’s definitely a slow car for its price and appearance.

Modern BMW steering is well weighted, direct, and accurate. The main complaints are regarding feedback of which there is almost none. I haven’t driven an i8, but I imagine there’s not much on it either. Even the M3 is not very good at communicating with the driver.

It’s got Maserati heads and doesn’t use the flat plane crankshaft from the Ferrari Portofino. So what exactly is the same? The block? Maybe the pistons? whooptee. Doesn’t sound much like a Ferrari V8 to me.

Eh, it’s got a similar block? But it’s got Maserati heads and a crossplane crankshaft. I mean, how much is it really a Ferrari V8? Not very much at all.

I am not a fan of Maseratis in general and used to own a 2014 Grand Cherokee. I don’t think they look anything alike. If anything, Maserati SUVs look like old Infiniti FX/QX70.