[V8] RE: replacing the V8 with a...a....a....a....

[Roger M. Woodbury]

BMW?  

Uh, no thanks.  

The last BMW that I owned was a 1983 318i which I bought new.  I had had
a '79 320i that I had bought new and put a fast 120,000 on, and traded
it on my first Audi.  A TERRIBLE Audi coupe (non quattro) that was
disassembling itself after 16,000 miles.  I bit the bullet and bought
another BMW and found it to be absolutely the worst car that I have EVER
owned.  It was a car that was rushed into production and rushed over
here, and it would never, could never run properly on the kind of
gasoline that is made here, especially in the winter. But not only that,
after two top end rebuilds in sixty thousand miles (at BMW expense), the
transmission synchros were going out AGAIN.  It was obvious to me at the
time that BMW was more a marketing company than the company that
produced the 1600, 2002, and 320i models.  It was a VERY expensive
little car for 1983, and BMW shrugged their shoulders, told me that they
had not done "well" with that car, but if I would wait for the six
cylinder version, THAT would be a true BMW.

The six cylinder version had the wonderful "E" engine.  I drove a 528E
(I think it was) and knew right away that the car would simply kill me.
The car had a wonderous fuel cutoff that would keep the engine from
overreving...and cut off the fuel it did, too.  At the red line, BANG,
the engine just stopped, and if you were in mid-shift, and popped the
clutch, the engine would start right NOW, with a lurch...obviously an
engine that should have been marketed with JUST an automatic.  

Nope.  No BMW's ever again.  

Besides they don't even look like German cars.  They look more like the
results of a bad hair day in a Japanese design studio.

And besides, without I won't have another car as a daily driver without
Quattro or at least some sort of all wheel drive.  In this part of the
world with studded tires on all wheels of a two wheel drive car you can
"live" without Quattro, but what would be the point?

Roger