Quote:
Originally Posted by Whitecat
Wow nice study  ...to answer your question... it was a re-seller incorporated...i guess between the $tealers and the Private.. The engine is also part of the value V8 vs V6 ...this is more than $10k variance on price at the purchase (new) |
To me, the heart and soul of BMW (the company and the car) is the venerable inline six.
It pisses me off when some yahoo advertises a BMW as having a "V-6". A V-6 is packaging and manufacturing compromise of an engine. GM built them with a 90 degree bank angle, initially, so they could make them on the same assembly line as the V-8s. The Japanese favored them as they fit into the engine compartments of their transverse-mounted FWD cars.
But the inline six? Sexy, smooth, and silky. A V-8 is nice for that burble, but really is a different beast.
DeLorean got it, and tried to convince GM to produce an OHC inline six for Pontiac. Nice engine, in search of a car to put it in. The OHC DeLorean "Sprint Six" Tempest and Firebirds are collectables, if only because so many folks yanked them and put 350 V-8s in them.
The Big Healeys, the old Triumphs, the early Datsuns. Those beautiful, lovely, sexy, inline sixes. And it goes back further than that - the original Jaguars and the XKE, with that sweet inline six, before they ruined it with that nose-heavy V-12. Or the original Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, with its silent running inline six - once the folks at Rolls worked out the torsional vibration problem that snapped the crankshafts of lesser makes.
BMW still makes the inline six Few do, anymore. GM tried again, with a DOHC six, but found only the Trailblazer to put it in. (Imagine that engine in the Pontiac Solstice - a real Z3 beater!). Lack of imagination. And a costly engine to produce. So they pulled the plug.
They went back to their "corporate" 3.8 which traces its roots to 1964. I guess they have to go with what works.
The V-8s are nice and all, but I keep hearing horror stories about repair bills. The 3.0 is a pretty bulletproof motor, and has enough power to keep up, and even tow a trailer.
Heck, today, you can get it with twin turbos, cranking out 300 HP - in non-M form.
So to me, less is more. And that certainly fits my pocketbook better as well. And they are a lot easier to work on, too. When you open the hood, you can see the ground underneath.
I guess I am a six-cylinder guy! So long as BMW keeps making them, I'll buy them.
But for some reason, the V-8s, well, they just leave me cold.