BMW Did it HALF RIGHT??!!

[paulgt3]

For years I have been complaining about BMW doing such a good job on its cars and then taking a vacation day when it comes to the brakes. I didnt look at it that well because I have had 5 BMWs and I just give up when it comes to the BMWs having nice calipers.
So I go out in the garage for day 2 of ownership and THERE under the Christmas tree (or behind the front wheel) is a Beautiful 4 piston black caliper.
I even went over to the passenger to see if the other one was the same way and YEA!!!!! But alas the rear caliper is still the same POS that has been on all the others I have had.
So now (and I was just looking at Brembo upgrades, that come STOCK on all Porsches) I dont have to spend $5K on upgrading the fronts on proper brake calipers. But alas they cut corners on the back AND didnt even paint them any color, just the same crappy steel single pot caliper. They could have AT LEAST powder coated them to match the FRONTS!!
But here is my NEXT Question WHY NOT PAINT THE FRONT Caliper with the M badge or just plain BMW? I figure the M badge should be there considering there is something like at LEAST TEN M badges on the truck.
I have to admit I was REALLY surprised and PLEASANTLY so when I found out
that the front cailpers are almost proper!!!! (they should be SIX Pistons for this size car)

But what do you think? on the front caliper? "BMW" or just the "M" badge? or both?

[GmoneyLI]

M badge. And they should of been 6 pistons.

[FSETH]

BMW has been praised for their brake performance on road cars for years. Sure, they may tend to fade a bit for track duty, but that isn't where the vast majority of these cars are going to be used. Especially an M SUV.

Porsche may include Brembos, but you are most certaintly paying for that. Look at the base price of an X5M compared to Porsche Cayenne Turbo. The M is $20k less (MSRP), but still performs the same or better, depending on the catagory. I think the X5M needed only 4 feet more than the Turbo S to stop from 70 mph in a Car and Driver comparo. Even then, they still praised the brakes on the M. If you insist on throwing some bigger brakes on the M, you would still be coming out way ahead when price/value is concerned vs. the Porsche.

I do agree that it would be nice for the rears to be powder coated to match the fronts in color. Also, an M logo would be nice on the caliper. Save BMW for the regular series cars.

On a side note, I am pretty sure I saw that the new M5/M6 have Brembos as either an option or standard eq. and I think they have M logos as well.

[paulgt3]

Festh,
the new 2013s may have the brembos but the 2011 didnt have those.
But BMW should have powder coated the rears. It always seems like
the brakes are an afterthought

[FSETH]

Originally Posted by paulgt3

Festh,
the new 2013s may have the brembos but the 2011 didnt have those.
But BMW should have powder coated the rears. It always seems like
the brakes are an afterthought

Yeah, I believe they are just starting to offer them.

I agree on the powder coating. Would be nice to get that standard on a $100k performance vehicle.

[vitaman]

The big problem on the brakes is the noise.
It took almost 2 years for my Dealer to solve the squeal. The word "squeal" sounds so innocuous. Mine had the sound that gets everyone's attention......and this is not the kind of attention you want!

[paulgt3]

no, squeals are problems. Even on the best brakes in the world, Ihave had two GT3s and
they both had the ceramic brakes and those guys had times where they were super noisy coming to stops. That was aggravating on one of the best performing cars in the world.

I dont even worry so much about performance because I dont track my BMWs but When I was deciding to buy an M3 or a AMG C63, the last point came down to the poorly unfinished single pots vs the Huge Silver 6 piston Painted amg Brakes on the AMG. It just finishes the look of a high performance car. When some one walks up to me about one of my AMGs or Porsches one of the FIRST thing someone says is WOW look at those brakes!
No matter what direction you come at the car from the person walks around to the side and thats the first thing someone says. BMW is the ONLY company to leave the look of the brakes to the unwashed. But on the M3 in 09 I think they addressed that now. I just wish the whole line did that. I dont know what other models have brembo like Brakes.

[GmoneyLI]

I noticed that the rear caliper on my x5m looks like its black too... I'll take a closer look tomorrow and see if I can get a good picture and make sure it's not dirt lol