Quote:
Originally Posted by Red Bread
Quote:
Originally Posted by Germanauto
Quote:
Originally Posted by Red Bread
This is the fight I've had for the last decade. My M Coupe wasn't kid friendly, the E91 and F31 were too large, heavy and saddled with only the base engine and the F31 had awd and an automatic too. The sedans were boring and the coupes had rear windows that didn't open, rendering them useless for my dog. We didn't get the five door hatch. The convertibles had a stupid, heavy hardtop.
So I've had other brands. First a Mazda 3. Then a couple of GTIs. Fwd isn't the devil, it's actually more fun than a heavy, boring, one wheel drive 3er that the wife parked in the garage for a while.
There's a chance that BMW actually knows what it's doing here. As noted, they've actually done a nice job with Mini dynamics and applying that to a small sedan might actually work well. Anything is better than the F series cars, even a fwd "coupe."
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I agree that FWD isn't the devil but it just cannot match a RWD car by its very nature. I'm sure BMW's entry will be more fun than the very boring A3 and A/CLA, but it's still disappointing.
And I agree the F-chassis cars sucked nuts. |
There's a point of rwd diminishing returns though that is keyed to weight, wheelbase and traction available. I greatly prefer small, light, tossable cars with a manual. A fwd car that fits those parameters is often more fun than a rwd one that misses one, two or all of those. My high school CRX Si was always more fun than my parents 560SL/SEL/SEC and 500 SL's. Snoozefest, glorified taxis.
Of course a similarly sized rwd car will usually be more enjoyable than a similarly sized fwd or awd car, but when smallish rwd cars aren't available in a class, I'm willing to defect to pullers. |
We are not talking about a quid pro quo here. BMW can still make a RWD, light, powerful, manual platform, AKA the 235i and in a sedan form and it would have sold a lot better than the couple-only 2-series.
Do you think the A3 and the CLA sell because they are AWD, lightweight, fun cars? Maybe yes, but primarily it's because they are sedans.
A 2-series sedan (1-Series) platform with a B58 and RWD platform will be killer.
At least we know we'll have an Xdrive version. That should be a fun car.