All BMWs. The cars are fine but I cannot stand to be a “BMW driver”. Every single one who drives one thinks they are the shit. And most of them are complete assholes on the road. Only reason most of these guys own one is because of the cheap lease payments. “I’m driving a $50k car”. No, you are driving a $399 lease!!!
Yes, this is a controversial statement considering this website is flooded with BMW fans and I’m probably gnna get slammed for it now. This is my opinion. Nothing to do with the car.
BMW isn’t my bread and butter brand to sell, but I am currently driving my 5th one. I can afford and will get approved for just about anything, but I choose to drive BMWs because they’re sporty, fun, and I generally believe I have a lot in common with the brand - it resonates with me.
The cheap lease payments are certainly a thing, and it’s probably why most people here drive BMWs. That said, around 2 years ago, a 718 cayman S was in the mid to high 5s with almost no money out of pocket on an 85k msrp. I test drove it and thought it was awful. It lacked low-end torque, sounded like a lawnmower, and had no noise isolation. In the NYC area, the car was completely useless (note i daily an i8, which has far more utility value than the porsche).
Porsche used to mean something. It stood for racing, innovation, etc. It never stood for re-badging Volkswagens and charging a false premium for them, because in reality, Porsche still exists because they went that route. And that’s fine - selling a product with a badge and an inflated sense of scarcity does have a place in this world, at least pre-COVID. It’s why people buy Rolexes.
However, at the end of the day, the 2 biggest sellers you have are a rebadged Tiguan and Touareg. That’s kind of sad to me.
1st, I mentioned nothing about Porsche. I just wanted to say that I can’t stand BMWs compared to any brand even compared to Honda, Toyota, VW etc. I don’t have anything against the car. Just the people who drive them.
2nd, you drove a Cayman. They are not meant to be powerful. It’s meant to be a fun sports car around a track with mid engine. It lacked low end torque because it’s a high revving engine. It’s meant to be driven and not to sit in traffic in NYC. That ‘lawnmower sound’ is the flat six engine. That is how it’s supposed to sound. 911s sound similar as well. Car is not meant for NYC. It’s meant for a track. But I 100% agree with you. It’s not a practical car. It’s not meant for you. It’s meant for people with money for pure pleasure as an extra car. It was never meant to compete or gain a BMW driver. You were looking for utility and comfort in a sports car. You weren’t impressed because you didn’t find what you were looking for.
Other than the base chassis, and some engine blocks, there is nothing that Macan or Cayenne have that shares with the VW and Audi. These cars drive night and day from each other. They are completely different cars.
And doesn’t most BMWs share chassis? How many classes do they have that are used between 4 different models?
A cayman s has 350 horses, it should be plenty given its low weight. The one i drove had the awful 4 cylinder, which indeed sounds like a lawnmower. Agree, maybe it’s different on an open road or on a track, i was in stop and go traffic. But i came away generally unimpressed. To me, that was not an $85k car.
Fwiw, bmw does share engines and chassis with other BMWs. I don’t believe Rolls-Royce utilizes bmw parts. A macan, on the other hand, takes the chassis of a tiguan, the engine of a tiguan, slightly modified, of course (gotta charge that premium for something) and ties it to a pdk. How is that worth a $40k premium other than charging for the badge and the “scarcity”?
Op wasn’t about which kind of drivers one dislikes. Like i could have easily said i dislike pretentious soccer moms in Porsche suvs thinking that the sun revolves around their ever-growing ass because of the badge on the hood and how much they’re paying every month. I said lexus, because they truly make awful cars that are at least a decade behind the times and are not punished for it as much as, say, infiniti, who is just as guilty.
Among other parts, the Wraith’s V-12 is a BMW N74. I believe it’s quite customary for large scale manufacturers like VW and BMW to utilize similar parts for their subsidiaries.
You were unimpressed cause you actually don’t know the capability of the Cayman. You weren’t looking for a sports car when you drove it. Even though I’m not a fan of that car, it is a very capable car. I’m telling you because I’ve driven it on a track.
PDK, suspension system, insulation, infotainment systems, electronics and steering. All of these are different. How can you call it a rebadged car when the only thing that the car shares is the base chassis? Even then, a Macan and Cayenne chassis looks completely different after Porsche reenforces it to have significantly higher rigidity.
PDK- changes the way the power is delivered & gear shifts
Suspension - changes the way car rides on the road and handles. How it absorbs bumps, holds the corner, changes driver confidence.
Insulation - how the car sounds
Infotainment & electronics: how you interact with the car
Reenforced chassis - much more rigid feel.
So if all of this changes, how can you call it “re-badged”? Try driving a Macan and a Tiguan on a track or outside of NYC. But I get it. It’s not meant for everyone. Enjoy your BMW bro!
Very few here are car guys, most here are cheapest payment guys. It’s the same argument everytime “GeT a TunDrA” /“GeT a M550i”/ guy asks about a 911 and people Scream GeT an Aston… it’s literally not worth the effort explaining anything here.
Now for the bmw comment, I like the stealth that the M and AMG performance divisions produce, as much as I like shelby/srt/corvette, etc etc american muscle is literally muscle with no finesse, the charger hellcat is one of the best and worst cars I have driven at the same time, to put teeny weeny little tires and a rental car interior on a 700 horsepower 75k performance car is ridiculous.
But anyway back the point, you can make M/AMG cars get very loud and proud but at the flick of a switch turn it into a regular bmw/mb car and despite the badges, bigger fascia in certain areas and quad exhaust 95% of people aren’t going to bat an eye at your car, i.e great for blending in. It’s almost the perfect daily driver in a sense. Bmw just happens to lease better than Mb, no sense in paying $500 extra a month to get an amg over an M.
Porsche is also a great brand but leases terrible and to be honest the practicality in the 911 is not there, the cayenne is a great suv but too suburban mom for me (mom had a turbo cayenne back in the day… great car), the panamera doesn’t appeal to me either, it’s a 4 seater gran coupe in a sense with a slantback coupe like roofline in the rear which doesn’t do well with tall people (same issue with the cls and 6 series gc and now 8 series gc)
One of the major benefits to leasing for me is having dealt with performance cars and having driven them all my life, out of warranty repairs are brutal for these cars and the depreciation is also brutal, leasing just makes more sense if you like moving through dozens of vehicles every 4-5 years. It’s quick and painless and sometimes you can write off certain cars.
No, it doesn’t. The Macan shares the MLB Evo platform w/ the Audi Q5 (and multiple other Audis). The Tiguan is based on the MQB platform.
Yeah, like the Mini Cooper. The X1, X2, and 2-series GC all share a platform w/ the Mini. That’s why the Mini looks oversized and the X1/X2/2-Series GC are all fundamentally FWD.
No, it shares an entire platform (albeit heavily modified). The Ghost is based on the last-gen 7-Series (so not utilizing the CLAR platform).
I don’t know where you’re getting your info from, but you’re either wrong about a lot of things, or every other source (including well-respected print publications) is mistaken. ::shrug::
To be fair the lamborghini urus looks like it shares a good bit of parts from the q8, both are expensive but the Lamborghini takes brand name to a whole new level.
Toureg looks more like an suv than the slant back roof of the urus/q8.
When I meant parts I meant powertrain because it’s very obvious they share the same bodystyle from the shape of the vehicle. I believe they have the exact same engine and transmission but they detuned the one in the audi or maybe upgraded a piece or two in the Lamborghini. Fwiw I think the q8 rs is the better buy, they look nearly identical minus some of the headlight and tailight differences.
Like I said if it’s fast it’s for me, couldn’t care if it’s a nissan or a pagani.
“I’m driving a 50k dollar car for 399 a month” sounds way way better than “I’m driving a 40k dollar car for 620 a month.” As some people were paying that for Audi A3s and MB A220s.
If the car is 50K, yes, you are driving a 50K car. It just means you don’t own it (nor should you want to for obvious reasons) - and no way can you generalize all BMW drivers. I’m on my third one, and in no way do I think I’m the shit or drive like an asshole
