Quote:
Originally Posted by GeorgeA
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flamingi
It's not cost cutting. It's delivering what about 99% of the people want. How many of M3/M4 do you think see a track in their lifetime, let alone on a regular basis? Yes, a DCT would result in better lap times, but those cars will still be on a regular road with bumper to bumper traffic the vast majority of the time and the converter auto will be much better suited for this use case. I can assure you, they did think about which auto to put into the M3, but in the end it is as always with companies: They don't care about your (individual) feeling, they don't care too much about heritage or whatever bs, the only thing that matters is money. If they predict they will sell more cars by going with a converter auto than loosing sales from some people that want to track the car, you sure can bet they will put a converter auto into the M3. And if it's cheaper for BMW to do so, that's even better!
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I disagree with you on this. BMW has loyal fans and the M3 is a product with a high standard and reputation. The little amount of cost cutting associated with this move will hurt the company's reputation on the long run. As someone who owns and enjoys DCT vehicles, I would not purchase an Auto. I will be forced to buy a manual (which I am not complaining about) but it's sad to see BMW go soft on this issue. The 8 speed is a great automatic, but it is nowhere as good as the DCT. M cars have a standard just like Porsche, and DCT should remain in these vehicles. |
Your totally kidding yourself if you think BMW isn't there for the $$.
I think it was cool we got 2 generation of M cars (+ 1gen M2) with a DCT but BMW moving to those quick shifting zf's is not surprising me at all. ZF sells so many of these I would not be surprised they will be saving a considerable amount of $ on every car.
As for M heritage, we are already far from it with electric steering, turbo engines with 500hp etc. Even long time 911 owners say the 997 is the last one that 'feels' like the all time famed 911.
It's easy to observate how BMW went from special Motorsports derived regular series cars to M marketing money making models, the first X5M is proof they understood this a while ago and they continue building on it.
Oh and yeah, they absolutely don't care what you think unless it has do to with buying a new car from them.