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Mick,
well maybe but i tend to think that it's effective. People are buying an image and keeping up with the Jones'es so it's important to maintain that image. the fact that purchasers don't understand it is irrelevant. they're actually buying into something because it's "advanced" and "techy" and not understanding it proves how advanced it is.
this should not be taken as a dig at bMw drivers, 1 series or otherwise. the same is true of many people with high end multi function phones, cameras and so forth. how many bought "it" because it does what they need, they've mastered it's functions and use them and how many bought it to look "cool"?
in signing this i wish to state that the question mark which will appear is involuntary and in no way to be taken as a sign of schizophrenia :-)
Jh
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i can't see why rear-wheel drive is such a selling point for bMw. Most people don't buy new cars to do doughnuts or drifting, after all.
i wonder how many drivers of 4-cylinder bMw's are under the misapprehension that it has 6!!!!
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A friend of mine once delighted in showing me around his new BMW - was absolutely convinced it had a V6 engine...
Edited by WellKnownSid on 23/03/2010 at 21:22
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was absolutely convinced it had a V6 engine...
with the amount of gubbins on top of engines these days i'm not surprised... we could have anything under there!
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Some people have very little interest in much about their car. My boss admitted when challenged that she doesn't even know the make of the car she occasionally drives. She had no idea what it was but she could describe the colour...
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Sure, it seems odd to backroomers as we are interested in cars. but how many of us could name the make of our washing machine / tV / DVD or video recorder / computer / printer etc?
i can do those, but i couldn't name the builders who built my house.
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Police officer to man: "how did you know the bMw that crashed into you had been stolen?" Man: "he was using his indicators"
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"i can do those, but i couldn't name the builders who built my house"
Like the makers of our cars, stereos, fridges, washing machines etc, the builder of our house left his name on it.
to be precise, his initials and family crest on the hall floor - about 190 years ago...
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mad,
nah, he paid for it, bet he didn't get his hands dirty & build it.
Jh
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of course, bMw saying this has got nothing to do with the fact that they've just decided to do a FwD car............
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I'm actually guilty of a blooper like this. I took our VW Golf Mk 3 1.4 petrol to the garage because it was misfiring. I'd never really paid much attention to what's under its bonnet - too busy tinkering with other vehicles. I said the carburettor appeared to be playing up. The mechanic said he thought all petrol Mk3 Golfs had fuel injection. I said that mine had a carburettor. Oops. Well, it does LOOK like a carburettor, the throttle body with its single-point fuel injector.....sort of.....
Better still, I knew someone who didn't know what sort of car they owned. They just said 'it's a R*****T, don't ask me what sort, as long as it gets me from A to B I don't care!'
Edited by Sofa Spud on 24/03/2010 at 11:38
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BMW have made a front wheel drive car for some years now - it's called the Mini
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it's called the Mini
If it was called the 3 Series, I might actually buy one.
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mad, nah, he paid for it, bet he didn't get his hands dirty & build it. Jh
How true... He made his fortune from coal and iron so probably never touched a spade again... Heath was his name: he built Biddulph Grange - gardens now NT..
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Doughnuts? Drifting? Are you suggesting all BMW drivers partake in these activities?
RWD is for purists - front wheels do the steering, rear wheels do the pushing.
FWD is for people who just want a car
AWD is for people who can't make their mind up.
(Disclaimer - this post is not to be taken 100% seriously)
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RWD is for purists - front wheels do the steering, rear wheels do the pushing.
Or:
RWD is for people who do not drive in snow and ice.
Edited by madf on 25/03/2010 at 16:20
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I managed perfectly well in the snow and ice - it's not the car it's how you drive it. I saw plenty of people in FWD cars who seems to prefer going sideways.
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I managed perfectly well in the snow and ice - it's not the car it's how you drive it. I saw plenty of people in FWD cars who seems to prefer going sideways.
I second that, my 330d was better in the recent snow than my FWD A4 was last year, (it's a manual SE Touring with sensible tyres btw so no M-Sport bling....). I don't consider myself to be an expert driver so the car deserves at least some of the credit.
I don't think I'd like a high powered FWD car again - now I've experienced the alternative that is, I contend that you can tell the difference.
Edited by idle_chatterer on 25/03/2010 at 21:36
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I will never forget driving RWD for the first time (Boss's 325i).
Since then I've had two RWD Lexuses (IS200 and IS250) and am now considering a 3 Series.
The handling differences are major unless the FWD car is very well sorted (e.g. A4, Mk 1 Focus) or the driver is thinking about something else
Edited by peterb on 04/04/2010 at 09:24
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I will never forget driving RWD for the first time (Boss's 325i).
Since then I've had two RWD Lexuses (IS200 and IS250) and am now considering a 3 Series.
The handling differences are major unless the FWD car is very well sorted (e.g. A4, Mk 1 Focus) or the driver is thinking about something else
What do you reckon the major differences are? Take three different situations
a) Country road averaging 50 mph through twisty lanes
b) Motorway, averaging 70 mph
c) City driving, averaging 20 mph with a lot of stop-go
(Declaring an interest: I have a RWD car, but I'm actually a fan of AWD)
Edited by LikedDrivingOnce on 04/04/2010 at 23:43
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We've had this debate before, but it's always worth resurrecting. People will disagree with me here but my personal experience (based on driving the current Octavia, SWMBO's Mini and my old BMW Z3) is that in everyday driving such as situations (b and (c) there's very little discernible difference.
With (a), the nearer to the limit you drive (and also if the road is wet or icy) the more difference you notice. RWD is more exciting and in some cases riskier; FWD (and AWD) the opposite. Motoring purists prefer RWD (hence so many magazine road testers coming out in favour of BMWs and Mercedes), but thiose of us who like to relax when driving are quite happy with FWD.
Interesting point from Idle Chatterer about his 3-series being better in the snow than an Audi - I would have disagreed last year but in this winter's snow the Skoda's grip starting fron rest was poor until I changed to winter tyres - then it was excellent. It's possibly as much a matter of the right tyres, and of course the appropriate driving style, as which wheels drive the car.
Edited by Avant on 05/04/2010 at 00:42
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Never get RWD and FWD owners to agree on anything, thank goodness.
FWD is fine for small manual cars, shopping trolleys, nipping about here and there no one's going to notice the snatchy transmission, the annoying wheelspin every time you want to pull away sharply on a wet road it all blends in fine with the jarring ride and the dreadful automated manual box.
And unless they have electronics to control it they all wheelspin in the wet.
RWD coupled with proper auto box and torquey engine gives pleasure to motoring, no wheelspin unless you provoke it (i'm ignoring all so called driving aids in this, not needed by a competent driver who 'feels' whats going on at the wheels), smooth take off constant uniterrupted acceleration smooth cornering.
No torque steer, no transmission snatches, full power take offs with no idiotic wheelspins, precise steering unaffected by transmission...steering wheels doing what they should and driving wheels doing the same, smooth rapid safe and predictable given a reasonable mechanical sympathy and feel for the road.
What does spoil some of this for me is the ridiculously hard suspensions that people seem prepared to suffer for little if any gain.
I admit i'd like a competent fast AWD car such as a Legacy auto, being able to put all that power down in almost any conditions without penalty save fuel consumption is so tempting, probably the best of all.
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Avant & gordonbennet - two really good replies. Both thoughtful and grown-up.
Pretty close to my own views on this, i.e. there's nor "right" and "wrong" on this - merely a good topic for ongoing discussion between friends.
My RWD certainly feels better balanced (though that could just be down to the car design) - but more skittish in slippery conditions. Being a nervy driver, I find this unsettling.
Still on a summers day, it feels quite nice to thread the car through a series of bends on a country road.
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In normal driving whether a car is FWD or RWD is barely noticeable, as I said earlier - aside from the slight throttle induced directional tug one feels on at the steering wheel on an FWD.
To make a comparison that removes other variables we'd need to compare two versions of otherwise identical vehicles but one has FWD, the other RWD. The only vehicle I can think of that's available in both forms is the Ford Transit. I know the issues are a bit different with vans because there's a big difference in weight distribution between fully loaded and empty. Has anyone driven both types of Transit and is there any significant difference?
Edited by Sofa Spud on 05/04/2010 at 12:01
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