While I still believe that BMWs are fantastic cars and are still at the top of their class (albeit by a smaller margin), there is one VERY BIG reason that BMW, and all other car makers, have been forced to scale back some of their true enthusiast underpinnings. You can thank the government for the following chart...
Midsize cars need to reach a ~54MPG average by 2025. In order to do that they are having to find new ways to squeeze as much as possible out of every gallon! And this unfortunately means losing some of the enthusiast traits we love (ie, hydraulic steering, V8s/V10s, etc) and ushering in smaller turbo engines. Also the increasing required safety features add to weight...so now we get heavier cars too!
Wish the government would stay out of this!! If some people want high MPG cars, fine let them buy them...the market will be there. If people want enthusiast cars that have lower MPG...so be it! We are the ones paying for the gas, let us pay damnit!
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- Scott
Current Cars: 2019 X5 xDrive40i M-Sport, 2018 Camaro ZL1
Past BMWs: '16 528i, '00 M-Coupe, '14 X1 sDrive28i, '00 740iL, '02 325i, '99 M-Coupe, '00 323Ci, '79 323i, '83 320i