Search results

I will say this, Toyota is handling this launch much differently than BMW does. This may come down to the way both companies handle orders -- I think an abnormal amount of BMWs are built-to-order compared to other brands, so they are probably better setup to accept orders on new models. I also...

Has Subaru ever manufactured a convertible, at any plant whether Gunma or somewhere else? I don't think so. I suspect they would be reluctant to get into it for whatever reason.

I don't know why, but very few manufacturers like to build convertibles in-house, whether it's due to low volume or perhaps lack of experience. Many companies have outsourced the convertible versions of their vehicles to Magna Steyr, for a long time (there's also a couple other contract...

That only applies in some states. Here in Virginia they don't do that, and will ding any vehicle purchase with sales tax. I always thought that was wrong, especially if you consider cars that might be sold several times in their life. The state would get tax revenue each time.

You never know. My X3 M40i (with B58) is rated by BMW for 355HP at the crank. Yet Dinan measured more than that at the wheels, and they estimate the crank horsepower to be 445HP. It means BMW seriously understated the power of the motor. That is very common for BMW nowadays.

These types of dynos can only measure wheel horsepower. The operator can make assumptions about drivetrain loss to estimate the crank horsepower from the wheel horsepower.

Yep, yep, yep, agree 100%. Everybody pay attention to these details.

Yes, but only in Europe. We can't get it in the USA.

You know, a few other things he said seemed to get lost in translation or were too optimistically received (which is not out of the question with Youtubers in attendance -- most don't have engineering chops and I suspect many of them were starry-eyed at being invited to the event). He talked at...

Seems like a trivial reason to completely avoid manual altogether. BMW manuals are not best in class in terms of feel (ie, Honda S2000) but they are extremely reliable and you rarely hear a reviewer make any complaints. I can see how a Honda engineer might make this statement with a straight...

I have owned three BMW's with the ZF 8-speed automatic and consider it to be among the best automatics in the industry, but I really prefer manual transmissions in sports cars because it's a lot more interesting and fun to drive the car. You can have fun at low speeds and at part throttle in...