ScoobyJawa

Why do people go on about snow and BMW. In all the snow we had this year mine didn't get stuck once - I bought flipping snow socks too which are supposed to be superb but never needed to use them! IMHO people in BMW's getting stuck in snow can't drive properly

stef_2010

iTrader: (3)

I bought my girlfreind an E36 318 compact at the start of the year as a wee run around, for something pretty old an nothing special I think its great, I'm really looking forward to when I get either an E46 M3 or a Z3 M

fatscoobfella1

iTrader: (1)

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Z3M coupe for sheer driving pleasure.. E46 M3 feels like a watered down version,but its easier to live with.

john banks

E46 M3 is brilliant on a smooth, fast road where you don't have to use the brakes repeatedly and the suspension doesn't have to control vertical body movements. I loved the exterior, interior.

The humblest Scooby takes one apart in the twisties though. An Impreza Sport handed me my M3 *** in the rain on a local twisty where nothing I ever came across was a match for my Scooby.

fatscoobfella1

iTrader: (1)

Ha ha ha....

Really.....

Was you scared of pressing your right foot down ?

john banks

Yes in those conditions because at any decent pace on that road it skipped about so that with the seat on its lowest my head was hitting the roof (I am only 6 foot) and I couldn't hold a steady throttle in the wet corners (with sport mode off) and even with traction control on in those wet conditions it was reaching some impressive angles that would have made the Impreza driver think I was showboating except that I was holding him up, so let him past and then followed. Where there were straights I could reel him in again, but if I tried to follow into the corners I was going to have an accident. The car was pristine and had less than 10000 miles and the dampers were fine, geometry was correct and the tyres had plenty of tread. Maybe I didn't get on with RWD, but with the GTR putting at least as much power to the rear wheels I don't have any trouble on the same road. Neither did my Subaru, Evo, vRS, various Fords, a Peugeot etc.

fatscoobfella1

iTrader: (1)

Weird..........

My current M coupe has no traction control,just an LSD. The amount of grip is pretty stunning,even in wet conditions it has to be provoked into oversteer..If the throttle is used progressively then there is zero traction loss..

Im lucky enough to live within a couple of minutes of the Woodhead Pass and the Snake in Derbyshire,and they are both brilliant roads for exploring any cars handling characteristics..

My friend has a lightly modded new shape scoob,the one with the hatchback..He reckons its around 320bhp,so very similar in outright performance to my M coupe..We go out and have a blast from time to time and the cars are very equal,i can just begin to get away when the road is open and flowing but when braking and outright grip are needed he makes the gap back up...

But if something with 200bhp less than my car showed me the way,im afraid i would be hanging up the old Sparco's...

Evolution Stu

iTrader: (2)

I have owned a lot of interesting cars over the years and obviously drove more nice cars than 90% of people due to my profession, but I just cant find anything that suits me better than my current E39 M5. I really do love it!

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

No, it was the M5 as the next one up.

ALi, yes, aware they can give trouble so will be very careful, not going from a 250 bhp Saab to something slower, needs to be a V8, want one before everyone has 900 cc diesels.

john banks

The thing is that it was only this car that gave me trouble, so it isn't me. I am from Derbyshire and although I haven't driven those roads recently, they seem smoother than these Scottish roads, and in some ways I can imagine an old M3 being good on them. However, if the tyres won't stay on the ground bevause of suspension travel so that a mid corner bump knocks you off line then there isn't much you can do. The E39 M5 was much better over similar roads, but when I was shopping for one in 2005 I struggled to find a pristine one.

I tested the M3 on smooth roads around Nottingham and didn't appreciate the issues until it met a Scottish B road. Within a month I knew I had made an expensive mistake as I love these roads, but this car made me hate them.

fatscoobfella1

iTrader: (1)

Again,that is unusual..

Aint been on a Scottish A road for years in anger,so i cant really comment..

But went to the northern BMW festival at Tatton park today.... its a great little show for a couple of hours..

In your words,i handed a 3.2s Boxy its **** in its hands on the way home...The guy was kinda amused and devastated all at the same time..

I love my M coupe !

P1 LTD

I had a BMW e36 sport good car! Like a few people have said its a quality well screwed together brand i never had any issues with it! But for looks and sound my subaru has the good feel factor

wrx-kurt

iTrader: (1)

Great ........... now I want my e46 m3 back lol! Loved all my bmw s. I have always had a bm then a scooby and then back and forward.

austinwrx

I live in Yorkshire- well Haworth to be precise. on a hill.

BMW's were the no 1 car, being abandoned on the long hill outside my house.

along with chav'd up cars with big rims on

mercs that were RWD and so on.


but to be honest, you;d expect most cars to struggle in lots of snow: I certainly did one day and had to abandon my daily runaround: a FWD ford mondeo.

the likely scenario, is that in 97% of driving conditions, I'm sure a BMW is fine.

I don't know Hampshire, but I guess it probably doesn't have the hills of west yorkshire.

fatscoobfella1

iTrader: (1)

^^^^^^

Nice place Haworth,been there a few times..

I live on top of a huge hill,basically when the snow comes down our village is pretty much cut off,unless one of the farmers clears the main road..

The BMW's sit where they are when the weather turns bad..

billyray911

iTrader: (4)

I went from a bugeye wagon to an m sport 335d E91 and was really worried about how it would cope in the snow.
I bought a set of MV3 rims and put v reddy wintrac extremes-they were fantastic and never put a foot wrong-despite me trying in some thick snow,as well as ice.
Winter tyres are the way forward!

Evolution Stu

iTrader: (2)

The only reason you guys see BMW stuck in snow more than other brands is because they are one of the few RWD cars in mass production and RWD is always worse in the snow and harder to control for your average driver that doesnt posess a fork lift license.

RS Grant

The new F10 M5 perhaps??


Cheers,
Grant

scoobyc

iTrader: (2)

john, I have a local bumpy road near me and i have no trouble going at some rather enthusiastic rates including in the wet.

Agreed it doesnt handle the bumps quite as well as some cars but its nowhere near as major as you are stating.

I dont have any issues with tail out, good throttle control and its a treat. infact that is where the pleasure is for me. You must have used digital throttle control to get into trouble with dsc on.

The reason i got rid of my scoob is it lacked driver involvement. RWD = masses of win.

I think the only reason not to rate the 46 m3 is if you dont get on with rwd. And for the prices they are going for there is not a better way to spend 10k. (except maybe 10x £1,000 hookers. Or perhaps 10,000x £1 hookers.).

Evolution Stu

iTrader: (2)

My name is down for a test drive in the closed room of the M site already. Local dealers know nothing just yet sadly. There is 700bhp in there just waiting for me...

Ant

love bmw , i regret selling mine now, its the only car i regretted. , my next car is a 530d M-Sport next just can't beat the build quality.

john banks

It is suspension travel that is the real problem. When the tyres lose contact with the tarmac you have no real option but to slow down or risk a crash. The Subaru with P1 suspension which I'd just sold before getting the M3 was the best car I've had for handling that situation and it made it a hoot over a bumpy road. The M3 was the worst in this respect, but was impressive on a smooth surface and in these conditions had a little more grip. Even in the wet it was impressive if the road surface was very smooth.

I'm not accepting that the problem wasn't major. The car would take off and my head would hit the headlining whilst trying to maintain about half throttle because with all the skipping that was all that it could put down in the wet. The Subaru with more power could go flat out through the same section literally 20-30mph faster, but had the compliance to allow you to modulate the throttle when you needed to. One was utter crap, the other was a hero on this road. A favourite yump in the Subaru would go flat out and accelerate with barely any wheelspin, the M3 would take off and land rather awkwardly, and if wet you would risk hitting the armco. The other thing is that the M3 just didn't land well. It made horrible noises on landing hard which made you not want to do it.

The Evo 9 landed really well too, but I think that did contribute to me damaging 4th gear through the shock loadings.

mcfc11

i have to agree also, the most reliable car i have ever owned was my 1995 bmw e34 m5, 320bhp standard and could take some abuse when needed with no problems, the only money i spent on it in the 4 yrs i had it was a service every 12 months and a new battery, where as my old impreza was in the garage every 2 months but it was running a bit more power @340bhp but in the 12 months i owned it i had nearly 2k in repair bills.

but all this said the bmw was boring to drive even though it was fast in a straight line and cant tell you how many times in 4 yrs the back end came out on corners and roundabouts, i didn't get the same driving buzz i get from driving the impreza's ive had, they truly are a car to put a smile on your face every time you get in them.

beemers are great if you want to grow up.

fatscoobfella1

iTrader: (1)

I do understand what your saying John.... Its just something i never really experienced badly in any modern car..

Back in the day i had a Lotus Sunbeam that felt that it was hardly in contact with the road when pressing on,unless the road was smooth it felt as though it was "skipping" across the undulations in the road.
I also had a 1990 Integrale that suffered similar,it put me off the road on a welsh forest road at speed.. Luckily no damage done.

The Impreza's i have had were sure footed,that cannot be denied.They are a superb,fast and very capable road car.
But for me there in lays the problem,they are quite boring to drive.

An Impreza is never a challenge to drive fast,any one can do it.

john banks

Impezas just need more power and then they genome a handful.

scooby-tc

iTrader: (2)

I went from an Audi RS6 C5 model to an e92 335i and although the audi was a much nicer place to be,much nicer engine,more toys etc I just love driving the e92 and i am still not bored with it.I normally get bored after 6 months but i think this car is going to stick around for a while so much so I have just bought a new set of alloys for it which i think suits it much better,and as we are posting pics here is a before and after of mine



and just bought these wheels





That being said the 1M is appealing more and more its just the size of the car that puts me off

DJ_Jon

iTrader: (7)

I've recently bought a 135i. Superb car, head & shoulders above my hawkeye but I do miss that burble. Even though it's a 3 litre petrol, turbo. I still get 39mpg on a run.

P1 LTD

The Burble you know its a subaru before you see it

bighead

iTrader: (1)

Quailty in the 1M will not be the same as a E9x M3 !!......so you've been warned
also yr comparing an old RS6 with a newest E 92 is not really a good comparison, i think if you use the current RS6 as the benchmark ...it will be a different story .
Not slagging the BMW brand...my daily is a E90 M3.

Gary WRX

So is fuel consumption a fair bit better than the sccob?

The 135 is on my shortlist for my next car but haven't made a final decision yet