felixcat

Started to see many user complains abouttheir newly bought 3 and 4 series, in several BMW forums, for strange vibration issue, rusting issue, malfunction lights etc.

Saw this interesting article about the build/design quality of the 328i today, then I suddenly feel the Lexus IS250/350 is a much better build high quality car.

jwong77

Agreed, I recently had an F30 for a loaner car. I was surprised by how light and hollow the door close felt. Where as on my old E92, the door closes with a nice thud. I'm not saying the F30 was light and cheap as the sound of my Acura, but its still a step down from the E92. Also, if you knock on the center console, it sounded hollow and cheap, mostly from the hard plastics, theres a lot less hard plastics in that area on the E92.

With all that said though, the N20 engine is a big upgrade in performance over the N51 Inline 6. It was averaging about 10 MPG more than my N51 engine, and it felt a whole lot more powerful.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

They all do it, some worse than others. Most get fooled by snazzy designs and look over the fact that some of the controls and dash/console are flimsy, cheap, rough plastics

SteVTEC

A buddy of mine with an E90 330xi had a 428i as a loaner and thought it was terrible too. Felt cheap and absolutely no road feel at all. A completely numb driving experience. Did not care for the 4-cylinder one bit either. He was shocked. Long live the E9x!!

Justin2JZ

When I took my E60 in to get the turbo's replaced, they gave me a F30 328i and I noticed most of those especially the doors. My E60's doors are nice and heavy and has that thud and yeah the F30s felt cheap as hell but my worst complaint was the auto start stop. It was so retarded for BMW to run the AC compressor off a belt when the auto start is activated because when Im sitting at a light itd be hot as hell in the car until I got moving again and then the system wasnt seamless. When the car started back up it wanted to lurch forward which was by far the most annoying.

I do have to say, they got the engine/transmission right the motor was amazing other than the DI ticking and the transmission was nice too.

gengar

Shocked that they would cost-cut away from this. The 'door thud' has been a trademark of German luxury cars.

corradoMR2

All these complaints and visible cost-cutting, yet kills everyone in its class in sales. What are these buyers not seeing (or seeing)??? 10,000 were sold in March in the US.

PhilipMSPT

iTrader: (5)

Cost cutting is inevitable for ALL brands to survive the super-competitive market.

Engineering with such cost cutting measures is what will make the automaker survive.

I think BMW and Lexus both do well (not great, but well) making overall-better vehicles with not-so-good materials. Hyundai has surely done its best to play this game.

All in all, if you want cars that are cheaper and still be better, lighter, faster, and more reliable; you've got to engineer the Hell out of it.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Not sure if you've been following some of these threads that mention cost-cutting, but even the newer Lexus's don't have that patented 'thud' they used to. They open with more of a 'pop'

felixcat

Most of them are first time F30 3 series buyer, look at this long thread, see how annoyed they feel. I believe non of those unfortunate buyer will buy a second F30 3 series any more.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

This little fellow holds a lot of power. Image is everything in this business. See a 6-Series Gran Coupe commercial, wishing you could afford one, go to the dealer just to look, leave that day with a 320i.

spwolf

I mentioned this last year when I had some time in several F30's... then a lot of people thought it was my lexus bias :-)


Here in Europe, F30 sells great because it is priced great. You can get nicely equipped 318d for very similar money as Passat, Avensis, Mazda6 here in Europe.

If I was picking between those, I would pick F30 any time.

RX300-BV

It's larger than the previous gen 3, the new 4 cylinder engines are faster and way more fuel efficient than the older inline 6... for the average, non-enthusiast, driver, there's a lot of pros with those three factors alone.

For me, it's really hard to get used to that lighter steering when you are used to the steering weight and feel of the e90s. The N20 is a nice upgrade as jwong77 pointed out, although I much prefer the sound that comes from the old inline 6 over the I4.

dat dude

I'll even say that I noticed cost-cutting even in Bentleys the interior felt so cheap and I was completely disappointed this is why I went ahead and ordered an Aston, it feels much richer and refined and don't feel like you're getting ripped off.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Congrats on that Rapide! I just saw a new one two days ago in Mako Blue . Gorgeous car, but the driver was trying to show off and weaving in and out of traffic