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Why 2nd Gen (XE20) IS F is Better Than the E90 M3
By Joseph Coelho

Although the BMW M3 has long been touted as one of the best sport coupes available, the Lexus IS-F 4-door gave the BMW E90 M3 sedan more than it could handle. Check out this comparison inside!Although the BMW M3 has long been touted as one of the best sport coupes available, the Lexus IS-F 4-door gave the BMW E90 M3 sedan more than it could handle. Check out this comparison inside!

BrownPride

Troll.....

Johnhav430

It isn't better. We could get into the "M cars have rod bearing issues" thing, but when both vehicles are performing as designed, it's not even close.

Autobacs

iTrader: (1)

"Bimmers have long been an industry standard for performance, styling, and reliability,"

That statement just told me the analysis is crap. An objective BMW enthusiast will not rave about the reliability of a BMW and consider it an industry standard.

Handling and performance wise, the M3 does have an edge over the ISF.

Fizzboy7

Autocrossed both. The IS sounds like a menacing American muscle car on steroids. The BMW sounded like a tinny, choked off tube starved for air, with holes in the exhaust system. That was all I needed.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Johnhav430

very objective

wonder how they would stack up driven back to back, to the 991 GTS, I've autocrossed that and it was excellent

RNM GS3

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Here Here Long live the howl of the S65 V8 (and the S85 V10)

Aron9000

And then the 2nd gen Cadillac CTS-V eats both of those cars for lunch IMO. And I'm not talking about just brute horsepower(where the Cadillac is KING), but things like styling, handling, ultimate grip, the zany wagon and coupe body styles, IMO its a much better car all around than either of those two.

Johnhav430

Friend and his wife drove it last year at Giants Stadium at the CTS-V event, it wasn't their impression. imho, it's actually flattery to say this car is better than X. That car is better than X. And also such and such is better than X.

Meanwhile, X just sits there and does nothing other than perform.

I get that the extended warranty was $7100 on the E92 and that it can likely have rod bearing issues. One could even say it's nothing without getting the revs up and it's a bit short on torque. but honestly the subject of this thread, imho, is false lol

Johnhav430

I regret not buying one. But I know why I didn't. The $7,100 list price on the extended warranty scared me, the insurance, the EPA 14/20, the gas guzzler tax, and let's face it, at the time, $59k was a lot (can you even get out of 4 cyl cars today at that price lol). At the same time, they don't seem to depreciate as fast as non M's, so the $59k was money well spent, for those who did. A lot of it for me would be the suspension, you can't simply just do that easily. Probably at the time hearing that brakes were $1800 per axle turned me off, I was less of a DIY'er back then. How does it go? Wish I didn't know now, what I didn't know then.

mk416

Disagreed. The car looks like 300C on steroids, and that is not a compliment, notwithstanding the supercharged V8 does sound great, though.

Diesel350

You forgot reliability. For it to be all around better car it needs to have good reliablity which we know it doesn't have. Also styling is subjective but I've never heard anyone say the Cadillac is a good looking car. And how does it have better handling than the M3 E92? The M3 beat the MkII in both the Nurburgring and Laguna Seca tracks. The only thing the CTS-V is good at in my opinion is putting down good times at a 1/4 mile track.

Htony

Repeated same sentence twice. HaHaHa! One E90 M3 in our garage waiting for summer. Mean time 328Xi is for winter driving. Both belong to son. My daily is Audi SQ5,I like Quattro system in the snow. IMO, F designation is marketing gimmick from Lexus.