Quote:
Originally Posted by wtwo3
You have to realize for comparison sake you need to look at apples to apples. Standard M3 can only be had in RWD and with a manual transmission. The m340i can not be had with a manual transmission. The M3 Comp can only be had with an automatic transmission.
So for this discussion it doesn't make sense to compare the base M3 to any of the m340i trims. Your comparison point is: m340i compared to M3 comp.... m340i xdrive compared to M3 Comp xdrive. The base M3 doesn't have a place in this conversation, and as I mentioned previously, you typically go for the base M3 if you're set on getting a manual transmission.
M3 base 6mt rwd
M340i rwd -> M3 Comp rwd
M340i xdrive -> M3 Comp xdrive
|
I think the transmission option is irrelevant to this discussion. That would be saying I can't compare a 6MT Corvette to an Auto Corvette (Corvettes have been my other performance vehicles, & similar comparisons).
Minus the 0.1 or 0.2 0-60 difference, they're the same.
But if we throw the base M3 out of the discussion are you saying it's not worth the $18k over an M340i? If that's the case, then one would need to spend even more ($24-26k) to get a noticeable performance increase?
This isn't unique to BMW, the new Z06 has a base price $45k more than the Stingray for 170 more hp, but very marginal performance increases. The same argument is waged on those forums of "on the track is where it'll really shine & blow away the base...".