Quote:
Originally Posted by Calamari
No true. Engine block and some other parts are the same (as a cost saving measure) but a lot of mechanical parts are different. Only fool can think that BMW will skip on the opportunity to save money on pistons, fuel pump, injectors, intercooler, turbo and other parts of the lower spec engine variant.
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Believe whatever you want but if you don't know the costs of having extra SKUs and parts then it won't seem obvious but maybe this will help
Imagine you build one car say the 30i and you discover via focus groups or whatever that you can get more sales without cannibalizing existing sales by simply making a less powerful model for cheaper. You can (1) design entirely new parts for this cheaper model, potentially saving a bit on manufacturing costs because lower quality thresholds or materials or (2) change a bit of code because everything is digital now. All you have to do is lower target boost pressure and change some AFR map figures.... That's about it.
Remember with new designs and parts comes costs relating to design and testing, that doesn't really apply to software detuning. If you make a part that can withstands 300hp by definition it can handle 200hp.
You can see the part numbers on all those things you mentioned are the same. I'm not talking about on bimmercat (even though this is good enough for me) because you might have a ton foil hat on. I'm taking about lifting the hood and physically checking the parts.
Between every single B48B20B I've seen the parts are identical regardless of whether the model was 20i 30i or 30e.
Only the software / ecu behavior differed