[upsidedownfunnel]

Originally Posted by Patgilm

After reading your review I agree, very happy with my decision. We test drove the C43, S4 and M340. Each one had pluses and minuses but the M340 was the best overall, it was just the price we had issue with until they started discounting and once that was done it was a no brainer.

The C43 was nice but the ride was stiffer than we liked. A good friend of mine is a GSM at a Mercedes dealer and could have given us a nice deal but the ride quality really held me back. To me I thought this car looked the best out of the three.

The M340 had the best overall package though from the ride quality to the tech. The S4 virtual cockpit to me is way better than the BMW, the BMW virtual cockpit or whatever they call it looks a little cheesy and doesn't seem like it will age well but that is just me. It still baffles me that for a $66k MSRP I don't get a power tilt steering wheel. Each one of these cars had one little annoying thing that wasn't available and this was the one on the BMW that annoys me.

It surprised me that BMW didn't have power steering adjustments, but I think it was a smart move. Manual adjustment is much faster and more natural because you're not constantly assessing the position after moving it incrementally. You just place it where you want it and you lock it in. It also saves weight and cost by having far fewer steering wheel parts.

The only reason I can see it being a big deal is if you share the car with another person and like to have memory adjustment. I can't get my wife to drive my car so I get to keep it all to myself. Even then, the car we share does have memory steering wheel position and power adjustment, but we don't really change it.

[Sportstick]

After the disaster we had with a new 2016 A6, the manner in which we were treated by Audi of America, failures of electronics, transmission, brakes, absurd denial of warranty on a car with 15k miles in 2018, we dumped it, took the loss and swore never to step foot in an Audi showroom again due to lack of honesty alone. Audi...never again no matter what they ever manage to build.

[MmmmmM2]

I was thinking about getting an S4 but after reading all of this, I'm glad I went with my 340i.

[Patgilm]

Originally Posted by upsidedownfunnel

It surprised me that BMW didn't have power steering adjustments, but I think it was a smart move. Manual adjustment is much faster and more natural because you're not constantly assessing the position after moving it incrementally. You just place it where you want it and you lock it in. It also saves weight and cost by having far fewer steering wheel parts.

The only reason I can see it being a big deal is if you share the car with another person and like to have memory adjustment. I can't get my wife to drive my car so I get to keep it all to myself. Even then, the car we share does have memory steering wheel position and power adjustment, but we don't really change it.

The exact reason you pointed out is why I want it. My wife and I swap our cars all the time and when I get into our IS350 which doesn't have memory seats or power tilt I can barely squeeze in and it drives me crazy (I know, first world problems). When we leased the car, I didn't think it was a big deal not having that but after about a month it started driving me crazy because we keep the seat and steering wheel in completely different positions. Most of our cars for years prior to this had both had power tilt and memory seats so it wasn't really noticed. At least the M340 has memory seats so that works for me.