Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I was at one point close to buying a BMW for Euro delivery, it was a sweet deal, and they dropped the program.

Back in the day, Saab was to Volvo what BMW was to Mercedes, I think.  I liked Saabs, and BMWs.  Saab of course is gone as a car.  BMW has softened the edges of their US products a bit.  I think most BMW drivers would be happy with a Honda and not really know the difference other than price.

One could throw in a Mazda=Toyota/Honda comparison also, Mazdas tended to be more sporty, and then Pontiac-Chevrolet.  Some of this is largely illusory.

I'm surprised still that Pontiac was not retained as a brand, even instead of Buick.  I have no clue what a Buick is today, a somewhat upscale Chevy.  And a lot of Caddy components are from the GM parts bin, though a few Caddies are pretty unique.

I always wanted a car with good handling, but of course went through a couple decades of minivans.  I liked the GTI a lot, of course, but was stunned when they wanted $3 K in maintenance after 33 K miles.  I had a 2005 Cadillac CTS that went 85,000 miles with very little maintenance, and only one problem (carbon cannister).  I think I had the brakes done once, just pads.  The 2014 Caddy had those 35 profile run flats that were a constant problem.  Otherwise I liked that car a lot, but it was too big for the city.

I have driven a Scuderia on a track, not very well, and a CTS-V and ATS-V at COTA, that was pretty fantastic.  The CTS-V was a bear.

Alas, I'm probably past having a sporty car but I dream.

My wife, her dad, and a friend of mine in BR all owned BMW's, and all claim they were constantly in the shop and it was ridiculously priced to repair them.  They hate them, couldn't get rid of them fast enough after a while, and will never own another.  They feel toward Beamers about halfway to what utee94 thinks about Toyotas.  

I've never owned one but always liked the looks and specs, since the late 90's.  

Maybe luck if the draw.  I have owned 4 BMWs since 07.  I beat on them hard- drag strip and curvy road carving.  All 4 were pretty much routine maintenance and ran flawlessly. 

How long did you own them? Seems you're refreshing vehicles on a more frequent cadence than most people change cell phones--and most I know (not me) do that as soon as they qualify for an upgrade on their cell plan. 

My take on BMW is that if you want to own them for the first 30-40,000 miles, you're probably ok.

But if you're the type of person that wants to take a car to 100,000+ miles, it's gonna hurt ya. 

Maintenance on foreign cars historically has been expensive.  Durability is a separate issue of course.  

The GM cars I've owned have been pretty cheap to maintain, oil changes just about do it mostly.

One thing about handling that has mostly disappeared is steering precision.  BMW excelled at that over others back in the day, the steering was fantastic, feel, responsiveness, etc.  Now, it's mostly electric with some "drive by wire" and the feel is artificial and rather dead.  This is only a factor if your are driving at 9/10ths or more.

Cars used to wallow in turns, back ca. 1970.  I car that would mostly resist this was unusual then, and it usually meant they had very tight suspensions, uprated springs and shocks.  That seems today to have been ironed out.

The problem with understeer on FWD cars has been mostly addressed, it was horrible back in the day.

If you took my Tucson to a track compared with say a 1975 BMW 320i, which would be faster?  Presume a track like say VIR.

The 1975-1980 BMW 3 Series (E21 chassis), which included early 318 and 320 models with the M10 engine, typically achieved a 0-60 mph time of approximately 11.5 to 11.9 seconds. These models featured 1.8L to 2.0L 4-cylinder engines producing around 97-110

I think the Tucson would blow it away.

By a wide margin.  😂