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Originally Posted by wtwo3
All this is to say, yes BMW is watering down their performance brand.... but so is everyone else (amg and audi etc). These are mass market cars and these automakers are in the business of making money. So if slapping an m sport badge on a 330i will help make more money, better believe BMW is going after that... that's where the bread and butter is anyway.
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It's logical, but I don't see the merit in that: no one in the world thinks a 330i is a sports car; therefore, its nonsensical to badge it as it wouldn't drive revenue up.
In comparison, the M340i is WIDELY lauded worldwide as one of the best modern sports sedans sub-75k; maybe even the best, judging by how it ranked last year in its segment. Meaning that it'll absolutely work any average road-going car, has sportier additives, and isn't the blatantly unremarkable 330i. Which makes it quite logical that they'd M badge it, which is why I'll always argue that it's deserved.
Where I can see all of your logic is with the modern M235i Gran Coupe. Now that's a great dead horse to beat: it's unremarkable, ugly, and slow, yet with enough gloss black, they M badged it. But to repeatedly freak out about every M-Lite (M240i, M340i, M440i, etc) that isn't the M235i is quite silly to me because by all modern rights and regards, they're sports cars a full step above the average base BMW or Honda Civic.
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Originally Posted by Kaizer84
Umm so with that same mindset, an E9X 335 of yesteryear which were absolute rockets when they came out and clearly faster than E46 M3’s should have been called M335i’s??? Because they were munching on the previous gen M car, lol. Funny take but try again. Again the point is why M340 and not 340 etc.
Like I previously stated. Put an M badge on everything. They should make M328’s and M330’s. Why not.
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Well, given that no one was rushing to a dealer to buy an E90-gen 335 over the E46 M3, I'd say no, but I can see what you're fishing for. This new name-scheme only fits the new-school model/line up they do these days: the base 330i, a serious upgrade to the M340i, and then a serious upgrade to the M3. And each of those "big" upgrades are denoted by a large engine or displacement change, larger brakes, sportier diffs, altered steering/suspension/exhaust modes and more aggressive styling. All of which are parts of a sports car. An //M.