[swartzentruber]

Originally Posted by vwong

It's just my opinion, I think BMW is known for their RWD platforms, and Audi is known for their quattro. Therefore, I didn't even consider the xi when I ordered my 335i. Similarly back in 2006, I didn't even consider the FWD when I got my B7 A4 2.0T quattro.

Yeah, I'm sure there's a lot of that too (what the marques are known for), and not faulting you for going that direction. Still, now that Audi's finally getting their understeer issues sorted out, through the torque vectoring plus moving the engine around, it seems that complaints of BMW's oversteer are becoming more prevalent when the two are compared head-to-head (see the recent C&D comparo for instance).

I think xDrive is a pretty fantastic AWD system, and I'm wondering if it may take a sport version of the 335xi to beat the new S4. xDrive stays RWD biased, except when it needs to be, so with a good suspension I don't know why an xi couldn't be a serious competitor.