[mjposner]

nachob comment was directed at me, and i will respond, though I also agree with bradleyland. First, I don't keep cars for 5 or 10 years so the overheating issues at 80k miles do not affect me. Second, while I prefer a full suite of gauges, it is not a deal breaker for me. I monitor what I need through my cell phone (and I am 53 so if i can do anyone can). The bottom line is that BMW sells cars and in car sales I guarantee you that no oil dipstick or temp gauge cracks the top 50 of what buyers want. So they are removed for efficiency sake (and once less hole in an engine has to ai in design/manufacturing.

That said, any car I own that I wanted to keep long term, I would simply add any gauge I wanted, not hard or expensive. My Corvair, which has two idiot lights had a broken cylinder head thermister, so I got another one and installed it myself so I could monitor head temp. If I ever tracked my 235i I would add whayt I needed.

Finally this argument that I need a temp gauge to know when I can redlline and drive fast is idiotic. Wait ten minutes, the car does have a clock in case you need a gauge to tell you that.