[dmboone25]

Originally Posted by Lucky13

Search the web and show me one test that shows a 135 faster than an M235, just one. I've looked at old Car and Driver, Motor Trend, Automobile and Googled 0-60 times BMW and it shows the M235 faster than the 135is. Yes I own an N54 in my son's 335 convertible. Just because something doesn't feel as fast is totally meaningless. There are many, many test results showing an M235 faster than an 135 N54.

Citations ?

And what do you mean by "faster" ? You mean from a stop with better tires ? Lol

The tires on the 235 help make up for its relative shortcomings. It's smoke and mirrors.

Every compare I've seen has been to a similarly equipped N55, cough, cough, which is the weaker 300 bhp engine.

The N55 runs out of steam faster, was never underrated, and simply not as strong. It's no accident no N55 has been used in any of the is models. But it sure does get better gas mileage.

[bladeomatic]

Originally Posted by chaswyck@yahoo.com

I agree with everything you said about the 85% and the 15% and the fact that if BMW is to survive they have to satisfy the 85%. What they've done, and it's no small feat, is to create a car that should satisfy both because throttle response and suspension can be selected. For the 85% there is Comfort mode (and maybe even Eco Pro) and for the enthusiast there is Sport and Sport+. The only point I've been making in this thread is that if they're going to make one car that fits everybody's desire for comfort and sportiness, why not give the Sport mode an even tighter suspension if the desires of the 85% have already been met?

Agreed.

To be honest, I think the M235i is the single-most Jekyl/Hyde car I've driven. There's a wide difference between the numb ECO and the fire-breathing SPORT+. However and to your point...if they can wire in a bit more stiffness into the sport modes, then I would welcome it. If you're going to go to the trouble of having 4 modes, they may as well be as different as is possible.

I know I'll get flamed for this, but I'd actually like it if they could stretch even more in both directions, making COMFORT even a bit softer sprung. I'm not a big fan of spirited driving in COMFORT, but the roads in parts of LA can get pretty harsh and if I could toggle the spring rate into kitten mode to smooth things out a bit during commutes, that'd be swell. My wife is always getting pissed that she can't text when she's a passenger in my car due to the bumpiness of the ride. And that's when I'm not getting on it! :-)

For me having 4 suspension modes would be ideal (soft, normal, sport, performance). Where the the softer mode is softer than current and the performance setting is tighter than the tightest setting currently. This would give quite a spread:

ECO: Leave as is. Just add the new "soft" spring rate (softer than existing)
COMFORT: Leave as is. Defaults to "normal" spring rate. Let folks make individual settings adjustable like SPORT does now (steering, chassis, power).
SPORT: Continue as is with adjustability settings, but provide 4 spring rates (soft, normal, sport, performance)
SPORT+: Beast mode. User adjustable for DSC/DTC/DSC Off, 4 selectable spring rates, ability to keep throttle mapping to Sport setting with DSC Off, etc.

This would allow granny to drive to the store in ECO on bad roads and let Junior wail a bit harder at the track with all the nannies off.

And to everyone's point, the car should let you set a default mode upon start up.
That was a big clank by BMW missing that, IMO.

[RocketJohn]

Unless you can get some form of variable spring rates, you really only get one optimal suspension setting with a static steel spring and the rest is out of sync. I believe the air suspension that the Cayenne Turbo uses is able to cheat that quite well, but that's a heavy expensive suspension that probably won't work for a small car like the 2 without serious engineering cost and ultimate high price to the consumer.

[jskrilla]

I just got my car last tuesday (It's a week old) and the crappy weather here in NY hasn't allowed me to push it yet ITS KILLLING MEEEEEEEEEEE