Quote:
Originally Posted by Sportstick
I get your enthusiasm, but think that is an overreach. Clearly, there are additional costs for purchase and maintenance/repair. The combined effect of the weight over the front wheels and the additional mechanicals take a compromised electronic steering system and deteriorate the feel even further. Of course, one can get used to this, but if you drive back-to-back, the different feel of the rwd car is clear to many.
While we're at it, this keeps coming up. Vehicles and powertrain systems, such as XDrive don't have or add traction. They can't. They never touch the ground. Traction is specifically at the contact patch; tires have traction. Xdrive just powers two more tires, and if they have traction, that can help get a car moving, but does nothing for stopping/turning in a winter emergency maneuver. Glad you've been ok so far, but putting four dedicated winter tires on a rear wheel drive car will increase both traction and safety at all four corners for braking/turning far more than having XDrive on all seasons, proven in videos over and over.
One other downside of Xdrive. You can't install the mod of upfitting the M2 lower control arms, which really help improve steering responsiveness of the non-M 2 Series cars.
|
I agree with all this. I test drove the coupe and the convertible. And I drove several of the 2's at a BMW event and finally chose the convertible m240. But I had never driven the M240xi- there were none to test drive at the dealer I was at in CA. There is clearly a difference to me. The AWD just is not as "tossable", as the Brits say. YMMV. But it is nice knowing that I can always get up the very steep hills if it snows before my commute home.