[e46e92love]

So an X3M and an ///M3 will officially have the same engine? AND YOU ARE GOING TO GIVE IT TO THE X VERSION FIRST, not the ///M3?!?!?! HAHAHAH.....this is so entertaining. Why? Because of the ridiculousness of it, like the way you cannot turn away from a bad reality show. The members of the cast think people are laughing with them, when in reality, they are laughing AT THEM. Lets go over the core tenants of BMW ///M as little as 10 years ago that they have dumped:

1) "Nien" to the concept of having a FI engine.
2) High Revving Engines: saying something is does not make it so. Sorry, 7,200 on the new ///M5 is not high revving. Just like slapping an ///M3 badge on the back of an Accord does not make it faster.
3) "You can not build one engine to fit all cars"----straight from BMW when they took shots at Merc and their AMG division.

It's a complete and utter joke what they have done to the ///M line. Its not different then any other line. Its just another AMG, SRT, TRD, or S knockoff. Yup, they are just like everyone else: slap some badges, a big engine and some suspension and let her rip. I could even deal with the ///M5 going FI, because in reality, a high strung car is not what people buying that type of car want, they need it to be able to be an executive sedan at times. So I get that; why I think the comparison to the e39 ///M5 is spot on as that masterpiece was a lot less high strung then the e60. But to continue to take one engine to fit multiple cars? They are tearing the souls out of the cars, and whoreing out the brand for the new and ultimate tenant:

1) Make money, regardless of what it takes.

Funning thing about brand marketing, once you have a strong brand you can use it to sell anything. However, if you dilute that brand, and associate it with things not as great as those used to build the brand, in the long run the brand will begin to suffer IRREPARABLE damage as what it was formerly associated with is forgotten.

What made the ///M line so special was beyond specs, beyond the numbers, similar to what makes Porsche and Ferrari special. No, I'm not comparing, just pointing out that its what made ///Ms special. When you get rid of that "soul" and that "individuality" you destroy what makes the "line" of cars special. Take away Derek Jeter's "intangibles" and he is not the player everyone, even Yankee haters, have come to know him to be.

BMW is forcing ///M to dump the "intangibles" and I for one hope that BMW falls flat on its face just so the whole lot of us who HELP BUILD BWM TO WHAT IT IS TODAY can laugh and say "we told you so......you can't say we didn't tell you." Corporate greed is associated with ruining people's lives at times, our economy and environment, but its harder to see the other casualty of greed: the transformation of great companies into average ones.

Cheers,
e46e92