Quote:
Originally Posted by ersin
I think the US model has more reinforcement for crashes. And of course those yellow reflectors add so much weight and drag it's unbelievable.  It doesn't seem to hurt performance. 4.1 sec to 60 in both coupe and sedan. I don't see any better numbers coming from European reviews.
I believe the OP weights. So far, they are the only ones I have seen where we know what that weight includes. |
I have heard of such differences existing in the past but I doubt those do today. Automotive companies are more and more global and they very much want to, and are, building global vehicles. For example BMW used to offer very different engines (at least hp wise and some major componenets) in the E36 M3. As well SMG I was available in some markets in the E36 M3. These changes and other dissimilarities have continued to decrease through the E46 and E9X models. I do think there are some minor intake/exhaust differences between the EU and NA E9X M3, and we know about the seat bottoms as well, but major structural/chassis/metal differences - highly doubtful.
The last comment is that many items that are optional (and paid for) in a EU spec car and standard in a US car. This will explain some of the differences.
All of these minor disagreements aside I do believe that the weight originally posted is accurate and reliable and again it seems to jive with the NA quoted numbers. In the past, based on some the the actual weights posted of EU cars I believed we would see US cars significantly lighter than US specs. That very well may have been wishful thinking on my part.