[dmboone25]

Being the owner of a 135i, I can see why people like FI cars--it really is a fun car to drive. Faster, cheaper, easier to upgrade than an M3--not a bad deal.

That being said, I don't think that the M division is something that appeals to the masses anyway, so why change an old philosophy? You can go FI with other cars in your line, that's fine, but for the M division, I think staying NA is better.

For example, my dad has an '07 M Coupe--sure my car is faster than his in a straight line, but doesn't have 1/10 of the soul. It appears there will be no future M versions of the Z4, but you are going to have an M version of the X6? The X5? This makes no sense to me--you are going to have soccer moms driving MX6's and have no idea what M is supposed to mean.

To be honest, I think BMW took too big of a jump with the N54, and you can get M-like performance out of a 1 or 3 for a fraction of the cost of an M3. So they come out with a NA V8, which is a very nice engine, but is one that will still get burned by a 335 in a straight line on the street.

This appears to be another "we don't know where we are going" move from BMW. Sad to see.