[Scotsman]

BMW's are phenominal in the handling and performance departments. At the same time these two attributes don't always hold up with the actual experience. Older BMW's were much much better drivers cars than the current cars thanks to very simple but rigid engineering and quality standards the BMW's of today lack. That doesn't mean current BMW's aren't well made and built to a high standard, they are, just not as much as they once were. You can thank BMW's overzealous ambition to become the number one luxury auto maker for that. They've made a litany of compromises to be all things to all people in the midst of cutting costs to maintain profitability, and in the end this is good for sales (which is the whole point) but not good for the image and long term quality of the cars. So many folks think the 4yr "free" maintenance warranty is such a great deal, but what they don't see is that this has been put in place to drive sales for cars that people would otherwise be hesitant to buy because of the associated high costs of ownership, and you DO pay for that gimmick of a "free" warranty.

If you really have to have a new Bimmer though, the time is now; BMW has just stated they will be cutting 10k from allocation that would ordinarily be coming to the states thanks to the crappy exchange rate they're losing money on a lot of the cars they sell here.

I was eye-ing the 135i and while a very nice car to drive it's just not worth they money for the size and content you're getting, engine and all. The latter is the only reason you're buying the car anyway, which is enough for some people but not me.