Quote:
Originally Posted by Efthreeoh
Now that concept I agree with  .
But you're completely wrong about my test driving, because it is actually the complete opposite. You can look through my posts back in the August 2013 timeframe and forward regarding my comments of the F30 and ATS to check. But just to recap, in August and September of 2013, I had my E90 in for analysis of the oil sensor issue that I've since documented BMW purposefully turns off the oil life monitor function at 186,000 miles. And in September I had my Hummer H3T in for repair of some rodent damage to the electrical system. So within the span of 3 weeks I had an '12 F30 335i (auto of course) as a loaner, and a '12 ATS 2.0T (auto as well) with a week in between following (so almost back-to-back) as a loaner. I drove both cars on my daily 160-mile round trip commute, which is a mix of excellent back-country roads, dual lane rural highway, and about 20 miles of stop-and-go Northern Virginia traffic. I drove each car over 900 miles and had both separately over a weekend. I found the ATS the much more engaging car to drive. It handled better, steered better, and braked better. The F30 had more power obviously, which was fun for merging on the highway, but that was about it. As far as back road work, the ATS was far more fun and enjoyable to drive. In one post on the subject I ranked the cars this way: E90 1st, ATS 2nd, and 335i 3rd. As far as the CUE and I-drive units, well I hate that level of infotainment in a car anyway, but I found both just as distracting to the purpose of driving. I've hung out on the ATS sites for awhile, and the consensus I found was that most owners found the CUE system quite good once it was mastered.
And after the August/September test drives, the next weekend I went to my BMW dealer in Charlottesville to test drive the F30 320i with a sport package and manual transmission. I found the 320i even worse than the 335i, the engine was far under powered and the chassis still had no balance. The 320i sport package was actually a bit higher priced than the ATS 2.0T with a sunroof and manual trans (the way I'd get one) since it comes with a LSD for free (something BMW doesn't even offer until you get to an M3). The sales manager in C-ville offered a $4.5K discount right off the bat to try and sell me the 320i that day, and I wasn't even interested in buying a car at the time.
So, yeah, I've driven the new BMWs; I think they suck compared to the BMWs I've driven for the last 27 years or so. You can also read a post I just wrote 30 minutes ago on another thread about the F30. |
Holy crap, you OWNED a H3T?? I may have seen maybe one of those in my entire life. What'd you do with it?
As for mastering CUE, there shouldn't really be a learning curve and if there is one, it should be a small one. It's why I passed over an E90 335i back in 2007, I wanted to punch the damn screen while trying to use it while driving to do things like climate control, audio, etc. The current iDrive software is much more user friendly, only obscure settings can be difficult to find but basic stuff is all there and readily available. CUE will only improve as time goes on just like any other infotainment system I'm sure though.
It'll take some time but provided Cadillac keeps cranking out the great products they're making and maybe produce a halo car (the Audi R8 did wonders for getting people to pay attention to Audi) and some high volume selling luxury crossovers, I can't see why Cadillac can't be seen in the same light as the Germans.