Quote:
Originally Posted by Efthreeoh
It did.
Cars were so much fun 30 years ago. Saabs were different. Audis were different. BMWs were awesome. Benzes were classy. Ford made cool cars like the Mustang SVO, the Thunderbird Turbo Coupe, the Ford Escort GT (not the real European one though). Dodge had the Omni GLH (Goes Like Hell). Honda made the Del Sol.
Now it's all just transverse-mounted 4-cylinder turbos on a common chassis.... Oh, and AWD, and big phone screen with Aps! Snore.
The advent of computer controlled braking (i.e. dynamic stability control) almost any car can be made to handle like BMWs used to. But BMW developed a great chassis and suspension to make its car handle. Even BMW has gone FWD because weight balance doesn't matter anymore, computers keep the car on the road.
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BMW went FWD because it was convenient with Mini Cooper FWD architecture in-house and they needed a vehicle to compete with Audi and MB in the entry level market. That's all, nothing more. Also too many people focus on the shining stars of the 80's (IMO the 2nd worst decade ever for automobiles after the 70's) and 90's conveniently forgetting how bad most vehicle handled and drove in those days. Entry level vehicles of today such as a Mazda 3 would drive circles around a lot of sporty models from the 90's. I owned a del sol VTEC in the 90's and while I appreciate the era before the beancounters took over Honda, the only thing memorable about that car was the B16A. The domestics in particular totally mailed in the 80's and 90's largely producing garbage that will not ever be missed.