C/D Full Test: M3 "The bar has been raised again"

[Soup DeVille]

There was an article I read in the last few months of an auto magazine that the guy was saying how cars are going away from the most simple control piece ever invented - the knob.? So many things (like radio volume) these days are using up/down switches or some other tomfoolery when a simple knob will almost always do a better job.

Kind of like BMW changing to that new stupid blinker system.? If it ain't broke, let's make it worse!

Two things immediately spring to mind:

One is of course the old two-knob style radios. Easy to tune, easy to change volume on. No modern radio matches the old ones for outright ease-of-use.

The second is the old style headlight knobs. First detent for parking lights, the second for headlights. Footswitch for brights. Rotate the knob to change instrument panel brightness. On upper level cars, rotate the outer bezel for twilight sentinal settings (auto on/off lights), or even for guide-o-matic sensitivity (auto dimming of the brights).
Again, simple and easy to use, and I doubt that any system I've seen since can claim to have improved upon its basic functionality.

[Soup DeVille]

Lambos are for sissy posers, that's why they had windshield wipers and heat. Real cars, like Ferraris, don't need that shit.

They needed to have that stuff, so that people wouldn't confuse them with Lamborghini's other main product: farm tractors.

[Eye of the Tiger]

That is a good point, since they are otherwise basically the same, from a performance standpoint, anyway.

[Soup DeVille]

That is a good point, since they are otherwise basically the same, from a performance standpoint, anyway.

You wouldn't be saying that if you'd ever tried to pull a plow with an Espada.

[Eye of the Tiger]

You got me there. I've never plowed with an Espada. But last night I plowed with an Esteem.

[Soup DeVille]

You got me there. I've never plowed with an Espada. But last night I plowed with an Esteem.

Becoming a freelance bazil farmer?

[Eye of the Tiger]

Becoming a freelance bazil farmer?

No, that would actually make sense. What I did was miss the entrace to a dirt parking lot, and instead jumped over the drainage ditch and plowed over the mound of dirt on the opposite side. Not suprisingly, the 'st33m suffered no damage at all. Despite my best efforts, it seems to be indestructible.

[Soup DeVille]

No, that would actually make sense. What I did was miss the entrace to a dirt parking lot, and instead jumped over the drainage ditch and plowed over the mound of dirt on the opposite side. Not suprisingly, the 'st33m suffered no damage at all. Despite my best efforts, it seems to be indestructible.

Sounds like me in my old Festiva...

[Eye of the Tiger]

Sounds like me in my old Festiva...

Did it go on many offroad adventures? 

[Soup DeVille]

Did it go on many offroad adventures??

Yes, all of them less than intentional.

There's a certain attitude you tend to get when you realize you could total a car completely and its scrap value would be approximately 80% of its current value.

[Eye of the Tiger]

Yes, all of them less than intentional.

There's a certain attitude you tend to get when you realize you could total a car completely and its scrap value would be approximately 80% of its current value.

[nickdrinkwater]

Hmmm... 60K US for this thing... BMW Canada will surely ask $85,000.
No thanks. I'd much rather an E30 M3 anyways.

US$60,000?  That's a bargain IMO.

[Raza]

US$60,000?? That's a bargain IMO.

You're looking at it from an FX perspective.  60K USD is equal to about 50-55K GBP in market dollars, not 30K GBP.