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      07-03-2013, 03:09 PM   #108
Matski
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Drives: A slow BMW
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bimmerjph View Post
Yeah, this is all speculative.

Okay, so for clarification, the weights listed on BMW.com include a 75kg driver? If so its not as bad as I thought, although I still would have liked more. As I said earlier, it doesn't matter if you reduce the chassis weight by hundreds of kilograms if you then turn around and put in hundreds of kilograms of electronics.

As for the listed weights, I just went off of bmwusa.com, bmw.com, jaguar.com, audiusa.com
EU unladen weight that BMW use is Kerb weight plus 68kg driver + 7kg baggage. Jag just show kerb weight, which is apparently the car, plus fuel, plus fluids, but doesn't include driver or baggage.

You are right about the electonics thing, and BMW showed with the M3 CRT, that they'd happily negate the weight savings by adding luxuries... which was stupid... however, especially at the 7 series end of the market... it's the market that dictates the need for gadgets, toys, luxuries etc... so the engineers hard work will always be countered by this.

I wonder... if BMW offered a 5 series that had no Air-con, no nav, no power windows, no electric seats, no iDrive, 4 speaker stereos, no air-bags, worse crash protection, and less space, and featured an engine only 14hp more powerful than the i3.... how many they'd sell? Because the best 5 series I've ever driven featured all of those things... it was an E28! BUT the market changes... BMW could never sell a 5 series that was all of those things because everyone would buy heavier Audi's, Merc's, Jag's, Lexus's etc... because they like their comforts and their toys.... I mean, really have you seen how much people on this forum piss and moan about headlamp bulbs? Imagine the epic complaining if they lost Nav!!!!

Last edited by Matski; 07-03-2013 at 03:26 PM..
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