Originally Posted by 550isport' post='442585' date='Jul 2 2007, 01:17 PM

Nice post. Great responses.

I love this question, because it reveals a lot about people's personal preferences in cars.

To me a sports sedan is a 4 door vehicle that is designed and build with as high a priority on performance (a conglomerate of handling, acceleration, braking etc..) as on luxury, safety, reliability, styling etc...

For example: 50/50 weight distribution and rear wheel drive are BMW hallmarks, both of which make a car less safe in incliment weather (I love pushing my car in the wet, but the average person is better off with a front heavy car like a Merc. that understeers in bad weather or a car with front/four wheel drive - also understeering cars). It doesn't matter what technology you apply. The laws of physics dictate that anything that makes a car more comfortable, takes away its performance capabilites in some way. BMW offers the minimum amount of comfort with the maximum amount of performance in the segment (save for perhaps Maserati's QP). It burns my nads when BMW owners don't get this...

I understand I am in the minority being an intellectual car fanatic, but its amazing how little people really know or care about the different approaches of car manufacturers. IMHO BMW has for a while been the only manufacturer (selling to the U.S.) that really offers a sports sedan. Now Maserati does, and many will argue that AMG sedans are sports sedans, but they are really standard cars with aftermarkets bits (impressive ones at that) added after the fact. Same thing for Audi. With the possible - and delicious - exception of the CLK 63 Black edition, no AMG car seems to place a premium on on-road performance - handling, weight distribution, brake feel and modulation etc... at the expense of comfort, as far as I can say. I'd bet Porsche has designed a performance oriented 4 door from the ground up. They are not going to take an A8 and relabel it the Panamera.

A sports sedan should look the part, but lords knows the 1st and 2nd generation M5s were sleepers in that department, and since they were fantastic driver's cars, looks don't seem that essential to the definition of sports sedan (also there are so many cars whose bark is worse than their bite).

I beelieve that just like the last male in a bloodline, BMW holds the keys to the future of sport sedans in our market. I sincerely hope they continue to appreciate that the brand's reputation, and the envy that follows, is premised on their dedication to performance, not safety, luxury etc....regardless of what the American market polls tell them. As drivers, we Americans are like confused highschool girls. We can't describe or accurately tell you what we want (like in a survey or poll), we just know it when we see it (sitting in the neighbor's driveway). In this regard, kudos to BMW for its plan to release the hydrogen 7 to a select number of "celebrity" figures before it goes on sale to the public...

DRP