Thread: M550i or M340i?
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      03-28-2019, 01:37 AM   #4
wknddrivr
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Drives: E36 M3/E39 M5
Join Date: Aug 2012
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Don’t look at iDrive 6 as being outdated compared to idrive 7. It is older, but it is also a much better design. Aside from the countless bugs drivers are experiencing with iDrive 7 (see the x5 forum), it’s just a poor design and unintuitive wheras idrive 6 is excellent. The digital instrument cluster serves little purpose other than for BMW’s marketing team to say they have a fully digital instrument cluster to compete with Audi’s virtual cockpit. The BMW digital cluster in the 3 series is ugly, hard to read and doesn’t present the driver with the right information. The cluster in the G30 5 is better

Aside from the electronics, how the car drives is another big difference. The 3 will be much more tossable than the 5 and feel more sporty. The 5 has a more planted stable feeling, but lacks in steering feel and driver engagement. Do you prefer sport or luxury?

Personally I’d go for the refinement of the 5 over the sportiness of the 3 for a daily driver. And definitely 540 not 550. The 540 has more than enough power for a sporty luxury car and weighs much less than the 550 so it feels better and gets much better fuel mileage. The 550 strikes me as pointless as putting a larger engine in an car that’s not engaging to drive doesn’t make it anymore engaging. 540 is the perfect balance
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