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Originally Posted by mkoesel
Yes. The *35i moniker is being retired from 6 cylinder duty completely. In the near future it will resurface with an M added for UKL M performance vehicles with the soon-to-be unveiled high output B48 relative.
I don't necessarily disagree, but the market has spoken. Audi has done the same thing with the gap between their A* and S* midrange products, and Mercedes now has *300 and *43. There is no more tweener 6 cylinder model. What they could do is offer a 300hp-ish four cylinder option to fill the gap, but so far that hasn't happened (well, Volvo is all four cylinder now - so they are actually doing this). In the future we may see entries like that from the Germans, but for right now you get the I4, the 6 cylinder, and then the super-duper 6 cylinder (V8 in Mercedes case, for now) from M/AMG/Audi-Sport-RS.
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This just makes competitors from Jaguar/Ford/Infiniti/Lexus much more appealing. You are looking at a $10-$14k jump from the 28i version to the M40i. With Audi and Mercedes doing the same, this just means the M, S and AMG brand are aim for premium positioning once more at the expense of forcing consumers to go for base models otherwise.
Quote:
Originally Posted by darksilkx1
Yup you have Audi S to thank for that. They went that way years ago, now MB has followed with their AMG Sport (Lite). Go and look at the E class. Either you're paying approx 50k for an E300 or 72k plus for an E43, no in between 6 cylinder option. Goes on and on.
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This unfortunately just pushes me to look at other alternatives such as the Explorer Sport. The X3 M40i will most likely start around mid $50ks possibly push mids or highs $60ks optioned out. That is X5 territory at that point.