[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by JRobUSC

I never understand when people say things like that. "If you don't make your thing the way I want you to make it, which is different than the way everything else in the segment is, then I'm going to go buy this other thing that also isn't the way I want it and in fact is exactly what I'm mad about your thing." It makes no sense. The S3 is a transverse engine, FWD-based car too, so if Audi can make the A3 and S3 handle well there's no reason BMW couldn't do the same thing with a 1-Series sedan. And from what we've read, it'll be roomier than the A3/S3, as well, and look like it's proportioned properly and not like a weird, snub nosed, truncated A4. So I don't see the problem. In fact the ONLY problem I see is BMW isn't planning on bringing the car here. And that is simply mind boggling. Audi and Mercedes sell 2000-3000 A3's and CLA's a month in the U.S., and BMW has no answer. If BMW took 1000 from each of them they'd be #1 in sales right now.

Maybe I can help. For those of us who have been BMW aficionados for the past 40 years or so remember when BMW touted the reason for it remaining with a RWD chassis architecture (while everyone else in the industry was going FWD) was because a FWD architecture was weight-imbalanced and power distribution-imbalanced (read torque steer) and couldn't provide the desired BMW handling attributes. Now that BMWs basically drive like Buicks, and Cadillac has taken over as the sports sedan handling champ, it makes sense for BMW to produce a FWD chassis shared with the Mini.

In the matter of just 10 years or so, BMW has gone from a manufacturer that stated it doesn't platform share (to eliminate the compromises with doing so - and as every other mass-production manufacturer does) and only produces RWD platforms since it offers perfect weight balance, to now doing both; and even sharing platforms with another manufacturer (ugh). While computer drivetrain control has lead to programming RWD handling attributes into a FWD chassis, the laws of physics (i.e. moments of inertia) still matter when tires lose grip.