Zaid

I'm in a serious car controversy. ;-)

In a nutshell: I was going to get an M3, but the dealer I was working with jacked me, so I went over to the 996. I test drove the car, and then placed an order, but I have to contort my body to really fit into the car, and I had the feeling that I would eventually tire of stressing my body like that. Finally, after hemming and hawing for about a week, I went in and canceled the order, but I told them to keep my deposit and as a result, I'm #1 on the list for the 997 (the next generation after the 996). I then went back to the M3 after finding another BMW dealer in my area that seemed reasonable, but after perusing the bimmer forums, I'm hearing so much about the infamous tranmission clunk and diff failures that now I'm scared to buy one.

So here I am now, looking for a high-performance manual tranny car to replace my S4, whose only problem is that it's a Tip. I could sell my Tip S4 and buy a used 6sp for only a bit more, which would hold me over until the 997 comes out. Or I could keep my new S4 and just wait, WAIT, W*A*I*T for the 997, the new NSX, the B6 S4, or whatever else is coming out in 2004 (that seems to be an auspicious year for new car intros).

The only problem is, I CAN'T WAIT!!!! I want to drive a kickass car like the S4 with a stick NOW.

Pass the ADD medications, please....

Zaid

P.S. Anyone got a 6sp S4, MY01 or MY02 without a sunroof and preferably with silver leather that they would like to sell me?

johnsa4

Just get the M3

bmwslayer

bimmers are like a honda...Dime a dozen....be patient young grasshopper...

S4_4MY30'S

dont' let a clunk make your decision... so what..s4's trans/cluth CLUNKS as well...agree?

MNM3/4

It seems that whenever something new comes out, no matter how much it's tested, a small percentage of people experience some type of failure. This applies to everything from software to cars. It's a fact of life.

Further, the people who do experience the failure often trumpet their experience to anyone who'll listen. It's usually something like, "I paid X dollars for this car and I expect it to be perfect!" It's hard to argue because it should be perfect. But, this perfection takes some time to get right. It takes the early adopters to run out, buy the car and shake out missed problems so that the next model year really is closer to perfect.

All I'm saying is that a small % of things will always have problems. We don't have to like it or even accept it but this seems to be the reality right now. At some point you have to just have to dive in, get what you want, and deal with any issues as they come up. Or, just go out and buy an Accord. Just don't expect to have any fun.

Good luck,
MNM3/4

Zaid

But my WRX seems to clunk every so often when I put the clutch in in 1st or 2nd at low speeds.

Zaid

Zaid

But as an engineer, it chills my bones to think that this clunk problem is a design flaw and not simply a quality issue. And if it IS a design flaw, chances are that it's not going to get remedied in the next model year simply for the fact that it's a lot cheaper for the company to replace busted parts than to actually rework the design.

I guess this issue with the M3 is entirely parallel to the blown turbo issue that we have on the S4. Maybe that should make me feel better. ;-)

Zaid