BMW 335i = Amazing
 

So all these years I kept seeing BMW's win almost every comparo in every magazine and I kept thinking how overrated they are. However, my grandfather recently decided he wanted to buy a car in that catagory(BMW 335, Lexus IS350, Infiniti G35, and Acura TL). Well after the first couple test drives he had it narrowed down to the Lexus and the BMW 335. So on Saturday my brother and I went to the BMW dealership to check things out. As it turned out the saleswoman was busy, so her assistant, a 22 year old dude was helping us. He was a cool guy, clearly into cars. He could tell we were too and offered to take us on a test drive. The car was amazing. It has the new twin turbo inline 6, and was equipped with a 6 speed manumatic transmission. The car was very quick, probably about on par with my stock 98 Camaro SS, but way smoother. The brakes were some of the best I've ever experienced, it was actually jarring at first how well the thing breaks. Overall I came away more than impressed. The Lexus was also nice, but the head room and legroom were worse, and the rear visability also was. In addition, even though Lexus says you can get 17" rims, right now you can only get 18's. This wouldn't be so bad except the front and rear tires are different sizes(no rotating of tires) and Lexus says typically the tires last 15k miles or less. Really lame actually. Two dealerships told us that even if he special ordered it, they still couldn't get the 17's. Overall though, the BMW was so superior it wasn't even a contest.

Say, what does that Kraut-mobile cost when you're done taking it in the unterhosen and driving it off the lot? Also, were there no domestics ever in the running, like the new STS? Out of curiosity, where's this model Bimmer built?

I think it's going to end up costing about 43k. For the money, nothing from the American makers would be as cool. The CTS-V would be in the running or maybe the 6 cyl STS, but I don't think he likes the styling on either of them. If the new CTS was out it might be a different story - that's a hot car.