Yesterday I drove my mates BMW. It is a 2007 model and has 18" wheels, full leather, cruise, etc,etc.

It's done 8500 miles so it's quite well loosened up. What really surprised me was the MASSIVE difference there is between his car and my re-mapped Fabia VRS.

O.K, his car does have the edge when it comes to quality and the interior is excellent, but when you put your foot down through the gears, it feels limp compared to the Fabia.

Bearing in mind he paid

Depends what you want from a car I guess. I drove an E36 316i and despite have relatively little power, it was an absolute hoot to drive because of the RWD and lack of driver aids. The 328i of the same vintage was also an excellent car to drive. Not driven a new one for comparison, but I wonder if all the modern (weighty) gadgets have numbed the experience a bit?

Chris

Maybe it's due to my lack of driving a rear wheel drive car but i'll tell you one thing, the steering is a tetchy as his previous car. You continually have to make corrections and I didn't like it at all. The seats though were fantastic as was the handling.

If i was looking at a bmw 3 seirse i would consider the 320d, much better than the 320i IMHO. definaltly the bigger you can go for the better with the bmw's.

Im also a fan of the coupe shape, and the convertable.