BMW E92 M3 = Ford Mustang GT

[Schwalbe]

Talk about Bang for the buck.  



Don't read me wrong here, IMO German cars are always better. They have better quality, they doing better on racetrack, they have more prestige etc...but when money is the key factor...there's always a domestic car to solve your problem.  

This is why I have sometimes this kind of reflexion for almost similar performance:
(2008 420hp AWD Audi B7 RS4 ~63,000$ vs 2008 420hp AWD Jeep SRT-8 ~28,000$)

 

[spanky]

oh yeah on price its an awesome deal... but i cant imagine the interior, panels etc and other things being in the same league condition wise... especially in 5-10 years time...

but dollar for dollar performance you couldnt go wrong... you'd have enough left over to put another 100-150hp of modifications into it as well

[Darkel]

I wonder why they left out the "ability to negociate a corner without ending up wrapped around a tree"  j/k I hear it's improved a lot over the years.

This is probably a fair comparison in North America but not so much in Europe, I'm also wondering about fuel economy, CO2 (more $$ to shell out), depreciation after a couple of years etc.

Don't get me wrong, I'd definitely get a Stang or a Challenger if I lived on the other side of the Atlantic    But those cars are often associated with mid-life crisis here, even more than the beemer 

[brembo]

Bang for buck yeah I agree in addition I like th elooks of the mustang over the M3 and the sound so why not?

Well...one things is to get to 250 km/h the other thing is how you get there, and in that way the BMW gets you there better imo...and as said down the road the BMW will look the part and feel the part while the mustang will be alot worse.

But at the end of the line when car guys buy a car and cars like this are often bought by car guys or at least in the dreams of car guys and for us it is alot more the deal than just the quarter mile time and the 0-100 time and that part can not be put a price tag on.

I could have bought alot of good cars for what I have spent on Audis thru the years, but they do the trick for me so for me it is about more than getting thru that corner it is how I get thru that corner and I like doing it ass first if it can be done and in that matter the quattro makes me do that with a smile....

[ZfrkS62]

turn around and look at resale value too. What's the M3 going to be worth in 5 years compared to the Mustang? A hell of a lot more, that's for sure.

For street driving, i think that the Mustang would be the way to go, but if you're going to track the car as well, you get what you pay for. Mustangs have been notorious late apexers due to their poor rear end set up. The M3 is just better balanced for all around thrashing, and you know that it was built to sustain Autobahn speeds.

I'll spend the extra 30K and buy confidence as well, since you'll look like a douche in either car

[sentra_dude]

That's a pretty interesting side-by-side comparison. The most surprising part is that the once petite and agile 4 cylinder BMW now has 8 cylinders and weighs MORE than the pony car, a V8 Mustang.

Here's an interesting look back at 20 years ago:

1990 E30 M3
$34,950
2.3L 192 hp I4
2865 lb

vs.

1990 Ford Mustang GT
$14,044
4.9L 225 hp V8
3191 lb (the LX with the same engine came in at 3037 lb)

So in 20 years the BMW has matched the horsepower differential while giving up a 300+ lb weight advantage. 

Obviously the BMW has some serious advantages in ride quality, build quality, overall engineering, and handling on non-pancake smooth surfaces, but then again it costs almost double.

@Darkel, I've driven some Mustangs and I can say some of the earlier ones are seriously crude in a lot of ways, but the modern ones have improved considerably. They aren't really known for handling, but they have held their own in some racing series against IRS cars. The Mustang stomps the BMW in fuel economy, no matter what Top Gear says about American V8s being thirsty. 

2010 Mustang GT: 16-17/24-25 mpg; 2010 BMW M3: 14/20 mpg

@Brembo, I would agree on the Mustang sound, they really do have a wonderful sounding V8. For high speed cruising a BMW would by my choice every time, if only for the refinement of the BMW.  For us we like things other than quarter mile, but a lot of Mustang guys, the fastest quarter mile time for the least money is pretty important, hence the survival of the cheap but effective (for putting power down in a straight line) live rear axle which is also tougher than an IRS. The Mustang is also a helluva a lot cheaper to fix too!

[wackary]

 

[danidmas]

I know it's not a reference... well... yeah... it is... so what about the Nürburgring laptimes?! I'm sure the BMW M3 is a better performer overall. Not to mention the quality and the interior design. At the end of the day, you're not doing 0-100 in 4.3 seconds in every traffic light... and IMO the beemer offers quite a lot more than just numbers

[Thamar]

What keeps surprising me is how cheap cars are in the US!
When you take away the 21% tax the M3 still costs a rough 81.000 dollar overhere...

20.000$ is a lot of money, where is that going?
Or do we pay the car + profit and in the us just the car?


Samething with warranty's, we're happy we get 2 or 3 years. In the US many offer 5years/60.000miles incl maintenance/wear&tear
So that's 60.000miles that you don't have to pay for tires, brakepads, etc etc etc...

[Darkel]

I once compared the US price for a 5 series to the German price (from the German website), and the difference is nuts ...

I don't know, maybe it also has to do with the cost of living and wages on both continents ?

[ZfrkS62]

What keeps surprising me is how cheap cars are in the US!
When you take away the 21% tax the M3 still costs a rough 81.000 dollar overhere...

20.000$ is a lot of money, where is that going?
Or do we pay the car + profit and in the us just the car?


Samething with warranty's, we're happy we get 2 or 3 years. In the US many offer 5years/60.000miles incl maintenance/wear&tear
So that's 60.000miles that you don't have to pay for tires, brakepads, etc etc etc...

M3 here is about 76,000 USD, so Thamar, i'm not really sure what the currency conversion is, you aren't far off.

Our warranty + maintenance starts at 4yr/50k and is extendable through BMW to 6yr/100k.

VW just introduced 3yr/36k maint. and i think Ford might be doing the same soon.

The difference is, car owners here are douchebags and expect 3x the value they pay for. We also don't get to build our car here. They have packages already in place and you pretty much tell the sales guy what packages you want, and they find the car in another dealer's showroom and trade them a car for it. Over there, you'd sit down and build your car from the wheels up and wait 6 weeks for delivery, then drive it til said wheels fall off. Most of our cars here are lucky to be owned by the same person through their warranty period. 

I have to say though, the warranty/maintenance packages have kept BMW afloat through the last year and a half. Mercedes was retarded to ditch that.

[Thamar]

76k is taxes included? % ?

So basically you can't walk up to a garage and order it completely as you wish? It's always give or take a bit?
If they mass order several cars to the exact same spec, yeah sure, prices are lower but still that big difference...

And 6 weeks for delivery is if you are very very lucky Mostly it's 3-6months...