I'm considering these same three cars. I'm looking for something nice and livable that's fast enough to give a coworker or a girlfriend a hell of a thrill. And it has to corner, too.

The Evo is amazing performance for the money. Spending the price difference between it and the 135 in mods will give you a monster car, especially with all the butt dyno horsepower stoplight to stoplight. It's useful all day every day of the year with the awd, but with no warranty, how will it fare? Just how pricey is it to run an Evo? And what if you're like me, who never really races? Also, I can't get over just how bland the interior is. If I'm in a fast car, I need to feel like I'm in a cockpit, not a Camry. That said, excellent Recaros :]. But for the love of God, 3k RPMs at 60 in the GSR? blech.

The 370z is interesting. It's powerful, but not torquey enough for the only speeding I do, which is basically 0-to-60 tops. Its bargain pricing with amazing standard features and the only real cockpit feel. The SynchroRevMatch is amazing, but with everyone and their mom driving one, it will seem as though this car is just the crutch for the bad driver. The catfish is horrific looking, but the 370 is a canyon carver and will always be fun to drive. There's a reason Z owners hang on to them.

The 135i is my serious Evo competitor. RWD is so much more fun than AWD, except in snow, in which I do hear (with snow tires) the 135i is just fine. The TT-6 with just a piggyback ECU reflash puts down nearly 400whp, and even in heavy 335i guise will do a 4.0-to-60 run. It's luxurious and carries the BMW badge... which costs about ten grand over the Evo. It's awkward looking from some angles, and in numerous tests has been prone to understeer as it doesn't come with a LSD... at all. Pathetic. And then there is the question of German reliability... the car could cost ten grand more now, and twenty additional when things start to go wrong as the car ages.

Neither the N54 nor the 4B11 have been proven, and it seems only the Z is tried-and-true, but it's not what I'm looking for.

Damn it.

 

TTS is the the $50k range...

 

If i were you, id do the following. Take them all out for a test drive, slam the pedal to the ground and if you can, take them on some curvy roads. When you get back to the dealership and get off the car with a smile on your face, you'll know thatll be the car for you.

 

Yep, agree as well. The X is a car that really has it all... the trunk space on it sucks, but other than that I can't find to many faults with it. The Z is an awesome looking car, but mods will be expensive and in order to really be able to beat a car like the X, you're going to need some money. Not to mention in just the practical area.. you can fit 1 other person in a Z. If that's all you ever do anyway, then maybe think about that one a little more, but consider the AWD and that the Z would be a more seasonal car. If it rains, you have to be much more careful, if it snows much or is icy... forget it. I don't know much about the 135i other than the numbers. It's a quick car, but for being a TT 6 i'm not impressed with it, plus BMW's resale values have always seemed to really suck... maybe that's changed now though. The X is the best overall car IMO and i'm not by any means an expert, but I did look into the other 2 you are asking about. Noize can tell you about the 135 and the X... he had one, went to the 135, then got the X again lol. Welcome back again my friend

 

Do mankind a big favor and don't take anyone on a thrill ride unless you have their prior consent and it's on a track.

You always have to ask yourself this question: "How will I explain to her parents that I just killed their daughter?"

 

Pardon the exaggeration.

 

The TTS has an AMAZING interior, but the overall cost is like TWICE as much. Not a very fair comparison.

 

370 Z =millions drove daily (very soon); the BMW is what it is, expensive to mod and could never handle like an X! The X eats tires, guzzles gas and forces you to take corners way faster than they were meant to be taken (laughs)! Look at it like this, from a dig all the cars are very similar in 0-60/ 1/2 mile time... That being said, I'd rather have a slower car that handles better as opposed to a fast car that doesn't handle! The X is a much better platform for that, I don't think anybody would argue that on this board!

P.S. At the end of the day it's what the driver wants to live with?

 

^^^Make sure when you're testing out that handling you have over a 1/4 of a tank of gas so you don't starve the motor.

 

lol, well yeah i love the evo x's. and i know someone who is the owner of one of the BMW's so i can get a 135i fully loaded for 35k, or i can get an evo X fully loaded for 30k. I'm still not so sure.

 

has your car been mean to you? You seem a little bitter on your last few posts about it.

 

If you can get the 135i fully loaded for $35K go that route (which seems unbelievably cheap for a fully loaded 135i). It will hold it's value better and IMO is a very nice car. If the extra $5K makes your budget tight get the EVO X.

 

Don't overlook the STi. You either like the stying or not. Face it, the Evo X stock is for the $ the better car than all the cars mentioned including the STi. But with a few mods like whiteline sways and endlinks and the STi will corner just as nice as the X, is just as fast and has a huge storage space when the seats are folded down. As for as a practical car the STi is hard to beat-the X is hard to beat as a "drivers" car. Choose your weapon.

 

If the STI had a sedan, i'd be more interested... the hatchback is just ugly. Sorry to those out there who like them.. it's just not my style. The only hatch I like is the R32 which isn't in the same league as any of the cars mentioned in this thread.

 

I would rather get the STI if it had something like TC-SST. I live Cali, so manual is a bad option for me.