Okay so you all know I have an SLK 55 AMG. I take my cousin to Bob Smith BMW to see if they had any M3s. Took him to Rusnak too and he test drove one there. But anyway that was the reason why I was at a BMW dealership. My cousin had the first BMW M3 and the tires said west germany on them. So he loves BMW M3s.

So we are talking to the sales rep at Bob Smith BMW and he tells us that he worked at the Mercedes Benz dealership for six years before coming to BMW. The reason why he made the move was because he said that Mercedes lost quality since the merger with Cystler (however u spell it). And he was saying that because it is now a publicly traded company there is a lot of BS going around and that BMW is not a traded company so it doesn't have to answer to anybody. So there is a black Z4 M (the hardtop, is there a soft top convertible?) And I love black sport cars so I started talking about it and I told him I have the SLK 55 AMG... After saying so much bad stuff about MB quality, he agreed that Mercedes did make a very good SLK 55 AMG. He called it the little beast from hell. He said the only two good cars that MB made were the SLK 55 AMG and the CL class. So we now compare the SLK 55 AMG to the Z4 M and he said the SLK 55 AMG is much better. AND TO TOP THAT, HE SAID THAT THEY CANNOT EVEN SELL THE Z4 M TO ANYBODY. HE SAID IT IS THERE WORST CAR AND THAT THEY HAD TO SEND SOME BACK BECAUSE NO ONE WANTED TO BUY THEM. ALSO, HE SAID THAT THE CAR HAD BEEN IN THE DEALERSHIP FOR ABOUT 5 MONTHS AND THAT THEY ONLY SOLD 3. KEEP IN MIND THAT THIS IS BOB SMITH BMW, THE BEST BMW DEALERSHIP. I FORGOT THE SALES REP'S NAME, BUT HE WAS A TALL LIGHT SKIN AFRICAN AMERICAN THAT WEARS GLASSES. GO ASK HIM YOURSELF IF YOU DO NOT BELIEVE ME. Remember the SLK 350 pweter with tobacco interior...that was 10,000 dollars over MSRP and every MB dealership was sold out of them.

He said that the SLK 55 AMG is better than the Z4 M and that I can't go wrong with that car.

 

You mean someone opened the trunk and let you back out so they can enjoy open top motoring again?

 

There's quite a lot of Z4M owners who are very happy with their cars.

Honestly, I would never listen to what some sales guy at a dealership tells you. They just speak THEIR mind, not necessarily facts.

 

Z4 M comes as a coupè and as a roadster, they are two different models. Of course roadsters might have an hard top as an option. Both of them are exquisite cars, I would give the edge to the coupè. And yes, SLK55 is a blast, but with a 2,3 liter capacity advantage it must sweat to have the edge on both those beemers anyway.
Try only to imagine if any of those beemers had the M5 engine under the bonnet, we would be talking about a naturally aspirated 5 liter V10 engine producing 140hp more than the SLK55........c'mon, guys, we can't deny the guys from Munich still have the edge on naturally aspirated engines!

 

But AMG can get more HP and more torque from a V8 (naturally aspirated) than BMW can from a V10

 

This is what happens when people don't understand engines. In terms of specific output (hp/liter) the M5's V10 beats the snot out of the AMG unit (100 hp/liter compared to 80 in the AMG unit). You're comparing a 5 liter engine to a 6.2 liter engine with much larger cylinder bores. Bump up the M5's engine another liter and it would be putting out 560-580 ponies STOCK. Plus there are guys getting 600 crank hp just from exhaust/chip combo's.

Lets not forget which one won international engine of the year.

 

A lot more torque on the 63 engine then the 5 liter V10 from BMW. And at much lower revs as well.

In the end, two very different engines.

 

Once again, displacement, bore, stroke all come into play.

 

 

And that's exactly why it's so difficult to compare some engines.

Ferrari is already beating out BMW engines in regards to hp per liter, but then again, their torque is even lower. And finally, go look at an S2000, and you've got 120hp per liter of displacement (at a very high rpm level, but at the expense of even less torque).

You win some, you lose some. Be it hp per liter, torque, rpm levels or reliability.

Some people love high revving S2000 like engines, others are very happy with constant high torque levels resulting in easy high-gear driving.

 

Subaru only won in their category! They didn't win overall Ricky, tell the truth!

 

Yeah, let's hear the truth about BMW's M3 engine, and the reliability in the first few years of it's existence

What about the new M5 engine Vanos failures? Or the very high oil consumption of the older 400hp (older model) M5 engines?

It's easy to pick and fight about stuff like this. But in the end it just becomes a pi$$ing match. If you're happy with your car and how it behaves, that's really all that should matter. And I still say that dealers are the worst people when it comes to having an opinion on cars. They suck up to the buying public when they're not lying through their teeth

 

Those are just ads from a LeftLaneNews article that I thought reminded me of this thread.

But come on, let's be serious -- the start of this thread is coming from a salesman? Screw that.

Maybe if Kimi told me that the SLK55 was better than a Z4M perhaps I'd say "Hey, that's credible" but some salesdooood? Psh.

 

Motorsport's (BMW) philosophy: natural aspirated engines, mighty speciic output (hp per liter), high revving, first 5/6K miles to be done very (and I mean VERY) carefully. It's all about preferring power to torque (any car manufacturer when tuning an engine like that must choose, like a "short blanket")

AMG's (Mercedes) philosophy: recently back to natural aspirated engines, mighty torque for a wide spread of rpm (talking "k"), very reliable, less specific output than ///Motorsport engines, once again better torque for good driveability.

Of course it makes sense if we compare engines with the same displacement (let's say the ///M5 with SLK55), even if the 5 liter engine of the new ///M5 has more power than the CLK63 AMG (at expense of torque........)

Ciao

 

I believe it, last year when I was looking into the SLK. I went to the BMW Dealer to drop of an X5 for service. I walked around the lot and notice a black Z4 3.0 fully loaded, sports package, etc... I actually like the looks of the Z4, it's growing on me, there were a big sticker that said. "10,000 off MSRP, no haggle price." I walked around it a couple of times and a salesperson walked up and said he could do better than the 10K off. I asked him how much, he said, how bout another 3K. WTF. How can that be, brand new Z4 3.0 for $13,000 OFF OF MSRP!!! Do they actually make money or were they trying to dump it as it's been sitting on the lot for a long time. On the other hand Glauser MB couldn't keep a SLK for less than 3 days, the only one they had trouble selling was a SLK w/o airscarf, ended up selling that one for $5K under MSRP to someone from out of state.