Is it the turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-6 that makes 300 horsepower and 300 pound-feet of torque? If so, of course he's wrong. Dumbass salesman probably doesn't even know what this even means. 0-60 in 5.4 seconds.
The ZL1 hasn't came out yet but I believe its supposed to by the end of the year. It will be 60k+ though. But again performace for dollar its still going to be a great deal. New Camaro SS does 0-60 in 4.0 seconds, ZL1 is rumored to do 3.5 seconds. The Camaro isn't a muscle car anymore its a performance focused sports car now.
S4 is for posers who rely on awd safety understeer with front heavy econ box like weight distribution. The S4 drives closer to a Accord than a true sports sedan like a e46 m3. In the price bracket of an S4 I would rather just sacrifice slightly less interior room and luggage capacity and get a gt350 that out handles it and has a god like engine.
The new SS dropped 220 pounds from the old model, putting its new curb weight at 3,685 pounds. Still not light but a nice improvement.
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My lowly VW Golf does right around that and I've put bus lengths on a 335i before, so I doubt it. Low to mid 5s for that car that he was trying way too hard to sell.
The new camaro ss is an extremely good car for the money. Performance wise it's almost as good as an m4. Motor trend has a video comparing the two. As for the s4 comments, the weight distribution is not as perfectly balanced as the bmw 3 series but still not all that bad - 55/45. Unless you track you won't notice any understeer on public roads, especially if you get the car with the rear sport differential (basically a limited slip diff, something non m 3 series bmws don't have). Audi Quattro is one of the best awd systems out there. It's all about what you value. If you like a lighter and better balanced car, get the bmw 340i. Especially in rear wheel drive form. Cla is not in the same level performance wise as bmw 340i and the s4. On the other hand, the merc c63 amg is a very sweet car but it's automatic only. Gla45 amg is an awesome hot hatch. Dollar for dollar, Mercedes got the best interiors of the German cars. Personally I love bmws. The supercharged s4 is a sweet ride but it's older technology and the car is a bit heavier. Having owned one and speaking with many people, German cars are a bit overrated. If you don't care about the German car prestige, consider American muscle for your performance bang for your buck. For all wheel drive bang for your buck a used Mitsubishi Lancer evo 10 is probably tops. Low to medium weight, good weight distribution, awesome performance awd, and good power for under 30k.
It's not just the overall weight distribution. Because of how the quattro system is designed, the engine is usually mounted INFRONT of the front axle which 'enhances' the feel of nose heaviness even more. I've driven my fair share of Quattro cars and all of them have the feeling of lazy turn in. They do well on corner exit, but they feel sluggish on corner entry primarily because of were the engine sits. Also, Quattro awd systems are excellent in their all weather grip. However, there are MUCH better AWD systems out there in terms of dry performance handling.
Overall distribution is what matters most I think and yeah the engine position is what causes the distribution to be less than 50/50. Honestly I haven't felt much understeer driving audi's on the road. I haven't tracked yet. I think you don't give credit where it's due given the quattro rallying historical success. Also what you said doesn't make much sense. The main measure of awd quality is in wet or dirt performance not dry track. The main differentiation of awd systems is whether they are safety based (grandma doesn't spin out in the snow) or performance based. Quattro in an s4 with rear sport diff (performance awd) is much better than xdrive (safety based) awd. Look at wet track vids on YouTube to see what I'm saying. Thesmokingtire has some great ones. On the flipside on dry pavement, bmw has better weight distribution than audi so their cars typically don't need torque vectoring awd to corner sharper than an audi. I do agree there are some even better awd systems than Quattro, however. Mitsubishi is who invented awd with torque vectoring (active yaw). Lancer evo as I mentioned has a great awd system. Subaru too obviously.
I know its not on your list, but a buddy of mine that is a major foreign car guy (he's owned all of the ones you have listed) just got a BMW M2 and swears it is the greatest car he's ever driven.
Yeah that's my attainable dream car right now. I've heard similar. Even the m235i I test drove was great compared to the 340i so I can only imagine how great the m2 must be.
Do you guys talking about weight distribution live in Houston? Home of straight freeways and local roads with potholes that swallow smart cars? (Although my mayor sylvester turner is fixing those like gangbusters) I take my bike out to MSRH occasionally, how often do daily drivers in Houston give a crap?
