Im not much of a BMW fan myself, but I can appreciate what they do. My high school girlfriend had a 95 318is that I remember being a dog of a car. At ~2800 - 3000 pounds and having 136 hp it was grossly underpowered. The handling wasn&#x27;t all that great, and at least in the case of the 318 had no tilt or telescoping steering wheel that for me was in a awful position. To top things off, the engine exploded while on a road trip about 40 miles outside of Houston while going about 75 mph. It was almost comical had it not been so dangerous, it literally spit oil onto the windshield when it blew.(The car wanted us dead)<p>BMW has had a target on their back with the 3 series since the 90s though, and with every new generation pundits predict the fall of the 3. I think some of the criticisms are warranted, its getting really porky, expensive and not as fun to drive and toss-able as it once was. However, you could say that about most cars in the segment(A4, C series) and the a lot of the reason for this is safety requirements and buyer preferences for more luxury items these days. If I were to buy a BMW, I think I would want a late 80s 6 series. Those are beautiful cars, I shudder to think what the maintenance costs would be though.