Test Drive: BMW 435i coupe a dear darling - USA TODAY
The BMW 435i xDrive (all-wheel-drive) was outside all night and had a coating of ice and snow. Somehow, the BMW had found "miracle defrost" mode and the front and back windows were clear in the moments it took to bring the brush to bear. Just one point of the BMW's allure. •The car will pair multiple phones and link to whichever one is handling the incoming call, with no bother to you. •The drivetrain is brilliant: turbo six with 300 horsepower, eight-speed automatic, quite effective all-wheel drive (xDrive is BMW's name). BMW never has been shy about asking you to pay for extras, but a car priced north of $50k, it seems to us, should have navi and satellite radio as part of the package. Maybe those aren't big deals to you, and you appreciate BMW's approach of offering so many things as options, so you can tailor the car just-so. At a USA TODAY luxury-car roundtable in Los Angeles in 2011, BMW's U. S. CEO Ludwig Willisch said many owners of BMW's popular 3 Series compacts aren't pining for bigger cars. "Their dream is not (to move up to BMW's large) 7 Series. … They would have no problem paying $60,000 for a 3 Series. " His job, he said, was to create those higher-end 3s. Well, the 4-series seems to be how he's done it. The chassis on the 3 series and 4 series are nearly identical. Source: www.usatoday.com
