[sixpakistan]

Originally Posted by IbnMardhiyah

Well, yeah you could consider Mississauga but I was referring to the GTA.

So why do people in Mississauga know Chris Bangle "real well?"

Originally Posted by IbnMardhiyah

Mississauga is home to one of the largest-volume BMW dealers in Canada, btw.

Great. Addis Ababa is home to the fattest man in Ethiopia.

Originally Posted by IbnMardhiyah

And when I was at Bell, BMW was part of my portfolio - my team and I used to be there all the time taking every single model they had for a test drive.

Everyone's impressed, I'm sure.

Originally Posted by IbnMardhiyah

Even for my carpool I get chauffeured everyday in a 328. Its totally considered an average car.

You define what is "average" based on what other people perceive as "average." This is because your concern about what other people think far outweighs your knowledge of cars. Thus, you declare a 328 as "average" because it's seen regularly and it's the cheapest model of the BMW line.

FWIW, by the standards of automotive engineering and driving experience, the 328 is not at all "average." A 328i coupe with a 6 speed manual is a fun, engaging, and quality vehicle.

Originally Posted by IbnMardhiyah

You certainly wouldn't be making any kind of fashion or standards statement if you're driving around in a 3-series.

The fact that you blanket all 3 series together again illustrates your lack of knowledge of cars and BMWs beyond what you perceive as a "rich person's car."

The 328 is BMW's entry level model as of 2007, replacing the 330i. It has the old 330i engine minus a few intake modifications to detune it to 230hp. You can get into a basic one for about 40k. These are cars people might buy for fashion and standards statements, because it's the cheapest statement you can make. Most people who seek to brag about wealth don't actually have very much money, so many people buy one because it's the cheapest way to have the roundel badge.

The 335, on the other hand, is a whole different animal. It has a 300hp twin turbo N54 & comes standard with most of the 328s options. It's the exact same car as the 535i, except smaller and sportier (tuned suspension, second oil cooler, manual transmission standard, available Dinan flash). Nobody is buying a car like that to make a fashion statement, because if you can afford this car and what you want is a status/fashion statement, you can buy a 5 series to impress the world with for similar money. Most of the world knows nothing about cars & automatically assumes 5 series > 3 series.. it's a higher number, right?

This recalls your "I would only buy a 7 series" statement, which is a running joke amongst BMW enthusiasts, because it's the #1 thing that people who are clueless about BMWs/cars in general (and who certainly couldn't afford a 7 series) love to say.

Originally Posted by IbnMardhiyah

If you've ever worked in brand development - be it for graphical design, clothing, cars, whatever - you know that what the designers themselves say is fluff. What you really look for is what's on the street, what people are doing, because prevailing trends drive brand and fashion, not the other way around.

Toronto also happens to be one of the fashion capitals of North America - sorry I can't say the same for Minneapolis or St. Paul

Whether its dealing with clothes, cars, - whatever - big names all around the world look to our streets just as much as they look to the streets of NYC or London. I have my own sense of style when it comes to clothing. And it comes from watching the street and stuff I think looks nice, so only then do I walk into Harry Rosen and see if they have anything that fits the look I have, and if they don't I tell them to get off their asses and get it in their store, ASAP. The same goes for cars, its what people are doing with their own specific models that drives car design back at the drawing table.

That's nice. Stick to talking about fashion & nail polish and such instead of cars, since you know much about the former and zero about the latter. Your approach to machines as fashion statements and the way you manage to segue everything into clothes and fashion is amusing, but gay.

Originally Posted by IbnMardhiyah

So when I say that BMW isn't flamboyant - do consider that what you consider to be flamboyant or what you ripped off some brochure or Wikipedia page - is just very passe over on this side of the fence.

Again, the Z8 is not comparable to say, a 528i. This is sort of a useless conversation since before this conversation you probably weren't able to distinguish between a Z3 and a Z8. My knowledge doesn't come from brochures and Wikipedia pages, it comes from real-world experience and knowledge of cars/mechanicals/automotive engineering.

Originally Posted by IbnMardhiyah

There's something called exclusivity factor - people consider a possession to be flamboyant if it conspicuously stands out heads and shoulders above the crowd, and

You're making me laugh. You realize that only 6000 Z8s were ever built, right? I'd guess one or two of them (max) are in Mississauga, Ontario.

Originally Posted by IbnMardhiyah

around these parts, even the higher end 5 and 7-series are de rigeur, but

Mississauga
Malibu
Monaco

one of these is not like the other except in the minds of those who live in mississauga and are suffering from delusions of grandeur

(the phrase is "de rigueur" btw.. if you're gonna use snobbish/pretentious terms in the course of trying your best to sound snobbish/pretentious, at least spell them right)

Originally Posted by IbnMardhiyah

certainly not flamboyant. Right now I work for Dell and in our parking lot I've seen every model up to the 6-series, plenty of them. If you hop down to Bay St., the 7-series are as common as any other car.

Are there also a lot of Toyota Camrys?

I was in Toronto a few months ago & stayed on Richmond St, in the heart of the city. The few BMWs I saw were 328s and the older E65s/E66s. I didn't see any new 335s, 535s, 550s, or 6s.

Originally Posted by IbnMardhiyah

Sorry to drop the bomb, but there's nothing flamboyant about mediocrity at all.

Mediocre = old Japanese cars, like the one you drive. Nobody who isn't suffering from serious delusions of grandeur considers a $130k roadster or a $100k coupe to be "mediocre," especially not if they know anything about or have driven those particular cars.

Originally Posted by IbnMardhiyah

BMWs, Lexus' and Mercedes are very common in Mississauga. Bratty little kids with rich daddies drive them around all the time, including many of my own Muslim friends. I live right next to a Mercedes dealership. [Mavis and Britannia] Out of all the GTA cities, Mississauga is very upscale, relative to Toronto, Etobicoke, North York, Vaughn, etc etc.

I suggest you come visit Mississauga Road, or simply look it up on Google maps. Mansions there are so huge that owners have had to, in some cases, call in a construction crew to slice the place in half, rebuild the walls, and sell the other half as a 6,000 sf house all by itself. Or you could simply, behind the scenes, ask any of the many Islamicans who live in Mississauga.


Ask them about Mississauga Road specifically.

I've been to Mississauga. It's a dump.

It's kind of amusing you're going on and on about how BMWs are mediocre in terms of cars, but because you live in Mississauga, Mississauga is a cosmopolitan paradise full of billionaires. Again, a perspective that anyone not suffering from serious delusions of grandeur would find laughable.

Originally Posted by IbnMardhiyah

While I was handling BMW, the most common complaint I used to hear at dealerships was that many of the potential clientele missed the older style - for many it was a very nuanced version that they were looking for and Bangle's newer designs were a turn-off for many.

That's nice. Bangle started designing with the Z roadsters in the 90s, and started leading design efforts across the board in 2002. Most people have gotten over the designs by now (btw his pre-E66 7 effort on the 745 was amazing).