“Are you entirely sure that this is an upgrade?”

I had an e90 335i. Got rid of it. Probably wouldn't have if I got a non-turbo car instead. They're very nice cars with very polite manners.

G_Body_Man said:

The G35 is dead, long live the 325i. Picked up this rust-free E90 the other day to replace my rotten Infiniti and I gotta say I'm impressed. Parts are cheaper, ride and handling is better and the rear seats fold down! Now to fix a few small things (adjust e-brake shoes, replace cupholders, etc.) to get it through inspection. What does GRM think of these N52-powered E90s?

Nice cop. I can tell you they aren't cheaper to maintain than a G35 however

Aspen said:

Otherwise pretty good. Needs another 50 hp.

Luckily, you can pick up 30+ of that with just a junkyard 3-stage intake manifold and a tune that utilizes it.

Another vote for rear subframe inserts. I went with Whiteline ones with 4x new subframe bolts for added piece of mins). Install was a little over an hour and rear end no longer has a mind of its own!

Mine is an N54 so a bit more complex but I did the OFHG, water pump/thermostat and front tensioner/pulleys/belts by myself (girlfriend helped a little on OFHG as some of the manifold bolts are a bit hard to access). There is still a small leak from either the rear main or oil pan but don't have the appetite to deal with it right now. 

FCP Euro has been awesome in getting parts and they have pre-assembled kits for the main maintenance items. 

E90 N52 RWD manual sport minus iDrive is just about the best modern BMW you can get.

Following closely, as these are dropping into a reasonable price range.

In reply to Driven5 :

Kinda pricey though.  Save the money for the future repairs.

In reply to AngryCorvair :

I keep hearing that, but have been finding my experience with the E8X/E9X platform to be a bit lackluster so far. Do I simply have unrealistic expectations, or are all of the other modern BMW's really just that bad? 

Driven5 said:

In reply to AngryCorvair :

I keep hearing that, but have been finding my experience with the E8X/E9X platform to be a bit lackluster so far. Do I simply have unrealistic expectations, or are all of the other modern BMW's really just that bad? 

Lackluster in what sense? Sure, stock they may be a bit soft, and the rear end is a little wayward, but the bones are pretty solid. The rear subframe bushing inserts mentioned above will solve that problem. The M3 lower control arms up front give some negative camber and help turn-in. Align out some of the understeer. If that's not enough, do the dampers and springs.

In reply to ChrisLS8 :

Thanks! Oh yeah I know for a fact that it won't be cheaper to run than a G35, but when you add up the fuel and insurance savings of the BMW and the time and monetary investment of rust repair on the G35, you'd be surprised at how close it actually is.

In reply to 02Pilot :

I have been trying to figure out how to put it into words for a while now, and this is the closest I have been able to come up with: It feels like BMW tried to make these cars be too many things to too many people, with over-compromised solutions leaving it not really excelling at anything.

The best vehicles I've owned have all had a primary purpose that they were pretty exceptional at in stock form, while generally being surprisingly good in one or more other areas as well. So another way to look at it might be that it could be considered surprisingly good at many things, but only if starting with low expectations because it has no prioritized mission statement that it meets...But that also means it's surprisingly bad at just as many things, for the same reason.

Since it's functionally still the best car available to meet my intended use(s), after throwing enough money at improvements and (sometimes ridiculous) maintenance it will hopefully be able to at least mostly live up to its billing.

Do a stage 3 DISA intake manifold swap+tune and you'll be happier if you wanna stick with BMW.

Other than that, I don't mind my N52 in my E61. Nearly 190k miles and still going strong.

Driven5 said:

In reply to 02Pilot :

I have been trying to figure out how to put it into words for a while now, and this is the closest I have been able to come up with: It feels like BMW tried to make these cars be too many things to too many people, with over-compromised solutions leaving it not really excelling at anything.

All of the best vehicles I've owned have all had a primary purpose that they were pretty exceptional at in stock form, while generally being surprisingly good in other areas as well. So another way to look at it might be that it could be considered surprisingly good at many things, but that's only if starting with low expectations because it has no prioritized mission statement to meet...But that also means it's surprisingly bad at just as many things, for the ame reason.

Since it's functionally still the best car available to meet my intended use(s), hopefully after throwing enough money at improvements and (sometimes ridiculous) maintenance it will at least mostly live up to its billing.

It's a fair point, and certainly a direction BMW has been moving in for quite some time. The older BMWs made fewer compromises, but they also had fewer compromises to make; with modern technology and safety requirements, plus shifting market expectations, every manufacturer is juggling a lot of decisions that earlier generations never had to think about. That said, I did the same basic upgrades to my previous BMWs for the same reasons, so it's not as if the older ones were purely performance-oriented either.

I'm not saying that these cars are great out of the box in absolute terms, but relative to what else is out there they do pretty well. With some thoughtful upgrades that don't compromise usability, they can be very good indeed.

Finally, it probably should be mentioned that the majority of my experience with this platform is in the form of my E82 128i, which is smaller, lighter, and arguably a more sporting variant out of the box. My comments are probably more affected by this than is ideal, but it's what I know best.