I own two BMW's, a 2002 330 and a recently purchased 95
325i. The 325i seems very sluggish compared to the 330. I know there is a big horsepower difference, but is the gearing in the 325i that much different from the 330....whether that's transmission gearing or axle gearing....are they that much different? Or is my whole perception of sloooooow-ness due to the horsepower difference? Both cars, by the way, are automatic transmissions."Tom Allen" wrote
The difference in torque is probably what you are feeling, rather than the HP difference. Torque is what you feel in your backside when you stomp the pedal.
Floyd
Viva diesel!
DAS
For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling
Yes, what Floyd said. Plus there is a much bigger difference in torque than Horsepower between a '95 2.5 liter engine and the '02 3.0, partly because of the displacement and partly because the '95 is single VANOS and the '02 is dual VANOS.
Also, with an auto box in the '95 you never really get the engine up into the power band of that engine. I have a '95 and the best power doesn't really come-on until ~4000 rpm. With an automatic the transmission shifts before you can ring it out. How does it feel when you put the trans in "sport" mode? Better?
Finally, it could be that your '95 has some problems that make it feel wimpy. Try to find another '95 you can drive and do a comparison.
-Fred W
Eh? Every auto I've ever owned runs to the redline in kickdown.
I compared a 328auto vs a 528 manual back to back once, and the E39 felt far more lively than the E46. Quite a difference. Both were 1997 models with the same motor.
-Russ.
Are they both ZF autos? Some US BMWs have locally sourced GM? boxes which aren't as good.
Is that how you normally drive your cars Dave?
I have a 540iA (only automatic car in the mini-fleet) and I could probably count the number of times I have mashed the kick-down switch on both hands. It will down-shift under acceleration without mashing the switch and accelerate quite nicely. It has only been under *extremely* (ahem) spirited driving that that switch has been actuated.
My point was that, under normal everyday driving conditions, the later models 2.8 and 3.0 dual vanos engines, with their fatter torque curves biased toward slightly lower rpms, will feel a lot peppier in car equipped with an automatic transmission than the 2.5 liter single (or non) vanos engines of the early 90's.
-Fred W
If I want to 'ring it out', yes. Otherwise I'm happy to have it change up normally. I can't see any point in using high revs on a light throttle, but then YMMV.
Yes. So I don't really see your original point?
But that equally applied to the manual cars. If you wished to make fast progress you had to rev them regardless of auto or manual. And the auto will up the shift point on wider throttle settings.
So saying, I'm referring to the ZF as fitted in the UK. IIRC many US cars didn't use this.
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