You have missed the point of bmw ownership entirely. While many cars exist that may perform better or cost les or more, for me, the true value of bmw ownership (i have had six) comes from the way they feel when dehind the wheel. i have driven my current bmw, a 89 535 for over 170,000 miles in the last four years and i still find time behind the wheel to be wonderful. i have driven most of the popular preformance and luxury sports sedans produced in the last ten years and still find my older bmw to be very satisfing. to me stright line performance is not a gauge of the preformance of a car, but rather its the total package of handeling, breaking, reliability, comfort and the very illusive but most important "feeling" that defines what a given car is. no car offers a better balance than a bmw...and in my opionion the e-34 is perhaps the best! jap cars are well designed and fast but just dont have the soul of a bmw...period!