[JimD]

Shouldn't the question be "Do any of you 135i owners regret not buying a 128i?

I had the money, in my checking account, to buy a 135i rather than a 128i. I didn't want it. The power difference is almost unusable on the street. Turbo motors may be a lot better these days but I tend to keep cars 8-10 years and I didn't want to be looking at a turbo replacement and/or engine rebuild just for the extremely rare chances to use the extra power. I am completely happy with my choice.

To me the question was just how much do I want to spend (not how much can I spend) and how much more is the extra power worth to me. I wanted the convertible top which costs nearly as much as the turbo motor a lot more than the extra hp. Both was more than I wanted to spend (although still easily in the range of money I had available).

I have nothing against people who added it up differently. I enjoyed the 135i on the BMW Performance Center track when I took PC delivery on my 128i (they had no 128i). The extra torque across the rpm range is nice but it does not put much emphasis on driving the car "right". Gear doesn't matter much, you can be one higher or lower than you should be and still have plenty of grunt. Too high a gear is almost worse than too low. It's a nice car, just not what I wanted to own.

I've also ridden in a 1M on the same track with an instructor driving. It's a beast. But how many chances would I get to "let the beast out"? I thought about it but didn't really come close to pulling the trigger. Not because I couldn't just because I didn't want to. I also drove the M3, M5 and M6 in a two day M school. They're great cars. What I miss most on my 128i is not the engines, it is the brakes. I may have to fix that. I would only notice it on an autocross but it's really nice to be able to stand on them repeatedly with no noticable fade.

Jim