2011 BMW 3-Series Coupe & Convertible Facelifts Revealed

Totally agree!!

Exactly. E92 USED to be one of the most beautiful BMWs ever, on par with E46, unlike ALL other Bangle and post-Bangle bimmers, but not anymore. Why the hell did they need to do this? What's with the fixed idea of stretching headlights vertically? I'd never buy one of these, maybe a used pre-facelift one.

hahaha! totally agree!

That's funny because BMW moved to turbo-charging their V8s in their high performance models before Benz did, which is a lot more meaningful than where they took the pictures. Benz can brag about better photo-shoots, but BMW will always have superior engineering.

F1 is a great place to show your engineering skills. And yes BMW showed great engineering by exiting F1. BMW had to use supercharged engines to be at least close to MB engines which produce far more HP with no turbos.

Waay back in the day, when Mercedes used forced induction on their engines (v8 kompressor, etc), the BMW fans complained about it and said it was a cheap way to get power. Now BMW uses forced induction, and suddenly, it's "superior engineering". ok... I see... But at least the facelift looks good...

Who complained about turbo-charging? Today's game is about max power through max efficiency, therefore turbo. Benz is still using the 6.2 guzzling V8, which produces a negligible bhp more than the V10 used in the E60 M5. Both are naturally aspirated, and 5.0 is smaller than 6.2. Ask any math teacher. And the fact that Benz is able to get way more horsepower out of their engines without turbo-charging is completely false. The S600 is twin-turbo. The S65 is twin-turbo. The SLR V8 is supercharged. With the exception of the the 6.2V8, every single engine produced by Benz with more than 500bhp used forced induction. BMW is the same situation: only the V10 is naturally aspirated, everything else is turbocharged. It's stupid to think that forced induction is a cop-out for extra bhp. And don't mistake me for a BMW fan. Except for the M3 and the Z4, I go Audi all the way. And BMW left F1 because of the politics and the money issue. And let's not forget that BMWs will always be the best to drive. Believe me, I have all three.

Oh and I almost forgot. How many awards has Benz won for their engines? How many has BMW won? How many awards have Benz cars won? How many have BMW won? (I'll kick it off: the 3 series has won more awards than any other car, and is widely regarded as best in class).

Have you ask you dad for permission before posting kid? You sounded just like i was 5 years back when i was in high school. You should just hang a bmw flag in front of your house.

To dbehmoaras: If you were around when the c32 amg and the w211 e55 kompressor first came out, the internet was filled with BMW fanatics complaining that the m3 and m5 of the time were low on power because the amgs used forced induction. And I found it weird you would call the 6.2 engine a gas guzzler when the m5 you mentioned gets worse gas mileage than the e63. So despite being bigger and more powerful, the e63 is more efficient. You see, displacement isn't the ruling factor in efficiency. just because the 6.2 is bigger by displacement, it doesn't necessarily mean it'll be more inefficient or larger physically. the m5 is a v10, afterall. And no one here said that merc is able to get insane horsepower without forced induction. They only have engineers, not magicians. And no, I don't think that forced induction is a cop out. I think it's brilliant and I for one lament the loss of the 5.5 kompressor engine. I like that engine more than the 6.2 actually.

I wasn't really active on the web when those engines came, so I can't really say. If you ask me though, the BMW fanatics who said that are idiots. Natural aspiration will be missed, but forced induction is the way to go, especially nowadays. Both companies are moving in the right direction. It just annoys me when people (not necessarily you) make dumb comments like "BMW copies Benz's picture" or something like that because it shows nothing about the car companies. If you ask me I think the cars from both are very good, having driven the majority of the mainstream models plus several performance models. I honestly prefer BMW to Benz, they just feel better to me. I love that V10 in the M5 and the way it sounds, especially because you see so few of them nowadays (the only other cars I can think of that have a V10 are several Audis, Gallardo, and the Viper). Not too familiar with the old w211 55, but I remember the cars that had it, which were crazy fast. @Anonymous: Why don't you contribute something with more substance rather than sounding like a jackass?

yeah, forced induction is the way to go. people now, more than ever, want fuel efficiency without sacrificing power. and the only real way to get that in an internal combustion engine is with forced induction. i say let bmw turbocharge all their engines as they seem to be really good at it, and let mercedes do the supercharging. after all, mercedes was the first company to use supercharging in a car....

Well supercharging and turbocharging are similar in concept but different technically. Let them both stick to what they are good at, let neither of them be criticized.

After this facelift the A5 has definitely pegged it back a bit but the E-class coupe is up there too. It's a close contest in the looks dept between these three right now fo' sure.