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Originally Posted by m444uk
Jim Y wrote"A second reason is likely financial. BMW is not a particularly large automobile company. In fact, they are one of the smallest remaining independent manufacturers in the world. Developing a completely new engine line is a hugely expensive proposition - one that would strain their finances. So they soldier on with the inline six, turning what most companies would perceive as a liability into an asset."
Er..no BMW overtook mercedes in passenger car sales some time ago and are the worlds most profitable car company.They make inline 4's & 6's, v8, v12 and v10 in the current M5.How many configurations do Mercedes make ?
adam
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I thought Porsche was the most profitable car company in the world, but BMW certainly is up there.
MB had a tradition beginning back in the 1950s with the inline-6 engines, I'm thinking of the Gullwing era moving down into the Adenauers and fellow 300 models, evolving into the M130 engines and then to the M110 twincams. Then MB went back to a single cam with the M103 and back to two cams with the M104.
Each engine had its quirks and issues, but a well-maintained (and even a not-so-well maintained) MB inline-six is a real tank of an engine. It was sad to see this tradition go away. I have not owned an M112 (and will not) so I can't vouch for them; time will tell when many thousands of these engines have hundreds of thousands of miles on them. I'll bet they'll have their weak points as did the recent inline-sixes did.
Cheers,
Gerry