BMW eta

["Krumian, Gary" <GKrumian@domain.elided>]

<<Anybody remember BMW's "eta" six cylinder engine from about fifteen years 
ago? Now, there was a real piece of work that they dropped as soon as they 
could.>>

Never owned a BMW with an eta engine but have had plenty of experience with
them and whoever thinks they were bad engines, they are completely wrong.
The character of that engine is close to the Milano 2.5 engine (both lively
engines), albeit with much less power and rev capability.  But it was
smooth, extremely torquey and very fuel efficient.  It did everything BMW
designed it to do.  And a manual shift 325e covered the sixty in 8.5
seconds.  The last time a stock Milano 2.5 did that was never.

I've stayed away from all this rant about Alfas being not reliable, or Alfas
not being sellable in the US, or Alfas becoming like GMs.  All garbage.  Any
car needs tender loving care, especially cars that are built in such a way
as to keep the understanding driver very happy while driving.  The Milano,
in either 2.5 or 3.0 form is not a very fast car but it's one of the most
pleasant cars to drive every built.  It's actually built pretty well but the
fact is, even among Alfisti, there are few people who give these cars the
attention they deserve when new.  I commend the few guys on here who talk
about replacing hoses as regular maintenance items.  It really takes that
type of care to keep such satisfying cars reliable.

As for things like failing dash components or suspension systems of cars
like the Verde or the 164Q, tell me which BMW doesn't do that.  The reason I
can buy a $80K 1990-1991 BMW 750i for $10,000 is precisely because every
item related to the self-leveling suspension, the electronic throttles, the
A/C stepper motors, the seat motors, the seat cables, etc... fails every few
years, requiring major repair dollars.

Today's Alfas are probably a bit more forgiving of unattentive use but
they're no Hondas.  For these cars to work with the US public in large
volumes, we need to learn how to take care of cars, how to listen to the
sounds or clicks they make and give them proper attention.

And by the way, the GM TH700R4 transmission was also a success story.

Gary Krumian

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