Hard to take seriously what is coming out of BMW M head Friedrich Nitschke's mouth regarding BMW's commitment to rear wheel drive. Autocar reports Nitchke made the following statement, “Our philosophy in regards to steering feel and precision is that rear-wheel drive is the best solution. xDrive brings an 80-90kg weight penalty and the M differential is the industry’s best rear-drive set-up.” No disagreement from BimmerBoost here.

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The disagreement is that BMW is feeding us their old rhetoric that they don't even believe any longer to avoid a refresh to the M5/M6 in order to compete with the E63 and CLS63 AMG facelift which received an all wheel drive option as well as the new Audi RS7.

It would be nice if Nitschke believed his own BS but does BimmerBoost need to remind him BMW does sell all wheel drive M "cars" today? Very, very heavy all wheel drive M cars? Need BimmerBoost remind him how absurdly fat the F10 M5 is without all wheel drive? Yes, there was a time when BMW believed rear wheel drive was the best setup and utilized it to keep weight down with perfect 50/50 balance but with the new models even in rear wheel drive form being heavier than some of the competition even with all wheel drive and the new M cars no longer holding true to the 50/50 weight balance philosophy why even hide behind the weight comment?

The reason really is that BMW does not want to spend the money to add all wheel drive to the M5. Mercedes-Benz and AMG on the other hand give the consumer the choice. Mercedes-Benz and AMG spent the money to develop one beefy looking all wheel drive system for the E63 AMG.

So how is it that Mercedes-Benz can give the consumer the option of rear wheel or all wheel drive while BMW hides behind weight gain in their cars that clearly are no longer lightest in their class while at the same time already selling all wheel drive M cars? Did someone at BMW forget they offer the M550d with xDrive all wheel drive? Why isn't that car rear wheel drive if the weight is such a big issue?

Ladies and gentlemen, there was a time where what the head of M is shoveling at us regarding driving pleasure and steering feel thanks to rear wheel drive was true. But with the criticism of the new F10 5-Series steering feel as is and the rising curb weights, this is nothing more than pandering to emotion in an effort to avoid responding to the competition. Good for you AMG, way to meet the challenge rather than run from it.

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