Agree with all these points, and I am speaking from experience with 5 BMWs in my ex-car stable, and another 2 still in the family.

No doubt the BMW handles better in the dry, but they are useless in wet, ice and snow, as are most Mercedes and Porsches or pretty much anything else rear wheel drive for that matter.

My Boxster handles brilliantly in the dry, but as soon as it rains, as it usually does, you really have to tread carefully, roundabouts are my nemesis in this car.

So, far all year round driving, especially when your income depends on being able to get around, for me you just can't beat 4wd, or a front drive car if you have to.

As for interior quality, before buying the Boxster I looked at a number of E90 3-series, and they were all showing the wear BADLY inside (low and higher mileage examples), especially around the door pull and the steering wheel, E46s don't seem to suffer so badly. E60 5-series seem to age better in this respect by the way.

BMW have announced they are going to start selling the new 3 series with their 4wd system later this year, I believe starting with the 320i and a hybrid 335i (!!!) but being brand new, you can imagine how much these are going to cost.

4wd inherently invokes understeer compared to RWD, there is very little you can do about it, other than feed more power to the rear, but as we are not all on a racetrack, setting up for understeer is also inherently far safer and controllable for the average driver on a public road than oversteer.

You can bet the 4wd BMWs coming out will also suffer from this issue, but it's a small price to pay, in my opinion, for a safer drive on a public road at normal speeds.