Okay, as Margie told you, I have been thrashing night and day trying to get the GT6+ done for the PRI show and keeping this whole magzine thing moving forward in an economy that is not easy.
The most ironic thing about all this is that while the 335i is an amazing car, I got the E30 M3 finished and decided it really fit my personality better, I felt David had worked his ass off and we didn't have a lot of extra money laying around, so I would let him live the high-life for a while and drive the 335i. Guess that further proves that I am a mean spirited, money grubbing, BMW driving dick I guess.
To answer some more questions... I am sorry about what one of the stories said, or supposedly said, but BMW loaned us the car and as Margie pointed out, we have several expenses associated with the car. You need to remember, that we have about 20 cars that we are juggling, every story goes through several editors and proof readers and I assure you we were not out to deceive or trick anyone. We are a small company and we just could not field the variety of project cars we do without some help form car companies and parts suppliers.
Yeah, we like cars, but we work our butts off, mostly nights and weekends building and racing all these cars so that we can give you better editorial and form meaningful relationships with both readers and parts suppliers.
As for the new 335i, if I wasn't so cheap, I would buy one of these cars with my own money. The style, safety, motorsports history and performance of this car are unrivaled, in my opinion. It also gets nearly 30 mpg on the highway. Yes, I think this makes this car worthy of the price tag. As someone pointed out, used, it is an incredibly good bargain.
Obviously everyone has a different income and a different idea of what grassroots is. As someone pointed out, it is tough to make a living selling ads to companies when all you have is poor, cheap readers that buy everything off eBay or out of a bone yard. And if you make upwards of $75,000 a year, like most of our readers, you probably don't have the time and patience to screw with an old Neon. That said, I have resisted the easy buck and stuck to my guns to offer a wide range of editorial to a wide range of enthusiasts. While my income and tastes may have changed, I try to put my reader's interests first.
Actually, a tour of my garage would show that while my income, (thank god) has gone up some, my tastes haven't changed. I just have more of the old crappy cars that I have always loved and I can take better care of them now. Someone mentioned our first issue ever and how much the magazine has changed since then. That's not true. The latest issue had Z Car vs. RX-7 and similar articles and so did the first issue.
Back to the BMW, I think what makes this $43,000 car a bargain is the fact that for just $10,000-15,000 more than a crappy boring new Camry, you can get world class safety, performance and panache. You can also go from 0-60 mph in five freaking seconds in a car that is completely practical, comfortable and economical. This is good. This is grassroots.
Okay, I need to get ready for the PRI show tomorrow, There I will be drinking, bragging, cavorting and showing off. Hmmm, maybe I will write a story about that too.
Back to your regularly scheduled program. 
