A couple of years ago I drove a friends G35. It was a nice car except for the fact that when you put your foot on the gas you have to wait over half a second for the RPM's to go up. I asked her why it does that and she said it was the electronic throttle. Fast forward to last week when I was test driving a BMW 330i. I experienced the same sort of lag. I asked the sales guy why it hesitated when I pushed on the gas and he said it has an electronic throttle. My question is, what's the point? All of the cars that I've ever owned have had throttle cables and have responded immediately. Heck, my '01 Altima has better throttle response than the G35 or 330i. What's the advantage of electronic throttles? What am I missing here?

 

Its supposed to be quieter due to the lack of a hole in the firewall but the real point of it is to be able to add VSA and other traction control mechanisms, which may cut power if it feels that you are losing control. I also think that manufacturers can make a car feel more powerful by controling the sensetivity of the throttle (ala sport buttons on many cars including M-model BMW's).

Personally, I think DBW sucks- it especially sucks on my TSX cause it lags and is inconsistent. However, I have heard of cases where it is rather good ala 06 S2k and NSX. The other extreme is the BMW's when on sport mode, when it is extremely sensative, almost too sensative.

 

Can you please explain how the steering wheel controls the steering w/ no hole in the firewall?

 

[QUOTE=Chris S,May 21 2006, 09:36 PM] Can you please explain how the steering wheel controls the steering w/ no hole in the firewall?

 

Like what was written earlier, drive by wire varies by implementation. When I drove the G35 it didn't feel responsive, I never suspected it was the DBW throttle though. I was expecting more from a 3.5L engine coming from my 3.2L M3. The DBW in my M3 is more responsive than the throttle cable was in my prior S2000.

 

I like it on my M3 but it does take some getting use to...with Sport mode off I don't like it much. It's very sensitive and if you don't know how to modulate it...it can start bucking the car.

 

This mades sense. But if they can't make the responsiveness equal to a cable, then I'd rather do without all the bells and whistles.

I'll wait until the '07 3-series BMW's come out and drive one again. Hopefully, they will fix it. If not, I probably won't buy one and will have to continue my search. I was going to buy a WRX, but then Subaru went and redesigned the front of the car. They made a not so good looking car look just plain ugly.

 

Never had a problem with DBW on my '01 Vette. Seemed very well designed and it was very responsive. I think manufacturers can make them as good or bad as they want for each specific application.

 

I thought the DBW was used mainly for emissions purposes- the ECU is afforded more precise control over the throttle.

I've noticed my TSX engine "hangs" between gears. New Civic Si does that too.

 

Never had an issue with my C5 either. DBW is just like anything else- it can be done correctly or incorrectly.