Have any of you ever owned one in the past or driven one?

When I step on the accelerator the car goes like lightning and the engine sounds like it belongs to a $200,000+ car!

The ride is smooth, the exterior is gorgeous and the engine sounds OH SO AMAZING? Why does it sound so good? It is a 3.5 Liter engine and an in-line 6 cylinder. It's an automatic gearbox. It handles curves amazing and when you step on the pedal it delivers. You got to be careful in it and watch the speedometer- it gets up there lightning quick , almost without realizing it.

Could someone tell me why the engine sounds like it belongs to a Ferrari?

Why don't they really make them like this anymore. I've read reviews that this was one of the best made engines.

Actually the best 3.5's were before that car.

Yes when your driving one you feel like a million bucks. They drive so nice decent power and all sorts of toys to play with.

Downside the engines have the domed pistons with a cylinder head that has very thin walls for added CFM air intake. The domed pistons are really not a huge deal but the close tolerance between the pistons and valves can be a problem at 6250rpm the crank likes to do a little wobble and SMACK there goes a rocker. Downside is they crack heads a lot. But being a 1989 thats before they really thinned the walls. Also the back of the cylinder head has a outlet for water but on the next generation BMWs that used that motor they plugged it up so the interior has heat really fast. Downside is collant does not flow very well back there and the head likes to crack around the #5 and 6 cam tower. You can fix this engineering mistake by converting it back to the old style. The coolant system like to run just after the middle of the gauge on a properly working gauge watch it closely if it every goes up more then a tad past half stop driving it and repair as necessary. Fan clutches and thermostats are in my shop a regular maintenance thing.
The automatics are horrible the main fault is the pump they wear out and a new one is up to 800 my cost. Thoes transmissions don't last anywhere near as ling as the previous 4hp22 trans.
And to top it all off its full of expensive to repair problems that constantly sneek up on you.
Enjoy it as much as you can now its not going to last long.