Regarding the BDM, I like it, I think the R/P mode change is clever, but I think it came out a few years too late.  A decade earlier and it would have sold to law enforcement much better in my opinion.  By 1993 when it finally arrived, the semi-auto was essentially a done deal, heck, the .40S&W had already been created and Glock was challenging S&W for control of police duty weapon sales.  Go back to, say, 1983, when more cops than not still carried revolvers but were considering pistols--then the BDM might have made more inroads into law enforcement.  Anyway, that's my opinion.

Personally, I still like the feel of the Hi-Power a little better than the BDM, but that's due to the BDM's factory stocks, which are the same style as came on the Hi-Power Mk.III, and which I also disliked.  If the stocks could be changed out on the BDM it would be a gem, fit and feel-wise.