Originally Posted by champignon
I had a chance to drive a 6MT M2 today at the local dealer. This came about because there was one on the showroom floor last week when I took my 135is Convertible in for its airbag replacement, and I was shocked to see that this dealership would have a new car with a MT on the floor, regardless of the actual vehicle model that it was. I haven't seen any new MT cars at this dealership in many years, and only after I looked at it for a minute did I even realize that it was an M2. I have had fleeting glimpses of M2s a couple of times in the last 2 years, when out of state, but not at home. A friend of mine bought a 228ix from a particular salesman at the dealership there a year and a half ago, and I drove the friend in to pick up the car and met the salesman then. I have not personally bought a new car there in 24 years, so have only dealt with the service staff. So, I contacted this sales associate to inquire about the M2 about a week ago. He called me back and encouraged me to come in and to test drive it. So I did, today.
I had a chance to drive it almost 20 miles and to push it a little bit. I liked the car, the way it drove in general, and the general ambiance of the interior although some of the newer instrumentation would take some getting used to. The electric power steering was the best that I have driven, however my comparison is only to a lot of low end cars I have rented, to a lot of BMW loaners I've been given in the 3 and 5 and one in the 2-series, and to my VW Golf R. I have not driven a Porsche with EPS, which I understand to be the gold standard. But, I could live with the steering even though I prefer a good hydraulic rack.
The car drove well; I would not trade my 1M for it, but definitely it is a very nice car and it drives well. I could get used to the dashboard. Were I to buy it, I would get snow tires for it and drive it year round, although would avoid any bad storms or lots of snow. I don't consider it to be collectible in the sense that a 1M is collectible, so I would not avoid year round use in our climate that is not that terrible even in the winter here, plus they don't salt the roads in my state.
I have a lot of cars (6) and no way can I accommodate another one, so the only option were I to buy the M2 would have been to trade in one of my current vehicles, most of which I consider to be collectible and out of consideration. There is a huge sales tax benefit from trading in a car in my state, so selling it privately would not make much sense unless I could get way more for it than it is worth in a private party sale. I would consider trading in my '13 135i, which is a nice, lower mileage car modded a little with BMW parts such as a new M steering wheel, PPK flash, and some M3 suspension parts. Obviously, one can't expect to get back much or anything for mods.
Anyway, the suspect M2 has options worth nothing or less than nothing to me, including the "Executive Package" and the Sunroof, plus a bunch of crap like black grills, etc. There was at least $3500 worth of "fluff" on the car of no value to me. The dealership was not about to go under MSRP, and the offer for my 135i Coupe was not acceptable, to me. So, we went round and round and round and round and round, and in the end I drove off in my 135is Convertible which I had driven to the appointment.
We were $5000 and change away from a deal, and I could see at the outset that this was probably not likely to happen unless one side or the other was going to cave, and it was not going to be me :-)
As I drove off into the sunset with my 135is convertible, which is nearly new and has only 9000+ miles on it, I didn't feel like I was driving a car that was grossly inferior to what I had just test-driven, in fact I rather preferred it in some ways, especially the uncluttered dashboard and the hydraulic power steering.
I suspect I will own an M2 at some point, but this is not the time, right now.
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