BMW M Test Drive Event

[G.Irish]

They're gonna be at BMW Fairfax on August 6, and a few other dealerships in Nova that week.  They have the M2, M5, X3 M340, X3M, and M850 droptop

https://mtowntour.bmwusa.com/

[.RJ]

Neat, thanks G. I signed up for an M2 in Alexandria.

[G.Irish]

Yeah I signed up for the M2 and M5. What time did you sign up for?

[.RJ]

I think around 1pm for the M2.

[Senor_Taylor]

Have to be 25 to do this

[Jake]

Signed up for the M340i and M2 Comp at Alexandria. Should be good website fodder. Thanks for the heads-up, G!

[Apoc]

The one is Seattle is September and 3 of 5 cars are already full.  

Guess I'm driving an M340 and an M850.

[Ryan T]

There's one 30 minutes from me, but I'm in St. Louis when they're here.

[Beej]

Word, thanks G!  Got an M2 and M5 drive lined up.

[G.Irish]

Did the test drive events this week. Drove the M2 on Saturday, then drove it again on Tuesday along with the M5.

M2 Competition
Even while I was waiting for my turn, the M2 Competition's snarling, crackling exhaust certainly had my attention. BMW seems to have improved considerably on the S55 since they put it in the M3/M4.

Hopping in, it kinda hit me how many things weren't different at all from my E90 M3. The DCT stalk for example was exactly the same. Not a big deal, but it struck me that BMW's asking a lot for a parts bin car.

Getting on the drive loop I had the car in the most aggressive shift logic, sport plus for the steering, sport plus for the engine. It honestly didn't feel like overkill at all for the street, except that the interior engine noise (with the active engine note simulation) was a touch overdone. I asked them if there was any way to disable it, but apparently you can't without pulling a fuse or something.

Ride quality was reasonable for some of the broken pavement in Alexandria. Can't say it felt any rougher than my CTR in comfort mode (the CTR has adjustable shock valving). I only got to dig into the power in some short spots and I'm definitely a fan of the S55 in that car. Smooth, strong spread of torque, no flat spots that I could feel. It wasn't 'exciting' like the V8 in my M3 was, but it was pleasurable.

One thing that I can say hasn't improved much was the DCT's engagement at low speeds. It still can give you a bit of a shove or jerk while it's figuring out when to engage. I got used to it with my M3 but today if were to buy a M car I'd probably buy the manual for that reason. Then again, cracking off shifts with the DCT is fun too.

All in all I would be happy with his car, except that BMW wants too much money for it. At $45-50k, cool. At $60k+ no way. Especially with the C8 on the way and the fact that the M2's back seat isn't useful for much.

[Senor_Taylor]

The market is so saturated with amazing cars and BMW isn't helping it with having 30 different M/MSport/M Package cars. I've seen enough of them brapping around that it seems they have no problem selling them at whatever stupid price point they have them at.

[G.Irish]

I'd be curious to see what the actual numbers on the M sport cars are. I see them around fairly regularly, but for example, for every X3 35i or M40i I see, I might see 50 28i's. I guess those uprated trims don't cost that much extra to make.

BMW did manage to miss the mark badly on the M3/M4 CS and the M4 GTS though. The first M2 was priced fairly reasonably but was in small enough volumes that they were hard to get. With the M2 Competition priced a good $10k more, I wonder if they'll be able to move them. BMW Alexandria sounded like they were trying to deal on their M2's, which normally wouldn't be the case for a M car that just hit the market this year.

[.RJ]

fuck those guys

[G.Irish]

Can't believe they turned you away for being 4 minutes late. Seems like they weren't being too strict about the schedule when I arrived. I got there a bit early but they were starting drives early and what not, so I don't know why they'd be sticklers by the time you arrived.

[.RJ]

the thing that rubs me the most wasnt that they gave the spot away, sure I was late - but then I had to go to the back of the stand-by queue.... whatever, I want to buy an F-type or TT-RS anyways.

[Beej]

So I got to do this on Saturday with a good buddy.  From a BMW comparison standpoint, I have the M3 and M5, and his wife drives an F82 M4 DCT.

It's cool that they let you go with only the supervision of DSC, but the route was awful.  One mile each way on a 45mph commercial strip, with just 2 u-turns - not exactly the ideal way to experience M-ness.  And sorry RJ, but it was pretty lax down here.  We shifted our schedules around to empty slots and got 4 drives in about 1.5 hours.

First up was the M2 Comp with the S55 from the M3/4.  For being the same hp-figure and only ~3-400lbs lighter than the M5, it felt significantly quicker.  I'm still amazed how turbos fill out torque curves, and still it pulled all the way to redline.  The DCT was awesome too, unreal how they shift.  No real way to evaluate any handling qualities, but the ol' quick-lane-change test...it felt good.  Steering felt better than I expected.  Sounded way better than F80/2's.

On to the super lame, super yellow, torque converter AWD M5 Comp.  First pulling away from the dealer, and we both thought it was...about the same as the M2?  Can't be, it has six hundred and seventeen horsepower.  After we both had our turns, either 1st and 2nd felt limited artificially (why with AWD?), or DSC was sneakily doing it's thing...because 3rd and 4th gear induced nothing but giggles.  Holy moses it was a rocketship, wayyyyyyy too much power to actually use on the street.  As for the lame automatic, we both thought it was better than the already impressive DCT, both at WOT and during normal driving, where shifting was imperceptible.  The exhaust was hilarious, too - find the right mode and you get weird farts during upshifts and deceleration pops that were closer to gunfire than any sound a family sedan should make.  I thought it was a pretty enjoyable gimmick, but hopefully there's a way to turn it off.  Again no way to actually test handling but it did feel significantly more agile than my e39.

And just a quick note on the tech...after driving around in basically 20 year old tech all the time, the M5 was crazy.  The gesture controls (at least for volume) was another neat gimmick I'd actually use.  Each back seat had a tablet that does god knows what.  When activating ABS, the seat belts quickly snug down (like half a second maybe?) instead of the standard quick locking of old ones, and it's shockingly more comfortable when it does so.  And ABS closes the windows, too!  What? Why? Cool!  Automatically popping up the 360 cameras when pulling up to a curb, hot damn.  I would've loved to have more time to play with it all.

$140k sticker on the M5.  No way I'd ever consider spending that much, but I have been looking at F10's a bit since I got back, and after being hardcore about manual transmissions, I'd absolutely consider DCT.

[Jake]

I drove the M2 around south Alexandria's bombed-out streets. It was quick enough in a straight line, made good noises, and otherwise I couldn't judge much about it. Great concept for an event but the driving route was awful and each person got about 7 minutes with the car.

[Senor_Taylor]

Is that how much M5s of the past have cost? (Adjusting for inflation)

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

[Beej]

To be fair I think base price was like $103k, and they even had a no-option car in the showroom.

Only base price I could find was $70k for a 2003 M5, inflation brings that to $97k.  e39 had a lot few options, too.

[JPolen01]

  e39 had a lot few options, too.

So, it had medium options?