Originally Posted by IndyMike
Back on topic.
Checked out a black one with DCT at the local dealer on Saturday, and a member of the staff even let me fire it up and sit in it for a while as we had a nice, long chat.
Cold start the exhaust is aurally just like the 1 M to my ears. Since we couldn't take it on a test drive (already been offered to a loyal customer who was mulling it over the weekend) I never got to put it through any of its paces, or to hear the exhaust at various speeds.
Visually, the interior is kind of nice with one exception that I’ll get to shortly. I like the CF treatment and the fact it's different from the M4 is fine by me. The blue stitching looks really neat. My favorite aspect of the interior no doubt. I did notice that the driver's seat is a bit canted to the left, but I'm not so anal that it would particularly bug me. But I can't say the same thing about the screen protruding from the dash. To me it just messes up the contour of the dash, sort of like a big zit. I respect the fact some people like that tech aspect, and don't mind the dash topography. It's just flat not for me, and although it might sound silly that aspect alone kills this car for me.
Color wise black is okay, but for me it's just too much with the black wheels and interior. Some might say it's sinister, but to me it's just Goth and I don't like anything witch (sic) is associated with that connotation. Black on the 1 M on the other hand is just fine with the silver finished 359's, and after VO is my favorite representation.
So as I've now scoped out both LBB & black I'd say LBB is the obvious choice in my eyes (if I could ever get over my other hang-ups about the new deuce M coupe). I still have yet to see MG and AW, but I'm generally a fan of signature colors as I formerly owned an Imola red ZHP and of course the current VO 1 M.
As the car was warming up and coming to idle we had a chance to talk about the whole M2 launch and he stated how disappointed he was in the entire process, especially with the fact that with all of this pent up excitement about a new model launch there is no products available outside of the HEA. He said people don’t want to hear that they are number X on a list of Y people, especially if the dealer is only going to get Z number of allocations for the remainder of the model launch years run. Yeah, the true enthusiast will take the time to search and find a dealer that they have a better chance of scoring a car before the model year end, but for the smaller dealers that have less allocations they are limited, and the majority of potential buyers want the latest thing when it first hits the ground. Then finally when the vehicles do hit the ground in greater quantity the customer has already taken his pocketbook elsewhere, so now you have all of this product potentially sitting around in your inventory.
He also felt, that while the absence of a CF roof was understandable, that other cost cutting choices such as the lack of vented front fenders, non M type mirrors and non-pedestrian looking rear diffuser were items that should have been integrated into the launched product. BMW stated there would be less constraints with the M2 than the 1 M since they had more time to work on it, and yet it appeared to both of us that it had more constraints and not less.
Yeah, obviously AG & NA put a lot of thought into the final product and entire launch program and were aware of these limitations and repercussions, and that it was a bottom line decision.
This guy is just a dire enthusiast like me, so we were both just thinking and talking emotionally.
He did say that he vastly preferred the M2 to the M4, because it was clearly more nimble and was a better daily driver. Practically, if he needed 4 doors he would take the M3, but since he is a young guy and his style and needs are more oriented to 2 doors he'd take the M2 and save the Benjamins for some nice mods.
Bottom line is, he feels the M2 is the best enthusiasts M sporting two doors these days. He also said the EPS in the M2 in sport mode is the perfect setting and is better than the EPS in any other BMW model. He felt in sport + it was actually too artificially heavy, so sport was really the sweet spot in his opinion.
But he said the vehicle overall is not as special as that (nodding to the 1 M), and he wasn’t talking merely about numbers produced.
I didn’t say anything since I’ve yet to actually drive the M2, but it wasn’t hard for me to think to myself, although I obviously defer to his empirical behind the wheel experience, it wouldn’t be hard for me to come to the same conclusion once I also get a chance to drive the M2. Because his attitude mirrors mine in that smaller and lighter equal more nimble, and that the very reason we’d both pick the M2 over the M4, is why the 1 M trumps the M2 for us.
All of this just reinforced to me that I’m blessed and grateful to have this car in my possession, and that if by the grace of God I’m content to ride it into the sunset at the final roundup.
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