- Jul 17, 2004
- 5,122
- 52
- 91
So I thought I would give you guys some updates on my M3 after owning it for nearly 8 months and 11k miles.
Road/DD
The suspension is fine 90% of the time, but about 2-3 hours in on a road trip it begins to really wear on your back at times. We drove up to Colorado and I enjoyed the drive there but once we started to get on less quality pavement I needed a serious break.
The DCT is really annoying when maneuvering at low speed, unfortunately where I live I hit the "sweet spot" of jerkiness basically every day coming out of the lot. It's annoying and almost a bit embarrassing when it happens if you have a passenger. As time has gone on I've been able to modulate the throttle better to minimize it, but it still isn't a good feeling.
The rest of the car has been fantastic. The seats are sporty but comfortable (and took me nearly a month to get just right, so many adjustments), I like this version of iDrive quite a bit, the steering wheel is absolutely perfect, and despite my aggressive driving the tires last me a bit longer than I thought they would.
15.7mpg
HPDE
My first HPDE I was actually pretty disappointed. It was fun to drive, but failed to really do anything to make me love it. The DCT/V8 combo meant the motor was right where you wanted it, the suspension did a great job of keeping the car poised and level, but I could not seem to do anything to make me love it. Driven at 8/10 the car was boring and overly-predictable and at 9/10 something wasn't quite right, enough so that I never became confident in the car. The transition from 8/10 to 9/10 was unsettling every time I started to push harder. There never seemed to be a middle ground and driving the car that hard just didn't feel right, and I normally like driving cars that are very edgy (Viper, C63, etc).
Between my first and second HPDE I changed the tires.
Holy shit. This is what an M car is supposed to feel like. All the control at 9/10 that seemed to missing was there in spades. The confidence the car gave you was unbelievable and it just drove magnificently. I learned that day that what I had thought was 8/10 and 9/10 before was in reality closer to 6/10 and 7/10. You could just keep pushing and pushing and the car kept eating up everything you threw at it. I honestly can say that I can't get near the car's limits now.
tl;dr - I like my M3, it's a solid DD, an okay road trip car, and a fantastic HPDE car.
Road/DD
The suspension is fine 90% of the time, but about 2-3 hours in on a road trip it begins to really wear on your back at times. We drove up to Colorado and I enjoyed the drive there but once we started to get on less quality pavement I needed a serious break.
The DCT is really annoying when maneuvering at low speed, unfortunately where I live I hit the "sweet spot" of jerkiness basically every day coming out of the lot. It's annoying and almost a bit embarrassing when it happens if you have a passenger. As time has gone on I've been able to modulate the throttle better to minimize it, but it still isn't a good feeling.
The rest of the car has been fantastic. The seats are sporty but comfortable (and took me nearly a month to get just right, so many adjustments), I like this version of iDrive quite a bit, the steering wheel is absolutely perfect, and despite my aggressive driving the tires last me a bit longer than I thought they would.
15.7mpg
HPDE
My first HPDE I was actually pretty disappointed. It was fun to drive, but failed to really do anything to make me love it. The DCT/V8 combo meant the motor was right where you wanted it, the suspension did a great job of keeping the car poised and level, but I could not seem to do anything to make me love it. Driven at 8/10 the car was boring and overly-predictable and at 9/10 something wasn't quite right, enough so that I never became confident in the car. The transition from 8/10 to 9/10 was unsettling every time I started to push harder. There never seemed to be a middle ground and driving the car that hard just didn't feel right, and I normally like driving cars that are very edgy (Viper, C63, etc).
Between my first and second HPDE I changed the tires.
Holy shit. This is what an M car is supposed to feel like. All the control at 9/10 that seemed to missing was there in spades. The confidence the car gave you was unbelievable and it just drove magnificently. I learned that day that what I had thought was 8/10 and 9/10 before was in reality closer to 6/10 and 7/10. You could just keep pushing and pushing and the car kept eating up everything you threw at it. I honestly can say that I can't get near the car's limits now.
tl;dr - I like my M3, it's a solid DD, an okay road trip car, and a fantastic HPDE car.
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