Yesterday was one year since my Christmas Eve impulse purchase of my Borusan Turkish Blue M3 Competition X-Drive. There have been a number of days when I missed my IOMG 6MT M3, but not all that many.I haven’t done any serious mods to this car, or the last one, so my enjoyment of the platform has been with the cars “as designed”.
Here’s a collection of thoughts that have stuck with my over the last year, and over the almost 5 years of total G8x ownership:
– I’ve had zero serious issues with my G80s. They’ve been totally reliable, starting every single day I needed them to. I had a low coolant moment, once, with my 1st M3 that did not repeat. I put 12,815 miles on my Blue M3 this year and it never had a twitch of an issue.
– I loved my manual M3 and dislike that I’m again without a manual car. However, if I ever figure out how to make my life work with two cars instead of one, the M3 I’d keep is the X-drive, not the 6MT. I would add another manual car to the garage, preferably one that’s a less powerful and smaller. For a manual car, I’d prefer more time in each gear and for it to be a smaller coupe. An older Cayman, perhaps. Something like that.
– I wish more of the miles I was putting on my current M3 weren’t bad highway commute miles. I sometimes feel like I’m wasting the M3 using it on the commute, even though it’s capabilities have saved me from getting hit by idiots twice this year. Performance capabilities are also safety capabilities sometimes.
– My M3s have completely removed any desire I could have for cars that are any faster. I don’t have time in my life to race folk on a track and I truly feel that these cars are as fast as any needs a car to be off the track. Or perhaps a bit too fast.
– When it comes to outright performance, I’m very pleased with my M3s. They’ve given me all the performance I wanted every time I’ve asked them to. I can’t say I’ve used their full potential that often, but that’s the point. Anything I want, they’ve been able to give. Especially the current X-Drive car.
– The base seats continue to be the best seats I’ve ever owned for daily use of a car. They make me happy on every drive. I’ve hated the seats in a lot of the cars I’ve owned, so this is a big thing for me.
– I still appreciate the appearance, overall, of my M3 every time I see it. Every morning when I go into the garage, every time I turn back to look at it after I park. I still can’t say that I love the grille, but at least it never looks boring. I’ve never gotten tired of it.
– I’ve been asked by people if the Borusan Turkish Blue is a wrap 97 times in the last year. I’ve kept count. Random folk in parking lots, a couple of dudes in cars at traffic lights, and attendees at car meets. It’s been fun to keep count.
– X-Drive has made a difference driving in Portland rain. I only drove in snow for two minutes last year but I have appreciated the extra traction in even normal driving in the rain. However, I’m not entirely happy with the car in heavy rain on the highway. I don’t think the car is ever actually exhibiting unstable behavior but I get to the point where I feel like I need more information from the steering in heavy rain than I’m getting.
– After driving this platform for so long, I don’t generally need the steering feel that’s missing because I know the car so well. That doesn’t mean that I don’t feel that the lack of steering feel is this car’s (and many modern cars’) great flaw. I don’t think the steering is as numb as some make it out to be, but it isn’t what it should be. Even in a non-performance car, low steering feel can lead normal/bad drivers to not understand the conditions they’re driving in and to make mistakes. I also wish that Sport mode steering was a bit heavier…but that’s just me. I like a bit more steering resistance at highway speeds.
– This is going to annoy a few folk: iDrive 8.5 has been fine. I do like the screens and I’ve had zero issues with the things that moved from buttons in iDrive 7 to 8.5. I’ve had a few 8.0 loaners and that version did annoy me, but 8.5 has been fine. Voice Control seems a bit more stupid when it comes to choosing a new album to listen to by voice, but that’s my only complaint.
– My biggest complaint about the Auto transmission is the choices BMW made about shift points in all three modes. Mode 1 is for parking lots, mode 2 is mostly usable but holds too low in the RPM range quite often, and mode 3 is entirely stupid for anything but really twisty roads. Thank the car gods for shift paddles.
– Overall, I love this car. It’s everything I need almost every day in a one-car enthusiast solution that I can afford. There isn’t currently another car in my affordability range that I would rather have. There really isn’t. Every other option has a different set of positives and negatives that leave me uninterested in them. That being said, I do recognize that my commute to work doesn’t entirely mesh with this car. I would be better served, Monday to Friday, by an EV. I have home charging and the drive is not fun. I don’t know that could sacrifice the feel of this car for an EV, but I recognize what an EV would change about my daily drive. Currently, there are no EVs that I find acceptable, so it won’t happen. If the future brings a car to the market that changes the equation, we’ll see what happens.
A few pics to round out the long post:
The first shot is from running errands yesterday after weeks of rain and filth. The second is immediately after I bought the car a year ago, and the third is one of the last I took of my 6MT M3.