[kdog26372]

I look forward to my daily commute in my m235i. It's a nice balance of power, handling and comfort. Make no mistake this is not a full on track car like an M3 or M2 so you will get some minor roll around corners and the suspension/tires won't feel like on rails like those. M2 is probably the perfect car for you. Otherwise, toss on a cheap $300 tune and it'll at least feel like a new and more exciting car for a few months until you get used to the extra power. Lots of suspension mods can be done to help with handling and intercooler will help with the hot weather issue. But once you've spent money on tune/intercooler/suspension mods you'd probably have been better off just placing order for the M2 and calling it a day. Just my $.02. Cayman S would be on at the short list of fun loving drivers car too, depending on your budget as that's gonna be M4 $.

For the similar price range of M235i you've got the Audi S3 and TTS, base Cayman, MB CLA45 and BMW M2 in terms of the big 4 German competition. Realistically after pricing out options and real world pricing after negotiations the S3 is the only one that will price out the same, it's got a better interior, but the drive isn't as good as the m235i and the DCT has terrible lag during stop/go. The 0-60 numbers are essentially bogus as it's all DCT launch control magic and in the real world it ain't all that fast and doesn't have Audi's normally excellent AWD system.

Test drive an M2 if you can find one or maybe a local member to you will offer to let you drive along. Go drive the others listed if you are ok spending a bit more $ and see what gets your blood pumping.