[Jackie Chiles]

Originally Posted by thomps

Kind of confused how a willingness to buy and drive an M235i and call it by its given name is equal to buying into what the BMW marketing machine "wants you thinking." I think the vast majority of us would still buy the car even if it was called the 235is.

If you want to see BMW marketing at work, go find the uninformed buyer who knows just enough to know "M" means "special," and knows just little enough to be persuaded by a BMW salesman into believing that "M235i" means the same thing as "M+single digit." Guarantee you that kind of person is not the same as someone who's at least interested enough to read these forums.

We all know this is an intermediate, stop-gap car. We're buying it as such. None of us think this is an M2. It happens to come close to the performance of previous M cars in some areas (as it should, because technology progresses and cars get faster), and that's good enough for us. We're buying it for that reason, not just because it has an "M" in front of it. And when the true M2 comes along, it will blow away the M-Performance cars or whatever you want to call the M235i, as it should.

Sorry for the rant. This wasn't solely directed at you; I just find it a little odd that the presence of an M badge is leading to a badge obsession within the BMW community when you should really be worried about its effect outside the community (if you really even want to be worried about it at all). I don't really know what M235i owners are supposed to do, but they can't be expected to have this conversation all day long just to please their M-badge overlords: "What do you drive? An-M235i-where-the-M-doesn't-stand-for-the-same-thing-as-the-M-traditionally-used-to-signify-specially-crafted-race-bred-cars-within-the-BMW-brand."

This.

Originally Posted by jgunnz

"Mag racing." Good term.

And this.