[rcjh34]

I am expecting delivery of my new M2 in the next couple months and am wondering how well it handles road trips and how often you have to fill up the gas tank. Anyone with experience with driving the car on trips please leave comments below!

[3tekcorps]

How smooth are the roads?

It's actually a pretty nice ride until you get on that really coarse pavement or hit a lot of bumps. I've put almost no miles on mine traveling an interstate.

[confusion]

Originally Posted by rcjh34

I am expecting delivery of my new M2 in the next couple months and am wondering how well it handles road trips and how often you have to fill up the gas tank. Anyone with experience with driving the car on trips please leave comments below!

It's fine. You'll get close to 30 mpg at reasonable highway speeds. Passing is fun and a breeze. Just make sure your seating position is right. A lot of people on the forum haven't figured that out yet.

[MR.]

Brilliant! I have been using it for road trips since I got it

MR

[pruettfan]

I hope it is great as it will be used for my daily 116 mile round trip commute and many other miles, over 25,000 a year so I hope its great. I know the ergonomics are excellent which is very important to me (fused back) I have a slight worry about the ride given its sporty nature but the roads for my commute are very smooth. The roads in much of Tucson are a disaster so I am sure I will feel them fully in my M2 in a couple of months.

[pit1]

Perfectly comfortable car provided its performance. It's firm, it's a bit noisy but I've only ever experienced one trip where the ride was an annoyance...rough road with significant pavement seams.

700 miles maiden voyage back from PCD was perfectly comfortable. Daily 80 mile commute exciting and pleasant. Even if I'm tired, headache or under the weather, it's always a nice place to be.

[3tekcorps]

The car is actually very quiet on smooth pavement. Most of the road noise comes from the tires, and it can make a lot of noise if the pavement is made from course gravel. I think stepping down to an 18' and a lower performance tire would solve this. It won't handle like it was meant to though.

[Arcanum-UK]

The car is great for road trips.

I've just got back from a 1,750-mile road trip through France and Switzerland to Italy. Then back through Switzerland and Germany.

On the second day I did a 500-mile run from Calais-France to Geneva-Switzerland and after 8-hours in the car felt absolutely fine. BTW, if anyone ever has to head to Geneva from France, do yourself a favour and drive through Saint-Claude - you won't regret the drive through the hairpins of the valley with the exhaust bouncing off the side of rock the road is cut through.

On the third day I had picked up the talking baggage (wife) from Geneva and we did a 300-mile, 6-hour drive through Switzerland to Interlaken then over the Grimsel & Furka passes (some of the best passes in Switzerland) to Lake Como in Italy.

After 5-days in Italy and Switzerland we came back through the Black Forest in Germany (over-rated, IMHO, as you need to be pushing 90-100MPH on most roads for them to get interesting).

Final day was a 450-mile run back through Germany and France to Calais then back to Cambridge. Fortunately I got about 7-miles on a quiet Autobahn and can confirm that the car is rock steady at 140MPH. The talking baggage got a bit unhappy at that speed so didn't push it anymore (plus the Autobahn wasn't empty so had to be a bit careful).

Anyhow, the short answer is that the car eats up a road trip as good as anything else I've driven. Attracts a lot of positive attention too, particularly in Italy.

[rcjh34]

Originally Posted by Arcanum-UK

The car is great for road trips.

I've just got back from a 1,750-mile road trip through France and Switzerland to Italy. Then back through Switzerland and Germany.

On the second day I did a 500-mile run from Calais-France to Geneva-Switzerland and after 8-hours in the car felt absolutely fine. BTW, if anyone ever has to head to Geneva from France, do yourself a favour and drive through Saint-Claude - you won't regret the drive through the hairpins of the valley with the exhaust bouncing off the side of rock the road is cut through.

On the third day I had picked up the talking baggage (wife) from Geneva and we did a 300-mile, 6-hour drive through Switzerland to Interlaken then over the Grimsel & Furka passes (some of the best passes in Switzerland) to Lake Como in Italy.

After 5-days in Italy and Switzerland we came back through the Black Forest in Germany (over-rated, IMHO, as you need to be pushing 90-100MPH on most roads for them to get interesting).

Final day was a 450-mile run back through Germany and France to Calais then back to Cambridge. Fortunately I got about 7-miles on a quiet Autobahn and can confirm that the car is rock steady at 140MPH. The talking baggage got a bit unhappy at that speed so didn't push it anymore (plus the Autobahn wasn't empty so had to be a bit careful).

Anyhow, the short answer is that the car eats up a road trip as good as anything else I've driven. Attracts a lot of positive attention too, particularly in Italy.

Sounds like an awesome trip! How did you car perform in terms of gas and how many times you had to fill up the tank?

[Arcanum-UK]

It was a brilliant road trip and I'd recommend to anyone in the US who is thinking about ED. Though, word of warning, the Swiss speeding fines are huge (and there are a lot of cameras on the German side of the country). I'm talking a few thousand USD if you're more than 20MPH over the limit. Which is easy to do when the speed limit is 50MPH in many places. The authorities will try and track you down (a friend in Austin, TX was tracked down when he did ED on his Porsche) and unless you are never going to Switzerland again I would pay!

I averaged 28MPG over the entire trip which is a little over 22MPG for US Gallons. I filled up a lot, particularly in Switzerland as the Shell stations there do 100-Octane V-Power. Fuel in Switzerland is not cheap though!

The French autoroutes are great for covering ground and you can sit at a little over the speed limit (the limit is 81MPH in the dry) and just cruise. I got almost 380-miles of range from one tank on the way back. Imagine an interstate with perfectly smooth tarmac, few junctions and only about 10-cars/mile. Driving long distances is quite relaxing when it's like that.

[bdogk]

Originally Posted by rcjh34

I am expecting delivery of my new M2 in the next couple months and am wondering how well it handles road trips and how often you have to fill up the gas tank. Anyone with experience with driving the car on trips please leave comments below!

You won't be disappointed. We picked up our cars and drove 1300km from Munich to Monaco through some of the best roads in Germany, Austria, Italy, France.

The M2 in stock form is simply amazing and exceeded all our expectations. No roads in North America can compare to the roads and scenery we were subjected to.

See the links below:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?...Gs&usp=sharing

http://f87.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho...1221161&page=5

http://f87.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho....php?t=1265050

[lx93]

this car sucks for road trips. just finished a 1500 miles all highway road trip in the past weekend. too noisy (due to lack of sound insulation materials) and suspension is too firm. neither is adaptive cruise control available nor steering assist. no vented seats either in a hot summer day. You'd be much more comfortable in mostly any other modern cars, Mercedes, Audi, heck, even an Honda Accord will be better for road trips

[zenmaster]

Originally Posted by confusion

It's fine. You'll get close to 30 mpg at reasonable highway speeds.

That's great. I didn't think it'd get better mileage than my M235i!

[confusion]

Originally Posted by zenmaster

That's great. I didn't think it'd get better mileage than my M235i!

I was hovering around 28 iirc at 75 mph, down to 24 at 90, on flat, smooth highway.

[paradoxical3]

It's a very good car for road trips. The car really eats up ground quickly. The seats are actually much more comfortable than I was expecting, coming from the e9x sport seats in my previous car. I greatly prefer the M2 ones as they don't hurt my right hip like the e9x ones did. The only problem with the car is that the range isn't the greatest as the gas tank is too small, but it gets good mpg actually.

[rcjh34]

Originally Posted by paradoxical3

It's a very good car for road trips. The car really eats up ground quickly. The seats are actually much more comfortable than I was expecting, coming from the e9x sport seats in my previous car. I greatly prefer the M2 ones as they don't hurt my right hip like the e9x ones did. The only problem with the car is that the range isn't the greatest as the gas tank is too small, but it gets good mpg actually.

When you say range can you be a little more specific? How many miles can you go with a full tank before you have to refill again?

[jtfields]

When you guys go on these long road trips, what mode do you keep it in (comfort, sport, etc)?

[msi200]

Yes, you can do road trips in it, and the M2 is surprisingly comfortable for this type of vehicle. But I don't think this or any other M car is designed for long distance cruising (I had a F10 M5 before). For trips longer than 2-3 hours I always choose my X5.

- The M2 is noisy at high speeds and the ride is not very good, 6th gear on MT is too "short". I wish it had either seat ventilation or cloth seats. I also wish for a spare tire.

+ Everything else is fine, I actually find the seats and driving position quite comfortable, it holds the straight line well, has cruise control, air conditioning works well.

[stren]

Bottom line this the M2 is derived from the 2 series which is low end BMW wise. You aren't going to get super luxury seats, you aren't getting ventilated seats, you're not even getting soft leather. The suspension is not adjustable, so that suspension which works well at the track is going to limit your comfort. So it depends on what kind of road trip experience you're looking for. Do you get to have spirited driving along the way on pristine new asphalt or are you just crushing highway miles on potholed concrete? For most forum driver's I imagine it will be great, for spouses like mine, well they might prefer a Mercedes. It sounds like a few of you expected to buy a 5 series.

I'm hoping a competition pack also puts in the M3/4 competition seats, because I would love better seats, but I'm not willing to size up the car to get them.

[atxsk8r]

I wouldn't take it on a road trip, MT cruising at 80 on the highway 6th gear rpms seem too high plus the crappy gas mileage.

Even before getting this car, anytime i road trip i always rent a car. Way less stress to just rent a cheap car with insurance, don't have to worry about anything and just drive. Also feels nice to take a break from OCD for once lol.

[jtfields]

Originally Posted by msi200

I also wish for a spare tire.

Forgot it doesn't have a spare. I'm so use to run flats now I don't even think about it. This could definitely be a problem if you road trip to the middle of nowhere.

[Swimfanrick]

Originally Posted by atxsk8r

I wouldn't take it on a road trip, MT cruising at 80 on the highway 6th gear rpms seem too high plus the crappy gas mileage.

Even before getting this car, anytime i road trip i always rent a car. Way less stress to just rent a cheap car with insurance, don't have to worry about anything and just drive. Also feels nice to take a break from OCD for once lol.

How many RPM's you turn at 80 MPH with the MT in 6th gear?