[Goons]

Any enthusiasts considering M235I, check out relayrides.com, to rent your own, but in the meantime, here is my review. Keep in mind it is from an enthusiasts perspective.

To sum it up, good car for your average driver, but enthusiasts should probably wait for the M2. My views align closely with the Road&Track writers. Ps, you are welcome

http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars...014-bmw-m235i/

[overcoil]

Everyone is a freakin 'auto journalist'

[jstnstr]

Thank you, Canadian John Malkovich.

[OpenAir]

LOL...at a loss for words. How did you rate your Passat?

[nike001]

Your title says from an enthusiast perspective.... but we all have the 'enthusiast' car and are on this 'enthusiast' forum, aren't we all enthusiasts?

I find many holes in your reasoning on many different topics. At around 11:00 was when you decided to rip iDrive apart.. why? The disclaimer there is there for a reason - all manufacturer's have it. The 8 buttons below your screen are pre-sets, keep whatever features you want in there - ex. navigation addresses, telephone numbers, vehicle status etc etc. You also said if you want fuel info you have to push buttons and all that.. uhh just hit the BC button on the turn signal stalk? All that info is right there.

I do agree with you on the zooming on maps though. It's completely backwards and unnatural and I hate it. Clockwise:in ; counter clockwise: out.. just like a screw.

[shark715]

I guess it depends how you define "enthusiast". As the past or current owner of a 996, Elise, and SLK55, I'm comfortable including myself in the "enthusiast" category, but I was looking for something that would also work well as a daily driver and at the same time be fun to push hard on occasion. Finally, I wanted a convertible, and there's no word if or when there will be an M2 version. I don't see many "average drivers" buying 235's any more than I see them buying S3's. To me the mention of 235's being for average drivers is nothing more a purposeful insult made by someone looking to pick a fight. Perhaps best just ignored :-)

I think the essence of the R&T article was that the 235 is not a true M car. Of course the article was correct in many aspects, but this is really old news. BMW was very clear from the beginning just what they were positioning this model to be. Just look at what it says on the engine cover.

As an "enthusiast" (and having numerous friends who own M cars) I completely get why M owners and fans were insulted by the use of the M logo on the 235. Remember what we all heard when the X5M was introduced :-) But that's what BMW's marketing people decided to do, and no one is forcing you to buy a BMW product if you feel betrayed. BMW owns the logo, we don't.

[kd0t]

Watched 3 minutes of this - couldn't stand your monotone and your complaint for the m sport steering wheel.

[Goons]

Nike001, that is an great point about the presets. I did not know that when I drove the car. Thank you.

Since I made the video, I drove an Audi and it had the same rotation direction for map zoom, but it had a little distance scale icon ion edge of screen. When you rotate to the left, the map scale got smaller, 1 mile/ inch, .75miles/ inch and bigger scale when you rotate to the right, 10 miles/inch. I think if you think of it as changing the range scale, and the clockwise rotation increases numbers, instead of zooming in/ out, it might become more intuitive.

But seriously, why is the steering wheel padded? Isn't the whole point to lightly grip the wheel?

[shark715]

Even Consumer Reports said that the 235 is a hoot to drive :-)

[wjones14]

I stopped watching when you said that the steering wheel alone is a deal-breaker and you would not buy the car because of it - and then when you found out the M4 had the same style wheel, you also would not consider the M4. LOL.