As some of you may remember from my first thread here, I was originally undecided between the M235i or the 435i, along with RWD and xDrive. After enough looking around and getting feedback and opinions from members here, I was pretty dead set on a M235i and RWD. Well, I finally got the opportuninty to take some test drives this weekend at BMW's Un4gettable Test Drive Event at my dealer up in Knoxville. Easily one of the best Saturdays I've had in awhile. :D Free smoked-on-site barbecue, burgers, lemonade, and sweet tea, along with getting to test drive a few pretty awesome cars. Really opened my eyes, so to speak.
This dealer doesn't have a M235i on the lot. However, they did have a 228i with all of the M and performance packages/options, and they let me take it out for a drive through some mountain backroads and on the freeway. First of all, this thing kicked up a lot quicker than I expected. Still not as quick (speed-wise) as I would like, but impressive, nonetheless. It looked a little bit smaller on the outside than I expected, and it wasn't exactly as pretty as I had hoped. While it definitely had more interior room than my Z does, I wasn't exactly impressed with how tight it felt on the inside as well. Not bad, by any means. But a little smaller than I was hoping. I had it in Sport + mode the entire time, and driving it on the backroads, it seemed to have more body roll than I had hoped (something that I'm sure would be different with the M235i). Definitely not a bad car, but I was a little disappointed, to say the least.
Afterwards, I wanted to at least drive something with xDrive to see if it was as bad as I had heard. Took a 335i with xDrive out for a drive in both Sport + mode on the mountain back roads and Comfort mode on the freeway. To my surprise (after hearing all about how much it takes away from the driving experience), it was nowhere near as bad as I had expected. Still a VERY fun car to drive in the twisties, but seemed a little difficult to control at times (understandable, coming from only RWD experience). However, I did feel like I didn't have to work as hard in the corners and that the car sort of pulled and pushed itself through without worrying about the rear end kicking out. I was pretty impressed, but I still believe I'll be going with RWD.
Now, I had to at least take a 435i for a spin, seeing as how it was what I was originally looking at even before the M235i. They gave me one in Alpine White, with a bunch of M performance options added on (exhaust, carbon fiber bits and pieces, brakes, etc.). And well...all I can say is WOW. This thing fit like a glove. I was thoroughly impressed, in literally every aspect. I thought I'd see how she puckered up on the freeway (little to no traffic at the time), so I put her in Sport + mode and kicked in the throttle, and holy shit she picks up HARD. Took her up to 140 from an 80 roll in no time. And on the twisties? Less body roll than the 228i with the performance options. Pretty solid/tight suspension too (much to my liking, closer in similarity to my Z). Quick throttle in and damn good/hard/smooth braking. It honestly didn't look or feel like a big, luggy car, like I had been thinking. Not to mention, the interior was noticably better, and it was much roomier. It did feel a little wide on the road, but nothing overbearing. To be honest, it's actually made my decision a good bit harder now, since I'm going back to looking at this, as well as the M235i.
When I got down to numbers with the sales manager, I was told that if I wanted a M235i built to my specifications, he would be able to get an allocation to build around October, but I wouldn't see the car until the end of December. Something I wasn't too thrilled about, but not a deal breaker, by any means. But this would also mean that the $1,000 Un4gettable incentive wouldn't apply. But he would also be able to throw in ANY of the M performance parts (carbon fiber bits, wheels, BBK, interior bits, etc.) and incorporate them into the lease. However, he also had a couple of M235i's from other dealers that he could get ahold of, but there would be a couple of things here and there that it might not have that I wanted. He also made me aware that he could get me a 435i built to have whatever I wanted on it, including any of the M performance stuff (factory tune, BBK, wheels, carbon fiber bits, etc.), and I would have it by October (what I was originally shooting for). I'll have to make a decision sometime this week, so it's something that I'll have to think on pretty hard. I haven't had the chance to drive a M235i yet, but I may head to a dealership a few hours away to do just that on Saturday before pulling the trigger one way or the other. On other thing I'm surprisingly looking into now is a M4, considering a fully loaded 435i with all of the performance options I'm wanting is up around the M4 price terriroty. So it's something I'll be thinking on.
It was definitely an eye-opening experience all in all, and I'm very happy that I had the chance to take these cars out for a good drive. :)
