Originally Posted by davep
Congrads! Tell us more....
Haha indeed, you'll no longer have to put up with my posts moaning about the fact I don't have an M car!Ah CitizenKane, you've been talking about picking one up for so long. I'm delighted to hear you took the plunge! Is it all that you expected?
It's a 2018 M4 Competition Pack in Mineral Grey with Black interior. I'll get some photos up once I've given it a clean, which is overdue (it's been a busy few months with a 4 month old baby and a house move less than 2 months ago, I simply haven't had time)! I'd say it's exceeded my expectations to be honest. I'd spent so much time researching these cars but actually hadn't driven one (or any M car for that matter) until very recently. In truth I'd hoped to have spent a bit more time trying out some of the other generations (E46, E9X) before taking the plunge. But for various reasons that didn't happen (the pandemic didn't help) and I had more or less settled on the F8X for a while now. Part of that was because, on paper at least, it is probably the most "sensible" choice of M car given it will be my daily.
The car I picked up has a full BMW service history and is fairly well specced (Comp pack as mentioned, Harman Kardon, Extended Leather, M Performance steering wheel and exterior carbon stuff). Only real negative is the mileage is on the high side at just shy of 100,000km. Although that's higher than I was looking for, frankly, I managed to get quite a good deal on the car and got comfortable that it's been maintained well, so I was happy to go with it as the car otherwise ticked all the boxes.
In terms of driving - it's just an amazing machine. As someone who hasn't spent that much time driving properly fast cars, the speed of this thing was/is genuinely frightening. I'm still very much taking my time to learn and understand the car, but from the few times I've stretched the legs even briefly the performance is startling. I was also surprised at how good it sounds (the M Performance exhaust helps I guess) and at how much it loves to rev. I'd read so much stuff on the internet about how it sounds crap compared to E9X, etc. It may not sound as good as the V8, but I've learned that that just says more about how good the V8 sounds than the F8X sounding bad.
Another thing that has surprised me is how civilised the car feels when pottering around in Efficient/Comfort mode under 2,000 RPM - at times it feels, dare I say it, as if you're just driving any other "normal" BMW. But the way it can transform into an absolute monster at a second's notice is quite special. I can't see myself changing the car any time soon, and if we're all going to be forced into driving hybrids/electric cars in the near future then I think this is the perfect car to keep me going until that happens!
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