Quote:
Originally Posted by champignon
A lot of what passes for a "luxurious" interior isn't really in keeping with a small car that is supposed to be a performance vehicle.
A long time ago, when BMW didn't consider itself to be a luxury brand, their interiors were quite spartan and full of plastic. Even some older Porsche interiors are more reminiscent of a VW than a luxury car. But at this point, just about any BMW interior with leather seating is as luxurious as anyone could "need" in a purported-to-be performance car.
When I sold my 1993 325i, I went through a succession of Japanese cars, mostly Suburus, with a VW thrown in for interest :-) The last Subaru was a 2015 STi, which for Subaru is pretty luxurious. I remember when I got my used 1M, two and a half years ago, when I cleaned it up and started driving it, I thought, WOW, this car is REALLY luxurious and comfortable, I can barely stand to get back into my STi any more. The 1M is (barely) more luxurious than, say, my other two, 1-Series cars, both of which have leather interiors. All of these cars are so far above the cars I drove for the preceding 13 years that it wasn't even questionable.
Since then I've been given quite a few loaners by the BMW dealer, mostly in the 3 and 5 series, and mostly more luxurious than my 1-Series vehicles, but there is a certain fake-feeling to those interiors, like they are trying to be something they can't be, say, for example, like a new Porsche.
My bottom line summation would be that there is a point where the additional "luxury" factor doesn't add much, if anything, to the driving experience, for someone who is primarily interested in a car for its performance.
This is not to say that a lot of the "performance cars" out there, such as the new genre of "Hot Hatches" aren't cheap as hell, inside and out; they are. So you can be too much like a kids/boy racer car, but I don't think that the M2 is at all like that.
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LED tail lights and M mirrors don't add to the driving experience but that doesn't stop people from crying about it.