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I was actually in a really similar boat as you. Part of me was just like "why not save a boatload of cash? The car will probably be just as much fun anyway."
It's honestly not a bad idea, but a few things swayed me back towards buying an M2 Comp.
I like owning cars for a long time, building up a relationship with that car, learning it and knowing exactly how it's going to react in any given situation. I've only ever driven older Miatas but every one i've driven has lived up to the car's reputation for accessible performance. That's great! It's honestly a fantastic trait in an automobile, but if i'm looking for a long term thing, I want to have to work for it juuust a little bit. The M2c is also very playful, but in addition to that, it's genuinely fast. There's a lot more car to "learn" with the M2c.
Secondly: Miatas are awesome but not particularly nice. Again that's absolutely part of their charm. But while I can afford either car, I am not made of money. There's a certain amount of "pot committed" i feel when it comes to buying a brand new car. If i'm really going to commit such a big chunk of cash to an automobile, i'd rather kind of check all of the boxes at once if at all possible. Which is, I think one of the best things about the M2 comp, it really checks a lot of boxes. I feel like I have plenty of time to pick up a used Miata for $5K-7K and get 90 percent of the experience of a new ND without such a big commitment. I'd also be less worried about owning one out of warranty and more likely to be able to fix it myself. Plus, they are by nature, excellent second cars, while the M2c is absolutely my daily.
My third argument for the M2 Competition is that it's special. My first car was a Celica All-trac, which was a full on rally homologation special. My next car, a 350Z was better, faster and much more fun to drive. I loved that car, but I really missed having something rare, interesting and a little different. It's a lot more fun to be admired by an enthusiast who knows what they're looking at, than recognized as "that sports car guy" by every layman on the street. And the car is definitely special, it was created because BMW was over a barrel with it's engine options. 90 percent of the time when a car company bandaids a product for emissions purposes it hurts the customer. The M2 Competition falls into the other ten percent. We got a car BMW consciously declined to make. They easily could have started the M2 line with the S55 in there, but they likely thought it would cannibalize M3/M4 sales. Well. We got the car anyway. Stuff like that doesn't happen every day, we should take advantage of it.
Finally, my most obvious argument for the M2 Comp is that it's fast. I'm in the camp that would rather drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow, but ultimately I can't deny that gunning the car on an onramp puts a smile on my face in the simplest of ways. Dumb? yes. Still fun though. I'm 37 years old, so the supercars of my youth were 400-500 hp machines. I've always felt like that was a pretty good horsepower range and about the upper limits of 'reasonable' before things cross over into 'excessive.'
Now, there are plenty of other cars that are fast. Any number of muscle cars can match the M2 comp for speed and horsepower while doing so for cheaper. And yeah, the M2c handles better but we're kidding ourselves if we think even something as pedestrian as a Mustang GT isn't within spitting distance on a race track. But they're all big, each and every one of them. The M2 comp combines the more serious speed of those cars with a good dose of the tossability and playfullness of a Miata. I took it out last night in the rain and had a blast with small amounts of oversteer on a few tight corners. It's happy to play, seldom feeling like there's too much momentum and wheelbase to fool around with. Plus, it's way nicer inside than either of those cars.
And one last bonus argument: 400+ hp manual transmission cars are not long for this world. Get it while the getting's good. Yeah, again the muscle cars also provide this. But if your thrills are coming more from straight line speed, there's less of an argument for having a manual anyway. The Supra also checked a bunch of my boxes, but no manual kind of ruined it (for me, that's just how I like my sports cars, no judgement if you're different.)
Anyway, good luck with your choice. The Miata is a truly awesome vehicle and a legend in its own right. Enjoy the shit out of whatever you end up going with, just be sure to stick around if you end up making the same choice as the rest of us here on this site!
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