Quote:
Originally Posted by BigKutta
I dont know about that, but M has always been about making cars that are like a wolf in sheep's clothing. Practical sporty cars. So this evolution is not strange. The M enthusiast that you refer to are the fringe, not the majority of the buyers, and perhaps never were. I dont track my M2 (maybe I'm not enthusiast), but I do love it it for the fact that I can drive it daily and have a lot of fun doing it.
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No, you are an in fact an "enthusiast," but a different type. You are correct, the people that were originally targeted by ///M are fringe now but they are few around and it just puzzles them. Your point about a wolf in sheeps clothing also confirms what I said. People don't know what the M car was about. It's not a wolf in sheeps clothing. That was my 1993 Sentra SER that looked like an econobox sentra but had an all aluminum 2.0 L 140HP motor with limited slip, 4 wheel disk brakes 131mph top speed and 0-60 in 7.6 seconds but looked like a college kid's first car with a wing on it. That was a wolf in sheeps clothing. It had one R in the rear to differentiate it from the E, SE variants. There are 16-20 M badges (or Wolf badges) on your M car. Every angle, nook and cranny has an M on it. It's like Wolf wearing a sheepskin scarf and 24 buttons from the sheep-eating society, Wolve-anonymous, lamb, the other white meat...etc. There is nothing WISC in the M2. Even the story of the M car (M1 and E30 M3) is unknown to most M owners. It was a race car that was "liveable" every day and would provide the "ultimate" driving experience. It wasn't just meant to be fast the formula was a sedan or coupe that could compete and with true sports cars yet be liveable with every day. The issue is that what people consider liveable is now the equivalent of some Tool-time lazy boy invention with built in cooler, arm that opens and holds your beer for you, voice activated reclining and butt-massaging. We laugh at it when we see it on TV but to our amazement, people are doing that to ///M cars.
That's OK too, but the OP asked because he/she are also wondering so I tried to answer the question. Most M owners today put more weight on comfort and gadgetry over the driving dynamics and weight. That's OK, it's evolution, the masses have spoken and those of us that value the the former are sorta stuck hoping it's a pendulum swing and one day it might swing back to people caring about performance and dynamics not just automated speed and comfort.