How quickly does six months fly by indeed. I’ve had the pleasure of owning this BMW M2 Competition for half a year already, and in that time, I’ve put barely 3,000 miles on the car. As much as I claim I want to drive more and take the car out on long road adventures, perhaps this is just who I am? I love cars deeply, but putting many miles on them isn’t my thing, at least during this phase in life.
3,000 mile in six months is consistent with the 6,000 or so I put on the 911 GT3 during its first year of ownership. It’s also consistent with the 14,000 or so miles I put on the MX-5 Miata in the three years I owned that car. Maybe it’s time to face facts: I get more enjoyment out of having the car parked out front than actually putting massive amounts of mileage on it. I mean, here I am on a Saturday morning typing this out, instead of taking the M2 out for a drive in the mountains.
I am a homebody that happens to love cars.
Which also explains why it was rather foolish of me to take stewardship of my brother’s MX-5 Miata. I can’t even drive my own car enough, what makes me think I would make the time and effort necessary to drive two? Never mind the fact I now have yet another car to take care of in terms of maintenance and keeping it clean. The parts of car ownership I really don’t like doing. I just like to drive, and it turns out I don’t do enough of that either.
At least now I know I’m not the type of car enthusiast to have more than one car.
I’m pretty sure I put more miles on my brother’s Miata than my own M2 during the month I’ve had both. This is not an indictment on the BMW, mind you. The sheer power advantage and the luxurious accoutrements of the M2 makes it the choice over the one-track minded Mazda roadster. However, the MX-5 trumps the BMW with having a manual transmission. On weekends where traffic isn’t an issue, it’s way more fun to row my own gears.
I still think I’ve made the right decision to get the M2 with the dual-clutch automatic gearbox instead of the manual. Of course, being a decision that costs ~$3,000 dollars extra, I’m biased to defend that position. A great dual-clutch transmission offers the tractility of a manual, combined with the effortless smooth of a traditional automatic. For a car that is to be my only vehicle, going DCT in the M2 makes sense.
The ability to pop the gearbox into fully automatic mode soon as I hit a bit of traffic is quite awesome.
It’s a decision I probably have to live with for a very long time to come. The BMW M2 just might be the last internal-combustion car I buy. Headwinds in the automotive world are blowing heavily towards electrification, both consumer demand (thank you, Tesla) and extremely prohibitive emission regulations (thank you, Euro 7). All my friends have either bought electric vehicles, or their next car will have some form of electrification, if not fully. As much as I love the combustion engine, I’m not going to be the old man yelling at the clouds of rapid change.
I’ve had enough seat time now in fully electric cars to understand how awesome they are. The rapid acceleration from the torque of the motor is fantastic, and simply cannot be matched by any gasoline engine. Combined with a low center of gravity, electric vehicles are darty and fun to drive. There isn’t a gap in traffic that you can’t exploit with a quick push of the accelerator pedal. Lastly, the interiors of electric cars are just really pleasant places to be, quiet and refined. No loud engine noises, only the quiet, futuristic whoosh of the motor.
The next daily-driver I buy, if I ever do need to drive to work again, will be an electric vehicle. That time has arrived, and it’s okay with this car enthusiast.
And I’m okay with the BMW M2 being the final fun car I buy that burns petrol for motivation – the unintended forever car. I don’t really aspire for anything better or different, not at my current income level anyways. I’ve tasted the pinnacle of sports car already, having owned the 991 generation Porsche 911 GT3, so to that end I’m quite satisfied and satiated. I wouldn’t mind having the latest Honda Civic Type R in the stable, but going back to what I wrote earlier, I’m not cut out to own more than one car at a time.
There’s no way I am replacing a pure real-wheel drive sports car with anything that’s front-wheel drive, even for a Civic Type R that’s been dubbed the GT3 of its kind.
Six months with the M2 means insurance renewal time! It was to my great surprise and dissatisfaction to find premiums have increased nearly $500 dollars for the next six-month period. This isn’t Progressive being screwy with me, either: I’ve checked quotes from other insurance companies, and their premiums are even worst. It looks like the costs of insuring a BMW in San Francisco have gone quite a ways up.
What have you other BMW drivers been doing? Crashing into things? Being naughty with the law? I certainly haven’t contributed to the problem. I’ve made zero claims on my insurance, and the only ticket I got in the last six months is for not having a front license plate, which I have since fixed. Nevertheless, BMW drivers really have to get it together, because I am dangerously close to paying the same premiums as I did for the 911 GT3 – a car that costs twice as much.
Data and demographics can be such a bitch. I take commiseration in knowing that owners of Tesla cars and Dodge Chargers/Challengers have got it worse.
But that means I really should try to put more miles on the M2. I am paying way too much in insurance to have it only do 6,000 miles a year. But there’s another problem: with the pandemic nearing its end, gasoline prices have gone up tremendously. With a car that gets 20 miles to the gallon on a good day, it’s rather painful at the fuel pump these days with the M2. It’s not Porsche GT3 levels of horrible, but it’s barely better.
See what I mean about my next car being electric? Things have changed rapidly. See you all next month.
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Date acquired: October 2019
Total mileage: 3,011
Mileage this month: 219
Costs this month: $1,589.77 (insurance renewal)
MPG this month: 20.42