Quote:
Originally Posted by Germanauto
I just came back from the event in San Diego and felt similarly. I had driven the M340 last year on a dealer event test drive and was underwhelmed with the steering but found the rest of the car to be quite solid. The chassis and powertrain were great. On the autocross today I quite enjoyed the M340. The steering is still a weak point of the car, but on their course it provided me adequate information. The chassis was very well balanced, I loved getting the tail out a little yet remaining firmly planted. One of the instructors commented that the F30 generation was just plain bad in comparison.
The 235 was....mediocre at best. It's ugly and understeered a lot. Decent enough exhaust note though.
For whatever reason this location did not have any M2, M3, M4, or M5 like last year's event in Los Angeles. It was all SUVs and then an 850 sedan and cabriolet. I drove the X4M and also found there was no low end grunt which was frustrating. Steering was tight but quite artificial feeling. The Porsche Macan definitely takes the cake in this segment, but the X3/4M are definitely fun for CUVs. At their price they are a solid buy.
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I was also there! I have the same thoughts with you about the M340i vs M235i in terms of performance/handling. Surprisingly the two cars actually sound very similar stock to stock which is a positive for the 4cylinder M235i.
I also drove the X3M and thought it was quite solid. 100+MPH was easily achieved and to my surprise it didn't even feel like I was driving that fast! Really wish they had some more choices outside of SUVs but overall the event was great and BMW doesn't even charge a fee!