Motor Trend has now had their 2009 BMW M3 long term test car for a year now and it's time to say goodbye, after logging over 20,000 miles.
What is MT's final verdict? How's this for some praise?
"The World's Greatest All-Around Car? Unquestionably."
Here is the rest of their experience summarized:
Quote:
Verdict: 2009 BMW M3
The Worst Part is That it had to go
From the January, 2011 issue of Motor Trend
/ By Carlos Lago
/ Photography by William Walker
No. It's been a year already? Can't be. Then the realization sets in. After 12 all-too-short months and 20,022 miles on the odometer, it's time for the M3 to go home. Panicked, the pleading begins. Then the bargaining.
Anything we could to do hold on to our car for just a little longer, to feel one more embrace from the seats, to experience one more blast to redline, was fair game. Maybe I'll grab the keys and run. Mexico isn't that far...
It wasn't long after this white sedan unassumingly slid into our garage that we called it World's Best All-Around Car. Initially, we were enamored of its package, an easy blend of speed, handling, good looks, roominess, and practicality. But surely, the World's Best All-Around Car title was a touch hyperbolic, right? Short answer: Nope.
Our M3 was a sedate and luxurious sedan as well as a supremely rewarding driving machine. Docile in inclement weather and smooth enough to transport your grandparents (if you can resist temptation), the M3 was equally primed for backcountry road-smash mode, where it would fire every synapse in your brain related to driving pleasure.
And then you'd find the M Drive button, which holds your preferred throttle, traction, and damping settings. With one press, everything somehow managed to get better. This is the M3's genius.
There are faster cars, yes, and there are a few that are more rewarding to drive. But of those, we challenge you to find one that combines speed, thrill, and daily driving duties as deftly as the M3.
But now it's gone -- the Mexico dash didn't pan out. And while we now have time to let the bruises heal from the fights over its keys, we realize that the M3 has left a hole in our long-term fleet that won't soon be filled. Finding another car that pleases its driver in such myriad forms might as well be the quest for the Holy Grail; the only obvious replacement for our M3 is the next one. The World's Greatest All-Around Car? Unquestionably.
Full article : http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/...ict/index.html
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