2009 BMW M3 -- The Ultimate Commuter Car

Second that. Compared to a supercar, maybe.

Throw in a 335d and I might agree, though.

But for the rest of the country that experiences hard rain/snow...how do you think it would handle that?

If I had this M3, I would stow it from November till early May, and drive a FWD car during the winter, like a Buick.

$70k for a commuter car? Hardly seems "practical" to me. I thought BMW fanboys claim that the M3 is basically a race car with four doors?

@gjupp says
I think you would be surprised at how well BMW's do in the snow with a good set of snow tires. My Wife drives her rear drive 330Ci year round and in the winter we put on Bridgestone Blizzak's. I remember a snow storm a couple of years ago where we got about 6 inches and she had no issues at all, and they do great in ice too. She actually feels safer in this car than her last 2 previous front drive cars.

For my commuter car, I would get a 1974 Pontiac Grandeville. Then I wouldn't worry about safety because I have an acre of crumple zone ahead and behind me. V8, RWD...hey, it's everything you need!

I know people will throw a pile of dung at me for saying this. But I think the Camcords are the ultimate commuter cars. They are easy to drive around in traffic because they won't jump out and they feel so numb and cushy when driving that it helps when you are coming home shellshocked from work. And you won't care as much if you get little scratches on the bumper or the door. I am seriously considering a good compromised commuter car for my next purchase.

I bet an Fusalticamcordbunata is cheaper to insure than an M3!

"I think you would be surprised at how well BMW's do in the snow with a good set of snow tires."

Agreed. And anyone who actually believes that he/she needs FWD to handle wet pavement should do the rest of us a favor and utilize public transit.

But will Fusalticamcordbunatas get you dates and mistresses? I think not.

Just for the sake of curiosity, do chicks dig the M3 or would they think you are just a 3-series/A4 yuppy. Too bad SAAB dropped out from that scene.

"Specifically, you have more tools to work with than any other car. "

There are likely a dozen or more cars that offer similar "tools".

The Vette, C63, CTS-V, S4, Mustang GT500 and G8 GXP are a few that come to mind off the top of my head. There was a time when the M3 offered rare performance for the dollar. Those times are long gone.

"Agreed. And anyone who actually believes that he/she needs FWD to handle wet pavement should do the rest of us a favor and utilize public transit. "

I'd venture to say 99% of car owners don't change their tires in the winter. That being said many people would rather have a FWD/AWD vehicle if they live in a snowy area and save the time and costs of changing wheels/tires every winter.

I'm another guy from the Midwest who has an RWD BMW. The thing handles wonderfully in the snow, so I can't agree more with jeepsrt and roadburner. Plus, changing tires twice a year gives you better rubber for the situation you're in with minimal extra investment.

The last big list of fuel economy had the M3 averaging 15.6 mpg. I have a much more useful 4WD pickup that gets the same. No, maybe I can't out-accelerated, out-handle, or out-brake the M3. But it traverses snow and dirt like it was born there, and I can haul 8,200 lbs of trailer.

altimadude, Did they have purpose-designed crumple zones in 1974? I saw how the Bel-Air fared against a modern Malibu.

In my G8 GT, I'm a little worried about the first snow (I have on all-season tires) but the nice part about Kansas is I'll get snow maybe 3 times? Ice maybe 6? And then it will be rainy. Big deal. I can't imagine the BMWs would be that bad, you just need to be careful.

A bmw m3 is the perfect commuter car? o.0

Perhaps traffic is radically in California, but the variety we get around here is a soul sapping glob of cars spread across all lanes, going the exact same speed. Feel free to swap lanes and manuver to your hearts content, but you aren't getting anywhere any faster. You're almost always better off just chilling out and cruising along with the flow.

If I was buying a car for commuting, it would have to:

A. Get decent fuel economy
B. Be fairly quiet (but hopefully have a good sound system)
C. Have a comfy ride, but not sprung so softly as to float or wallow.

I would think something like your genesis would be much better suited to the task than an m3.

Now, having said that, if my 'commute' was a windy two lane country road I'd be a little more in agreement. You certainly can use that extra power to pass folks in a safe, no drama fashion.

Doesn't the M3 get the worst fuel economy in the entire Edmunds LT fleet? I think you can scratch that off the list as part of a desireable commuter car.

I know what you mean though about the acceleration, braking, and handling actually making you feel safer. You get the sense with performance cars that you can maneuver out of almost any bad situation, as long as you're paying attention to what's happening ahead and around you.

I'm just saying a car with as much power as the M3 has it might be easy to overstep the throttle. And if you are battling other commuters, snow plows, and slushy lanes I would just be afraid of my $70k car ending up as a hood ornament or in the ditch.
However, my BMW choice as a commuter car would be the 328 with xDrive. Not a flashy car, but comfortable. Or I'd get a Legacy GT.

Uhm no, I'd say something a little less drinky drinky on the gas, a little less ka-ching in costs, and a little more comfortable on the highway. I'd vote VW TDI.

In case you missed the memo the M3 is the best at everything in the automotive world. Probably is the best towing vehicle too.

i live in the north east best sedan under 70k is 535XI there is no other car that can touch it comfort performance gadgets

"That being said many people would rather have a FWD/AWD vehicle if they live in a snowy area and save the time and costs of changing wheels/tires every winter."

It takes me 30-45 minutes to change all four in my driveway, depending on how thoroughly I clean the wheels before I put them away.
Cost: $00.00
If I get an E90 M3 DCT I'll still keep the X3 and/or the Wrangler to handle the really bad stuff- primarily because I don't want the M3 to be rammed by some brain-dead moron who likely doesn't have insurance.

I moved to Boston from Memphis a few years ago; to this day I have yet to meet someone (in Boston) who even knows what a snow tire is (okay, one guy who just moved here from California got them on his Mustang, but he's never met anyone who drove in snow before he moved here).

So, as much as I share roadburner's enthusiasm for snow tires (I ran circles around my mother-in-law's Lexus RX w/ full-time 4wd last winter in my way-cheaper Mazda6), I'd say that the vast majority of people are better off in FWD cars (AWD/4WD gives too many people a false sense of security and gets them into more trouble. Just ask the piles of SUVs in the ditches every winter).

A major publication had an article comparing AWD vs. FWD/RWD Audi/Merc a while ago. As most people know, AWD w/ snow tires are phenomenal; snow tires with 2-wd are generally a little better than AWD with "all-season" tires.

IMHO, for most cities, RWD or FWD makes no difference for a commuter car because you will rarely see 2-ft-deep snow unplowed on the streets. I need snow tires because I used to commute at 4am, when there can be quite a bit of snow and ice on the roads.

"IMHO, for most cities, RWD or FWD makes no difference for a commuter car because you will rarely see 2-ft-deep snow unplowed on the streets. I need snow tires because I used to commute at 4am, when there can be quite a bit of snow and ice on the roads."

My major obstacle is an 1,800 gravel driveway that I have to traverse every day. One fallen tree due to wind/ice/snow more than justifies the need for my Jeep- or my wife's X3.

If you have the money for a M3 then in that case you have the extra money for the snow tires and the wheels to go with them. I didn't price rims but good snow tires for a 19" rim will run about $1000. Not exactly something that a normal middle class person can afford without a lot of planning.

What I took from this blog post (ignoring the title) was that, given the type of commute Mr. Reed has to contend with, the M3 was the best tool for the job out of any car of the fleet, given it's impressive abilities, coupled with its comfort and compliant ride quality.

But maybe the trolls would have realized if they actually read the post instead of switching to insta-flame mode when they saw "BMW M3" in the title...

Trolls?

Ignore the haters.

Love that car and agree with Philip Reed.

Would be great to have that car in Los Angeles traffic.

Seriously, do people still whine about premium? Come on. At $3.20 gallon, if the extra 20 cents a gallon is going to pinch the buyer should stick to Hondas and Mazdas.

FWIW, the 335i is ridiculously easy to drive in bumper-to-bumper with a manual too. So much power, so comfy, so easy to roll in and jump on a spot.

@1487: "I'd venture to say 99% of car owners don't change their tires in the winter. That being said many people would rather have a FWD/AWD vehicle if they live in a snowy area and save the time and costs of changing wheels/tires every winter." - Wow! 1487 is not just a car "expert"; he's a marketing maven, too: he knows what 99% of people do and want! Just because 99% of people do something does not make it right. The drive train layout does not help the car stop; the advantages a FWD car has over a RWD car in snow is unclear, at best; and modern traction and stability controls make an AWD system unnecessary weight on all but unplowed snow conditions.

I live in Boston and drive E90 M3. Drove it all through last winter on a square 235/45 Blizzaks LM25 setup. I wish I did not drive by oh so many all-season-tire-shod AWD vehicles lying on their back in ditches.

"Seriously, do people still whine about premium? Come on. At $3.20 gallon, if the extra 20 cents a gallon is going to pinch the buyer should stick to Hondas and Mazdas."

It's just another example of a knee-jerk reaction where people simply don't think things through- or can't do simple math. If someone drives 15,000 miles per year in a car that averages 20 mpg their annual fuel usagee will be 750 gallons. If there is a 25 cent difference between regular and premium that amounts to $187.50 more per year- or $15.63 per month. Wow; $0.52 per day. If an extra fifty cents a day is going to wreck your budget you should probably be shopping for an Aveo- preferably used...

Were you being sarcastic about the decent fuel economy? The EPA gives this 14/20: it actually qualified as a clunker. Don't add "for the power" to the end of that fuel economy statement: it's the 21st century, anything that gets below 20 overall should be banned from the open roads, it uses too much of a strategic resource that is also damaging the planet.

rollem83:
Lighten up, Francis; the E9X M3 is a true hy.brid vehicle.
It burns gas and rubber.

So going from the ultimate driving machine to the ultimate conmuter car? huh?
Isnt that a bit of downgrading....

Wow, I just had to get on here to post.

Let's start by the whole "snow tire bullsh!t":
To everyone who has suggested that the M3 is hindered by being RWD and instead should be replaced by an AWD or FWD vehicle, a word of advice: when you go home today, search for your brain. You left it there when you wrote on this board.

It is evident to a degree that is hard to state without using insults that what you need in winter is snow tires. FWD, 4x4 and 100x100 all mean diddly squat when paired with tires that have a coefficient of friction that approaches 0 with very cold and/or snowy conditions.

Let's all PLEASE understand that the tires are the only thing that can transmit movements from the car to the road or viceversa, so if your tires don't grip it does not matter what "configuration" of vehicle you're running: you still have zero grip.

Even in the case where adhesion is low but not zero and where a brainless person (which is the only kind that could ever say retarded things like I've read here and which is also the only type of person who would try something like this) could actually accelerate faster in an AWD car than in a RWD one, you wouldn't want to. Although in this case you'd accelerate faster, turns and brakes use all four tires so you'd be in the exact same position as someone in a RWD car, except that you're travelling faster and now have to avoid obstacles at higher speed than others but now going faster. Result? Natural selection takes its toll.

I mean, come on, this is a car website and the people who read and comment have to know more about cars than the average Joe. This makes me wonder if there are people out there who can possibly know less and if so I want to know how they remember to breathe.

Many car mags run features in winter to remind anyone who was born yesterday or immigrated from Pluto that, surprisingly to many, 4WD does *shit* in snow and the only thing that makes an actual difference is SNOW tires. It doesn't seem that complicated. Repeat it 10 times every morning.

In case if there's anyone who still has any doubts, we can all watch this, one of the many many articles that CLEARLY states what I've said:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=116

¬¬

Regarding the M3 and how good or bad it is: I'm amazed at how many people (or children, you never know who lurks behind notorious M3 haters) know so much more than professional car editors. I mean, these people drive every single make and model, over and over again, year after year. They even work for different companies, in different countries and different continents.
Yet, surprisingly, although C&D pits it against many others and it wins them all, although Motortrend says it's "the World's greatest car" and InsideLine says much of the same, we've got everyone talking BS about cars they have never driven, comparing against other cars they haven't driven either, talking BS about what the spreadsheet performance is and contradicting car mag editors and reviewers. Amazing. Next up: a bunch of 15 year old idiots teach the people at NASA how to "really" build a rocket.

My God, it's scary to think that the world is like this...

SYT_Shadow

+1 shadow

1487 said:

'There are likely a dozen or more cars that offer similar "tools".

The Vette, C63, CTS-V, S4, Mustang GT500 and G8 GXP are a few that come to mind off the top of my head. '

Actually, 1487, the CTS-V and Vette are not just 'off the top of your head'; you live, breath, and crap those cars on a daily basis.

The M3 has a lot of strengths, fuel economy is not one of them. You can try hypermiling like they did in on the big mags, but you may get shot