There’s a new type of reviews Matt Farah has been doing these days that involves taking various people’s rides through LA’s neighboring canyons and telling us all about them. He tested a supercharged BR-Z and a slightly upgraded MINI Cooper S and now he’s taking on a bone stock car.
The weapon of choice is a BMW M235i and boy did he enjoy his run. Unlike other cars these days, the M Performance Automobile can be had with a proper 6-speed manual and this one had it on-board, allowing Matt to row the gears himself on those curvy canyon roads.
He also makes a rather interesting point: the BMW M235i is a better car than the M4. Yes, at first, I was rather shocked as well but come to think of it, he might just have a point.
For the money, the M235i is a hard car to beat. Its price starts at $43,100 and gets you a manual gearbox hooked up to a 3-liter inline 6-cylinder that sounds great (not too loud and not too quiet) and makes 326 HP and 450 Nm (332 lb-ft) of torque that are delivered silky smooth.
That’s more than enough for anyone, especially since this car is lighter than the M4 at 3,505 lbs (1,589 kg). Admittedly, not by much since the M4 tips the scale at 3,530 lbs (1,601 kg) with the manual gearbox and its fancy CFRP roof.
However, the M235i is now 0.2 seconds faster than the E46 M3 at 5 seconds to 62 mph (100 km/h) and that says quite a lot. Of course, it has more torque but it’s not nearly as expensive as the true M car used to be back in the day.
Now, as long as you don’t track your cars too often, there’s no real need to spend at least $21,100 extra for the M4. Sure, it’s the faster, bigger car but even so, you’ll have a pretty hard time trying to get the most out of it on public roads without getting in trouble or worse, crashing.
The M235i has a package that is manageable and easy to drive whereas the M4 is simply a beast that will get out of control in a hurry if you’re not paying attention. We noticed that during our tests and rest assured that if it wasn’t for the DSC we would’ve been in dire trouble more than once.
That’s just a small part of the story, however. The thing is, the M235i Matt is driving here is fitted with an M Performance exhaust as well as a Limited Slip Differential that are a must for any driving enthusiast. They will raise the sticker price a little but are worth the trouble. At the same time, nobody will ever buy an M4 and stick with the standard features so that $64,200 tag is just the starting point.
What's even more interesting is that BMW plans to launch the M2 which will also be cheaper than the M4 but faster than the M235i. That's going to be the pick of the entire range for enthusiasts.
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