PH Carpool: BMW M3

When we were 22, we 'ad to mek' do wi' rusty pushbike from skip...

What's it like to be a young man with a very, very fast car? PHer Dan Drury (aka dele) is living the dream:

*****

PHer Dan Drury and '09 BMW M3

"I bought my M3 on a complete whim. I had set my heart on an Audi A5 but on the way to the Audi dealer I ended up at BMW just to see what they could offer me. They didn't take me seriously at first, who would? I was just a 22 year old turning up in a hoodie and looking at the M3 sitting in the corner. I wasn't able to take a test drive because of my age but I took a complete gamble and within the hour I found myself sitting there with a receipt for MV09 DSE.

"Being part of the 'PlayStation generation' I naturally went for the DCT gearbox and I love it. It's not perfect though - at low speed manoeuvres you can sometimes hear the odd clunk and it can be a bit slow to pull away from roundabouts but you forgive these little issues when you first use it in anger on its maximum setting, combined with the V8 engine it tempts you to find the back roads to every destination but if that isn't possible, its more than happy to sit on the motorway.

"I've not done anything to the car except change the front grille, as the original chrome one looked more awkward than Tiger Woods' apology video; it just looked so out of place against the Jerez Black paintwork. If I was to be picky I'd say that the exhaust could be a few decibels louder, but you don't notice it too much because the induction noise from the front is like BMWs own version of Prozac - it'll make you grin no matter what mood you are in, especially when you are inside and catch a glimpse of the bonnet bulge. It is ridiculous but it makes you love it more and then you remember that this is all in a car that you can drive every day.

"For when the mood takes you though, there's the M Button on the steering wheel. Unlike the M5 this doesn't give you more power but it changes your settings to a predefined setup in the iDrive that you can tweak with. For example you can have a perfectly civilised everyday car to go to the shops in, then with one touch of the M-Button you can turn off the driver aids, set the DCT to maximum, change the steering to give more feel and feedback then slide sideways all the way home with the DCT box matching RPMs with a slight pop from the exhaust on downshifts.

"I don't use my M3 everyday, it's more of a special occasion car and it spends most of its life between 6-8k RPM. Because of this I'm only getting around 17mpg on average from the car, but then again no addictions are ever cheap and that's exactly what driving this car is - addictive.

"You'll forget to get the milk so you have an excuse to drive back to the garage to pick it up. You'll wash it and then realise it needs a drive to dry it off. You'll look at it out of the window now and again and catch a glimpse bonnet vent, or the exhausts. You'll walk away from it in the car park but sneak a quick glance or two back at it and have a silly grin on your face. It's infectious and it'll get under your skin, just like mine has.

"That reminds me, I haven't got the newspaper today yet...."
Dan Drury

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stimpy888

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182 months