My dad and his friends were very into Japanese stuff and Japan back in the 60’s and 70’s which paid off in the 80’s when everyone was trying to copy them. We had a '78 Corolla growing up and an '85 Camry.

The story with the Corolla that I remember most was that my dad and his friends literally organized a group buy for the Corolla. They were just cheap little things back then and he got like two of his friends to also buy one at the same time at a steep discount since they were agreeing to buy three cars at once.

Notably, i grew up in Boston. I think there was a lot more hate for foreign cars in the midwest, closer to where the big 3 were headquartered.

I love my F87, but I would note that it rides pretty harshly and has a small fuel tank, both are annoyances when using the car as a DD like I do.

Much of the fun of the car comes from it’s “spiky” nature, with big torque overwhelming the rear tires for a brief moment (or longer should you want.) It’s not really a “drive with your fingertips, feel the precision” type of vehicle.

It’s other party trick is probably just the overall agility of the M2. It’s very quick to change directions and pretty small (a little shorter than an E46 if i remember correctly.)

Pshaw. You think your 10-speed road bike is fast?! Wait till you find out about 21 speed mountain bikes! They’re (checks math) more than TWICE as fast!

It’s funny, i was never a huge fan of the G37, but they’ve been really growing on me recently. I always thought both the 350Z and the G35 were better looking than the G37/370Z, but stepping up their game in refinement speaks to me more these days now that i’m older.

I have a friend who bought an IPL new with a six-speed (and got a great deal on it.) I think his intention was to keep it around long term which feels like a pretty good choice. It offers a lot of stuff that is getting harder and harder to find.

The M2 Comp is pretty great! I’ve had it for more than 4 years and 30K miles. It’s my daily and replaced my old 350Z. I owned both cars for a short while and it was a really interesting experience driving them back-to-back.

The M2 Comp is obviously much faster in a straight line, it’ll easily out grip the Nissan and it turns in way faster…but I have to give Nissan’s engineers credit: it feels like the Z had more travel and felt as though it was inherently working with a lower center of gravity. Some of it may be the seating position too, which is lower and further back in the Z.

The beauty of the M2 is it’s rear diff. It’ll let you slide, but more importantly be nice and progressive when regaining grip when ending that slide. The car does always want to be sideways though, that’s just kind of its personality.

Downsides are the ride quality which is just barely on the right side of “i’ll tolerate it” and the gas tank. Oh man, i miss that big old gas tank in the Nissan. The BMW has a 13.2 gallon tank and has 405 hp. I live at the gas station.

On the other hand, it makes an absurdly practical car for the city. Great visibility, easy to park, a nice big trunk, back seats you can put people in, the list goes on.

Yes, agreed 100 percent. People just liked shitting on Nissan I think. They don’t share any body panels and have a different wheelbase. But I think it’s a case of people not paying attention vs those of us that are.

I….actually really love the gtr facelift for this year. Hated that grille.

I’ve had big arguments around 350Z -> 370Z on here.

There are many things mustang owners can do to stop crashing.

1. Have some goddamn self control
2. Learn how to drive
3. Don’t learn how to drive but learn to panic 2 foot down in a hairy situation.

I’ve listed them in order of personal preference as far as I’m concerned. If you’re going to have a tank slapper every time you try to recover from power oversteer, I’d suggest you THINK you’ve got number 2 covered but you don’t.

The problem with no 3 is that it works in situations caused by power oversteer, but not necessary oversteer caused by other factors. It also means you’re conceding that youlll keep traveling in the direction you’re already going, albeit that ride is ending ASAP.

But I can think of plenty of situations where recovering from a slide with some manner of grace wont cause an accident, but braking and clutching in would.

That said, it makes the list for a reason.

“Fuck you wheels!”

You sure you didn’t just make that up?

Might be worth trying to find a wet skid pad to get a handle on how to recover from a slide. Or a wet parking lot when no one is around. But you didn’t hear that from me.

I’d think the IS500 would be a much better highway cruiser. I’ve heard the new M2 rides better, but I don’t think they’ve made the gas tank any bigger (52 liters, way too small for a car producing 400+ hp.)

Obviously the M2 will be a much more fun and playful vehicle, but for your use case, i’d feel no shame in picking the lexus. M2 is a nice all-arounder but if it’s light on anything, it’s comfort and luxury.

Looks like all of my step moms cars on the trunk where she’d place her purse. The car is NEW new? Or new to you?

I could be wrong though, just looks similar.

Yeah, i kind of get the sense that there are sort of two lineages that get mixed up with one another when we talk about small BMW performance coupes.

There’s the “precise driving machine” lineage and the “this is a tiny hoon-mobile ” lineage.

Cars like the E46 M3 and the E92 M3 fit into the former category while stuff like the 1M, the 2002 turbo and the M2 Comp fit into the latter. The G87 appears to be more the former than the latter. I think that’s part of why it feels so “M3 like” to a lot of people.

The car gets way too much hate. I don’t love the styling, but it’s not awful to my eyes either. I’d definitely consider one someday if the price were right.

Having driven a 3.8L V6 making 105 hp around a race track a few hundred times, let me tell you, the novelty of that kind of a powerband wears off.

PNW winters are the worst for this. Don’t swap tires? Oh sorry it snowed and you won’t be able to go anywhere for three days. Swapped tires? Oh sorry. It won’t snow for the next two years all winter long.

That 5th ave? Nice picture.

You need to shift the red spot to the right. An E46 is a 20 year old car at this point and knocking on the door of “classic” status. It’s the 10-20 year old cars nobody wants, cars that don’t look new but are a dime a dozen on the road.

I’ve never driven a Golf R, but I suspect the M2 will be trickier to handle. I consider it an “intermediate car” when you turn off the electronic assists. Obviously, if you leave them on, the car will be relatively safe, but still feel “looser” than a Golf R.

Assists off, it will still generally tend towards understeer, but power oversteer is absolutely an option any time you’re in the three lower gears near the limit. Nothing crazy difficult to catch and it oversteers in a smooth predictable manner. But the wheelbase is short and you’re dealing with turbo lag. Harder to keep in a straight line than my old 350z, but easier to save than anything mid engined.

Other cars to consider might be a C7, maybe a Mach 1 mustang or a zl1 Camaro if you want straight line speed. The M2 is a lot more practical and easy to drive than those cars, but you want a weekend ride, so it might be worth putting up with less refinement.