review

2014 BMW M235i

BMW has long considered themselves as the Ultimate Driving Machine, and they have a ton of support from their loyal drivers, enthusiasts, and journalists. More recently however, it seems that they have taken up more of a stance of “Let’s see how much we can get our customers to pay for our ‘Ultimate Driving Machines.’” Having not driven a ton of BMW’s before, and of course seeing the normal BMW drivers mentality on the road, I have always often wondered why these drivers act like they own the road, and the 2014 BMW M235i has given me somewhat of an answer.

It’s very fun; quick; handles great; ride is comfortable when you want it to be; suspension feels really well sorted; one of the best BMWs of recent that I’ve driven; pricey at $46,575, but comes with no NAV, back-up camera, or blind spot detection; engine sounds nice when in sport mode, but starts to drone at highway speeds, engine sound pumping through speakers gets annoying, comfort mode is much better to live with while cruising; for most fun keep it in sport and transmission in sport mode; shifts are very quick for an automatic, one of the best ones I’ve driven, even better than CLA45′s dual clutch, shifts seem faster too; worried about the durability of the automatic though, seems that if you push the car hard for an extended period of time, it will eventually have problems, still wish this one had a manual, but its a no-cost option, which makes me feel like you should be given an extra set of rims if you choose that, I remember when the automatic was a $1500 option, now its standard, give me back my manual and option of an automatic, i’ll gladly take that $1500 back; seats are very comfortable; no non-sense interior, aside from iDrive, which is a lot better than older generations, but still a little cumbersome until you’re used to it; some neat features like cruise control indicators, if shifter is in manual mode and you press park button, it moves it over automatically; lots of M badges; now I understand why BMW drivers get such a bad rap about driving aggressively and not using turn signals, this car makes you feel you can drive aggressively due to the confidence and handling it provides, and the turn signal stalks are annoying to use, press it all the way down and it stays on, but it moves back up, so sometimes you end up clicking it the opposite way to turn it off, making you look like a jackass; after a week of rain, I still couldn’t figure out how to get the intermittent wipers to work, it was either fast, faster, automatic(which sometimes didn’t want to come on until you’re literally blinded by rain), or manual, I ended up preferring manual; is it a true M car, no, but its pretty good for what it is, definitely at the top of my most fun cars list.

2014 Nissan Rogue

Expensive price tag; around 27mpg; ride is comfortable and compliant; steering is completely numb, feels like nothing at low speed situations, tightens up at higher speeds, don’t mind that, but the lack of feeling is unsettling; wanders a little on highway at speed; wouldn’t think 170hp in this size vehicle would be enough, but it does surprisingly well accelerating at highway speeds, getting onto the highway from standstill is a different story; still don’t like cvt’s, but it helps keep rpms low, even at higher speeds(less than 3000rpm at 80mph); seats are comfortable, but wish it had a tiny bit more lateral support; gauges are nice and elegant looking; wish the center lcd would display speed though; interior is very nice for a vehicle in this class, soft touches; quality materials, don’t like the fake carbon fiber plastic though, and the steering wheel could use a little more girth; sun visors so big they flop down and dont stay all the way up; looks much, much better than previous generation, less frumpy and more aggressive; miss when Nissan’s had soul, hard to find in today’s Nissan’s.

2014 Subaru XV Crosstrek Hybrid

Ride is nice and comfortable, especially on dirt trails; can feel the extra weight of the battery in the back, going over bumps mid-turn will bump the rear out a tiny bit, which you can feel especially on wet roads; engine restart is rough, first time it did it I though I was hit from behind; not worth it over the regular, non-hybrid version, doesn’t get much better fuel mileage, I averaged around 30mpg, which isn’t great for a hybrid; overall it’s a good first effort by Subaru for a hybrid, they just need to work out some kinks, get some better MPG’s and keep the capabilities, and they’ll surely have a winner on their hands; could be a perfect fit for those outdoorsy Subaru fans who want to help save the Earth.

2014 Bentley Continental GT V8 S Convertible

Again, sorry for the lack of interesting writing, but I have been very busy with being a new dad and my career.
Most likely from here on out these posts will be photo heavy with less writing. But when I have notes I will be sure to include them!

Like a fullback in football, heavy, planted, but quick when it needs to be; beautiful looking; got more attention than Porsche 911 Turbo S Cabriolet; suspension settings are like polar opposites, comfort is comfortable, but sloppy, sport is still comfortable but much more responsive to inputs and road feel and is preferable to me, in full comfort mode car felt big and boaty, but in full sport mode felt more tossable and smaller; can feel the heft of the car, especially in braking and hard cornering, still handled well in sport mode, but definitely suffers from the vehicle weight; wish brakes felt better, not as responsive as I would have liked; transmission in normal D is laggy, and needs a lot of pedal pressure to become responsive, found myself in situations where i needed to use acceleration and it was way too slow for the amount needed, but transmission in sport mode was wonderfully much more responsive, kept revs higher, downshifts were much quicker and responsive, overall sport mode was preferred, plus it let you hear the engine sounds much more; LOVE the sound of the V8, sounds great, deep sound and sounds bad ass at full open throttle, especially in tunnels; paddle shifter location was annoying for normal driving, kept trying to hit those when trying to use the turn signals; seats comfortable, loved the massaging feature and the two tone interior; everything was nice to the touch, metal features, beautifully stitched leather; not a fan of the dials and knobs, felt nice to the touch, but they were tiny and required a lot of manipulating to change things for some, steering wheel dial was a little laggy when trying to change settings

2014 Porsche 911 Turbo S Cabriolet

Click the image below and drag left or right to open/close the top!

I haven’t been having enough time to be able to write a full review on this car, but I’ll share with you my notes, and of course my photos!

fast; handling is great; interior quality is great; stereo sounds very good; cruising highway top down very nice, quiet, not windy with windows and air blocker up; PDK transmission is very good; engine sound behind you is magnificent; comfortable seats and seating position; visibility with top down is great; very, very expensive; hard to justify unless you have plenty of money; could be a avery fun car, but its tough because you really need to drive it hard to really enjoy the performance; breathtaking acceleration; can feel the weight in the back around turns, not a bad thing; feels like the rear is hugging you through the turns; turn in is great; steering feels is good, steering not too tight on highway, but wanders a little, but most likely from the huge rear wheels; auto start/top function is kind of funny on this car, sometimes it would turn engine off before car was stopped, also cuts power to auxiliary/cigarrette lighter causing radar detector to keep turning on and off; so many buttons and levers(2 on each side, wipers, lights, cruise, screen functions)

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