I miss the M to be honest with you, the rawness and dare I say 'chuckability' of the car. They are very much a performance bargain, that remains a fact. In honesty, going for a coupe this time instead of a roadster is just an aesthetic choice. I wouldn't discount a roadster but there doesn't seem to be such a price differential any more. I was surprised looking at prices of the two and given the time of year too.
While I sold the M cheap I also bought it quite cheap at 21k when 23 months old - I lost £1400 over 7 months and 6000 miles including the purchase of two tyres. The car was nearly due an Insp 1 which I don't think was too bad.
After the M I bought a Vectra VXR (more than enough space for a growing family and pretty quick). I only had the VXR a month as I didn't like the ride and steering, yes I should have taken a longer test drive. Fortunately I didn't lose a penny on the Vectra, so had a free car for a couple of thousand miles. It did a family holiday abroad for us without missing a beat. Great car spoiled by a crashy ride and had it had traditional dampers (the Vectras are electronic/magnetic things) I think I could have lived with the remote feel through the steering. You kind of adapt to steering systems perhaps with the exception of awful recirculating ball systems, but a harsh crashy ride aggravates more and more over time. Note I didn't complain about torque steer as its a given in a 280hp FWD, and I am past the age of traffic light grand prix so it was a non-issue for me.
I have been looking for a second car since I sold the Vectra in October and my thoughts have been everywhere - VXR8, Monaro, Subaru Impreza or Forester STI, 650i, Z3M, Z4 (3.0) coupe, but for various different reasons I have decided these aren't exactly what I want.
In parallel to all the to-ing and fro-ing above, my company car is now only six months off replacement and I can get something more family friendly (Seat Exeo, Octavia VRS estates) than a 1 series and as such can now consider a two seater again as a second car.
Yes we will need more space than the 1 series can offer on occasion over the next six months for holidays or weekends away, but just before the holidays the firm bought two Tourans as pool cars so I can nab those (in turn the 1 series gets left at work for pool use).
