- Every once in a while, there are these hypotheticals
like you see an AMG wagon coming down the road
and you think to yourself, I want an AMG wagon.
You come up with all the excuses
or hypotheticals as to why an AMG wagon just makes sense.
The space, the power, the unreliability,
or maybe you're at the track.
You're watching it road America
and you're like, wonder what I want a track car
and you come up with all the hypotheticals
and you talk about how you're gonna build a track car
and in all honesty, we all say that
and neither of those things ever happen.
Well, I'm Alex, @Alex.FI Instagram
and today's episode(mumbling)
we're gonnabe comparing two of those things
where two people actually decided to go do the thing
that we almost always talk about.
We're gonna comparing a 2020 BMW MQ competition
to an off road BMW 328
all wheel drive, lifted diesel.
Yeah, we can do that.
(upbeat music)
So this is Parker Fuller's 2014 BMW 328D Xdrive
that he has now turned into.
Well, we're not entirely sure.
Here's the thing that we have to remember, this is a diesel.
So first off it gets 40 miles to the gallon,
which is an automatic win in my book.
Second off it's lifted in the air with center line wheels.
I think they're Toyos, we got some spacers, new struts
it's lifted in the air, it's got lights
that look like cannons from a PS2 video game.
It's got a radar detector
and of course just like a good old classic
she's got the check engine light on
What else would you want in a car?
So this is 1.6 inches of lift
and Fuller on top of this
has like one of one center line wheels for this car.
Cause the wheels that he wanted
were practically truck wheels
and there really isn't a whole lot of options
for a BMW in the sizes that he wanted
to do well, this (car engine roaring)
on top of it, it's got a tune delete(car engine roaring)
and it sounds like a power stroke.
It actually goes pretty quick.
One of the things that Parker says about this car
and the reason that he likes it so much
is because Parker used to switch out cars
like every six, eight months cause he just got bored.
He has had this car now for like four years
now probably a little bit to do
with some depreciation as well,
but he hasn't had to switch anything out.
He just keeps doing things to this to match his lifestyle.
He loves going off-roading.
A lot of his friends have Overlanders.
A lot of them have little trophy trucks.
A lot of them have their more outdoorsy people,
but sometimes having an outdoorsy vehicle
means you lose some of the creature comforts.
You don't really lose much
when you just lift your BMW diesel.
Cause you still get all the gas mileage
you could possibly want in the world
and you're still having fun.
(car engine roaring)
You may notice that there's a lot of things
moving in this car
and that would be because, well I'm gonna be honest
I'm gonna teach you guys something about Parker Fuller.
Parker Fuller just lives
like practically almost lives in this car.
Like if the world were to end, he could jump in this thing
and just go, there's camera equipment in the back
that I don't even want to talk about
is probably worth money.
He's got stuff all over, there's an off,
I mean, yeah bud just send her, I think we got
vitamins over here(chuckling).
One of the things about having a car like this
that is less about maybe it just being off-road
and more about it being just unconventional.
It's an unconventional build,
is the fact that it's just different.
It's a lot of fun to be different
and when you're able to get on it
(car engine roaring)
and you're able to take it off road
and you're able to just be mean to it a little bit.
There's a lot of fun in that, there's a ton of fun in that
paired with the fact that he managed to power
or put in a switch
that allows it to go from the all wheel drive
to rear wheel drive, which makes the car not very happy.
and you pretty much have something
that you can just play around with
until it inevitably breaks.
But since it's a diesel,
it's way more reliable than a lot of the other cars
that you could probably do this too.
Now, a lot of people would probably say,
why don't you just do this to a Subaru
and the question or the answer to that
would probably be like, why won't you do it to a BMW?
Of course, with that being said,
there's(throat clearing) a few cons to having
a vehicle like this.
One of which you really truly don't get to enjoy
unless you're using it for the full intended purpose.
The full intended purpose here is that it can go off road,
the full incentive purposes is that
you can take it on a dirt track
and go have some fun.
So what we're gonna do is I'm gonna pass this car
on over to Fuller so that he can take it off road
and beat the living piss out of it
mostly because then if it breaks,
I don't have to worry about it
and at the same time, to me it feels a little bit weird.
There's already a check engine light on
there's already a sensor light on for the,
for the sensors TPMS, you know,
so here's how I'm gonna test it's off road capabilities.
I'm just gonna, I'm off road right now.
I'm back on road just a little bit.
You know what I'm saying?
(car engine roaring) (laughing)
The tune adds almost 90 horsepower to this car,
which in my eyes gives it everything that it needs
to have fun and the lift doesn't feel bad.
It's got you know, it does have some essential blocks
to just raise the car up generally speaking
and then it also has new shocks, which is nice.
It's actually a little bit quieter.
I was expecting it to be a little bit noisier
and the tires obviously add some lift too.
So would you wanna do this to a BMW?
I guess I'm not sure.
I probably wouldn't but why, if you had this and you could
then just do it, right?
I mean, it's your car have fun with it.
Is it better than an M2 competition?
I think that that's not a fair argument.
What I would rather say is,
as the car is built for an intended purpose, what is easier
for you to enjoy that intended purpose?
(car engine roaring)
and I will say that Parker has done a fantastic job
with making this car usable
for something that's not supposed to be a BMW feature,
especially on this car
without making it unusable In other aspects,
everything still works
that everything is still completely functional.
I'm not losing my mind,
I'm not breaking my back driving this car.
It's comfy, It's cool, I'm just lifted a little bit more
and in all honesty, I don't really think
anybody notices the fact that this is a lifted BMW,
except for those automotive enthusiasts
that know that a BMW diesel is not supposed
to be this tall in the air.
Can you stop?
Where's the cop?
Where is it?
You don't even know.
You're saying it's the side of me.
You don't even see it's gone,
(car engine roaring)
One more push.
(car engine roaring)
I mean, it's like quick, but it's not like fast.
It's just nice, you know,
it's good to get ahead of somebody.
If you're wondering about cost reliability
while we're driving BMW so relability
is a little bit of a test case there,
but in terms of usability, all of that sort of good stuff,
it's fantastic, you've got four doors.
You can fit people in the back, you got a whole trunk,
it's a diesel it can go anywhere.
The tires are gonna be expensive
when you do end up replacing them,
especially if you're running truck tires,
truck tires are inherently more expensive than car tires.
There's a little bit of rubbing.
We're just not gonna talk about it.
We're gonna pretend it doesn't even exist.
So let's see if Fuller can put it to the test
in its true environment
to see if it's actually actually
worth spending the money on lifting a BMW.
or should you maybe just go buy, I don't know, a Tacoma
and beat the crap out of that.
(upbeat music)
Now that we have our coffee,
let's get into the exquisite VIP track mobile
also known as Larz's 2020 BMW M2
and just because I know
everybody really does care, competition.
If you guys don't know that competition
is a very big deal for this car
and if you haven't heard the news, everyone loves the M2.
There's not a single person I've ever met
that doesn't love M2, everyone.
Not a single person that doesn't,
I've never seen a single person say,
you know what, no I don't like the M2 .
Everybody loves the M2 because it pretty much is
what the M3 should have been.
This is Larz's M2, it's got
HRS Michelin pilot sport 4Ss.
and of course a big old nasty nasty exhaust,
which makes it verbal and sound angry
pretty much all the time.
Now the M2 comp has a bunch of fancy little do-hickys.
Most of them are down here allows me to say,
I don't want it in comfort I want it in sport plus,
I don't want the steering in comfort
I want that in sport plus,
pretty much everything else on the car completely stuck.
Now to those unfamiliar the M2 has the same motor
as the newer generation Ms
which is why people love it because it's a smaller chassis
(car engine roaring)
with the same power plan
(car engine roaring)
and it sounds damn good.
It's got efficient dynamics, it's got emergency SOS,
it has leather steering wheels, it's comfortable,
it's fast, it has rev matching
and Larz takes this to road America quite often,
quite quite often indeed.
Difference between the two cars,
well, the BMW M2 competition
is probably right around $60,000.
You can probably snag a BMW diesel.
I don't know, probably about 15 to 20 right now.
So the price difference is substantial.
You're paying for the performance
you're paying for quite a bit of it too
and just like good old BMW M series.
They don't necessarily hold their value too well,
unless you get a very mint spec, M car.
M2 as say will hold their value,
but I'm not sure if they will or not.
Obviously a little bit tough around the roads
and this is all about daily driving.
Remember it's all about
not just how does it do on the track,
but how does it do just as a normal car
for everybody else we're going to be driving these cars
95% of the times on roads that look like Mars,
open that door and show them that chunk.
Just show em' show em' what we have around here.
Show them, look at that pain.
That's an everyday occurrence.
I'm gonna tell you right now our taxes ain't cheap
and we still got holes like that all over the place.
You wanna close that door, we're going this way,
but we're not just comparing the value.
(car engine roaring)
are you allowed to use a car bred for track
more than you'd be allowed to use an off-road car
for off-road performance.
To be truthful you're probably gonna use a car
that's meant for light track use, more than an off road car,
unless your lifestyle
(car engine roaring)
tells you different.
The rev matching in these cars is so much fun, so much fun.
You don't have to pretend to do the whole foot seat game.
You don't have to play Tic-Tac-Toe with your heels.
You just go like this and it just
(car engine roaring)
wow.
(car engine roaring)
and the exhaust sounds lovely.
Some of the negatives of buying a car bred for the track
versus a car that you would just build
for a couple thousand dollars.
Number one is price, is expensive
and for all the boys and girls out there
that are on a budget, just buying a car bred for the track
and dealing with depreciation and all that stuff.
Let me just tell you it's not worth it.
There's a lot of cars you can own
that aren't M2 competitions
that are gonna give you the same same feeling.
There's a lot of budget track cars out there
that you can get.
You can get an E36 M3 for pennies now,
rather than spending a ton of money on a track car
that's brand brand new.
Larz is balled out on this car
and he loves every second that he drives it
and if you're looking for a $60,000 sports car
The M2 probably one that should be in your alley.
But if your budget is more attuned to the $10,000 range
or $20,000 range,
you're probably looking at getting something
a little bit older.
(car engine roaring)
The diesel has a few pros over a car like this
first off space, look behind me, there ain't people
ain't gonna fit back there.
You can say, people can fit back there.
You can put people back there,
but can they really actually be back there?
No, it's usually for an M3 or an M4.
If you wanna put people in the back seats,
secondly you have to do a space
and thirdly, you have to deal with the fact
that you're constantly gonna wanna drive
the living piss out of this car.
It begs you to just beat on it.
Which always scares me when cars want that,
because they do break.
They eventually will die and then you're stuck with it.
But gosh, Don is it not a fantastic car?
You can daily drive a car like this.
You can put it all in comfort mode
and kind of go on your Merry way
and never really they think twice about it.
(car engine roaring)
but you can have the same amount of fun ish
with an off road car, you can still kind of probably
take it to the track, ish,
kind of just throw a different set of wheels
and tires on it.
Send her down the road America
and just see what she does.
On an M2 you're not gonna be
taking it off road anytime soon.
So in terms of which one can do both better, I'm sorry,
but I think the diesel takes the cake,
I'm sorry Larz, you know me
and I love these cars,
but it's all about which one can do both better.
Right Max?
- [Max] Right
- Which one do you like more,
interior is better in here, right?
- [Max] Yeah, it's more comfortable in here but...
- It doesn't smell like off
- [Max] Yeah but the diesel, I think you're right.
Cause you can go off-roading anywhere.
- You can go off-roading anywhere
anything is an off road playground if you're brave enough.
- [Max] Right?
- You can't take this off road.
It won't even let me go towards the dirt.
Look, I'm gonna go towards the dirt
and it's just like, no no no no no no no
see it's like when you reach the end of a map
in a video game,
they just won't let you go forward.
I think on the next episode of Opposite Lanes,
we need to compare the M2 on the track
to something else on the track.
Let us know if you guys want us
to start taking these cars on the track
because we can, I think, if they let us
and we can do some comparisons on performance,
that'd be pretty fun.
It'd be like the U.S. version of top gear,
but hopefully not(beep).
(laughing)
Alright, cool, the BMW M2 is a car that can go on the track
and do just about anything
and people will claim that everybody says
they wanna go off road but they really don't.
On the other hand, you have a car that can go off road
and actively goes off road and then claims,
well, I could probably do the same thing
as an M2 on the track.
I just got to switch out the wheels and tires.
What it really comes down to
is which one can you do both in the best?
In all honesty, the M2 can't go off road even if it tried,
because well I don't wanna mess with that paint.
Whereas the 328 diesel, I just don't think she cares.
She rips, it's a fun car and the BMW M2 comp
is taken many W's and many books across the entire world.
But I think when it comes down
to comparing it to an off road car,
I just don't think this one has what it takes.
Let us know what you wanted to see us talk about
in the next episode of Opposite Lane
and of course drop the comments below.
We wanna start hearing
what you guys would like to see us compare next.
I'm just gonna disclaimer this
the M2 competition is probably one of the most fun
and exciting track cars I've ever driven before
in my life next to the GT 3RS, but we didn't go to a track.
So don't be mad that's a lot of fun too.
Just smells like off and Axe body spray
just gets a little weird back there.
I just don't know if you'd really want to.
If you had to pick one, you'd pick the M2
but it has depreciation
so you have to take that into account.
Nobody likes wasting money when you really come down to it,
it's about value.
What's the best value that you can get
for both applications.