[djdennehy]

I owned a 2002 BMW 325 Ci, so not exactly a M3 but still a great and fun BMW coupe. Loved that car very much and in many ways, miss it dearly. But the cost of ownership was just too much, and living within the city the car become a target. One night the grille and hood both got kicked in, another night the sides of the car were keyed, the next night someone backed into it... I traded it in to simple stop it from being the punching bag of Pittsburgh.

BMW makes some very fun cars, but sadly in the real world they can be difficult to enjoy. Hopefully the Fiesta has a better future in store for it!

 

[djdennehy]

The e46 M3 is seen to the BMW faithful as the epitome for what a performance BMW should be, and as a former e46 owner, I can relate they are awesome cars. I think the fanboys get upset because over the years and with significant strides by Ford, all of a sudden a new Fiesta and a used M3 find themselves at the same price point, and have similar performance. Obviously the M3 is much more of a purpose built sportscar, in my opinion rear wheel drive is always better than front wheel, but the idea that a Fiesta could be in the same conversation as a performance benchmark car (M3) is pretty incredible. To be honest, you would have to look back to 2002 and the first new MINI to find a similar front wheel drive car that shook up the performance world (I am thinking the MINI Cooper S JCW version...drove several and they were monsters). Not to say that the SRT-4 didn't make some inroads, but their build quality and reliability were never much to write home about...and I really cannot think of any other modern front wheel drive cars that have had such a major impact as the FiST.