I was one of the first ones to grab the pitch forks and torch the design initially, but after seeing it in real life it's a lot better in my opinion than appears using on-line media.
Since the daily R32 is getting a bit long in the tooth at 14 years and 122,000 miles it's time to soon part ways. If I can eek out one more winter with it would be most ideal.
The M240i is on a very, very short list of contenders.
This would be my build if I went with it in Xdrive guise.
https://www.bmwusa.com/build-your-ow...q9g044/summary
Nearly every option, except going with sensatec in cognac skin instead of the meager leather options that don't blow my hair back.
If I decide to opt for it still undecided whether to go early next year or wait until it's released in RWD form. With the High-Performance Tire Package that give you the awesome PS4S I'd be getting snow tires anyway for winter, so while nice to have the Xdrive it is probably overkill. Not to mention that it's also heavier and probably $2k more expensive than the forthcoming RWD variant.
Of course, all of this is just mental gymnastics since it has not got the official seal of The Warden's approval yet. She might gag on the sticker shock, but she'll be relieved to see the VW get gone since ingress and egress are an issue for her.
She might put up stiff resistance to the purple paint, but I'm pretty sure I can get her to standdown and put the billy club and gun away. Since this will be "OUR" car, I at least have a 50/50 fighting chance. Well, theoretically speaking, anyway.
What remains is a test drive to see if I can live with the mediocre electric steering rack. Ugh!!
Somebody please spare me since I really dread that, but at some point I'll have to come to grips with the realization EPAS will never give the connection to the road feel that the hydraulic units deliver. Everybody says they are improving with each iteration, but nobody has stated they are at the same level of involvement as the hydraulic units.
Since I have the 1 M and E91 I'll still at least have majority stable domination in that regard.