Your Performance Car as a Daily Driver

I hadn’t given this much thought until yesterday. With my wife’s BMW X5 at the panel beaters due to hail damage, she drove my usual daily driver, the Benz A170. This meant my daily driver now was the BMW E92 M3 — hereon referred to as the M3. Usually, driving it is a moment of joy and happiness. But yesterday, as I sped past a police speed camera, it was a moment of pain and had me questioning whether an M3, or any performance car, should be used as a “daily driver”.

Admittedly, the fault was mine. I shouldn’t have been speeding. I know the law and the speed limits in my local area. However, as I started to list the problems of a performance car as a “daily driver”, commuting to and from work, these points came to the fore:

1. When you’re stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic going to work it doesn’t matter if you’re in an M3, Ferrari 488, or a Toyota Prius… fact is you’re travelling at the speed limit or, as usually the case, far below it. And those rare moments when, at last, you’re the first car at the lights so you can blast off are just those; rare moments of bliss inside, perhaps, a handful of times a month (if that).

2. Performance cars are usually uncomfortable, especially along our local roads - which are a testimony to the utter lack of planning skills by our local government. My M3 has EDC - Electronic Damper Control - and the settings are meant to be Comfort, Normal and Sport. These should be read as Hard, Harder and Hardest. Even in comfort mode, which is the EDC setting I use around this pothole infested town, I find myself having to manoeuvre in my lane to avoid the pocket marked patina in the roads, and thus have a less jaw jarring ride to and from work

3. You find every driving in a non-performance car wants to “have a go” and prove something, although why is beyond me. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve had Honda Odysseys try to drag me off at the lights. Really?! I mean, Honda Odysseys as people movers are fine and all — heck, I even know a person with one. But what they’re not is performance machines. I mention the Hondas, but equally I’ve had Mazda SUVs or Pajeros trying to speed past me, so my apologies to CT Odyssey drivers. Please realise this, in part, comes from driving to work, sedately doing the speed limit up the parkway and humming along with the radio, when a Honda Odyssey comes to me and stays, about two inches to my rear bumper, for a few minutes before whizzing past. Needless to say, I got to work grumpy and repeatedly asking myself: “Why? For what reason”
   [I suspect the rational is: I’ve an M3 in my rear vision mirror ergo I’m faster]

4. They are uneconomical. Sure, I bought a V8 knowing fuel usage and running costs weren’t a major point, but once you run a performance car as a daily driver, instead of a weekend folly, these little costs add up. Now, I’m not arguing that any car should be a “garage queen”, but once the miles add up along with running costs, one begins to wonder if a performance car makes sense as a daily driver over, let’s say, hiring a taxi or - and may CT forgive this suggestion - catching a bus or train to work. To be fair, I usually run a little A170 as my daily driver, but for the next fortnight as my X5 gets repaired, this isn’t happening so the question must be asked.

5. Making a performance car a daily driver takes away it being “special”. One of the great things about having the M3 is looking forward to the weekend and the Saturday morning drive. It’s a special time. Me, my car, and a twisty road (lightly used) outside town. What more could one ask for? It makes the end of the week something to anticipate, like when one was younger on Christmas. But if one is driving the “special” car every day to work then guess what - it goes from “special” to “ordinary”. I suspect this would happen even if my daily driver were, say, an exotic supercar, such as a MacLaren (by the way, sellers of MacLaren in Australia, if you want to have me test this theory with any of your cars please feel free to contact me and loan me one of your cars for a working week! I will be very happy to be proven wrong and will gladly state that a MacLaren, as a daily driver, is always special). I also suspect that, driving an exotic car, one would become quickly bored by the constant attention. At least my M3 only garners a small amount of said attention, admittedly from Honda Odyssey or Audi drivers, and even this becomes passé with time.

6. Parking. Oh yes, have I mentioned parking yet? When I park the A170, which has a number of dings from my children learning to drive in it, I leave it safe in the knowledge that if anyone else dings it then I’m unlikely to notice and, even if I did, less likely to care. You see, my children learned to park by touch using that car and I’ve gotten over the dings and scrapes surrounding most of the panels. The M3, however, is a very different proposition. Once I parked where some douchebag dinged the rear quarter panel. Although it’s been repaired, I couldn’t help but feel that the person in whatever car it’d been (I never found out) had done it on purpose. I mean, not just one but two dings?! At least the M3 wasn’t keyed - a favourite pastime in some parts of the woods here amongst the locals with little to do on an evening. Several decades ago, when I owned a Porsche 924 (and which could be argued not to be a real Porsche — accepted), I found replacing the badge on the bonnet to be a “running cost”. Luckily it wasn’t screwed in and I did not suffer any numpty with a screw driver damaging the bonnet. Yes, parking a car, particularly one that you have a great deal of pride in, is a nerve racking affair. The only foolproof solution is to use, as your daily driver, a car people can dent, key or whatever without having your blood vessels popping and leaving the performance car safe in the garage at home, waiting for the Saturday drive.

Now, I know there are many who consider any car should be driven at any time, and these people would drive a Lamborghini Countach to the shop without a second thought - although good luck with the groceries. I understand that counter argument and, until yesterday, would have nodded in agreement. But now?

Still, I have discovered a few things using my M3 as a daily driver on occasions, I’ve discovered the car operates in the rain and doesn’t melt like chocolate. I’ve discovered that 90% (or more) people are actually considerate drivers and parking neighbours. Yes, these things are all true, but still I ask: SHOULD your performance car be your daily driver?

PS: I know the Nissan GTR owners - as well as various others in VERY-FAST-CARS - will argue that a BMW M3, any model, is not a performance car and may as well be a daily driver. To these people all I can say is… oh damn, please let me drive your cars!

PPS: I’m sure CT Honda Odyssey drivers will down-vote this post, and I completely understand. I’m also aware that 99.9% of Honda Odyssey drivers are well-mannered and considerate. But I also know that inside a small percentage of Honda Odyssey drivers lurks an evil that waits to assail M3 drivers. I know. I’ve been a victim.