So it sucks to be under 24, you can not rent anything…. well besides a minivan, which I think is a dumb rule anyway because a van can carry the most people and hence you can do the most harm to the most people. But anyways….

While I rented the minivan, my parents friends rented a (PCAR) or Premium level car (it was actually the cheapest, don’t ask why). This premium car was advertized either as a Merc CLA250, Audi A3 or similar (4 doors small luxury sedan). Well when they got to the place there was nothing but the 2 door car that they ended up taking…. for the 5 of them (it does not have a middle seat in the back) and 4 big bags (not that big of a trunk). So I’m sure some had the best ride for 2 hours from Miami to Marco Island…

But what they got was in my opinion even better (even a couple of the big car magazines did a comparison recently) but it was a 2 door coupe which is smaller and its harder to fit 5 people and a bunch of luggage. It was a BMW 228i. The little brother of the M235i which is the true M car of this series and is very similar to the E36 M3.

You know being a fan of fast small coupes I thought this was going to be a joke/just a nice cruise car. One thing I didn’t think about was that this little baby has 240hp coming out of a turboed 4, which is by the book 40 more than my GTI, has 260 ft-lb where mine has only 207, and weights 200 pounds more, but has a almost perfect 50/50 front to rear weight distribution.

This car is FUN! Once I found out about it I have driven it like 3 times today already just to drive it! It is not a manual but does have manual mode with paddle shifters (ugh). The 50/50 distribution makes up for most of it though. In the corners it is a beast, nice and flat and no unnecessary under/over-steer which is great fun!

You know the hardest thing about this car is trying to figure out how to switch gears from park to drive and reverse and such. When you are in part you can not simply switch to drive or rear. You have to hold the lock/unlock button on the side and then move it down to drive or 2 up for rear. Now if you are in drive, you also have to push this lock/unlock to get into rear. its weird. But I guess you get used to it.

Overall, I have found what I’m going to do more and more on this vacation. Its drive this car. Wherever, whenever. I’ll just drive.