One of the big reasons I sold my F87 BMW M2 Competition was the surprisingly high insurance cost. As a late 30s male with zero accidents in the past decade plus of driving, the insurance bill should be going down. Plus the fact the BMW was a completely leisure car - no commuting - and entirely paid off. It should be rather low on the vehicular actuary tables, but it definitely wasn’t. Towards the end I was paying almost as much for the M2 as I was for the 911 GT3.
And now I know why. It seems the late model BMW M cars are a hit with the Gen Z instagram driving crowd. The G80 generation M3’s popularity with the young enthusiasts has morphed into a meme. Broccoli heads paying huge monthly payments for the privilege of piloting Bavaria’s finest. The lament around the past two Monterey Car Weeks is that the youths with M cars have taken over and ruining the fun.
Who would have thought! Olds heads like me couldn’t have imagined it when the G80 first launched with its hugely polarizing “beaver tooth” front end design.
Of course then, when the demographics of a vehicle skew young, insurance rates are elevated commensurately (looking at you, Toyota GR86). What are younger drivers more prone to? Crashing. A quick infinite scroll on instagram and it’s easy to see many banged up G80 M3s. Locally, there’s one that crashed on Highway 9, sadly with fatalities. It’s no wonder the insurance on my M2 not only remained high, but increased year after year.
Glad to be done with that.
Silver lining: who said the youths weren’t into cars? I think it’s great to see Gen Z drivers share enthusiasm and passion for this thing of ours, even if it seems to be largely concentrated on one model line of BMW (Audi and Mercedes Benz madly punching the air right now). Social media is memetic after all; copycats and herd mentality. These kids are the future to which the enthusiast flame will be kept burning. So don’t be so quick to dismiss them next time your highfalutin car event gets invaded by the G80 army.
Generations.