[NoPII]

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For various reasons my current car, a Range Rover Autobiography, will be leaving my garage soon. I took a brief break from BMW, after having (and loving) various cars including i3s, M3 (conv), M4 (conv), 335is (conv), X5M, X6, X6M, X7.

I miss having a convertible, but we bought the Rover for a regular ~3 hour drive we have to do. It's usually two of us, and two smaller dogs that have "princess chairs" on the back seat, and a small amount of luggage.

The Rover is just not fun to drive. It's dull, and floaty, but comfortable. My SO complained about the noise in the M4 (with an Akro. exhaust, admittedly) and the dogs complained about the lack of space in the 911 convertible with the wind deflector up.

All this "1st world problem" blah blah is the setup for this question - will I find an M8 or M8 Competition convertible a decent all-rounder? Fun to drive, comfortable enough the rest of the family won't complain so will actually travel in it, and practical enough to be my year-round primary car?

I'm basically shortlisted back to an X5M or an 8er convertible at this point, but haven't not had an SUV for some years.

[Rufus135]

I’ve had my M8 Conv since October. Previous car was Lexus GSF. Also have a Discovery and ....i3 and Aston DB7. An understanding wife and 2 boys, 2 dogs.
OK so I wouldn’t put all 6 of us in the M8! But the boys are happy in the back seats
Ignoring the children, its a fabulous daily. There really isn’t a downside. There you go decision made!
It’s got a great noise if you want it to, goes like a rocket if you want it to but the great thing is when you get to a motorway, turn off the “M1” or “M2” , go into comfy mode, turn on the drive assistant cruise thing and its so chilled. Fuel economy on a run is close to 30mpg. VERY quiet, good ride, big boot with the divider thing up and especially with the folding seats.
Off the motorway it has taken me from October to now to get it set up just how I want it but now its just big smiles.
And I have a skid pan day at Thurston to look forward to!
I can’t recommend it highly enough 👍

[NoPII]

Originally Posted by Rufus135

I’ve had my M8 Conv since October. Previous car was Lexus GSF. Also have a Discovery and ....i3 and Aston DB7. An understanding wife and 2 boys, 2 dogs.
OK so I wouldn’t put all 6 of us in the M8! But the boys are happy in the back seats
Ignoring the children, its a fabulous daily. There really isn’t a downside. There you go decision made!
It’s got a great noise if you want it to, goes like a rocket if you want it to but the great thing is when you get to a motorway, turn off the “M1” or “M2” , go into comfy mode, turn on the drive assistant cruise thing and its so chilled. Fuel economy on a run is close to 30mpg. VERY quiet, good ride, big boot with the divider thing up and especially with the folding seats.
Off the motorway it has taken me from October to now to get it set up just how I want it but now its just big smiles.
And I have a skid pan day at Thurston to look forward to!
I can’t recommend it highly enough 👍

Thanks, Rufus135 !

The thought is growing on me a lot. I moved out of a G63 for the Rover in part because I wanted the auto-driving-thingy for the long boring trips on the freeway ("motorway") here in the US. There are some fun twisties at each end of the trip, for when the SO is not paying attention

Is yours an M8 or an M8 Competition?

[ctelimad]

My m8 conv is my daily and i live in staten island NY. I had my M8 conv as my daily for a year now and i can tell you it is a great daily. As mentioned previously it has dual personality
It can be comfy and quite and at the same time fast and with decent exhaust sound when needed. It has all the tech and it is really comfy on bumps. I used this whole winter but of course with winter tires and it handled all the situations with ease and the ground clearance is very decent amd no traction issues at all .
I can say the only downside is the rear seats (only good for kids) and the cold start is loud (ur neighbors will love u and will know when u go to work everyday&#129322. It is a regular M8 but i have the comp exhaust.
Hope that helps

[Resjudicata]

It can be done.

['Cane]

Rear seats aren’t fit for humans, but I don’t see why dogs would have an issue. I take my ~50 lb Jindo with me every day and he’s fine back there. Trunk is pretty spacious too.

[bloozemanAZ]

Originally Posted by alistairg

Thanks, Rufus135 !

The thought is growing on me a lot. I moved out of a G63 for the Rover in part because I wanted the auto-driving-thingy for the long boring trips on the freeway ("motorway") here in the US. There are some fun twisties at each end of the trip, for when the SO is not paying attention

Is yours an M8 or an M8 Competition?

The 8-series with the Driving Assistance Professional package will literally drive the car for you while on the highway. I've used it several times in my M850i coupe on road trips and it performed flawlessly outside of a bit aggressive lane changes at 85 MPH vs what I'd do so at that speed I generally will do the lane changing.

With Rufus' reference to M1 and M2 I'm guessing he has a M8 Competition.

[Rufus135]

Yep I have the competition. In the UK we actually don’t get a choice with new M cars, they’re all the comp models. Never sure if thats a good thing or not. One downside is we won’t have the option of the manual M3/M4 as the comp models are all auto’s.

[WCH]

I don't use mine as a DD but you could. Just be mindful of the usual things that would come from going from a SUV to a convertible - lower position, long doors, less room for the occasional large package.

Also it sounds like your dogs probably won't enjoy the wind deflector for the M8 any more than the 911.

Despite all of that the M8 puts a smile on my face whenever I drive it.

[Amgeater2]

Originally Posted by alistairg

For various reasons my current car, a Range Rover Autobiography, will be leaving my garage soon. I took a brief break from BMW, after having (and loving) various cars including i3s, M3 (conv), M4 (conv), 335is (conv), X5M, X6, X6M, X7.

I miss having a convertible, but we bought the Rover for a regular ~3 hour drive we have to do. It's usually two of us, and two smaller dogs that have "princess chairs" on the back seat, and a small amount of luggage.

The Rover is just not fun to drive. It's dull, and floaty, but comfortable. My SO complained about the noise in the M4 (with an Akro. exhaust, admittedly) and the dogs complained about the lack of space in the 911 convertible with the wind deflector up.

All this "1st world problem" blah blah is the setup for this question - will I find an M8 or M8 Competition convertible a decent all-rounder? Fun to drive, comfortable enough the rest of the family won't complain so will actually travel in it, and practical enough to be my year-round primary car?

I'm basically shortlisted back to an X5M or an 8er convertible at this point, but haven't not had an SUV for some years.

The M8 Conv is my daily and I love the car.. also have 2 dogs and they love it as well..

[PappadocM8]

M8 convertible as DD in Chicago. AMAZING and perfect car for me as DD. It so luxurious, quiet, comfy, with top notch tech. Then obviously with the click of a button turns into an absolute MONSTER with never ending power. I added a Racechip too for a little extra.

Backseat IMO is worthless though. Granted I'm 6'1" so no one will ever sit behind me. My daughter is 13 and fairly tall with no plans on going in the backseat. My son is 2 and no chance in hell he's going in the car anytime soon.

Trunk is surprisingly not too bad and easily fits a big load of groceries, but clearly no golf clubs.

I debated between this an a 2017 9114S for the DD. So happy I went the M8. It also so unique and I still haven't seen another M8 on the road.

[WCH]

I can put my stand bag in the trunk sideways if I take the driver out (which goes in the back seat). If you don't need/want to lower the top, I can fit them in long ways. This was a key factor when I was looking at the M8 vert.

[Niptucker]

Originally Posted by ctelimad

My m8 conv is my daily and i live in staten island NY. I had my M8 conv as my daily for a year now and i can tell you it is a great daily. As mentioned previously it has dual personality
It can be comfy and quite and at the same time fast and with decent exhaust sound when needed. It has all the tech and it is really comfy on bumps. I used this whole winter but of course with winter tires and it handled all the situations with ease and the ground clearance is very decent amd no traction issues at all .
I can say the only downside is the rear seats (only good for kids) and the cold start is loud (ur neighbors will love u and will know when u go to work everyday&#129322. It is a regular M8 but i have the comp exhaust.
Hope that helps

what sorta snow tires were you using?

[ctelimad]

Originally Posted by Niptucker

what sorta snow tires were you using?

See below

[PappadocM8]

Originally Posted by ctelimad

See below

Did you just get 285's on all four wheels? Tire Rack doesn't show a 275/35/20 available and I couldn't find a full set of winter tires with our sizes that matched.

[ctelimad]

Originally Posted by Pappadoc33

Did you just get 285's on all four wheels? Tire Rack doesn't show a 275/35/20 available and I couldn't find a full set of winter tires with our sizes that matched.

I had 275 as u can see from my order below
This was last year i am nkt sure whats available this year

[unfoundnemo]

Originally Posted by ctelimad

I had 275 as u can see from my order below
This was last year i am nkt sure whats available this year

Interesting you got N1/Porsche designated tires for the rear. Was the tread pattern any different from the front to rear? That would have been the case with the Alpins for me which is why I ended up with Sottozero.

I was able to get the same tire in both sizes when I picked up the car in January from TR without a problem. I just pulled up my order and it's saying "275/35R20 Pirelli Winter Sottozero Serie II (No Longer Available)" for the fronts. Possible it's just too early, but obviously you don't want to wait too long. I think I just managed to get lucky with my mid-winter order, a local tire distributor I use just laughed at me when I asked for the availability. Here's a link to my rears: https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires...835WR0270SZ2XL

[ctelimad]

Originally Posted by unfoundnemo

Interesting you got N1/Porsche designated tires for the rear. Was the tread pattern any different from the front to rear? That would have been the case with the Alpins for me which is why I ended up with Sottozero.

I was able to get the same tire in both sizes when I picked up the car in January from TR without a problem. I just pulled up my order and it's saying "275/35R20 Pirelli Winter Sottozero Serie II (No Longer Available)" for the fronts. Possible it's just too early, but obviously you don't want to wait too long. I think I just managed to get lucky with my mid-winter order, a local tire distributor I use just laughed at me when I asked for the availability. Here's a link to my rears: https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires...835WR0270SZ2XL

No difference at all
It is the same
Also the car hooks really well with those tires