Consumer Reports Says The BMW M235i Is Better Than A Porsche 911

Remember last year when the Tesla Model S made a huge splash by nailing a near-perfect 99 out of 100 score in Consumer Reports? Now they have a second favorite, and it's the 2014 BMW M235i, a car we like very much as well.

The hottest version of the all-new 2-Series — until the BMW M2 drops, anyway — recently scored a 98 out of 100 in the magazine's rigorous ranking system. Only the Model S and the 2007 Lexus LS460L have ever ranked higher.

It's also now the highest ranked BMW ever, and a car that topped more expensive rivals like the Porsche 911 and the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray. The last two scored a 95 and a 92, respectively.

While the full M235i review seems to be behind CR's subscriber paywall, Bloomberg shed some light on the score:

The M235i has a "classic BMW mold" and offers "tenacious cornering" on the track, while embracing the company's recent focus on comfort and luxury, the Yonkers, New York-based magazine said.

"This really is a totally dual-purpose car," Jon Linkov, Consumer Reports deputy cars editor, said in an interview. "This is a car you could drive to work every day of the week without it killing you. And then you could go take it to the track on the weekend."

[...] While the Corvette and 911 both "pack more punch" than the M235i on the road, the latter car comes relatively close and provides more comfort.

It's a well-deserved score, in my opinion. In May I drove an M235i from D.C. to Winston-Salem to crash a vintage BMW show and found it to be surprisingly fast and extremely adept at cornering, while also offering tons of everyday comfort and practicality. I haven't driven the new M3 and M4 yet, but at the moment this is my favorite new BMW.

It also shows that the 2-Series probably does, in fact, live up to the legacy set by its famous predecessor the BMW 2002, which also received considerable praise from the motoring press in its day. Maybe there's something to those TV commercials after all.