CORNWALL, N.Y. — Bad times are best enjoyed in the rearview mirror. So mostly for the heck of it, I got in the 2009 BMW 135i coupe and drove here nearly 300 miles from my Virginia home.

The women in my family would’ve had me do otherwise — hop a plane, take a train or ride a bus from Virginia to New York. I will do that sort of thing eventually. But now I’ll passionately proclaim my support for mass transit while doing everything in my power to avoid it.

That, to many people, is an unseemly charade, one worthy of a politician — other than, of course, Vice President Joe Biden, who seems to have a genuine thing for Amtrak.

But I can explain.

I love cars. I am hopelessly addicted to them, although I am keenly aware of their rather steep downside in matters environmental and energy. I require no intervention. None would work, anyway. Just put me in something like the 135i coupe and let me go.

It is the kind of car loved by people who love driving — rear-wheel drive, diminutive yet gifted with power (in this case, 300 horsepower delivered by an inline six-cylinder engine) and wonderfully agile on surfaces such as Angola Road here, which twists, turns, dips, disappears and reappears around curves.

There’s just something to love about a car that intuitively follows all of that. It’s like the motorized version of a faithful dog who follows you everywhere, knows your moves, and senses your mood. It is the car as pet.

That means it also comes with a few surprises — happily, all of them good. The first is comfort.

Coupes and roadsters inherently are selfish cars, “me-mobiles” often expressly designed for the pleasure of the driver. The 135i certainly delivers on that score. But even there, it does its job in a way that doesn’t wear out the car’s driver or its passengers.

A part of the secret is BMW’s application of common sense. Unlike some of its rivals, BMW does not attempt to stuff five seats into a compact coupe that is more desirable for four people. There are four seats — two up front and two in the rear, and that’s that. The result is enough headroom and legroom for four people, which helps to keep those four people reasonably civil on long trips.

The second surprise is the sheer ease with which the 135i graces the road. Put another way, it does a good job of providing driving excitement without demanding Grand Prix racing competence from the driver.

I like that. I want to have fun behind the wheel without being made to feel less than worthy for sitting there, which is the way some automobiles — I’m thinking the $1.45 million Lamborghini Reventon — can make you feel.

Models such as the Reventon are so expensive, so powerful, so technologically sophisticated, and so darned fast, they quite literally leave you breathless, thinking that you should be somewhere else instead of the driver’s seat, overwhelmed with the anxiety of possibly crashing the thing or doing some other damage that will scar you and the car forever.

There is excitement in driving cars such as the Reventon. But for me, there is no fundamental joy in doing so, certainly not the kind I get from getting behind the wheel of a well-crafted, well-balanced coupe that’s reasonably affordable (for successful entrepreneurs or wage slaves still fortunate enough to be in jobs that pay higher tax-rate salaries) such as the BMW 135i.

The bottom line

Ride, acceleration and handling: It is one of the most enjoyable compact sports coupes I’ve ever driven. It gets excellent marks in all three categories. The recommendation is that you drive the thing to get a real sense for what I’m saying here. Driving it explains everything.

Capacities: There are seats for four people. In the 135i coupe, there is enough trunk space for four, medium-size overnight bags (based on proof in real-world packing). The fuel tank holds 14 gallons of required premium unleaded gasoline. (Turbocharged engines, because of their high compression, usually require premium fuel.)

Safety: Standard equipment includes front and rear ventilated disc brakes with antilock protection, electronic traction and stability control, front and rear head air bags, side air bags, and xenon high-intensity discharge headlights.

Price: I’ve described this car as “affordable,” but that term requires more contextual wrapping. The BMW 1 Series is more affordable as the base 128i coupe, less so as the 128i convertible, and even less so as the 135i convertible. It is within reach of the financial field of dreams of many people as the base 135i coupe. But options can knock that price way out of the park.

Purse-strings note: BMW owns this compact, entry-level luxury sports class. There is no real substitute.

2009 BMW 135i

Base price: $35,850

As tested: $44,800

Type: Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, entry-level luxury, compact sports car (1 Series BMWs are available as coupes or convertibles and sold in two trim levels — 128i and 135i)

Engine: 3-liter, inline six-cylinder, mated to a six-speed transmission

Mileage: 16 mpg city, 24 mpg highway