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      02-09-2014, 10:03 PM   #1
RealStig
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Arrow My Comprehensive Review of M3/M4 - High Definition Pictures/FAQ Included

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I was finally able to see the new M3 and the M4 yesterday in Philadelphia Auto Show. I have been extremely excited and happy ever since I found out the new cars were going to be there and I'm glad that I made the trip.

Anyways, I am going to break this into several sections. I have also included lots of pictures. Please click on each picture to see the full resolution version. In addition, if there is an area of the car that you would like to see the picture of, let me know, I may have it. I took close to 700 pictures and basically uploaded only a subset of them. I have spent close to 3.5 hours with the cars and examined every single part I can get into. If you have any questions that are not answered below, feel free to ask me and I'll be more than happy to answer.

Exterior :
Positives :
  1. Carbon fiber roof looks pretty good and I'm very pleased to see BMW offers this in the sedan. Granted, the M3 they had there didn't have it on, only M4 did, but I can only imagine how great it will look on the M3 as well.
  2. Both the LED and non-LED headlights look great.
  3. Trunk opens by itself once you push the button, which is great. I hate that the current model does not offer this option.
  4. The front and rear spoilers look much better in person than they do in pictures.
  5. The 19" wheels look amazing in my opinion. Light years ahead of the standard 19" wheels that came with the current M3. Maybe not as good as the ZCP, but they'll do very well. I also realized that because the tires are wider, they provide more coverage/protection for the wheel against hitting pot holes. The ZCP wheels and 245/265 tires don't work well in my opening as tires end up stretching a lot.
  6. Overall, the car looks less curvy than the outgoing E90 M3, which I really like. It looks more aggressive, minus the hood (see below).
Negatives :
  1. The power dome looks really small and is not very aggressive. I initially thought this was due to the color (black) of the M3, but the AY M4 looked the same way.
  2. Power dome is barely visible from the driver's seat. It is there, but it does not look anywhere near good as the current one.
  3. I do not like the fat, bumpy looking hood. It looks not so bad from the pictures, but up close, looks very ugly in the car.
  4. The plastic stuff underneath the side view mirrors look really cheap (possibly M performance parts will be offered for this area which may explain this)
  5. This particular black is such a bad color, I would never choose it. It's not like the dark black the E9X M3 had, it's more like a dirty black that completely hides the car's aggressiveness and looks like it is going to be very hard to keep clean.
Interior :
Positives :
  1. The Merino leather is a notch above the Novillo leather that is found in the outgoing M3. It is softer and looks better.
  2. Contrast stitching looks pretty good.
  3. Full leather option provides a lot of leather coverage around the dash/LCD area which wasn't the case in the outgoing model.
  4. iDrive is much faster, more fluid, and has a lot more functionality such as displaying horse power and torque in real time or controlling different types of volumes (entertainment, phone, etc).
  5. iDrive knob is bigger and better and allows you to write letters using your fingers.
  6. HUD is a very nice feature. The M display is amazing (saw this in M5, but I'm sure it's similar). I think this option is a must have for any M car.
  7. Steering wheel is a notch above the E9X M3's steering wheel.
  8. There are now 2 M modes, which is a big plus.
  9. Rear seats have heating, which is very useful.
Negatives :
  1. The sound system was a disappointment for me. I brought my iphone cable (5s) and plugged it in to the car. I listened several 384 kbps tracks and I can see that while for an average user it is going to sound amazing due to heavy bass, I think it is a level below the Enhanced Premium Sound found in the E9X M3. The EPS was a $1,900 option back then and it was a system that was developed in house by ///M. Similar to the engine, it has to be listened on very high volume to get the most of it which to be fair is not really a usable system for the average person (comparative speaking). Similart to how you have to constantly rev the engine high, you have to always turn the volume up. But the bass is so clear and it has a more crisp sound. To give a real world example, the harman kordon in the new car is more like the Bose headsets you can buy for $129 to use with iphones. They sound amazing and 9 out of 10 people will love them. The EPS on the other hand is similar to a Shure SE535 IEM, which costs 3-4 times as much and is used by audiophiles, but it's in a league of its own. There is also probably a good reason why the harman kordon only costs 1/3 of EPS and this was to be honest with you something I was expecting. Not bad, but I'll miss the EPS greatly.
  2. I don't like the "full" leather option comes with a lot of standard "black" leather. I appreciate that the new car has more leather, but they are not the color you want. If I order silverstone leather, I want 95% of the leather in my car to be in that color. I dont want 50% of it to be black. In the current model, when you ordered "full" leather, you'd get everything around glove compartment the same color. The first thing I noticed when I opened the door for the first time was how dark the interior was. I was surprised that was the case as this was the lightest interior color possible and the car had the full leather option.
  3. Sides of the center console, which is what you and your passenger see all the time when you get in the car or open the doors, is plastic, not leather which used to be leather.
  4. The backseat headrests are not adjustable. There is no way to lower them. This results in less visible area if you want to look back either by turning or using your rear view mirror.
  5. There is no arm rest area in the back seat. This used to be very useful for me when I had to drive 3 or 4 people around in town.
  6. Back of the front seats looks good from outside, but it's still the cheap plastic stuff that can be found in the current car. I never liked that stuff in any of the 3 series cars, it looks really cheap to me (not particular to M3 really, but just wanted to mention this).
  7. The seats themselves are not more or less comfortable than the current seats. They feel exactly the same. They are not like the M5 seats like many people here thought they would be. M5 has far more cushioning and is more comfortable. Not saying there shouldn't be a difference between M3 and M5, I'm just setting the record straight as I have been seeing a lot of "M3's seats are really close to M5" comments which don't reflect reality. M5's seats are light years ahead.
  8. While the cars have both grown 1-2 inches in size in each direction, that for some reason does not really translate into more room in the backseat. Backseats still dont feel comfortable or roomy. I know a lot of us have been comparing this car to the old 5 series, but it doesn't feel like it. This is not really a negative per se, but another area where I was disappointed. I was expecting to get in the car and was hoping that it would be larger than my current car, but it didn't feel that way. Unless someone told me that this car is larger, I wouldn't know sitting inside. That being said, from outside, it does look larger, which is not really great.
  9. I did not like the carbon fiber trim at all. It looks too "glossy" or "flashy". It's just too much out there. It may be fine for some people, but I'd prefer something more matte. For someone who doesn't know anything about carbon fiber, it looks like plastic and I can tell you I have heard similar comments from lots of people who were getting in the car that day (including my wife!).
  10. The leather seats wrinkle so easily! My back seats after 4 years of abuse and multiple car seats don't look anywhere near wrinkled as the ones in that M3 there.
FAQ :
  1. Why is the wheel spacing different between M3 and M4? Do cars look really high and need a drop?
    It looked to me that they forgot to remove the shipping blocks from the M4. There was exactly twice the amount of room between the wheels and the car (3 fingers vs 1.5 finger). I'd say the space you see in the M3's wheels is about what I have on my ZCP. I wouldn't say the car needs a drop, it looks just right.
  2. Does the black chrome wheels out of place?
    Yes they do and I'd never get them with any color. They'd also be extremely hard to repair/keep clean against curb rashes or any other dirt/rust.
  3. Do the folding rear seats fold all the way flat?
    Yes, they do. Exactly the same way they do in E9X.
  4. Are the wheel offsets same?
    Based on my unscientific and extremely error prone measurement, there is a 0.9-1cm difference, so it looks like they are not the same.
  5. What is the LCD screen size?
    LCD screen size measures exactly 10.2" including the black border/bezel diagonally. The effective size of the screen is around 8.9". I have done the measurements using my iphone and I believe they are pretty accurate. The screen is the same screen I recently saw in a 335 with an M sport package.
  6. Are door sill logos illuminated?
    No, they are not illuminated.
Summary :
I have gone to the auto show with extremely high hopes and as I realize now I had high expectations. 4 years ago when I first test drove an M3 while owning a 335, I was amazed. I was extremely impressed. I was expecting to have the same reaction yesterday and as you can see from the above points I left the show with mixed feelings.

First things first, the car does look and feel like an upgrade, it is not a bad car, it is not a step in the wrong direction. It is better than the current M3. That being said, there are a lot of areas where I was a bit annoyed to be honest with everyone. For some reason, it still does not feel like a premium car. Both my wife and another friend of mine who used to own a E92 M3 (now drives an E class) said the same thing - it feels like a 3 series with better leather and does not really look amazing. It's still plastic this and plastic that. The door handles are the same. Air vents are the same. Buttons are the same. Its subtle small differences but when they add up, they look underwhelming. The problem is, competition has caught up and with the improvements in M5, I was hoping that this car would be something which in reality I found out it is not going to be. It's not that it can't, it's because BMW won't let it

The looks of the car is half the story, how it drives is the other half. Once I test drive it, I may come back here jumping up and down, trying to track my car as it crosses over atlantic with the VIN number (oh good old days, I used to not sleep GPS tracking my M3) or it may be completely opposite. I don't know. The point I was trying to make is, I wanted to put a green check mark right next to that 50% "looks" section and I couldn't with my eyes closed. I needed weigh positives and negatives and as you can see there are quite a lot of negatives as much as positives. To me, it wasn't a "clear" winner like the current car was 4 years ago. Or the M5 was right now. When I sat in an M5, I was sold, right there, right then. If it weren't for the 4400 lbs weight, I would have bought one right away and never bothered with this car. I wanted to feel the same way and I couldn't. This does not mean that this is a bad car. It is a great car.

One other thing that I want to mention is, what people say about this car greatly depends on what they drive right now. I see a lot of people who are driving other brands (lower brands) or low end BMWs who have orders for the new M3/M4 and they are very excited about it. No problems with that, and it's all good. The problem is, people like myself who are used to the current M3 for some time now and who were maybe in the market at some point for an M5 have a lot more expectations from this car. We are coming from two different backgrounds basically, apples to oranges if you will. I mean no disrespect when I say this, I also came from a 335 at some point so I know it feels like. The point is, while coming from a 335 or another lower brand, paying MSRP/bad residuals for this car right now may seem fine, that may not be case for others like myself.

One thing that bothers me and I wish BMW would take note is the fact that we don't have a proper luxury sports sedan that isn't 1000 lbs heavier than this car. As far as BMW is concerned, luxury equals size. That is just wrong! They should have a car that costs close to an M5, that has the M6 interior, with M3 performance, that's the car I want! I can afford an M5, but I don't want a car that is a full 1000 lbs heavier than this car, that feels like a tank. I drove the M5, it's amazing, interior is unbelievable, it's so fast, but it's huge and more importantly, it's very heavy! They need to have a M3-M5-M6 hybrid that costs 80k base, 95k fully loaded AND I'd pay that my eyes closed.
Pictures :

M3 Exterior



M3 Interior



M4 Exterior


Last edited by RealStig; 02-10-2014 at 07:58 AM..
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