Quote:
Originally Posted by Kief
If both are being presented together, is it then safe to assume that both the M3 & M4 will share the same start of production (SOP) date or will the traditional delay between sedan/coupe remain?
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The "traditional delay" had the sedan following the coupe, and there's virtually no chance it will happen that way this time given that M3 development cars were seen a couple months (if not more) before M4 development cars. Also, consider that the E36 M3 sedan came much later than the coupe while the E90 M3 was developed right along side the E92 (but had slightly later initial availability, especially for Europe where the coupe was released months before it was here). So there really has not been consistency in the past in the first place.
Increasingly it looks as though availability of the coupe and sedan will come at the same time, and it should be sometime in the 2nd or 3rd quarter next year. If this happens, by the way, it will represent a roughly one-year advance from when availability for the M4 had been expected (for US customers), and means it will come closer to the release of its series counterpart than ever before. Consider, for example, that the E92 M3 concept did not release until the Geneva show in March following the release of the E92 3 Series around this same time seven years ago (summer 2006). This time we get the concept directly on the heels of the 4 Series. The rest of the timeline is likely to be similarly accelerated. To wit, as we already know, the production cars come in Detroit in January.