BMW M3 / M4 Reviews Compilation

[swamp2]

Originally Posted by CanAutM3

You probably already know my take on that point

I probably should but don't. You did order it though, right?

[mkoesel]

Originally Posted by signes

Somebody care to share what the "M Drivers Package" is? (In the MT article)

That's the unfortunately sized thing that us M drivers buy the car to compensate for.


But no, it raises the limiter from 155 mph to 174 mph (or something close to that). Not available in North America.

[Ducfan]

Originally Posted by BlackJetE90

Yup this is what I worried about.

Now it is one hell of a daily driver, which will suit a much wider audience.

I guess I just don't really understand this. It is a daily driver. It always has been. Save Porsche and few others, no one really makes a new race car you can just buy...and most Porsches are not race cars either.

I am immensely looking forward to my F80 simply because it will be fun to drive every day.

My e90m3 is no match for my 40 year old 911 on the track. But that is a highly modified car and truthfully it is hard to drive on the street. I don't drive it much on the street because I really need to be committed to do so. Conversely, although I do, I don't much care to drive my M3 on the track. Just not as fast and nowhere near as fun. IMO anyone who wanted a more pure track car experience out of a BMW intending to spend less than 100k total would start with an E36. You won't get there with an e90 or f80.


Yay for having fun with your daily driver....order an F80....it's certainly nothing to "worry" about.

[swamp2]

Originally Posted by Ducfan

My e90m3 is no match for my 40 year old 911 on the track. But that is a highly modified car and truthfully it is hard to drive on the street.

Wow, what kind of power and weight does that car have? It must not be anything close to a stock engine, regardless of what you've done to the chassis. The current E9X M3 laps the Nurburgring right around 8 minutes flat. A 40 year old 911 has to have a lot of added power (power to weight ultimately) improvement to get anywhere near that fast...

[Audio Fan]

I'm surprised no one talked much about the launch colors.

[ss134]

Originally Posted by flanast

The ultimate boring machine ; (

Not what most of the reviews are saying at all and you haven't driven it. I understand the desire to think the old model is somehow better or more exciting- because you want to believe that- I'll reserve judgement until I drive one but the impression I'm getting from these reviews and from uae243 who owns both E90 M3 and F80 is that this car is better in almost every performance and daily driving respect. E92 M3 is a great car but there is a new king on the streets.

[ss134]

Originally Posted by CanAutM3

My takeaway after reading all the articles (common points in most articles):

• Throttle response isn't as sharp as on the E9X and the engine has lost some edge
• Some steering feel is lost due to the EPS, but it remains very accurate
• The engine note is not as pleasing as past ///M NA engines
• Beyond those points, the F8X is better in every respect compared to the E9X.

Pretty much what I expected and anticipated; and as has been discussed at length on the pages of this forum for quite a while.

What I have always enjoyed about my M3s, is their great flexibility; their ability to be a jack of all trades. According to the reviews, this particular characteristic seems to have been retained if not enhanced. This make me happy .

Can't wait to take delivery of mine in July to make my own assessment

Agreed apart from the steering- most of the reviews rate the steering very highly and UAE 247 says it's much better than his E9X M3.

[The Automotive Enthusiast]

Hopefully not a repost: http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/...t-drive-review

[Lups]

Originally Posted by Rev ///Me

Hopefully not a repost: http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/...t-drive-review

V8's usually get me to the lawn too. But no, I have not read that earlier, but I had a life to handle in between abt 4 pages of this.

Come on, there is no fighting still, someone has to trash all these articles as nonsense already! Please, I still have an hour to fill guys!

[catpat8000]

Originally Posted by Ducfan

My e90m3 is no match for my 40 year old 911 on the track. But that is a highly modified car and truthfully it is hard to drive on the street.

Originally Posted by swamp2

Wow, what kind of power and weight does that car have? It must not be anything close to a stock engine, regardless of what you've done to the chassis. The current E9X M3 laps the Nurburgring right around 8 minutes flat. A 40 year old 911 has to have a lot of added power (power to weight ultimately) improvement to get anywhere near that fast...

I don't know anything about this specific Porsche but it is fairly common for older (pre-73) 911 track cars to be in the neighborhood of 2000 lbs, and some can get 200 lbs under that weight. With their 4 wheel independent torsion bar suspension, they can also be set up to handle very well for the track. I'm not at all surprised it waxes his e90.

Most people don't race on the Nurburgring.

Pat

[DieGrüneHölle]

Hmm...a couple of the articles say the engine sounds like a diesel. That is terrible.

[BMW M3 CRT]

Nice and informative test drive article from german car magazine AUTO MOTOR SPORT:
http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/f...n-8349455.html

Surely the new M3/M4 was the "best M3 ever" and much, much faster than all precessors, including the E9xM3, but only because off the hole package of Chassis, Suspencion, Drivetrain and brake modifications, which make it stiffer sharper and faster on track ... and as near at an real race car as the E30M3.

So in terms of the important whole package this really good modifications make the change to a turbo engine not so important, that the F8x would going to be an not worthy M car and slow on track ... but it change important parts of the M philosophy !

Greetings BMW M3 CRT

[DieGrüneHölle]

Originally Posted by Ducfan

I guess I just don't really understand this. It is a daily driver. It always has been. Save Porsche and few others, no one really makes a new race car you can just buy...and most Porsches are not race cars either.

I am immensely looking forward to my F80 simply because it will be fun to drive every day.

My e90m3 is no match for my 40 year old 911 on the track. But that is a highly modified car and truthfully it is hard to drive on the street. I don't drive it much on the street because I really need to be committed to do so. Conversely, although I do, I don't much care to drive my M3 on the track. Just not as fast and nowhere near as fun. IMO anyone who wanted a more pure track car experience out of a BMW intending to spend less than 100k total would start with an E36. You won't get there with an e90 or f80.


Yay for having fun with your daily driver....order an F80....it's certainly nothing to "worry" about.

For many the M3 has been a dual purpose car. Daily driver during the week and a track car on weekend. It does seem from some articles it has lost some of the M feeling and raw track driving experience.

[JustChris]

Well I've read them all and I can't wait for mine. Mine will be a DD and fun car so the M4 will fit the bill perfectly.

Time to crack open the and sit back and look at all the E9X owners pick up on minor shreds of negativity in the reviews.

[Knicks_fan2]

Weird:

chris harris ‏harrismonkey 32m
Been told I can't say anything about the new M3 until 10 May. Er?!!! pic.twitter.com/pzZGyN2L6j

[Law]

To add to the list:
http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/Drives/...14-CAR-review/

Echoes earlier comments about disappointing sound which CAR calls "uninspiring" but the overall package is more "competent" while being less enjoyable. They do mention the sound gets better at higher revs, to be fair. But this review is one of the more negative reviews we've seen.

[shaz1410]

http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/Drives/...14-CAR-review/

Got to say been buying this mag for years, this seems like a massive turnaround from there recent "first drive" in there current issue. I've read all the reviews and this is the most negative so far.

[Law]

Originally Posted by shaz1410

http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/Drives/...14-CAR-review/

Got to say been buying this mag for years, this seems like a massive turnaround from there recent "first drive" in there current issue. I've read all the reviews and this is the most negative so far.

i beat you by a few minutes there

But i agree, this is one of the first real negative reviews. It seems like the reviewer wants to like the car but is left "cold" while yearning for yesteryear's feel (engine, sound, response, steering). Interesting contrast with some of the earlier reviews...(except for sound, which seems almost universally meh).

[gmd2003]

Originally Posted by Ducfan

I guess I just don't really understand this. It is a daily driver. It always has been. Save Porsche and few others, no one really makes a new race car you can just buy...and most Porsches are not race cars either.

I am immensely looking forward to my F80 simply because it will be fun to drive every day.

My e90m3 is no match for my 40 year old 911 on the track. But that is a highly modified car and truthfully it is hard to drive on the street. I don't drive it much on the street because I really need to be committed to do so. Conversely, although I do, I don't much care to drive my M3 on the track. Just not as fast and nowhere near as fun. IMO anyone who wanted a more pure track car experience out of a BMW intending to spend less than 100k total would start with an E36. You won't get there with an e90 or f80.


Yay for having fun with your daily driver....order an F80....it's certainly nothing to "worry" about.

A totally stock motor/ suspension C7 Z51 package vette with just a wing and Hoosier R comps set the track record in in its time trial class at Roebling Road raceway recently . My friend owns one too and it is a great daily driver on the street with amazing chassis feel ,so I strongly disagree with the statement that you can't make a modern car good at both things . If Chevy can do it so can BMW .

[TTSam]

Lots of reviews and overwhelmingly positive.

My take is that the car is magnificent - but maybe has lost a little bit of excitement and rawness - much like Formula 1.

Still cannot get over how boring the new F1 cars sound.

Probably more of a perceived loss of excitement than actual.

That is the way of the future, and I guess some of us need to get used to it.

Honestly it has made me re-think ordering until I do a test drive - although clearly it is (and should be) better in every technical way than the E9x.

Competition has caught up. Somehow I keep thinking there could have been more with 7 years of technological advances over the old E9x.

[TTSam]

Originally Posted by solstice

So, reading through these it's all as expected when you combine them.

Blindingly fast and refined but also:

- Steering feels weird on center.
- Lacks enough excitement at the top end to go there.
- Noticeable turbo lag.
- So-so sound.

As usual the opinions differ but the fact that each notions exist in at least one of the reviews make me think I need to stay prepared for it to some extent.

I am with you on the 'staying prepared' part. It would have been nice to see some responses to the standard brakes in the track testing. Seem odd to me to only provide testers with the ceramic brake packages (I believe I am correct on this). I would imagine very few people will pay for that option.

[Law]

Another pair of contrasting points from more reviews (the autocar one is more of a follow-up of the original test albeit from a different author):

"Instead, the M3 feels – and sounds – as lively at 2500rpm as it does at 7000rpm, and for a petrol-powered M car this comes as a fairly major disappointment. The surging, slightly manic sense of excitement that has defined the M3’s personality since 1986, right up until this point in time, is simply no longer there, unfortunately."

it does, however, mentioned the lack of lag:
"But in this instance it isn’t just the once straightforward issue of turbocharging itself and the lag this used to create that is to blame, because to all intents and purposes there is no lag to speak of."
http://www.autocar.co.uk/blogs/new-c...-bmw-m3-and-m4

To be continued...