BMW M4 – Owners 3 Mth (2,500 miles) Report

[SNP]

The Car Delivered to UK Late June 2014
Alpine White, Silverstone Merino, 19” Silver Wheels, M DCT, Advanced Parking Package, Head Up Display, Harman Kardon Speakers, Online Entertainment, Sunroof, Adaptive Headlights, Surround-view, Speed Limit Display, Advanced Navigation and Adaptive Suspension.

Why Did I Choose M4?
Looked at the following and dismissed each ….
C63 AMG … older car, old styling, not a Merc man
Jaguar F-Type R … too noisy, not as fast, not a Jag man
Audi RS4 … too understated and sterile
Audi RS5 … lack of driving feel
BMW M5 … see RS5 and due for replacement soon
Porsche Cayman … great car but too much of a “poor mans 911”
Porsche 911 Carrera 4S … much more money well spec’ed so would have needed to be 2nd hand for my budget .. and I prefer to get new usually

Experiences to Date

Setup choices. I always use steering feel in Sport/Medium. Otherwise, I initially set M1 to D/Auto and softest settings for motorways / cruising and set M2 to hardest settings and D/Auto. Rapidly changed the M2 to Sequential / Paddles default as D on hardest settings is really just for tracks and hard to drive smoothly without a Kangaroo jumping in. So when driving for fun I use the hardest settings but always use paddle change. Recently changed M1 to medium / sport settings still on D/Auto and to be honest this would normally meet most needs with such a flexible turbo engine.

Comfort. I have been amazed how comfortable the car is even on Sport+ suspension settings. Some people have said the ride is better than my old 2009 X5, admittedly M Sport with 20” wheels. Long journeys have been no effort at all. Seats very supportive and adjustable.

HUD. My first time for one of these and well worth every penny paid, very clear and intuitive, not distractive to driving focus, just right. Only downside is certain quality / polarizing sunglasses make it only just readable.

HK Sound. Overall very good, but for me some extra bass delivery would improve things further.

Launch Control. Once you find the right bit of road / track this function really shows just how fast the car really is, albeit somewhat dramatic so be careful. For showing off really.

Park Assist. Occasional use only but it can get you into pretty tight spaces, lots of warnings to make sure it’s a clean / standard space with no strange kerbstone structures to avoid scratching alloys.

Attracting Attention. Funny one this. To many (non car people) it blends in almost like the hoards of 3/4/5 series BMWs and A3/A4/A5 Audis. But to others (car people) the effect is usually immediate. I have yet to meet another on the road despite living in the affluent south of England (yes it is still early days). When I had a Porsche, there was sometimes attention of a negative kind so I like being only noticeable only to the “people in the know”.

Sound. A lot has been written about the F80/82 I6 vs E92 V8. Fair to say most seem to prefer the V8 zing. The cold start noise of the M4 is also a surprise at first, but you then tend to like the aggressive tickover. Also IMHO the noise inside the M4 is better than outside as the engineers have tried hard with the enhancement electronics. The resultant internal noise has a unique feel a bit like a nuclear power station warming up. But a screaming V8 it isn’t. Note the new C63 AMG will be a twin turbo 4.0 so these traditional sounds are slowly leaving us (F1 etc etc ).

Handling. I have not yet tracked, but so far the handling is very sharp and secure. With DSC / Traction Control engaged it catches too much enthusiasm on fast exits in a very controlled way. Very sticky and flat in most corners.

Performance. In sports or sports+ settings power floods in from quite low revs and makes almost lag free acceleration. The car is very very fast without effort or drama and you can easily hit three figure speeds in the blink of an eye. The car is just warming up then and really flies where many other cars would be starting to hit the powerwall. I don’t know, but I would imagine the 80mph to 130mph times on a track would be amazing.

Overall … absolutely brilliant, a beast and a beauty, a techfest with re-established traditional values.

[gblansten]

Next M5 is due out in the fall of 2018.

[Lynchmob6]

Thanks for your write up!

[stressdoc]

Nice review! Any problems?

[myzmak]

Nice review.

Also funny that someone with the handle SNP lives in the South of England. (or does SNP not mean for you what it does 'round Glasgow? )

Any regrets/things you'd do differently/negatives?

[mike@x-ph.com]

Thanks for the review

[SNP]

SNP are my initials rather than any Scottish National Party affiliation ... has caused some interesting situations historically as my car registration / number plate has this in it. A while ago I arrived by chance at a London hotel to give a presentation at a business conference who were also hosting (in parallel) a SNP party political event. The doorman took my keys and parked the car right at the front of the hotel without blinking. That saved massive time and dollars in London for sure. Hey ho I had to smile !!

No problems with the car to date (touch wood) and any regrets ?? .. well ... I would have gone for the full leather rather than the extended Merino .. trouble was in UK initially it was quite expensive but the price has since dropped. That option takes away any last thoughts of plastic. Other than that very happy. With discounts at the time I could have had a well spec'ed M5 for similar money .. but they are very different cars. I made the right choice for me where I am with my car evolution. The car even as base standard is great . .so options are very personal and budget personally dependant .. there are no wrong answers.

[voodoogeek]

thanks for the post, re-assuring my choice in the car. I had the same reasons for chosing it, albeit I didn't test all the vehicles on the list.

can't wait for delivery, saturday 8am it is

[LAnderson23]

Do you have any pics? I'm curious to see how the AW exterior looks with the Silverstone interior. I really like light grey/white interiors, but am thinking with a white body that might be too much. It seems the popular choice is the Sakhir Orange with the white exterior, but I'm interested to see how the white/white looks.

[SNP]

Very personal choice ... No pics yet .. Naturally I think it's great .. I like a bright silver stone interior vs others .. And AW was the only exterior colour I was happy with ... Actually I think Bmw should offer more colours .... I would have liked a broader choice