2021 BMW M4 Competition Coupe Fast Facts |
3.0-liter turbocharged inline-six (503 horsepower @ 6,250 RPM, 479 lb-ft @ 2,750-5,000 RPM) Eight-speed automatic transmission, rear-wheel drive 16 city / 23 highway / 19 combined (EPA Rating, MPG) 14.5 city / 10.2 highway / 12.6 combined. (NRCan Rating, L/100km) Base Price: $74,700 (U.S) / $95,804.73 (Canada) As Tested: $101,095 (U.S.) / $111,649.70 (Canada) Prices include $995 destination charge in the United States and $2,580 for freight, PDI, and A/C tax in Canada and, because of cross-border equipment differences, can’t be directly compared. Canadian pricing and fuel economy is based on the 2022 model year. |
Almost every automotive journalist and enthusiast I know hates the new BMW grille – the one that took the twin-kidney look and made it as bucktooth as a beaver.
But you know what? You don’t have to see it from behind the wheel, foot planted, engine humming at full zoot, as you attack Road America. Or VIR. Or Willow Springs. Or when on the track of your choice for getting your jollies.
I had a few chances to wheel an M4 last year – I got the same car loaned to me twice (the press fleets work in mysterious ways) and I also took it for a lap of Road America, under the watchful eye of a BMW hired-gun driving instructor. And let me tell you – the car’s such a mix of sweetheart and hoary beast (that’s meant as a compliment. Mostly.) at speed that you won’t give a flying you-know-what about the ugly-ass maw.
Nor will you worry about it much during daily driving, but that’s only because the car’s other big flaw becomes apparent. Mostly, it’s the seats – the race-track-ready buckets do a great job of keeping your body in place on the track, but they aren’t comfortable. A bump in the middle threatens to create discomfort between your legs, for one thing. For another, the seats are hard enough to add fatigue on a long drive. And good luck getting an adult into the almost useless rear seat.
I initially typed “flaws”, plural, to start that graph, but as I mulled over my memories I was reminded that the M4’s street dynamics don’t require much sacrifice. Is the ride sports-car stiff? Yes, and the sun rises in the east. Is it a bit loud? Yes, and bears crap in the forest. But the stiffness was never punishing – adaptive shocks certainly help. Similarly, the noise was generally acceptable – not to mention that the 3.0-liter turbocharged inline-six sounds lovely when pressed into duty.
The engine sounds sweet, and 503 horsepower and 479 lb-ft of torque mean it launches with ease. The carbon-ceramic brakes are stout (they better be for over $8K) though a tab grabby at lower speeds. And this Bimmer carves corners as well as you’d expect, though the 3,880-pound curb weight sometimes gets felt – there’s room here for a diet. That’s the good stuff.
Again, the double-joint spring strut with aluminum wishbone suspension up front and five-link rear suspension work together well, but there is one big dynamic flaw – the steering, as is now common among Bimmers, feels a bit too distant, especially in routine driving or when attacking a curvy public road at half-blast. Even on the track, though, it wasn’t as communicative as I’d have liked, though it did seem firmer and less artificial in the proper drive mode. It should be noted here that the M Drive Professional system has 10 different ways to limit wheel slip. In fact, it should be noted that if this review dove into the specifics of how you can customize the various drive modes, it would be a lot longer and you might need a pillow.
What you end up with is a high-strung sports coupe that wouldn’t be too hard to live with if it weren’t for the dang seats. Thankfully, they’re optional, and not selecting them would save you $3,800 bucks. I wouldn’t check that box unless I tracked my car regularly.
Other options that ballooned the base price of $74,700 to $101,095 included the $550 Isle of Man green paint, the Silverstone and Black leather seats ($2,550), the M Drive Professional drive-mode system ($900), the M tires/wheels (19-inch front, 20-inch rear, $1,300), carbon-fiber trim ($950), a carbon-fiber exterior package ($4,700), and the M Driver’s Package. That last costs $2,500, raises the top speed to 180 mph and allows you a one-day high-performance driving experience.
Standard features included the 8-speed automatic transmission and M seat belts. That’s on top of standard M4 features like Harmon-Kardon audio, heated front seats, M Sport rear differential, iDrive, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and dynamic cruise control. Standard driver-aid systems include lane-departure warning, active blind-spot detection, and rear cross-traffic alert.
The M4 Competition coupe is a wonderful car to drive, especially since you can’t see the grille. Just think twice about your choice of chairs.
What’s New for 2021
This is the second generation of the M4.
Who Should Buy It
The well-heeled Bimmer fan searching for strong performance without major sacrifice in terms of everything except money. One who can ignore the gaping grille.
[Images © 2022 Tim Healey/TTAC]
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that license plate really destroys the entire grill design, time to change the entire idea of license plates and make them drag efficient window stickers (even a euro plate on this car doesn’t work)
I blame the designers at BMW. They know a plate is required in most places, and they utterly failed to incorporate that into the freakshow front end.
No front license plate is required in Pennsylvania, but I’m not sure that seeing the entire grille is much of an improvement.
We will see if I get used to it in a few years. I didn’t like the big Audi grilles when they first came out either, but I got used to them (and Audi improved the proportions of the grilles after a few years.)
It is an interesting color, though.
What a fugly design. Seen a few in person and they look terrible. Love the paint color choices and the green shown here but painting a turd green is still just a turd ina lovely hue
Well said. A $100k green turd with 15 mpg.
I am amazed it can be optioned over $100k. That stings.
Something that performs like this is NOT a turd, and 15 mpg is actually pretty decent for a car like this. But it’s not very attractive, and the price is stupid.
@Freed:
One man’s turd is another man’s brownie… or whatever.
You are correct about the performance aspect. I just don’t like the looks or the value. If I was in the $75-100k sports car market, this would not appeal to me.
It’s EPA range is 281 miles vs. the Model 3 Performance at 315 miles. It does beat the Bolts range by 22 miles.
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=44281
Then there’s CATL’s 620-mile range battery with 80% charging in 10 minutes. The handwriting is on the wall.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/CATL-makes-its-620-mile-EV-battery-official-with-10-minutes-charge-to-430-miles-range.631578.0.html
and if you want 5 minute charging:
https://eletric-vehicles.com/catl/catl-confirms-its-ctp-3-0-battery-technology-can-charge-80-in-5-minutes/
Technology marches on…
Very few, if anyone at all, manages to run out of range in environments where usage approximates EPA combined.
Much more relevant for cars like this, is range at 155mph.
“Technology”, in the abstract, obviously still marches along to some extent. Albeit very, very slowly this late in the game.
Problem is, the massive wealth redistribution over the past few decades, to deadweights serving as no more than boat anchors around the ankles of competent society; have by now succeeded in not only stalling, but indeed flat out reversing, any forward progress technologists have been able to eke over that period. So that we now have; are less practical, less reliable, less convenient yet much more expensive vehicles than before. While those competent enough to build them, are getting paid less. For no other reason than to enrich rank rtrds dumb enough to be “making money off my home!” as it sits there decaying and disintegrating in the weather.
Wither the Hoffmeister kink on coupes!
It looks generic, almost! Even a Mustang or Camaro has distinctive features in the styling.
With that and the beaver schnoz, no thanks!
The biggest problem with this car isn’t the styling – it’s that you can save roughly 50 grand with a properly equipped Mustang that looks far better. Will the BMW smoke the Mustang on a track? Absolutely. But in the real world, it’s hard as hell – and getting harder – to use this kind of performance.
Bonuses: the Mustang can be had with a manual, and won’t drain your wallet dry four years down the road.
Yes, I know…no one cross shops these. Or do they?
You didn’t mention the trump card – you can get a V8 with a stick in the Mustang.
For well under 50k.
There are issues with Ford transmissions, so you’re rolling the dice. Then again, it’s not like BMW is the summit of reliability and oil leak free driving.
I think it’s telling that Tim opened the review by talking about tracks. Unless you are going to spend meaningful time on track, it’s hard to see the appeal of this car. Not just the seats, but also a stiffer-than-warranted suspension and a VERY loud exhaust.
I don’t see any way in which this car is better for MY usage than a M340i/M440i for $20k less, and several ways in which it’s worse. (A reminder that the M340i is more than fast enough for any street situation, with quarter-mile times in the low 12s.)
With this bloated press car I agree.
However, on a “regular” $75K M3 sedan with the manual transmission and normal wheels and normal seats and normal brakes I think you can make an argument for stepping up to the full M car.
If you don’t want the clutch pedal then yea, stick with the M340i. Or buy a used C63.
The manual does indeed change things, although if only it existed I think I’d also prefer a manual M340i to the regular M3.
If one is going to spend any meaningful amount of time at a race track, a 4K lbs semi self driving complexification experiment on wheels, are certainly about as far down the list of enticing candidates for that as one can get.
Like near cars in this “class”, this one excels primarily at being able to point out that _someone_ _else_, on Youtube; drove it quickly around a track once. To some, that seems to matter quite a lot.
In Germany, with regular forays into Germany’s Alpine surroundings, it could make some sense, I suppose. In some Gulf countries, sure. With twice the fuel capacity, it could probably compete with the Panamera as a fast GT for the US West, although the current state of police pensions seem to be driving those guys further and further off their traditional Donut shop reservations, in search of loot, these days.
Pathetic automatic scum, and the worst-looking thing BMW has coughed up so far.
“coughed up” is a satisfyingly apt expression.
It’s too fast, and too turboed/flat-torqued, to make much sense as a manual.
I’m as much of a “manual” guy as anyone, but operating at the dynamic envelope of a modern F1-cart on fresh tires, paddles make sense.
Which of course, wrt road cars, only proves that cars too fast and torque’y to benefit from a manual, suck as roadgoing drivers’ cars. Now, since 4K lbs, hypercomplex, overmanaged cars also suck as track cars….; that leaves: Cars like this, mostly suck at being cars, period. Neat as engineering experiments, though.
Had to drive into town (the big town, not my town) yesterday to pick up my spouse and on the way home we stopped by our favorite used car lot to peruse the inventory — they do have some now. The way we do it, each vehicle in the lineup gets a ‘No’ or a ‘Maybe’ or a ‘Preferred’ as we walk by, sometimes with some discussion of Reasons.
They had one BMW. I shuddered a little and I think my wallet did too.
Too ugly, too expensive.
Are buyers/leasees of these cars ambivalent about aesthetics? I can’t imagine dropping this kind of money for a buck tooth train wreck.
100k buys all sorts of cars. Why would anyone buy this?