The BMW M4 is a mountain of car, but you’d be forgiven for forgetting it’s anything more than an M440i
Now split into two lines based on the same ‘G80’-series platforms, the M4 is the two-door companion to the now four-door-only M3. Nomenclature, but little else — it’s all mostly the same stuff underneath.
From the start of this test week, this seemed set to be a positive: the all-wheel-drive M3 Competition has already shown Driving its all-weather utility and cathartic delight during one of Toronto’s most slip-slidey blizzards, so surely this M4 Convertible would only build on this in the warmer months.
Between an eight-layered hardshell soft top, commendable top-down wind isolation, and a limited overall sense of compromise versus the usual coupe, the BMW M4 Convertible seems to touch the right spots. Better still, that modern convertibles have so largely resolved the bendy problems that so incensed the old guard and that they so delight partners and passengers? It all just seems a win-win.
A sporting drive, given the right roads
Though tracing back to more affordable premium roots, the G80-generation BMWs have evolved the M3 and M4 badges into serious performance platforms. Holding formation with the likes of the Porsche 911 and whichever rotating alphanumeric AMG Mercedes is peddling this week, the G80s have grown from livelier spins on affordable premium commuters to luxury-priced showcases on par with past-generation supercars.
Acceleration in 3.7 seconds hits Ferrari F430 territory, and with grippier all-wheel footing to boot. Output figures of 523 horsepower and 479 pound-feet of torque put the 3.0-litre ‘S58’ turbocharged straight six past the old Lambo Gallardo’s V10, all with steady turbo torque which arrives far earlier. Top speed is 280 km/h, or 175 mph. All of this is a world removed from what the M3 badge meant back in the days of the F430 and Gallardo, and that’s before the digitization of vectoring, suspension, and chassis control.
Where the Ms of old used an assemblage of interchangeable sport parts, today’s wire each bit into a central nervous system. Suspension can stiffen or soften at milliseconds’ notice, tightening the car down against the tarmac by tweaking damper rebounds or tugging back on inside wheels. The old Ms were just out there on handshake agreements with the tarmac and the driver; these new Ms mean numbers, analysis, business.
Find the right road and it’ll all show you just how clever it is. Sped through winding, undulating northern routes, you can feel all of those G forces in your floppy body — and in contrast, how unaffected the car under you manages to stay. Pay attention to the pressure of the seatbelt holding you down in the bucket as the car crests a ridge at speed, and you’ll realize that the whole chassis is yanking itself back down against forces that ought to have sent it and your uncontrolled analog flesh off into orbit.
This incongruity is never unsettling; it’s only impressive. Unfortunately, this cleverness makes it all a bit too easy, and arguably to this M4’s detriment.
Going fast so easily is fun as long as you’ve access to places where you can easily go fast. Short of a race circuit, however, you seldom get the space to go fast without some life-impacting calculations. The rest of the time then, you’re in a very fast car that you’re forced to drive slowly. Between this and the high performance ceiling, it’s hard to truly explore what the M4 has to offer in the everyday.
As a dressed-up 4-Series, the M4 fits the usual complement of comfort and convenience tech including the sharp (if cluttered) new iDrive 8 infotainment system, an optional head-up display, and in the case of this convertible, headrest-mounted neck heaters. Option matrices lean rich in this high-priced trim and are sometimes funny — you get auto brake hold for stop & go traffic in a sporting performance pack — but shoppers can count on the availability of a gamut of smooth and trustworthy driver assistance features such as hands-off, eyes-up highway traffic jam assistance. Boot space is impacted by the folding top, but standard carry-on luggage can fit below the roof and a flip-away divider can open the cargo area to full volume when the roof is up.
Compounding this, the M4’s low-key early-morning presence makes it so easy to forget you’re climbing into a 523-horsepower rocket that you might as well just be in an M440i. There’s grand touring in something that you always know can tighten up into something more, and there’s grand touring in something that lets you forget. By slipping so quietly and casually into the scenery, the G83 M4 — even despite its smattering of M badging — can fail to remind you what you paid over $100k for. I spent most of my week with the M4 Competition driving like a gran, if only because I kept forgetting that I was driving something so much more. And that’s before we get to the fellow who approached from the side and mistook it for a rental Mustang.
M440i is a more sensible alternative
The M440i is still plenty of fun, can still twitch sideways on an autocross course, and can still stun passengers with its speed. It’s a delightful tourer, and feels more appropriate to its price. Given that this particular M4 might as well have been that lesser model for most of my time with it too, it just seems the sensible spend.
2024 BMW M4 Convertible pricing and competitors
Pros
✔ Capable of general comfort and substantial performance
✔ Folding roof isolates noise and temperature well
✔ Convertible compromises imperceptible in most on-road sporty driving
Cons
✘ Unsatisfying interior for such a high price
✘ Convoluted infotainment
✘ Limited sense of occasion within everyday throttle range
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