This will sound like a classic “bad is actually good” thing, but listen to me: I think the big, ugly nostrils on the BMW M3 and M4 are good, and I’m tired of pretending I’m not. This has been my point of view since I first saw the rat posts. It’s my point now.
Everyone always longs for the way cars are concentrated and legislated to death and no one takes any risk and there are no performers to execute their vision. But as soon as someone steps right near the line, everyone cries and gathers their pearls. “What did you do to M3 !?”
I have not met David E. Davis’ story about BMW 2002 until I became an adult and had no interest in M1, which came and went before my time. But for much of my life, BMWs were on a separate plane of existence – unattainable. Cooler than Porsche and Ferrari, because they didn’t make sports cars, they made hot rod sedans that could run sports cars.
I will never forget to look at the cooling fans of the pleasant plates filled behind the bumper of an E36 M3 in the parking lot of our local mall, then to see an M3 Lightweight on Front Street. I will never forget to stay inside Alex Roy’s M5 and hearing him say it was the last big BMW I ever saw. I will never forget to read Jonny Lieberman’s M Coupe entry in the Jalopnik Fantasy garage. Seeing a Laguna Seca Blue E46 in the parking lot at restaurant I worked at in college. All these unpretentious cars, modified and mixed to give high speed to those who know enough to buy one. The lifeless person, the q-ship, the wolf in the sum of the sheep’s parts.
In 2021, BMW is not a tough underdog. Depending on the year, BMW is the leader or second largest seller of luxury cars in the world. He builds big, expensive, technical cars and crossovers and sells the shit out of them, probably at a good margin. At one point, BMW had to stop producing the kinds of cars that formed the contours of its mythology. And stop it.
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He just didn’t know what to do next.
The consensus among BMW fans, enthusiasts and the media seems to be that BMW itself has been trying to figure out what to do in the last decade. Was it the i8 / i3 corner, a front-wheel drive hatch with a cold round on the C-pillar? I have no idea if these cars are still manufactured. There were some powerful, but forgettable M cars. (People who know say the new M2 CS is great.)
I admit that I – a person who has never owned a used BMW – was once very upset with BMW because it “lost its way”. Some of the worst reviews I’ve ever written were reviews about BMWs by ear. I’m sure at one point I would have said that BMW just needs to regain the magic of the E39 or E46 or whatever. As the German directors liked to say last time, I saw one in real life: “It’s not possible.” If you’re the one counting the money, I’d imagine it’s not even desirable.
BMW cannot be fully released, the M3 must still be a sports sedan. So it seems that either you are moving in a new direction, or you will go back and forth in conversations about how the cars you build today are not as good, as attractive or beautiful as the cars you build. you can’t and you don’t do them I want to do more.
For me, looking at this car, it is clear that BMW wants to take a break. There is more evidence in an extremely mortifying test effort on social media and more in this regard. video in which the cars are mischievous with each other. Someone from BMW made a choice.
The very malignant Concept 4 of 2019 was the first time in a long time that I felt that BMW was heading in one direction. It was a break. The design felt familiar, but only tangentially related to the BMWs of the past, more references than venerations. It was also one of the three show cars I’ve seen in the last 10 years that I don’t remember at all.
The usual 3 Series and 4 Series are close to fulfilling the promise of the Concept 4. The M cars get there. They are perverse, avant-garde, shocking and a bit ugly. At least visually, they are a firm rejection of much of the BMW ethos of the golden age. People who worked at E39 might recognize them, but they couldn’t conceive of them themselves.
Lots of cars look vaguely like BMW. The M3 and M4 look like BMWs in another more frightening dimension in which people consume drugs that come in a vial and glow blue. It’s good, it’s interesting, it makes other sedans look instantaneous. BMW caught shit because the projects went where others were not ready – or were not equipped – to follow and were justified. I think they’ll be here too. Remember how crazy they were about Bangle cars? It may have seemed like another break at the time, but now I’m just part of the BMW myth.
I’m still vaguely aware of the cars BMW currently sells. I even lost track of the M cars after, I think E92. I didn’t drive the new M3 / M4 and I didn’t love the last one. So I’m not very prepared to say if it’s good. But in terms of style, this is an attraction for BMW. This is something different, an expression of a new ethos. You may not know him now, you may hate him, but that is what you asked for.