BMW M4 Review

Few people are unaware of what BMW’s M label signifies as the roaring trade in aftermarket — and rip-off — badges ably demonstrates. Core to the M Division’s portfolio is a range of high performance coupes, the latest generation of which exemplifies the German brand’s ability to take an already appealing car and turn up the wick to significantly boost performance and desirability as we explore in our full BMW M4 review.

In order to amplify the M4’s exclusivity — and create a pricing and performance chasm between it and the regular BMW 4 Series Coupe models — the entry-level version with only 480PS wasn’t offered in the UK when orders opened in November 2020.

Starting point for British buyers was the BMW M4 Competition, initially with 510PS but uprated to 530PS as part of the facelift in early 2024. Rear-wheel drive versions were deleted from UK price lists at the time of the facelift, leaving the clumsily titled M xDrive — M Divisionspeak for all-wheel drive — as the standard format.

Not one to miss an opportunity to up the ante further, BMW has also released a couple of limited edition versions with more purposeful bodykits and power from the 3.0-litre twin-turbo engine uprated to 550PS. With a focus on being exploitable on racing circuits, 2022’s BMW M4 CSL was rear-wheel drive, while the similar looking BMW M4 CS of 2024 has all-wheel drive and remains biased towards road driving.

With dwindling numbers of genuine alternatives, the BMW M4 now has no four-seater coupe-bodied rivals that offer a similar degree of performance for around the same money. Today’s Mercedes-AMG CLE53 Coupe is pegged at 449PS while the Porsche 911 Coupe is pricier and less practical by dint of being a proper sports car.

So what of the svelte Audi RS 5 Coupe, the leftfield Lexus RC F and the bellowing Mercedes-AMG C63 Coupe? They’re no longer available. You can still get a similar degree of grunt with the four-door saloon-shaped Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, but that will also become a pre-owned-only choice in early 2026.

Being based on the regular 4 Series Coupe means that the BMW M4 has plenty of positive attributes even before one considers how it drives. The interior is one of the best BMW offers, with plenty of high quality materials and an appealing design, switching to an ultra-wide twin-screen arrangement as part of the 2024 facelift.

It also remains a four-seater — apart from the in the BMW M4 CSL where they were ditched to save weight — and while they’re not the most generous space-wise there’s enough room for kids, or adults on shorter journeys. The boot is also decently capacious making it the ideal car for a quick weekend getaway.

Where the BMW M4 divides opinion is with its exterior styling. As with the BMW M3, the donor model’s conventional interpretation of the corporate grille has been replaced by a pair of enormous nostrils. It fits with the aggressive aesthetics elsewhere, such as the pumped-up wheelarches, large-diameter alloy wheels and a substantial bodykit, but subtle it ain’t — even in paint options that aren’t on the lurid scale.

As you might expect from such a car, straight line performance is relentless. Even the slowest-accelerating of this-generation BMW M4 squirted from 0-62mph in 3.9 seconds — while that sound brutal, the smoothness of the engine combined with the slick-shifting eight-speed automatic gearbox means it is remarkably fast but not uncouth.

The BMW M4 also allows the driver to change the responsiveness of a wide number of elements, many more than most rivals do, so you can make it as comfortable as possible for daily use but also tailor the key elements to suit your preferences. That means that when you do get the opportunity to use the performance it can be set-up perfectly for the conditions, even to the extremes of disengaging drive to the front wheels on M xDrive-equipped versions.

The BMW M4 isn’t a cheap car — today it’s starting price is more than slightly north of £90k — but assuming that isn’t an issue, it manages the impressive feat of being as fast and fun as you could possibly need on the public road while still being sufficiently comfortable and usable to be a genuine everyday proposition.

The choice is straightforward because the regular UK range centres on the M4 Competition M xDrive Coupe. Its 530PS straight-six already provides more performance than most owners could realistically need, while four-wheel drive makes that performance remarkably easy to deploy.

We would resist making it unnecessarily extreme with options. The carbon bucket seats provide superb support, but the standard sports seats are a better choice if the M4 will be used every day.

The BMW M4 Competition M xDrive costs from £93,305. That puts it firmly into serious sports-car territory, although its performance and practicality help justify the price. Standard equipment is generous, but BMW’s options can push the final figure well beyond £100,000.

The M4 therefore looks expensive beside a fast grand tourer such as the Mercedes-AMG CLE 53, but its performance is closer to considerably more specialised machinery.

The Porsche 911 Carrera is the obvious alternative. It is more expensive and less accommodating, but feels more special at everyday speeds and remains the purer sports car. The M4 counters with considerably more rear-seat space and a larger boot.

The Mercedes-AMG CLE 53 takes a softer approach. It is still seriously quick, but feels more like a powerful grand tourer than a direct rival for the BMW’s sharpness and outright pace.

The closely related BMW M3 Competition M xDrive provides almost the same driving experience with four doors, while the M3 Touring adds genuine estate-car practicality.

If driving involvement matters above everything else, the Porsche has the edge. As a fast car you can realistically use every day, the M4 is harder to fault.

Choosing a two-door coupe usually means a degree of compromise in terms of practicality, so unless you regularly plan to carry four adults and a ton of luggage the BMW M4 should have more than enough space to suit.

Of course, should you wish to enjoy the M4’s performance but insist on having more space for passengers and their luggage, the sales executives in the local BMW showroom will gladly direct you towards the closely related M3 Saloon and M3 Touring alternatives.

Up front there is more than enough space for taller adults with generous head and legroom. As standard the M4 comes with very supportive bucket seats, which take up more space than the regular 4 Series’ chairs do, but not detrimentally so.

Where they do create limitations is for those in the rear — both while sat there as well as accessing the seats. The room on offer is fine for children and nimble, petite adults but might not be suitable for the less mobile or those of larger stature — those six foot or over are likely to find headroom in the back’s lacking.

This is far less of a concern with the limited availability BMW M4 CSL from 2022 as it was devoid of rear seats as a weight-saving measure.

Boot space is a useful 440 litres, although the aperture is relatively narrow, making soft bags the luggage of choice over solid suitcases.

The BMW M4 Competition M xDrive is 4,801mm long, 1,887mm wide & 1,398mm high, with a 2,857mm wheelbase. Width including mirrors is 2,081mm. 

It feels particularly wide on narrow roads and in older car parks, although parking cameras and assistance take some of the stress out of manoeuvring.

As standard the BMW M4 comes with a comprehensive infotainment specification, which includes a 14.9-inch central touchscreen and a 12.3-inch digital instrument display. DAB radio, Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity, integrated navigation and a head-up display are also part of the package.

Usefully it also includes a rotary trackpad that can be used to control many functions without having to touch the screen itself, which is often the easier option on the move. BMW now also includes Apple CarPlay and Android Auto without a subscription fee, which is a welcome improvement.

The system itself works very well, an especially good thing given how many functions of the M4 can be altered compared with the regular 4 Series, but BMW provides default settings as well as the option to create your own custom setups to suit your driving style.

While the digital instrument display can look crowded with information but the display changes if you select one of the more aggressive drive modes which cuts down on the distractions.

A few moments inside the BMW M4 confirms that the firm still knows how to produce a high quality interior. Given the purchase price it’s a welcome discovery all the same.

Sharing the same fundamental dashboard layout as other 4 Series models, the M4 similarly switched to a more minimalist design as part of its 2024 makeover. Dominated by twin screens as is common on many modern cars, the quality of the materials is very high.

There are also a number of unique touches to remind you that this is a BMW M car rather than a regular 4 Series, with genuine performance on tap.

A wide choice of interior colours is also available to choose from, so you can step away from the typical dark grey if you fancy something more tuned to your tastes.

Central to the BMW M4’s appeal is its six-cylinder, 3.0-litre twin-turbocharged petrol engine which has its grunt metered-out via an eight-speed automatic transmission.

BMW elected not to sell the ‘standard’ 480PS version of this generation of M4 in the UK, making the M4 Competition the entry point to the range. Until the 2024 facelift it produced 510PS and 650Nm of torque — the latter figure common across all versions of the M4. With rear-wheel drive the M4 Competition required 3.9 seconds to dart from a standstill to 62mph, while the addition of M xDrive all-wheel drive pared that down to 3.5 seconds.

Top speed is electronically governed at 155mph but can be elevated to 180mph with the optional M Driver’s Pack. Following the 2024 facelift, power for the BMW M4 Competition M xDrive increased to 530PS, with all other figures remaining unchanged. Rear-wheel drive availability ceased at this point.

Two limited availability versions of the M4 have also been produced, each with power increased to 550PS and the M Driver’s Pack included as standard. First to arrive in 2022 was the BMW M4 CSL with rear-wheel drive. This version was track-focused yet remained fully road-legal. It could scorch from 0-62mph in 3.7 seconds and on to a top speed of 191mph.

Shortly after the 2024 facelift the BMW M4 CS was launched. It looked similar to the CSL but was designed to be more pliant on roads, hence it being fitted with the M xDrive system. That additional traction makes it the quickest accelerating M4 to date with a benchmark 0-62mph time of 3.4 seconds.

Recognising that not all M4 drivers want to go everywhere at ten tenths, BMW has ensured each can be driven in a docile manner when desired. With everything switched to their tamest settings and leaving the gearbox in Drive, and it will cruise comfortably with little noise from the engine.

Turn up everything up however and the acceleration is instant and relentless, helped by the M xDrive’s superior. Manually flicking through the gear ratios, it’s easy to run out of road in a matter of seconds, with both strong torque at low revs and the ability to rev high and punch hard at the top end.

Such is the performance on offer but not at the expense of its usability — it’s unlikely any driver could want for more power or torque on public roads. The only thing that could be criticised is the engine noise, which seems slightly synthetic and lacks the kind of sweetness that you might hope for from a large-capacity straight-six.

Despite the headline performance figures, there’s enough adjustability and comfort to make the BMW M4 capable of daily use or for plying long journeys without becoming tiring or uncomfortable.

Of course, with giant 20-inch rear wheels it is notably firmer than the standard 4 Series Coupe but switch to Comfort mode and the suspension, steering, engine and brakes are in their most compliant settings. Its figure-hugging sports seats ensure the ride quality is more than acceptably comfortable, even if it will occasionally jolt over larger potholes.

However, it’s when the road opens up a little that the BMW M4 really comes into its own. The more aggressive driving mode settings add weight to the steering, which is quick and responsive but not nervous, while the stiffened up suspension means it feels more tightly tied down to the road surface.

The amount of grip is remarkable — so high in fact that at times it can feel like reaching the limit of the tyres adhesion is impossible on public roads. It’s a shame, then, that the more playful rear-wheel drive versions of the M4 ceased to be sold from the 2024 makeover.

Euro NCAP hasn’t rated the BMW M4 specifically but it has crash-tested the 4 Series Coupe in 2019 where it achieved a five-star rating.

It is worth bearing in mind that the Euro NCAP tests have changed since then to become more stringent, but 4 Series scored a very impressive 97% for adult occupant protection, 83% for child occupant protection, 93% for vulnerable road user mitigation and 72% for safety assist. It’s unlikely that M4 versions would deviate far away from those scores.

Official fuel economy is 27.4 to 28.0mpg, with CO2 emissions of 230 to 233g/km depending on specification. High-20s mpg is possible on a gentle motorway journey, but regularly exploiting 530PS will reduce that considerably. The M4 has a 59-litre fuel tank, so touring range is respectable rather than exceptional.

BMW provides a three-year, unlimited-mileage warranty, which is competitive among premium manufacturers. Expect servicing to be every 24 months or 15,000 miles, although the car also monitors maintenance requirements and can request attention when necessary. 

It won’t surprise you to learn the BMW M4 Coupe is an expensive car to insure. It comes in at group 43. That is unsurprising for a 530PS coupe costing more than £90,000, and premiums are likely to vary considerably according to driver profile and location.

The BMW M4 costs £200 a year in standard VED after its first year. Because its list price exceeds the £40,000 Expensive Car Supplement threshold, an additional £440 a year applies from the second tax payment for five years. That means the annual bill is £640 from years two to six, before returning to the standard £200 rate.