Video: 2008 BMW M3

But sometimes you drive some mundane cars week to week, it isn't all that glamorous. That all changes is when you get into a 2008 BMW M3. The first thing that will alert you, that you're seeing in an M3 and not a 3 series in your rear view mirror is this bulge in the hood, might be a little hard to see here on a white car, but it does stick out and that's to fit the V8 engine underneath it. And it has two nostrils right here, one of them is functional. Under the bulging hood of the M3 is a 4.0 liter V8 engine with 414 horsepower. Can get you to 64.8 seconds. And that might not sound quite as fast as some of these other super cars that you're seeing, but it's still really fast compared to anything else on the road. The vents on top of the hood are actually, one of them is actually functional and feeds right into the air intake. Another M design tweak is this little inlet here, she actually follows the whole line from the back of the car, so it's kind of cool. Also we have 19 inch wheels, which would be expected on a car like this. These are actually optional, 19 inches, $1,200. So one of the angles people will most be seeing you from is from behind cause this thing's really fast. And that's really one of the most unassuming looking parts of the car. There's a very small lip spoiler right here, and a quad pipes here that also are obviously very functional. It may look like a regular 3 series inside, but there's lots to tell you that this is an M. Especially the big meaty steering wheel. This is probably one of the thickest, if not the thickest, steering wheels I've ever experienced, including the old M3 from a couple of years ago. A lot of auto drivers complained about iDrive, which is BMWs all in one interactive control system for the navigation, entertainment, yada yada yada. But the M3 has, is what they call M drive. And it's an option, but it allows you to control everything about the driving dynamics, from the throttle response to the damping, which affects affects your ride quality. It's really intricate. It is part of an option package, but if you really want the most out of this car, that's what you have to go with. Now to access the full M drive capabilities you have to use iDrive, they come together. It's a $3,200 package. If you want to check out what iDrive does besides this, you can check out another video in our player. For now, check out what the M drive does. So use the center control right here, and you simply press the menu button, push down the controller once. And it immediately brings up the M settings and you just scroll through them and you can control everything from that dampening I was telling you about, and you just kind of go through this assortment, click down once, pick which level you want and move on. Now when you're driving access, your M drive settings, you simply hit this "M" button on the steering wheel, pretty simple. But you really don't want to be changing all those settings when you're on the road. So there are some shortcuts down here by the stick. Now that I've shown you around the M3, there's probably a few questions you have, like how do I get one, which is probably the only question you have left and just pretty much plunked down between 53 and $65,000. Like our tester here is about $65,000 and you can drive off the lot in one. I do expect even at those prices that there will be a wait. For additional information on this car or any other go to cars.com and our blog Kicking Tires.