Video: 2015 BMW M3 Sedan and M4 Coupe -- 2014 NAIAS
By Cars.com Editors
January 14, 2014
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From the 2014 North American International Auto Show, Cars.com's Kelsey Mays delivers a doubled barreled review for BMW's debut M3 sedan and M4 coupe.
Transcript
(upbeat music) <v Kelsey>Hi, I'm Kelsey Mays for cars.com BMW performance fans have been waiting for an M three ever since the sixth generation three series sedan hit dealerships in early 2012.
Well, here we are at the 2014 north American international auto show in Detroit with the redesigned M three alongside the new M four that's related to the four series, which is the new successor to the three series coupe. Let's check it out. We'll start with the important stuff. No more V8 in the M three and M four. There's now a turbo inline six, but it makes 425 horsepower at 5,500 to 7,300 RPM and 406 pounds feet of torque at just 1850 RPM that compares to the V8, which made 414 horsepower at a sky high 8,300 RPM and only 295 pounds, feet of torque at 3,900 RPM. What's more, the car is about 175 pounds lighter than a comparable M three coupe BMW says, and that car was already kind of a flyweight in its class, about 100 to 300 pounds lighter than the Audi RS five and the outgoing Mercedes C 63 AMG. As we'd expect the M cars have imposing designs here. A lot of hulking body work that kind of wraps around BMW says there's frontal air curtains that help redirect air flow around the side of the car. Unfortunately, those don't come with frontal Venetian blinds, but there is a lot of weight reduction material here. Carbon fiber reinforced plastic, the automaker says that's the same material used in large parts of the I eight super car. You come along the back here, there's quad exhaust pipes in the back. That should be familiar to anybody who's seen the M three before. There's a rear spoiler here that's integrated into the coop feed sedan. The M three sedan actually has its own kind of unique spoiler here to increase down force. Transmissions include a seven speed dual clutch automatic, or a good old fashioned six speed manual transmission, which we like to see remained in performance cars. Any performance car maker, always references laps taken at Germany's famous Nurburgring circuit in terms of product development. BMW says the M three and the M four have spent thousands of laps on that circuit. So take that auto industry. Zero to 60 is about four seconds. BMW says for the M three and the M four that's significantly quicker than the outgoing M three. And it's about a half second quicker than the outgoing Mercedes C 63 AMG and Audi RS five pretty significant when you're talking only about four seconds, fuel consumption as well, about 25% better than it used to be. BMW says, that's a good thing because the last M three was such a gas guzzler that you had to pay a gas guzzler. Tax port here's hoping that the new one will avoid that. The three series and four series coming available, M sport packages, which include things like a different steering wheel, a more seat bolstering the actual M three and the M four get even more seat bolstering. These are very, very sporty seats. They hold you in very tightly. There's also things like stitching here along the lower parts of the dashboard. When the M three and M four go on sale, sometime in the summer, they will face stiff competition. Mercedes just redesigned the C class. And there's certain to be an AMG version that will follow Lexus, just debuted the new RCF and there's a Cadillac ATSV in the rumor mill. The last M three was one of the most balanced sports cars you could get. So the new one has big shoes to fill that being said, the current three series sedan has already won cars.com 's $46,000 sports sedan challenge. So we think that's a pretty good pedigree to start from. (car engine revving)
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