The looks may not be to everyone's cup of tea, but they apparently carry the sort of panache BMW hopes. Granted, not everyone wants that level of raw sportiness from their Bimmer some people would rather just have a nice car that shows its owner's taste and resources when they roll up to the office. While those certainly seem appealing on a car of this ilk, adding them also opens up a bit of a can of worms once you start thinking about performance, and it's hard not to consider that the M4 starts at about $73,000. Mine stickered at around $70,000, though it was loaded up with options, many of them performance-minded ones. (That said, this is hardly a problem restricted to the 4 Series, or even BMW look at the Audi RS 6 Avant, for example.)īut aye, here’s the rub: it’s not an “affordable” entry-level luxury car. It's packed with all sorts of aerodynamic elements - valances and vents and opening, both real and fake - that all assemble to try and make the blocky front look less monolithic and huge. The new front end really looks like nothing so much as one of the pigs from Angry Birds splitting up the front end with a Euro plate might make it a little better, but at the end of the day, it’s simply an ugly face.Įven ignoring the grille for a moment - which is hard to do - the front end just seems busy.
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The BMW 3 Series may suffer from many of the same driving issues as the 4, but at least it has the decency to look good. BMW is unapologetic about the front end design of the new 4 Series and M3/M4 their standard line has largely been the corporate version of South Park's " If you don't like it, than yew can git out!" Floor the gas at any speed between 0 and highway velocity, and there’s just a hearty shove push forward as all four wheels stick and go.Īnd we haven’t even gotten to the worst sin of the new 4: the design. Combine that mass with standard all-wheel-drive grip, and you wind up with power delivery that never feels explosive, merely mighty. This is a big car believe it or not, the M440i weighs in at a housecat below two tons, which means a Toyota RAV4 or Honda CR-V weighs in at 300-500 pounds less. (The artificial engine sound enhancement does it no favors, either it’s subtle, and adds little.) There’s no shortage of power- BMW engines almost always punch above their weight - but the character of it is masked by the car’s weight and extensive noise insulation. The turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six engine is solid, of course Motor isn't BMW's middle name for nothing. Which seems, well, strange: a BMW shouldn’t be at its best with its driving assistance features enabled it should be at its best with them all off, or stripped down to their bare minimum, and the car aimed down a winding, empty two-lane. makes it harder to turn) to subtly keep you in your lane and increases its effect (making it easier) when within the lines. Honestly, the car’s steering feels most at home with the lane keep assist on, where the motor increases resistance (i.e. It feels more like a video game rig than anything - which is such a shame, because BMW steering used to be sublime by default. In Sport mode, it’s a bit more direct, but it’s still numb and unfeeling, lacking any semblance of involvement. The most likely culprit seems to be the variable-ratio steering with it shuffling the ratios, it makes it tough to predict how much moving your hands will move the car, lending it a strange feeling that the Bimmer is a beat behind you. When you do turn it - at least in the default Comfort mode, there almost feels like a momentary blink of lag between the wheel and the car moving. I found myself straying out of my lane more than in any other new car in recent memory. There’s no sense of resistance as the road turns and the forces change on the wheels, so you don’t subconsciously push back and react to keep the car going. It’s not just lacking in feedback - it’s so lacking in feedback that it becomes hard to stay in your lane. The steering is the biggest problem area. The fun, involving character that used to define every 3/4 Series? It’s gone here.