This is going to sound like a classic ‘bad thing is actually good’ belief, but listen to me: I think the BMW M3 and M4’s big, ugly nostrils are good, and I’m tired of pretending they aren’t to be. That’s been my opinion since I first saw the mole rat’s posts. It’s my opinion now.
Everyone is always whining about how cars are focused and regulated to death by laws and no one takes more risks and there are no misfits carrying out their vision. But as soon as someone even steps close to the line, everyone sobs and grabs their pearls. “What have you done with the M3 !?”
I am the David E. Davis story about the BMW 2002 until I was an adult, and I had no interest in the M1, which came and went ahead of my time. But for much of my life, BMWs were on a separate level of existence – untouchably cool. Cooler than Porsche and Ferrari because they weren’t making sports cars, but hot rod sedans that could tear down the sports cars.
I’ll never forget to stare at the pie plate cooling fans behind the bumper of an E36 M3 in our local mall parking lot, then spot an M3 Lightweight on Front Street. I will never forget to be in it Alex Roy’s M5 and hear him say it was the last great BMW we would ever see. I will never forget reading Jonny Lieberman’s M Coupé entry in the Jalopnik Fantasy Garage. Seeing a Laguna Seca Blue E46 in the parking lot of the restaurant where I worked at University. All these modest cars, tweaked and confused to deliver great speed for those who know enough to buy one. The underdog, the q-ship, the wolf in the sum of the sheep’s parts.
In 2021, BMW will not be a brave underdog. Depending on the year, BMW is the largest or second largest seller of luxury cars in the world. It builds big, expensive, technical cars and crossovers and it sells them all, presumably at a good margin. At some point, BMW had to stop making the kind of cars that contoured its mythology. And stop it.
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It just didn’t know what to do next.
The consensus among BMW fans, enthusiasts and the media seems to be that BMW itself has spent the past decade trying to figure out what to do. Was there the i8 / i3 bypass, a hatch in the front with a cool C-pillar roundel? I have no idea if these cars are still in production. There were a few powerful but forgettable M cars. (People in the know say the new M2 CS is great.)
I have to admit that I – a person who has never owned a used BMW – was once very angry with BMW for ‘losing his way’. Some of the meanest reviews I’ve ever written were reviews of BMWs from the Aughts. I’m sure I would have said at some point that BMW should recapture the magic of the E39 or E46 or whatever. As German executives liked to say the last time I saw one in person, “It’s not possible.” If you are the one counting the money I would imagine it is not even desirable.
BMW cannot come off completely, the M3 still has to be a sports sedan. So it seems that you are either heading in a new direction or endlessly dragged back into conversations about how the cars you’re building today aren’t as good or as engaging or as good-looking as the ones you can’t and don’t want. want to make more.
When I look at this car, it is clear to me that BMW wants to take a break. There’s more evidence in an extremely demeaning social media attempt and even more in that video where the cars are mean to each other. Someone at BMW has made a choice.
The much-maligned 2019 Concept 4 was the first time in a long time that I had the feeling that BMW was heading in a certain direction. It was a break. The design felt familiar, but was only tangentially related to BMWs of the past, more referential than reverent. It was also one of maybe three show cars I’ve seen in the last 10 years that I totally remember.
The regular 3 Series and 4 Series are close to delivering on the promise of the Concept 4. The M cars are coming. They are perverted, avant-garde, shocking and quite ugly. Visually, they are a firm rejection of much of the golden age of BMW ethos. The people who worked on E39 might recognize them, but they couldn’t have come up with them themselves.
Many cars currently look vaguely BMW-esque. The M3 and M4 look like BMWs from another, scarier dimension, where people use drugs that come in a bottle and glow blue. It’s okay, it’s exciting, it makes other sedans look dated right away. BMW took crap for designs that went where others weren’t ready – or equipped – to follow, and they were justified. I think they will be here too. Remember how crazy people were about the Bangle cars? They may have seemed like another break at the time, but they’re just part of the BMW myth now.
I am only vaguely aware of the cars that BMW currently sells. I even lost track of the M cars, I think the E92s. I have not driven the new M3 / M4 and I did not like the latter. So I’m not really equipped to say if it’s okay. But in terms of styling, this is a turning point for BMW. This is something different, an expression of a new ethos. Maybe you don’t know now, maybe you hate it, but it’s what you asked for.