1st BMW M4 GTS Reviews: AUTOCAR and Autoexpress

[Paul-Bracq-BMW]

     Featured on BIMMERPOST.com

Enjoy ladies and gentlemen!

[Paul-Bracq-BMW]

Here you go...

[Porsche50th]

Originally Posted by Paul-Bracq-BMW

Here you go...

Been waiting for a test drive article. Thank you very much..

[W///]

You would think they were talking about the M2 here

[VCP]

Thank you thank you thank you....

[TheBingoBalls]

Interesting. I think this is something BMW needs to think about. If the GTS is being praised as the BMW M(3/4) that everyone knows and loves, that says something about how lacking the base car is regardless of good of a car it is. I'm sure any M3/M4 variant is a solid car but if you have to pay extra to get what the M3/M4 should have been, it kind of leaves a sour taste in your mouth.

[VCP]

Originally Posted by TheBingoBalls

Interesting. I think this is something BMW needs to think about. If the GTS is being praised as the BMW M(3/4) that everyone knows and loves, that says something about how lacking the base car is regardless of good of a car it is. I'm sure any M3/M4 variant is a solid car but if you have to pay extra to get what the M3/M4 should have been, it kind of leaves a sour taste in your mouth.

[John Tanglewood]

Originally Posted by TheBingoBalls

Interesting. I think this is something BMW needs to think about. If the GTS is being praised as the BMW M(3/4) that everyone knows and loves, that says something about how lacking the base car is regardless of good of a car it is. I'm sure any M3/M4 variant is a solid car but if you have to pay extra to get what the M3/M4 should have been, it kind of leaves a sour taste in your mouth.

[phoenx]

Originally Posted by TheBingoBalls

Interesting. I think this is something BMW needs to think about. If the GTS is being praised as the BMW M(3/4) that everyone knows and loves, that says something about how lacking the base car is regardless of good of a car it is. I'm sure any M3/M4 variant is a solid car but if you have to pay extra to get what the M3/M4 should have been, it kind of leaves a sour taste in your mouth.

+1

If there would be a 4 door gts, I'd be all over it. An f80 crt would be stuff of dreams.

[///MFanatic]

Originally Posted by TheBingoBalls

Interesting. I think this is something BMW needs to think about. If the GTS is being praised as the BMW M(3/4) that everyone knows and loves, that says something about how lacking the base car is regardless of good of a car it is. I'm sure any M3/M4 variant is a solid car but if you have to pay extra to get what the M3/M4 should have been, it kind of leaves a sour taste in your mouth.

The F8x out performs its predecessors in every measurable way. Hell when it was first introduced a few years ago everyone was singing its praises. I feel like people forget this. The only difference now is that other options on the market are quickly getting better and keeping pace. This is great though! Competition is a good thing. People are quick to dog the F8x because it doesn't smoke the competition like it use to, but that doesn't mean it should be looked down on. It's not just a solid car, it's a true M.

[jphughan]

Surprised that posting copyrighted material without permission isn't against the forum rules, but apparently it's not only ok but can even be featured on the front page. I figured that if the magazines wanted to give those articles away, they'd put them on their websites with ads around them.

[clbmw]

Impressive

So a real show of what M can do... And yet the alphabet and BMW have between them ensured i and M will never meet. Missing a trick I think

[Captain Unknown GT4]

I like it, and In the end I personally dont give a rats ass what any car reporter accually think. I am not saying that in a bad way. But In the end I judge the car the way I do it. And some things tell me I will like this One as well.

In the same way I totalt loved my m3 e46 CSL, man nobody did at the time understand how great that car was! I dont pay attention to car testers when talking about my Porsche GT4 suffering from long gearing, they just repeat what others say and then its like the crap car suffering from this. I drive my gt4 on the ring, its sweetspoot gearing. Smal track, I as well think its perfekt. I am sure I will like drivtrain on m4 Gts, lets see now if others start repeating drivtrain in Gts.

As well I did at the time Love the smg in my CSL, very much so in S6 mode. Only then was it fast, not al drove it on Nur in S6 as you could only reach S6 if fully 100% you put ESP off. Just cant wait to I get this Gts and set it up properly to my liking👏

[firedown31]

34mpg average!? am I reading that right

[greekcs]

it's the best car we've ever tested since the last best car we've ever tested.

[hotrod2448]

It's interesting they praise the steering feedback several times. Looking in ETK the rack and column have the same part numbers as the standard M4, I guess the difference is made up in the new suspension components, possibly software and/or placebo effect.

[jphughan]

Originally Posted by hotrod2448

It's interesting they praise the steering feedback several times. Looking in ETK the rack and column have the same part numbers as the standard M4, I guess the difference is made up in the new suspension components, possibly software and/or placebo effect.

The 991 911s were panned for steering feedback, and then the GT3 came out with identical steering hardware and only retuned software, and everyone loved it, and now they love the GT4's steering even more, which also has identical hardware and software based on the GT3 but tuned a bit more.

[Boss330]

Originally Posted by ///MFanatic

The F8x out performs its predecessors in every measurable way. Hell when it was first introduced a few years ago everyone was singing its praises. I feel like people forget this. The only difference now is that other options on the market are quickly getting better and keeping pace. This is great though! Competition is a good thing. People are quick to dog the F8x because it doesn't smoke the competition like it use to, but that doesn't mean it should be looked down on. It's not just a solid car, it's a true M.

There was a mixed reception of the Fx gen M3/4 with leading European magazines like EVO repeatedly being critical of the suspension and handling characteristics of the car. It has also lost to the C63 AMG in German magazines.

Not saying it's a bad car, just saying that at least parts of the European press has been lukewarm about the latest M3/4

[X3paul]

The way I see it this review is only bad news for m3/4 buyers. This gts will be a rare collectible and Again it shows the current M will be another lost gen - no E30 or E46 -. Good news for me cause it just proves again that the E46 Csl I bought that cost as much as new M4 was the right decision. And having been at a track event this sunday with the M4 really made me feel sorry for the state of things. I posted before but current M as great weight distribution and clearly lighter than E90 but thats it. Corners flat but numb steering, turbo lag and the awfull eng (in my opinion) its all brute force and no finess. Previous generations were laser guided missiles:just enough power to hit the target. Did the job and put a smile on. Current gen is more like napalm. Huge explosion (torque) all over the place but cause the enemy hid in underground tunnels...a miss for bmw. No substitute for NA eng sorry. And these blokes seem to agree with me

[X3paul]

Originally Posted by Boss330

There was a mixed reception of the Fx gen M3/4 with leading European magazines like EVO repeatedly being critical of the suspension and handling characteristics of the car. It has also lost to the C63 AMG in German magazines.

Not saying it's a bad car, just saying that at least parts of the European press has been lukewarm about the latest M3/4

Not just press...

[TheBingoBalls]

Originally Posted by ///MFanatic

The F8x out performs its predecessors in every measurable way. Hell when it was first introduced a few years ago everyone was singing its praises. I feel like people forget this. The only difference now is that other options on the market are quickly getting better and keeping pace. This is great though! Competition is a good thing. People are quick to dog the F8x because it doesn't smoke the competition like it use to, but that doesn't mean it should be looked down on. It's not just a solid car, it's a true M.

I'm not dogging the base car in anyway. The base M3/M4 is still a highly capable car but at the same time, most reviews and owners feel it could have been much more. The ZCP is released and reviews say that its what the base M3/M4 should feel like to begin with and now the GTS review where it's basically saying this is what BMW M is all about.

I would be totally off base if the base car didn't have the criticism it currently has. But based on reviews, it seems like the ZCP and GTS add the small things to the M3/M4 that align it more past cars and I'm not talking about adding more power and torque.

Going back to the E92 M3 and E92 M3 GTS, there were differences between the two but not to degree of F82 M4 and M4 GTS and there weren't comments where the M3 GTS was that much better than the base car.

Maybe the reviews of the M4 GTS are over exaggerating a bit, I don't know, but I'm definitely not dogging the base M4 but I'm sure M3/M4 owners feel there are some things that the ZCP and perhaps the GTS have that the base car should have by default because that's how some M5 owners felt when the M5 ZCP was released.

Originally Posted by hotrod2448

It's interesting they praise the steering feedback several times. Looking in ETK the rack and column have the same part numbers as the standard M4, I guess the difference is made up in the new suspension components, possibly software and/or placebo effect.

This goes back to my original comment which seems to have annoyed some people. If the steering is in fact improved, why has it improved? Is it hardware, software or combination of both? What is the cost or how much different is it than the base model? If the suspension is nothing special, could they have used it for the base car or were they just saving it for the GTS? It's these small things I was referring to in my original comment. If the GTS has gone through a serious re-working of hardware, ok, but if it's just minor tuning with minor hardware changes then I don't see how it owners of the base M3/M4 wouldn't question it regardless of how much they love their cars.

[Boss330]

Originally Posted by hotrod2448

It's interesting they praise the steering feedback several times. Looking in ETK the rack and column have the same part numbers as the standard M4, I guess the difference is made up in the new suspension components, possibly software and/or placebo effect.

Dial in a bit more negative camber on the front wheels and different coils and shocks as well as sway bars and steering feel changes quite a lot