2025 BMW M4 Competitors Convertible: Brutally Quick Winter-Beating Drop-Prime

If you need a blisteringly quick convertible you can drive all by the 12 months, then the 2025 BMW M4 Convertible makes a variety of sense. It’s surprisingly heat, comfy and cossetting if you wish to go for a top-down cruise in winter, however put the highest up and dial every part as much as Sport+, and it transforms into a real M automobile.

A Gorgeous New Coloration

As I used to be driving away from the BMW Romania headquarters, the place I picked up my G83 BMW M4 Convertible completed in beautiful Velvet Orchid II, the very first thing that struck me was simply how comfy it’s. Even with the big commonplace wheels (19 inches within the entrance and 20 inches within the rear), in the event you put it in Consolation mode, it looks like a correct cruiser with loads of give in its suspension.

This surprising cozy edge pairs very effectively with the S58 engine’s ample low-end torque and the nice deep exhaust thrum, creating a really luxurious expertise. My tester had the usual seats, however the two-tone (black and lightweight Silverstone gray) Merino leather-based helped the inside really feel very plush, even when the automobile was missing the prolonged leather-based pack that covers the complete dashboard in cowhide.

It was additionally lacking the neck hotter built-in into the entrance seats beneath the headrests. This solely prices a couple of hundred {dollars}, and it makes top-down winter driving even higher. Nevertheless, whereas I had the automobile, I drove it nearly solely with its prime down in temperatures hovering only a few levels above freezing, and I even drove it on the freeway in these situations, and it was surprisingly good.

Between the heated seats, heated steering wheel and highly effective local weather system, the automobile can simply maintain you good and toasty inside so long as outdoors temperatures don’t go extraordinarily low.

New Steering Wheel

BMW made enhancements to the steering wheel within the 2025 M4 facelift, leading to a greater, extra comfy grip in comparison with the pre-LCI mannequin, regardless of its comparable look. I’m not speaking concerning the flat backside, however the rim itself, which remains to be good and thick, nevertheless it looks like you’ve gotten a greater grip and extra management of the automobile in consequence.

Plenty of Digital Adjustments

Despite the fact that the M4 didn’t launch with the curved display array comprised of a 12.3-inch show in entrance of the motive force and a 14.9-inch central display, this obtained added within the pre-facelift mannequin’s second 12 months of manufacturing. What BMW did with the LCI mannequin was to take away just about all buttons on the middle console, forcing you to do extra issues by the display.

Whereas its iDrive 8.5 infotainment system is best than model 8, having to function the display for any of the local weather capabilities is a step again. BMW additionally eliminated the bodily button for steering wheel heating, though I seen that there’s nonetheless a bodily button the place the third prong meets the wheel’s rim. It’s undoubtedly a button that clicks and never a bit of free trim, nevertheless it doesn’t appear to do something.

My First Rodeo with an xDrive M3/M4

This was my first time driving a G-series M3 or M4 with all-wheel drive. I had solely skilled the M3 Competitors and M4 Competitors with out xDrive, and whereas I completely beloved each, it was generally irritating that they couldn’t put their energy down in decrease grip situations.

My xDrive-equipped tester had no drawback giving every part it had again and again even when the tarmac I used to be launching it on was a bit damp and greasy. The distinction xDrive makes right here is frankly night time and day, and whereas it does add additional weight, complexity and price, after attempting it, I wouldn’t purchase a rear-wheel-drive M4.

Sending energy to the entrance wheels may also corrupt among the suggestions that the motive force feels by the steering wheel. Nevertheless, the steering in new BMWs (M vehicles included) feels so indifferent that there doesn’t appear to be a distinction between vehicles with and with out xDrive. Steering really feel might be the one space the place this M4 convertible tester didn’t dwell as much as my expectations.

I ought to have identified, having beforehand pushed G-series M vehicles (the newest being an M2 Competitors), that steering really feel isn’t a powerful level of those vehicles. Nevertheless, I seen that it didn’t actually have an effect on my confidence to push the automobile into corners because it made up for the shortage of really feel by its precision and the well-judged variable ratio.

Weight Doesn’t Matter. A lot

One other factor that didn’t appear to have an effect on the automobile a lot by the corners was the convertible mannequin’s additional weight. Between the additional chassis strengthening meant to keep up torsional rigidity when taking the roof off and the electrical folding prime, the convertible weighs about 330 kilos (150 kilograms) greater than the coupe.

I attempt to take most particular BMWs to drive them on my favourite twisty mountain highway, and the 2025 BMW M4 convertible was no exception. I additionally drove the M4 coupe on the identical highway, so I had a reasonably good concept about what it felt like. What stunned me within the drop-top was that even with the additional weight (which pushed the automobile over 2 tons with a driver on board), it felt implausible by the corners.

It didn’t really feel like there was extra inertia pushing you off your required line. It felt nearly similar to the hardtop, though it didn’t really feel fairly as sharp or stiff. This turned instantly obvious once I drove over some unevenness within the highway, which made the complete steering column really feel prefer it moved backward and forward.

The convertible’s decrease stiffness turned apparent when the dashboard creaked and appeared to maneuver when going over potholes or sharper bumps. I by no means seen something of the sort in any hardtop M automobile, so I’ll attribute it to the cabrio physique. Nevertheless, neither of those was an actual drawback, and over most varieties of highway imperfections, you don’t discover it.

A Marvelous and Highly effective Engine

With 523 horsepower (530 PS) and 497 pound-feet (650 Nm) of torque below your proper foot, accelerating in a 2025 BMW M4 convertible is really breathtaking. That is the case in any BMW with the S58, however you actually really feel all of the efficiency in an xDrive-equipped mannequin, particularly launching from a standstill.

With solely 20 horsepower greater than non-xDrive fashions and the identical torque, you will not be ready for a way a lot faster it feels off the road—I definitely wasn’t. It feels method faster than the claimed 3.7 seconds to 62 mph (100 km/h) would recommend, and it retains pulling arduous by the primary 4 gears.

A Refined Transmission

BMW might have additionally tuned how the eight-speed computerized gearbox feels within the setting with essentially the most brutal shifts. The most effective praise I pays it’s that it looks like a really, quick single-clutch, SMG-type transmission that offers you a kick within the again with each shift. Couple this with the game exhaust that appears to trigger explosions behind you and going by the gears in one in every of these vehicles turns into fairly a particular and satisfying expertise, even while you don’t rev near the purple line.

Pops and Bangs

The exhaust was one other spotlight of this automobile, made even higher by the truth that it was a convertible. I’m certain some sound is pumped in by the audio system, however the engine with its intoxicating straight-six sound and the characterful cacophony popping out of the again. It sounded implausible given the truth that it additionally had a particulate filter, which is understood to make exhaust sounds much less thrilling.

What I’d have preferred, although, is for the pops, bangs and crackle produced by the exhaust to be a bit much less even and predictable. After spending a while with the automobile, you begin to anticipate when it’s going to make which of these varieties of noises, and it begins to really feel a bit synthetic. Mercedes-AMG does this higher than BMW, and vehicles like the brand new AMG GT 63 sound actually thrilling in consequence.

Costly, However Price It

General, I used to be actually impressed by the 2025 M4 Competitors Convertible LCI, which price over €126,000 as examined. It’s costly, certain, and a bit heavy, plus you possibly can actually drive the worth up in the event you begin ticking choices packing containers. Nevertheless, it has bonkers efficiency that’s simply accessible because of xDrive and all of the settings you can play with, and it will probably additionally really feel like an expensive and complicated cruiser while you need it to.