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

If you would like a blisteringly quick convertible which you could drive all via the yr, then the 2025 BMW M4 Convertible makes a variety of sense. It’s surprisingly heat, snug and cossetting if you wish to go for a top-down cruise in winter, however put the highest up and dial the whole lot as much as Sport+, and it transforms into a real M automobile.

A Beautiful New Colour

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 snug it’s. Even with the massive customary wheels (19 inches within the entrance and 20 inches within the rear), when you put it in Consolation mode, it seems like a correct cruiser with loads of give in its suspension.

This surprising comfortable edge pairs very nicely 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 your entire dashboard in cowhide.

It was additionally lacking the neck hotter built-in into the entrance seats under the headrests. This solely prices a number of hundred {dollars}, and it makes top-down winter driving even higher. Nevertheless, whereas I had the automobile, I drove it nearly completely with its prime down in temperatures hovering just some 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 snug grip in comparison with the pre-LCI mannequin, regardless of its related look. I’m not speaking concerning the flat backside, however the rim itself, which remains to be good and thick, but it surely seems like you’ve a greater grip and extra management of the automobile because of this.

A number of Digital Modifications

Regardless that the M4 didn’t launch with the curved display screen array comprised of a 12.3-inch show in entrance of the motive force and a 14.9-inch central display screen, this acquired added within the pre-facelift mannequin’s second yr of manufacturing. What BMW did with the LCI mannequin was to take away nearly all buttons on the middle console, forcing you to do extra issues via the display screen.

Whereas its iDrive 8.5 infotainment system is healthier than model 8, having to function the display screen for any of the local weather features is a step again. BMW additionally eliminated the bodily button for steering wheel heating, despite the fact that I observed that there’s nonetheless a bodily button the place the third prong meets the wheel’s rim. It’s positively a button that clicks and never a chunk of unfastened trim, but it surely 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 cherished each, it was generally irritating that they couldn’t put their energy down in decrease grip situations.

My xDrive-equipped tester had no downside giving the whole lot it had time 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 evening and day, and whereas it does add further weight, complexity and value, after making an attempt it, I wouldn’t purchase a rear-wheel-drive M4.

Sending energy to the entrance wheels may corrupt among the suggestions that the motive force feels via 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 stay as much as my expectations.

I ought to have identified, having beforehand pushed G-series M vehicles (the most recent being an M2 Competitors), that steering really feel isn’t a powerful level of those vehicles. Nevertheless, I observed 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 via 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 via the corners was the convertible mannequin’s further weight. Between the additional chassis strengthening meant to take care of 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 fairly good thought about what it felt like. What shocked 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 via the corners.

It didn’t really feel like there was extra inertia pushing you off your required line. It felt nearly equivalent to the hardtop, though it didn’t really feel fairly as sharp or stiff. This turned instantly obvious after I drove over some unevenness within the highway, which made your entire 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 observed something of the type in any hardtop M automobile, so I’ll attribute it to the cabrio physique. Nevertheless, neither of those was an actual downside, and over most forms 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 underneath 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 might not be ready for a way a lot faster it feels off the road—I actually wasn’t. It feels manner faster than the claimed 3.7 seconds to 62 mph (100 km/h) would counsel, and it retains pulling laborious via the primary 4 gears.

A Refined Transmission

BMW could have additionally tuned how the eight-speed computerized gearbox feels within the setting with essentially the most brutal shifts. The perfect praise I pays it’s that it seems like a really, quick single-clutch, SMG-type transmission that provides you a kick within the again with each shift. Couple this with the game exhaust that appears to trigger explosions behind you and going via the gears in one among these vehicles turns into fairly a particular and satisfying expertise, even once you don’t rev near the pink 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 via 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 thought to make exhaust sounds much less thrilling.

What I might have appreciated, 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 forms 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 because of this.

Costly, However Value It

Total, 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’ll be able to actually drive the value up when you begin ticking choices containers. Nevertheless, it has bonkers efficiency that’s simply accessible because of xDrive and all of the settings which you could play with, and it could possibly additionally really feel like an expensive and complicated cruiser once you need it to.