BMW M4 review

In traditional BMW M-car fashion, there’s very few big changes between this high-ticket performance car and a regular BMW 4 Series on the inside, but that’s no bad thing. The 4 Series has one of the highest quality interiors of the coupé class and we reckon BMW has made enough detail tweaks for the M4 to make you feel like you’re behind the wheel of something rather special.

For example, you get heavily bolstered, supportive sport seats with integrated headrests, seatbelts in M Division colours, a bright red starter button, carbon-fibre trim, a sports steering wheel with contrast stitching, and there’s a multitude of leather and interior trim finishes available. And we mean a multitude. Interior colour schemes range from traditional black on cream to bright blue on dayglow yellow. We quite like the bolder colours, but we’ll leave it to you to decide if Valentino Rossi yellow has any place in your performance coupé. 

As you’d expect, the driving position is tuneable to the nth degree. Our test car came with stunning M carbon bucket seats (BMW predicts over 50% of buyers will opt for these) that, in their lowest, setting essentially place your bum on the floor of the car. This is particularly handy for taller drivers who plan to attend track days, providing enough room to fit behind the wheel while wearing a crash helmet. A head-up display is standard, placing plenty of information in your line of sight, and the 12.3in digital instrument panel can be set up in all manner of configurations.

The 10.3in centrally mounted infotainment touchscreen can also be operated by twisting and pressing a rotary controller between the front seats, and this makes it much less distracting while you’re driving. With its super-intuitive layout and responsive operating system, we far prefer it to the finicky system of the Mercedes-AMG C63. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone mirroring, wireless charging, DAB radio, sat-nav, a 16 speaker Harman Kardon HiFi system, a wi-fi hotspot and a gimmicky gesture control function all come as standard. It’s also handy that front and rear parking sensors, a rear-view camera and a parking assistant function come as standard, because the M4’s front and rear pillars are rather chunky and can obscure your vision when parking.