F80 M3 12,000 miles findings
Discussion
I have just passed 12,000 miles in my new M3. I am shocked at the opinions I read in some of the motoring press and on this forum about the car, so I thought I would share my findings as an owner.
I have owned and driven extensively all models of the M3, all have been used as my daily driver, (I drive around 20k miles a year). I also have owned E60 M5, and an M Coupe again using them as daily drivers, so I feel quite capable of making a judgment about how the new car compares to M cars of the past.
The F80 M3 is by far the best M car I have ever driven for what I perceive to be its role as a car in my life. I have never seen M3's as weekend special occasion cars, they are after all based on 3 series BMW's that are very common and functional. If you want a car to set your pants on fire the M3 has never in any of its iterations been that car. I love driving and need a car to use for everything – everyday, sometimes with passengers or family and other times alone on empty roads or on a track when my track car is unavailable. All pervious M3's have catered for this, some better than others. The E30 M3 was slow and had poor brakes and was a bit small. The E36 was brilliant on the road, but still had poor brakes for track work. E46 was my favourite but still had poor brakes for track work. E90 had a crap driving position (Too high), crap brakes and used so much fuel it was slower than a transit van on any 300 mile plus journey, to me it was the worst of the M3's and I went back to an E46 and then an E60 M5. The E60 M5 was great, just too big for the South Wests roads to really have fun and was nearly as slow as the E90 M3 over long trips due to is small fuel tank and consumption.
The F80 M3 rectifies all the previous problems to my mind. I can carry 4 people in comfort. I have driven over 400 miles on a tank of fuel at speed making it faster than my staff in a transit and therefore saving me the ribbing when they arrive back at the office before me! It handles better than the E46 which was the high point for me before. The brakes lasted all day on track at Silverstone with no ill effect (I have the standard steel items), and on a spirited drive it has a level of performance on a whole new level compared with any of the previous cars. It is by far the most complete package.
Noise. It’s no V10. It does however to me, make an inspiring noise that you can hear inside the car and it makes a lot of interesting turbo sounds particularly in sport plus mode with the windows down. Cold start sounds grim, but not quite as bad as the E60 M5 which was awful to the point of a passenger once asking if it was broken.
Traction. This M3 has serious torque from low revs. Most of the road tests and comments on this forum are based around drives in the winter and low temperatures and damp roads. It will break traction at any legal road speeds in the first 4 gears in the cold and damp. If this scares you leave the traction control on then nothing will happen. If you feel the traction control is interrupting too much then either smooth out your throttle inputs or use the M dynamic mode which will still save you from crashing but allow momentary losses of traction that you can then balance your inputs against. Turn the TC off and in the cold and damp and it requires either a sensible cautious approach or a lot of skill, if you like going sideways this is the best M car I have driven for that. I bought my car in July last year so had plenty of dry warm driving. The car is very different in the warm and dry the Michelin tires will take all the torque unless you deliberately try and break traction. As the rear tires wore out traction did become very scarce. By this I mean more caution was required, not that the car became dangerous as after all it only does what your right foot tells it.
Stones. They seems to get stuck between the rear brake disk guards and the disk making a horrible noise on a regular basis. I have read on forums that people think the brakes have broken, it does sound bad but it goes away after a few miles at worst. Other complain about tire noise. The solid rear suspension mounting does make the car louder than a normal 3 series as do the 275 rear tires. It is still very quiet at 70 –80 mph.
At Silverstone I got the chance to use a few little mentioned features of the car. The Track Lap App which maps your progress around the lap and stores steering angle, revs, brakes, throttle, speed, g force and other perimeters all of which is fun to look back on. The GoPro integration is great, allowing you to display the output of the GoPro on the screen to make sure you like the angle and then control the camera from the steering wheel controls to avoid filming the dull warm up and cool down laps. Pit speed limiter, which I admit sounds like a simple gimmick but is quite handy for 50 mph road works as well!
Overall I can see how the negativity some express about the car has come about, but I personally do not agree with any of it. I would happily recommend anybody to buy one providing they have a similar requirement from the car.
I have owned and driven extensively all models of the M3, all have been used as my daily driver, (I drive around 20k miles a year). I also have owned E60 M5, and an M Coupe again using them as daily drivers, so I feel quite capable of making a judgment about how the new car compares to M cars of the past.
The F80 M3 is by far the best M car I have ever driven for what I perceive to be its role as a car in my life. I have never seen M3's as weekend special occasion cars, they are after all based on 3 series BMW's that are very common and functional. If you want a car to set your pants on fire the M3 has never in any of its iterations been that car. I love driving and need a car to use for everything – everyday, sometimes with passengers or family and other times alone on empty roads or on a track when my track car is unavailable. All pervious M3's have catered for this, some better than others. The E30 M3 was slow and had poor brakes and was a bit small. The E36 was brilliant on the road, but still had poor brakes for track work. E46 was my favourite but still had poor brakes for track work. E90 had a crap driving position (Too high), crap brakes and used so much fuel it was slower than a transit van on any 300 mile plus journey, to me it was the worst of the M3's and I went back to an E46 and then an E60 M5. The E60 M5 was great, just too big for the South Wests roads to really have fun and was nearly as slow as the E90 M3 over long trips due to is small fuel tank and consumption.
The F80 M3 rectifies all the previous problems to my mind. I can carry 4 people in comfort. I have driven over 400 miles on a tank of fuel at speed making it faster than my staff in a transit and therefore saving me the ribbing when they arrive back at the office before me! It handles better than the E46 which was the high point for me before. The brakes lasted all day on track at Silverstone with no ill effect (I have the standard steel items), and on a spirited drive it has a level of performance on a whole new level compared with any of the previous cars. It is by far the most complete package.
Noise. It’s no V10. It does however to me, make an inspiring noise that you can hear inside the car and it makes a lot of interesting turbo sounds particularly in sport plus mode with the windows down. Cold start sounds grim, but not quite as bad as the E60 M5 which was awful to the point of a passenger once asking if it was broken.
Traction. This M3 has serious torque from low revs. Most of the road tests and comments on this forum are based around drives in the winter and low temperatures and damp roads. It will break traction at any legal road speeds in the first 4 gears in the cold and damp. If this scares you leave the traction control on then nothing will happen. If you feel the traction control is interrupting too much then either smooth out your throttle inputs or use the M dynamic mode which will still save you from crashing but allow momentary losses of traction that you can then balance your inputs against. Turn the TC off and in the cold and damp and it requires either a sensible cautious approach or a lot of skill, if you like going sideways this is the best M car I have driven for that. I bought my car in July last year so had plenty of dry warm driving. The car is very different in the warm and dry the Michelin tires will take all the torque unless you deliberately try and break traction. As the rear tires wore out traction did become very scarce. By this I mean more caution was required, not that the car became dangerous as after all it only does what your right foot tells it.
Stones. They seems to get stuck between the rear brake disk guards and the disk making a horrible noise on a regular basis. I have read on forums that people think the brakes have broken, it does sound bad but it goes away after a few miles at worst. Other complain about tire noise. The solid rear suspension mounting does make the car louder than a normal 3 series as do the 275 rear tires. It is still very quiet at 70 –80 mph.
At Silverstone I got the chance to use a few little mentioned features of the car. The Track Lap App which maps your progress around the lap and stores steering angle, revs, brakes, throttle, speed, g force and other perimeters all of which is fun to look back on. The GoPro integration is great, allowing you to display the output of the GoPro on the screen to make sure you like the angle and then control the camera from the steering wheel controls to avoid filming the dull warm up and cool down laps. Pit speed limiter, which I admit sounds like a simple gimmick but is quite handy for 50 mph road works as well!
Overall I can see how the negativity some express about the car has come about, but I personally do not agree with any of it. I would happily recommend anybody to buy one providing they have a similar requirement from the car.
Interesting review , driven a m4 and couldn't understand were all the negative stuff came from . Having lived with a e 46 for 18 months and used it as my everyday car . Thought the m4 was a big step forward in comparison . Even thought the noise was pretty good . Seems like bmw has given everyone what they wanted , better fuel consumption more torque and better brakes , but alas it seems that wasn't required .
The JM said:
I would happily recommend anybody to buy one providing they have a similar requirement from the car.
Great to hear from a happy owner, if I was still doing 40K miles a year then I'm sure I'd be thinking along the same lines.However you hit the nail on the head with the last sentence - we're all looking for slightly different things from a car.
vpr said:
Agree with most of that except the E 90 being slow.
Feels slow when plopping around especially next to the F80 and requires a fair bit of the upper rev range to make it perform to it's best....but I kinda like that about it
I thought he meant slow on long journeys as you'd have to stop for fuel.Feels slow when plopping around especially next to the F80 and requires a fair bit of the upper rev range to make it perform to it's best....but I kinda like that about it
johnfm said:
vpr said:
Agree with most of that except the E 90 being slow.
Feels slow when plopping around especially next to the F80 and requires a fair bit of the upper rev range to make it perform to it's best....but I kinda like that about it
I thought he meant slow on long journeys as you'd have to stop for fuel.Feels slow when plopping around especially next to the F80 and requires a fair bit of the upper rev range to make it perform to it's best....but I kinda like that about it
The JM said:
Overall I can see how the negativity some express about the car has come about, but I personally do not agree with any of it. I would happily recommend anybody to buy one providing they have a similar requirement from the car.
Alpina D3 sounds a like better option for your usage though.corvettedave said:
OP - whats your average mpg? what kind roads u on?, motorway, city etc??
Overall I have averaged 26.6 mpg. I do lots of short trips around north Devon and then big 300 -500 mile trips on the motorways. On long motorway drives it averages 35- 37 mpg at normal motorway speeds. My last E46 M3 averaged 23 mpg with the same use. The E60 M5 did 18 mpg.daz05 said:
The JM said:
Overall I can see how the negativity some express about the car has come about, but I personally do not agree with any of it. I would happily recommend anybody to buy one providing they have a similar requirement from the car.
Alpina D3 sounds a like better option for your usage though.The JM said:
Overall I have averaged 26.6 mpg. I do lots of short trips around north Devon and then big 300 -500 mile trips on the motorways. On long motorway drives it averages 35- 37 mpg at normal motorway speeds. My last E46 M3 averaged 23 mpg with the same use. The E60 M5 did 18 mpg.
that's damn good for a 400bhp + car, thanks for info, m3 maybe a option for the futureAgree with all of that. I got my F80 in August and just hit the 20,000km mark at the weekend and its been great fun (even had the little stone problem which cost me €140 to get sorted at the dealer.) I came from a BMW Alpina B3 Biturbo which did 220,000km in around 6 years with no problems so I hope the F80 can do the same!
Always gonna be haters my friend.
The whole point of these cars (meaning M's in general) is they're meant to be very good at everything. Fair enough they won't for that reason excel in most areas but no car can.
Example (owing to having owned both) the R35 GT-R is an epic car & truly is a Supercar beater (in terms of performance), however the build quality isn't great, interior very Japanese plastic & looks dated, ride quality not so good & does get tedious on long journeys, however it does go like s
t of the proverbial shovel.
The F10 M5 can offer up 90%+ of the performance of the R35 GT-R, but all the other factors i note above the M5 is considerably better, however these 2 cars still get pitched against each other & often it's how many G's can they pull while cornering & how quickly can they get to 100mph so for that the GT-R will always come out on top.
The M3 will be placed alongside cars such as Caymans & the like so the same will apply, but journos & those taking a 15min test drive really don't give a toss about how comfy a car is, the fact it can do 400 on a tank, can waft down to the South of France in total comfort, but still give it's more track focused cousins a run for their money.
For me the M5 does everything & for my needs it ticks every box. For some it of course won't.
Let's not forget the M3/4 even got the TG seal of approval last week, as the F10did last year so they can't be all that bad.
The whole point of these cars (meaning M's in general) is they're meant to be very good at everything. Fair enough they won't for that reason excel in most areas but no car can.
Example (owing to having owned both) the R35 GT-R is an epic car & truly is a Supercar beater (in terms of performance), however the build quality isn't great, interior very Japanese plastic & looks dated, ride quality not so good & does get tedious on long journeys, however it does go like s
t of the proverbial shovel.The F10 M5 can offer up 90%+ of the performance of the R35 GT-R, but all the other factors i note above the M5 is considerably better, however these 2 cars still get pitched against each other & often it's how many G's can they pull while cornering & how quickly can they get to 100mph so for that the GT-R will always come out on top.
The M3 will be placed alongside cars such as Caymans & the like so the same will apply, but journos & those taking a 15min test drive really don't give a toss about how comfy a car is, the fact it can do 400 on a tank, can waft down to the South of France in total comfort, but still give it's more track focused cousins a run for their money.
For me the M5 does everything & for my needs it ticks every box. For some it of course won't.
Let's not forget the M3/4 even got the TG seal of approval last week, as the F10did last year so they can't be all that bad.
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