BMW M4 Competition review

BMW UK has made some firm but fair decisions with this new car, the biggest being to only bring the M4 Competition over, ignoring the base M4 with 473bhp and a six-speed manual gearbox. In the F82’s final year on sale, a piffling 0.5 per cent of people went stick-shift. You can’t blame the money men and women for not wanting to clutter showrooms with unwanted manuals, sad as it makes us – the extra interaction could sprinkle a little more magic into the drivetrain.

That’s also some of the science behind why this car now starts at £76,055 (£1,300 more than a BMW M3 Competition). There’s a heck of a lot of stuff that’s standard fit, based on the fact everyone ticked those boxes on its predecessor: a head-up display, Harmon Kardon stereo, reversing camera and BMW’s wretchedly annoying Gesture Control, as well as that interior carbon pack.

Key options are those bucket seats (£3,400), the M Pro pack (£7,500 for carbon ceramic brakes and a hike in top speed from 155 to 180mph) and laser headlights (£1,500). But in truth, you could rock up, buy one for 76 grand (well, £700-odd a month) and be perfectly happy with what’s standard and not really miss any of the extras. We bet that 155mph limiter is fairly soft anyway.

Where you might be spoiled for choice is on the outside, with half a dozen wheels to pick from and nearly 100 paint hues, which you can complement with three different brake caliper colours. Crikey.

As for the sensible stuff? The M4 comes with claims of 28mpg and 230g/km of CO2; our recent experience of modern BMW turbo engines suggest you’ll easily achieve – perhaps better – the claimed fuel economy in everyday driving. More mischief will likely see mpg dip into the low 20s.

Expect to pay around £800 a month on a personal lease – the car’s well equipped so you shouldn’t need to add much and push that up further.