2023 BMW M4 Competition video review – with M Performance accessories

The team at BMW have been celebrating the letter M now for half a century. Over those five decades, we've seen BMW's tricolour logo promote the best that Munich can muster, on road and track, across all manner of body sizes and styles.

And while at its core, M stands for Motorsport, there's a fair dose of 'dial M for Marketing' there too as we've also seen it on socks, umbrellas, 'M Sport' wheels, E36 318is and, of course, M Performance accessories.

These are the catalogue of goodies you can explore to add more M to your M, enabling your chosen machine to adopt a more personal appearance with the allure of extra performance thrown in for good measure.

To showcase these, our 2023 BMW M4 Competition coupe has walked through a dressing room offering only couture from the 13th letter of the alphabet, and emerged a shining, carbon-fibre-clad vision of M-ness.

On the plus side, it sure looks the part, but I'm not sure all the box-ticking has actually made a difference.

There are three different drivelines offered for the BMW M4 coupe (we'll ignore the 405kW/650Nm M4 CSL as that is a different beast entirely).

Things start with a $163,900 353kW/550Nm rear-driver with a manual transmission and climb to the M4 Competition xDrive offering 375kW/650Nm through an automatic with all-wheel drive for $180,500. Prices listed are before options and on-road costs.

Our car splits the difference, and arguably delivers the best of both worlds, with the high-output 375kW/650Nm power plant, eight-speed automatic transmission, and an as-nature-intended rear-drive chassis.

This not only saves 50kg (1688kg vs 1738kg) but also a few dollars, as at $174,300 (before on-road costs) it's $6200 sharper than the xDrive albeit $10,400 more than the manual. And for those playing, the extra 22kW are worth about $473 each.

Cost savings aren't the name of the game here today, though, as the liberal application of nearly everything in the M Performance stable has blown things out a bit. And by a bit... I mean a lot.

The car is reasonably standard without the M Performance kit, with the Skyscraper Grey metallic paint and black Style-826 wheels both no-cost options. The funky M carbon bucket seats are a $7500 extra, though, and give a nice interior nod to the rolling fields of carbon on the outside.

Dressing up doesn't come cheap with the combination of the front splitter, canards, side skirts, rear spats, and spoiler equating to a significant $21,087. Sure, you're adding lightness, and the M4 has the performance credentials to warrant some extra downforce, but unless you're a regular on a race circuit, these aren't going to deliver much more than some hard parking credits.

The exhaust, though, with its trapezoidal design, integrated diffuser and titanium pipework shaves about 8kg from the standard system and delivers a more aggressive baritone note, particularly in Sport or Sport Plus drive modes.

It's a great sound, but for almost 17 grand, it had want to be.

All of this tips the M4 over the $200K mark, which makes it all the more important that its talk matches its walk.

One of the benefits of being the sporting model of the two-door version (4 Series) of the four-door car (3 Series) is a useable and surprisingly comfortable interior.

The carbon seats are snug, supportive and even heated. There's plenty of room for taller drivers and even decent space in the back, although probably not for long journeys.

Storage is good, it has a 440L boot, and there is basically nothing that says you couldn't live with an M4 every day.

That's the issue though, as for $200K you almost want a car you can't live with every day. Swathes of carbon fibre and stitched leather look great, but there's still plenty of 420i inside the M4.

Generic BMW switchgear, trim elements and components are pretty good, but they don't offer a degree of 'specialness' that elevate the M-car beyond its more regular counterparts.

That said, are you really looking at this car from a regular and practical interior standpoint? Probably not, but if you want a more sensible M4, you can now get an M3 Touring wagon, which for the decision-making process in the automotive game of poker is like casually flipping the river card and playing a slick royal flush.

Checkmate.

The latest version of BMW OS7 can take a bit of getting used to, with many features requiring you to log into the BMW Connected services for full functionality. You only need to do this once, but it can be a bit fiddly.

On the plus side, the central 10.25-inch touchscreen is a lovely high-resolution display, with both the native BMW software and mobile device projection rendering quickly and cleanly.

As expected at the level of the M4, all key features are supported, including DAB+ digital radio, satellite navigation and live traffic data.

You need to use the touch screen to configure your preset M-Mode settings, which again, needs only be done once so isn't a huge inconvenience. And let's face it, we all use M1 for max power, dynamic rear differential, and mid-level steering and suspension, whereas M2 gets all settings tuned to the max.

Driving data is by way of a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster and configurable head-up display.

Both environments provide clear and easy-to-read information, but the cluster software would be improved with a little more pod configurability.

It all works well together, though, and the lack of clutter on the instruments means crucial information is always in your peripheral.

Cars built from May 2023 will receive the updated BMW OS 8 software with twin 12.3-inch screens as seen in the updated BMW 3 Series.

The BMW 4 Series was tested by ANCAP in 2019, and it received a five-star rating. In this instance the official ANCAP rating applies only to four-cylinder models, and not the M4; however, the report can provide insight into the overall safety of BMW's two-door coupe.

The M4 includes six airbags (front, side and curtain), cross-traffic alert at front and rear, autonomous emergency braking, blind-spot detection and lane-keep assist as part of its standard equipment.

You can opt into the BMW Service Inclusive program for either a three-year/40,000km or five-year/80,000km maintenance package. The costs of these are about double what you'll pay for a non M-car (a five-year package is $2150 for a 4 Series and $4677 for an M4), but as they say in the classics, there's nothing more expensive than a cheaply maintained sports car.

Service intervals are generally 12 months or 15,000km apart, but this all depends on how (and where) you drive your car. The sensors in the brake pads will let you know if you need to replace things ahead of the predetermined time.

Insurance is a tricky one, as it is very much aligned to your driving and insurance history as well as where you park the car. Our usual online quote generation options wouldn't allow a high-level comprehensive quote for the M4, with cover requiring a more detailed phone call with a broker.

Basically, though, if you're down the rabbit hole of needing to insure your $200K BMW sports coupe, you've already bought a ticket on the 'this isn't a cheap car' train, so you may as well make a few calls to see the process through.

Considering the performance capability of the M4 Competition, the claimed 10.2L/100km combined-cycle consumption isn't actually that high. It's a figure that is easy to meet, if not beat, assuming you are operating in a true 'combined' cycle.

Step things up to a less 'combined' world of high-performance driving and things will move toward the 14–15L/100km range quite easily. All things considered, though, even that isn't too thirsty for a car like this.

The high-output S58 3.0-litre twin-turbo inline six is a peach of an engine, and able to idle along at urban speeds almost as well as it can scream up to peak power at 6250rpm.

A whopping 650Nm is yours to use from 2750 to 5500rpm, making the M4 a flexible performer in nearly every environment, switching effortlessly between Jekyll and Hyde with the flick of a paddle and twitch of your right foot.

As the Doctor, you can motor around town with surprising comfort. The M4 is always a sports car, but it remains firm rather than crashy, docile but never dull as your urban runner.

The added M kit makes driveway and intersection transfers a more considered activity, as the slightly lower and longer nose is very susceptible to changes in incline. As you'll learn very quickly, nothing sounds more expensive than carbon fibre scraping against asphalt.

The side skirts also lose a bit of their appeal on the daily grind, as their width and fragility require them to be stepped over each time you exit the car, and it's all too easy to bash a heel into them doing so. Anyone removing themselves from the back seat will need a hand to avoid them too, so it's probably best to throw in some regular stretching and Pilates classes to the total cost of M4 ownership spreadsheet, just to be sure.

Carbon considerations taken, then, the M4 Competition is happy as you'd like around your local hood. Even the extravagant exhaust is muted enough (once you get past the cold-start process) when the engine is kept at low RPM.

This is not why you've bought this car, though.

Point the nose away from town to leave school zones and double-digit speed limits behind, tap one of the bright-red M-Mode preset buttons with your thumb, and Dr Jekyll can take a back seat so the monster can come out to play.

At this point that $17K exhaust sounds like it's worth the money, with a rich and muscular rasp forming into a rising jazzy note, like a haphazard horn section jam conducted by the tachometer.

The electronic M Dynamic rear differential and rear-drive set-up of the 'regular' M4 Competition ensure that just the right amount of lively movement is communicated through the car; something that serves as a reminder of just how capable this thing can be in the right hands, on the right road.

However, even in my hands on an outer suburban back road, it's still an absolute hoot.

There's a directness to the grey BMW. As the road twists and turns, and speeds build, the thick-rimmed steering wheel provides ample clarity of the surface underneath. Wide open sweepers pair well with a wide open throttle, the hot titanium pipes now wailing sweetly under power and crackling mightily as you lift off and shift down.

It's here the M4 Comp is most at home, a power cruiser on a sustained run above 4000rpm. Preset the adjustable dampers and steering weighting to their mid-level setting, crank the shift timing and engine performance to the max, and let the smile organically form.

Tighter sections are less favourable, as here your gear selection is paramount to balance the S58's ability to rapidly spin to the limiter, or risk catching the car off-boost, where things bog down slightly before a tap, a crackle, and a twitch get things moving again.

The brakes, still steel rotors, wash off speed effectively, and whether aided by the supplemental aero or not, give you a sense of confidence that even a looser approach to the lateral grip games could be quickly reined in should things get a little too wild.

Avoid the heaviest steering due to a lack of feel, and pass on the stiffest suspension on all but a billiard-smooth racetrack, and the 'brought to you by the letter M' Sesame Street special will constantly reward and entertain.

It may be erring to the grand-touring end of the sports coupe scale, but there's still a lot of involvement left behind the M badge, with most of it always present irrespective of the amount of carbon layered above it.

Say what you want about some of the current model directions or design language, BMW still knows how to make a hugely capable and competent sports coupe worthy of all 50 years of M-badged heritage.

The ability the M4 has to go from a restrained but eager grand tourer to a wild and twitchy cruise missile is testament to the strength of the G8x platform (M4 is G82), but it also showcases that as aggressive and unique as it looks, the $21K of supplementary carbon does very little to improve what is already a great car.

I'm sure that downforce and aero signatures are enhanced, but unless you are honing hundredths off your Nurburgring lap records, you'll never notice. And to that end, the M Performance gear becomes a style choice rather than a functional one.

I don't like the rear spoiler, the canards seem like a waste of time, but I'm a big fan of the splitter and even the side pods, which do give the M4 a lower and more tactical look.

The exhaust sounds brilliant, but it does look a bit 'extra' for me, so I'd rather keep the standard quad pipes and perhaps look at an aftermarket muffler for a bit of extra sound at the limit.

And while I would always choose an M3 over an M4, this remains one of the best and most accessible performance cars available today. Just take it easy on the accessories and you'll enjoy every minute.