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Originally Posted by mkoesel
I'd say that's reasonable conjecture.
For the M3, the questions are:
- Will it share front end exterior parts with the G82 M4, which in turn shares exterior parts with the G22 4 Series, and will that mean it won't debut until after those vehicles do?
- Will BMW wait until the prior generation M4 is off the market (F83 M4 ends production 10/20 according to current info) before introducing the next generation M3?
With past generations, the answer to those questions has always been a firm "yes". However, with competition heating up, the formula may very well have changed. We've already seen the F90 M5 debut while the prior generation F06/F12 M6 is still on the market, for example. The G80 M3 may similarly arrive while the F82/F83 M4 are still in production as well.
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All great points above - I agree that the reason we may see a break with tradition is not only increased competition and BMW indicating that they intent to reduce the time "gap" between series and their counterpart M models - but also I would not be surprised to see more and more differentiation between the 3 and 4 series (which, like the F90 M5 vs. the F06/12 M6) would allow the G80 M3 to somewhat "break off" from the G82/G83 (even though they undoubtedly will share the same engine, suspension and many other components). Very interesting and exciting times ahead...