[BEAR-AvHistory-2]

Think the biggest split is the money issue. You can afford it or not.

Smaller issue is the value of the performance spread between the cars to the potential buyers.

People who buy the M3/4 see the value in their enjoyment of the cars overall performance. For people that don't the M340/M440 is good enough.

At the end of the day they are both excellent cars.

[Needsdecaf]

Originally Posted by / / / M3

This review is complete BS. In the same sentence, the guy says that the m340i is nowhere near as thrilling and exciting to drive as the M3 and that it’s surprising how little driving enjoyment you give up by going with the m340i. Umm what?? Make up your mind buddy. The other thing that is totally false in my opinion is that the m340i has a much more comfortable ride. Having driven the M3, m340i and regular 3-series with M sport package, there isn’t a major difference in comfort between the three. The G80 is a surprisingly smooth riding car, even on rough surfaces.

The author of this article long-term reviewed an M340i touring for 6 months and then they had all three of these together for a test. I think that I trust he has the measure of the car. Not to mention he's been a road tester and journalist for like 40 years for some very prestigious publications.

Also, test was conducted in rural England. Which has it's own set of road peculiarities.

[ScottC25]

I have an M4 for a month now, having traded in an M440i for it. Its way more car than I actually need, but affordability wasn't an issue, and I thought that if I can afford a once in a lifetime type of car, I might as well do it before the whole world goes EV.

It sounds better, although is noisier.
The handling is better, although the suspension is clearly stiffer.

Choice of exterior and interior colours is better, I have Brooklyn Grey with full Silverstone, not an option on a 440i. Wanted IOM Green but wife wasn't having it.....

On the 440i I was getting around 330 to 350 miles out a tank of petrol, unless on a long journey. With the M4 I'm getting around 300 miles, so thats a trade off I'm happy to take.

M4 looks better, feels better drives better, BUT the M440i was and still is a great car.

[smuttana]

Knowing myself I knew I wouldn’t be happy with an M-Lite car, so first went with an F80 M3 over an M340i when they first came out. Then saved up a bit, and was able to get into a G80 M3.

Both are great cars, but ultimately comes down to money IMO.

[Gottagofast]

Originally Posted by robopp

My wife makes a lot more money than I do and was in the market for a new car. She chose a M340 over a RS5 and a G80 M3 because it’s still sporty, but not so raw. She absolutely hates my X3MC and thinks my 992 911 is ‘stupid’ too. She likes cars, but wants them smooth, but sporty. M cars are raw and definitely not for everyone. To this day she still wishes she bought my RS3. I kind of do too….

I think it's time to get a new wife.

[JDUNITNOW]

I had all intentions of buying a M340i, test drove one and actually had a 330i for a month while my x5 was in the shop for a accident. My mond was made up for the most part but I started seeing photos of the m3 and all the press that was mostly negative. I had all plans for changing exhaust, wheels and carbon fiber. I convinced myself I didn't need a M car especially coming from owning multiple 7 series. Once I built the M340i and added up all of the mods, I was at M3 price. Man am I glad I got the M3and I don't track, stoplight race and don't daily the car to work.
Yes, if I really think about it, the M340i is all I need but when I get in it and push that red button, I smile.
Also I still spent money on mods and my wife reminds me I convinced her and me why I chose the m3 ove M340i...😅

[Jax327]

Originally Posted by JDUNITNOW

I had all intentions of buying a M340i, test drove one and actually had a 330i for a month while my x5 was in the shop for a accident. My mond was made up for the most part but I started seeing photos of the m3 and all the press that was mostly negative. I had all plans for changing exhaust, wheels and carbon fiber. I convinced myself I didn't need a M car especially coming from owning multiple 7 series. Once I built the M340i and added up all of the mods, I was at M3 price. Man am I glad I got the M3and I don't track, stoplight race and don't daily the car to work.
Yes, if I really think about it, the M340i is all I need but when I get in it and push that red button, I smile.
Also I still spent money on mods and my wife reminds me I convinced her and me why I chose the m3 ove M340i...😅

I was in the same boat as you. Had all intentions of buying a M440i after testing driving and building one up. I couldn’t test drive an m3 as they didn’t have any in stock. Then I just said I would probably regret not getting the m3 as this chapter of vehicles is coming to end at some point. Every time I start the car it puts a smile on my face. Just an amazing car in every aspect.

[JDUNITNOW]

Originally Posted by Jax327

I was in the same boat as you. Had all intentions of buying a M440i after testing driving and building one up. I couldn’t test drive an m3 as they didn’t have any in stock. Then I just said I would probably regret not getting the m3 as this chapter of vehicles is coming to end at some point. Every time I start the car it puts a smile on my face. Just an amazing car in every aspect.

I could not drive one either and when I finally got behind the wheel of my M3, I drove two blocks and pulled over. I was truly overwhelmed because I never drove a car with this much HP and it was 38 degrees outside and every time I touched the gas and brake, I had anxiety 😅

[bishop4142]

purchase what you can comfortably afford. Don't put yourself in a hole for a car.

[geko29]

Originally Posted by Gottagofast

I think it's time to get a new wife.

It's all a matter of perspective, and you're forgetting about the upside.

He knows for a fact that any time he wants to go tear it up in his 911, his keys will be right there on the counter. If his wife was more hardcore, that might not always be the case.

[Shinkaze]

The B58 was the gateway drug to G80 for me.

Now that I've owned both I see a lot of the differences.

The M340i is the better daily driver.

• "Sleepier" suspension/steering/alignment requires less cognitive load for more "luxury"
• More relaxed transmission tune, make traffic less taxing.
• Less on throttle tranny kick down as the b58 has little more torque down low giving you a "lazy throttle" pedal, make traffic less taxing.
• SIGNIFICANTLY better gas mileage economy, especially when driven in sport. The B58 drinks gas sure, but the S58 chugs gas like a frat boy doing a keg stand.
• Mild Hybrid really takes the edge of stop/start/shift smoothness which.... makes traffic less taxing. (notice a trend here?)
• Less real cash depreciation for use/mileage. (i.e. 10% of a $100K more is Greater than 15% of a $50K car).
• Optional Synthetic material (Sesnatec) for dog-car or kidcar....
• Lower cost of disposable items, brakes, tires, maintenance, etc : i.e. every rational excuse to buy a high mileage highway tire if needed.

For a car bought for street-duty the M3 is the emotional choice not the rational one, and that's ok :-)

• More "awake" suspension/steering/alignment requires more cognitive load
• Lighter driveline and more aggressive transmission tune lead to more frenetic and engaged driveline feel.
• Eager suspension tune holds revs.... even on setting 1.
• More power at the cost of efficiency.
• More "raw" driveline and differential gives a far more planted and aggressive feel.
• Expensive, about twice as much in terms of what you carry in debt after a reasonable down payment. (i.e. $10K is less % of total MSRP, and when you look at amount financed of average deals it's around 2X more carried debt on an M3 note with similar money down)
• Exceptional materials. - The Mereno Leather alone might be worth the upgrade to an M3 over that feels like vinyl Vernasca Leather.
• Exceptional materials - yeah, tires don't last because they are big sticky and set to an aggressive alignment.

So I've owned an e46 M3 and a GTR and had a Roomate with an e39 M5 so I've had a lot of time with all 3. For me the e46 M3 is peak BMW, and only the current M2 comes close to that, and even then with a fair amount of bloat ...and it's a turbo not NA. I presently have a `04 325Ci `vert I'm restoring, and was not impressed with the styling and tech focus of modern BMW. But Silly cheap F10 M5s got me shopping last year. Maintenance costs on the F10 got me looking newer and I was surprised at how well the M340i performed against an F10 M5. Way more nimble and fun IMOHO.

I dismissed the G80 out of hand as more $$ than I wanted to spend and I personally felt (at the time) that the pre-LCi M340i looked nicer than the G80 M3.

"Stormy" our 2022 M340i RWD (pic attached). Was very conservative and proper in it's Mineral Gray...

The pre-LCi M340i also had something else going for it too, it's a spec per spec doppelganger of the e39 M5. Same interior room, same length, same track, same weight, same trunk, same power, but better handling and strongewr qtr mile times. So I bought an M340i thinking that if I ever wanted M3 power, I could just get a JB4 and go from there.

But it wasnt the power that put me in G80 9 months later, it was the "presence". The M340i is a PHENOMENAL CAR, and an amazing value. It does everything in a commute that you would expect from a Mercedes E-Klasse but with a BMW logo instead. But unlike Merc, it has a little fire......but that's just it, it's a "little" fire, and I found myself feeling a little Basic in traffic..... a bit "beige" if I may. It wasn't power I was missing from the M340i it was finesse.

So I started looking at performance alignments, springs, new tires, bars, yadda yadda yadda

...and then I made the error of understanding exactly what goes into transforming the G20 M340i into a G80 M3. Pure motorsport craftsmanship.

The very next day, I set out to buy an xDrive G80 and acquired Frozen Portamao Blue 2023 xDrive...my first time fleeing the comfort of German black, silver and white.

The M340i is a hot rodded 3 series, reminds me a lot of the //M division work circa 1990s-early 2000s. Everything is a little "warmed over", the engine, the suspension, heck it even has GREAT brakes, (if you order the tire and cooling pack, which I had, and they were awesome) it has decent enough suspension, but what goes into making the G8X line of cars is byond tuning and into engineering and manufacturing. I could not recreate that on a M340i without spending $100K or more replacing the entire front and back half of the car. //M Division has gone beyond tuning cars, they are engineering them.

So now I have a big Snoz M3, how did I finally eat some crow and fall in love with the styling? Yeah, 9 months driving an M340i got me to appreciate:
- 1: How amazing modern BMW has become
- 2: The quality of the platform
- 3: the "thinking" behind the stylistic changes from M340i->M3 start to make sense when you see the increase in track, front airflow strategy and enhanced cooling needs.

The M3 may be twice as much car as I need by budget, but by quality, having time with something designed so consciously toward an aim I value is a reward the M340i cannot serve and my accountant cannot value. Embracing the M3 transcends rational financial decisions; it's a heartfelt nod to the shared values between it the M3 creators and myself.

So yeah, I have a big nose too so I guess the car fits me, but honestly now that I have acclimated to the car's personality the big grill is actually fitting. The S58 revs and breathes so much more freely than the B58. I can just feel that grill inhaling air like a Dragon in-breath before a deluge of fire.

OK so the grill finally grew on me.

Now I mentioned earlier I had a GTR, and honestly that is what the G80 xDrive feels the most like to me (but with 4 doors and 10 more years of more refinement). While the M340i reminded me of a softer but faster e39 M5, the M3 feels more like that "Nürburgring" average that all the Porsches, GTRs and M3/4s are sort of averaging out to. Sure there are differences, and the G80X does feel 15 years newer in execution, but even though I haven't personally driven the Nürburgring IRL, I'm starting to feel a lot of the same "feel" in cars tuned for it ...Familiarity by association... It's not a bad thing, it's a great track, but it's a high speed track so that means a lot of the dynamic nature of the car can only be accessed at speeds inaccessible on the street.

I had a similar issue with my GTR in Los Angeles. I could never get the car to the speed on the street where it was actually fun to drive. I had to take it to the track to touch that and even then, at Willow Springs it was more of a "Big Willow" car than a "Streets of Willow" car (a slower, tighter track with a lot more turns).

To that point if all the manufacturers tuned their car on something like "Streets of Willow" instead of Nürburgring then we'd all end up with Boxsters and Miatas. So it's all a compromise at the end of the day.

Begs the classic question, what is more fun, driving a fast car slow or a slow car fast?

[Straykiwi]

Originally Posted by Needsdecaf

The author of this article long-term reviewed an M340i touring for 6 months and then they had all three of these together for a test. I think that I trust he has the measure of the car. Not to mention he's been a road tester and journalist for like 40 years for some very prestigious publications.

Also, test was conducted in rural England. Which has it's own set of road peculiarities.

Harry from Harry's Garage did a back to back comparison of the M3 Touring vs Alpina B3 and I found his conclusions to be far more objective. I cannot help but think this author has some sort of axe to grind against the M3 or they are just fishing for clicks.

[Bimmerfun82]

M3 for its 6 speed manual.

If you don’t want a manual, and if you don’t want to drive like a bat out of hell, get the M340.

[Shinkaze]

Originally Posted by Bimmerfun82

M3 for its 6 speed manual.

If you don’t want a manual, and if you don’t want to drive like a bat out of hell, get the M340.

Yes this.^^^^

..and I'll TL: DR my above M340i RWD vs M3 xDrive post from that perspective as:

M340i RWD = a smoother, quicker, more laid back, modern, stat for stat e39 M5.
M3 xD = a smoother, quicker, more laid back, more upscale 4 door Nissan GTR with optional Beast mode.

(I went RWD=> xDrive so sort of an Apples to Orangutangs comparison, but this M3 is a Tiamat hydra of all my favorite past cars into one easy to ride beastie and I'm really amazed at how livable and capable the M3 is. Which is what amazed me about my roomate's original e39 M5 way back in the e46 days. That car got me into an e46 M3 and my present project 325ci convertible.

So one more revision then.....

M340i = a smoother, quicker, more laid back, modern, stat for stat e39 M5.

M3 = What the e39 M5 should have evolved into today. (in terms of a size, weight and interior packaging equal.)

And then the M240i and M2 being packaging equivalents to the e46.

PS if you want a drag car, get a B58 M240i xDrive. Those were tearing up TX2K...one hit 7.9 seconds at 175 mph in the quarter-mile.

[robopp]

Originally Posted by Gottagofast

I think it's time to get a new wife.

The one that encouraged me to buy a second car - 911 manual (that she can’t drive) and without a back seat (we have a 2.5 year old)? She’s definitely a keeper!

[Needsdecaf]

Originally Posted by Straykiwi

Harry from Harry's Garage did a back to back comparison of the M3 Touring vs Alpina B3 and I found his conclusions to be far more objective. I cannot help but think this author has some sort of axe to grind against the M3 or they are just fishing for clicks.

Listen to their podcast. Makes more sense then.

[Needsdecaf]

Originally Posted by Bimmerfun82

M3 for its 6 speed manual.

If you don’t want a manual, and if you don’t want to drive like a bat out of hell, get the M340.

This is a terrible take.

[Bimmerfun82]

Originally Posted by Needsdecaf

This is a terrible take.

Explain

[Needsdecaf]

Originally Posted by Bimmerfun82

Explain

You said:

Originally Posted by Bimmerfun82

M3 for its 6 speed manual.

If you don’t want a manual, and if you don’t want to drive like a bat out of hell, get the M340.

So, if we don't want a manual, we should settle for a lesser car? Is your assertion that the only reason to get an M3 is to gain access to a manual? Is an automatic M3 no reason?

I think you need to explain your comment a little further.

[Bimmerfun82]

Originally Posted by Needsdecaf

So, if we don't want a manual, we should settle for a lesser car? Is your assertion that the only reason to get an M3 is to gain access to a manual? Is an automatic M3 no reason?

I think you need to explain your comment a little further.

You truncated what I said in your summary here, omitting “drive like a bat out of hell.”

If one doesn’t appreciate the speed of the M3 or doesn’t want to use it in some capacity, then the M340i is probably a better option for OP.

I had the competition x drive G80 M3, and it is so much car. Probably belongs on a race track, just always wants to go and quite often above legal speeds too easily.

[Needsdecaf]

Originally Posted by Bimmerfun82

You truncated what I said in your summary here, omitting “drive like a bat out of hell.”

If one doesn’t appreciate the speed of the M3 or doesn’t want to use it in some capacity, then the M340i is probably a better option for OP.

I had the competition x drive G80 M3, and it is so much car. Probably belongs on a race track, just always wants to go and quite often above legal speeds too easily.

I mean, a turbo Accord or Camry is more car than you need. Why buy a 340i that's also more car than you need.

I agree, if someone doesn't appreciate the speed then they are better off not buying one but where do you draw this line? And even though the M3 is quite fast, I enjoy what it is at everyday, legal speeds. My Model 3 Performance was faster under 100...but I like the M3 a lot more.

[Bimmerfun82]

Originally Posted by Needsdecaf

I mean, a turbo Accord or Camry is more car than you need. Why buy a 340i that's also more car than you need.

I agree, if someone doesn't appreciate the speed then they are better off not buying one but where do you draw this line? And even though the M3 is quite fast, I enjoy what it is at everyday, legal speeds. My Model 3 Performance was faster under 100...but I like the M3 a lot more.

OP posited M3 or M340 - and the question itself kind of tells me that OP should go for the M340 unless there is a desire to drive like a bat out of hell or get a manual. Although admittedly there are some other benefits like full merino leather and better brakes, etc.

Philosophically, I violently agree with you. And I’ve had all the cars you mentioned (model 3 p, M3 cx, M3). For me it’s M3 or bust. But not all people can or want to spend the extra $. Also admittedly I’ve always gone for the more powerful M3 of each generation since the e46.