[RowanBuds]

Yesterday morning I was one of the lucky ones who got to see the not-yet-released G80 M3 Competition, finished in Isle of Man Green over black/tan leather (Aragon?), with standard seats not buckets. The IOM Green is more a green-heavy teal to me than a classic green. It’s definitely not a forest or oxford type tone – Hyundai/Kia have a blue-heavy teal in their lineup, this struck me as the green heavy equivalent of that hue. Full disclosure, the car was only under direct fluorescent/white LED lights – sort of a showroom setting with no windows. I’d reserve my opinion on the color choice until we can see this in natural light – for now, it’s too teal for my taste.

I’ve seen the posts by others who have seen this design in person and the majority seem to be in the ‘it’ll grow on you’ (like a fungus?) camp. I don’t think I’m there though, and will let you know my thoughts/impressions on the design below. Granted, I do whole-heartedly agree with those in the camp of ‘It’s almost a hundred-thousand dollar expense - It shouldn’t have to GROW on me” so I still have that mentality to fight against internally.

They did not have the interior opened up for us, but what we could see looked like a slightly-upscaled G30 interior. Just what we have all grown to love and expect in our M3’s. I don’t like not seeing a handbrake there, but I guess the future is here now. Couldn’t see the digital cluster at all, so I can’t give any insight on that feature.

Off the jump, the car shown had some weird ‘we’re going to dip the lowest 15mm of the entire body in gloss black plastidip’ thing going on. The front bumper lip, the side skirts, and the rear section all had this gloss black finishing on them that didn’t do favors to the car in my opinion. Imagine, if you will, a base spec G05 X5 without the M-sport pack – you know how there’s the flat grey plastic trim line on all of the lower body finishing? Imagine that in gloss black instead of the matte/flat grey and you know what I’m talking about. It looked, in one word, cheap – especially so on the side profile. I’m not against gloss black at all – all of the factory trim on my F80 is gloss black, but this isn’t window trim or grille surrounds, it’s the entire lower segment of the car. I think it’s an attempt to do the CF look without coming near the mark, but I can’t speak for their intent obviously.

Putting the gloss-black paint dipping to the side for a moment: While the side profile and surface treatments used there are classically NOT BMW to me, the side skirts are very nicely sculpted on this car. They remind me a good deal of the beautifully styled skirts used on the Alfa Giulia QF, without the weird ‘they just end here?’ thing that you get on the Alfa just ahead of the front door midpoint. I still am not loving the swoop up from skirt to rear door/rear quarter panel, but the skirts help that design element a lot when compared to the G30 looks – and then the flared rear arches help to complete the enhancement here. Side profile is much less off-putting to me in the metal than in photo/render/leaks – again, putting the odd gloss black lower portion aside.

These door cups will never look right on a 3er to me – but with the loss of the HMK and the cars shoulder line, I’m not mistaking it for a classically designed 3 series to begin with. The side to rear definitely carries Lexus overtones, not mentioning the rear itself here.

The front fender air vent is a weird design element. It almost looks like the style of it was lifted from that weird floating curtain used on the current X6’s, but as is the trend with the new 3er/4er, the lines used to make it do not match with any other angles used on the side of the car. It’s an open vent, but it’s hard to tell that. It looks tacked on, even though the sheet metal does have an embossed section there to keep the trim flush – it still looked weird to me. Not a deal breaker, and I too well recall how the F8x fender vents were an unexpected ‘get used to it’ thing that turned out alright for us all.

The rear finishing treatment is acceptable. It looks like it took cues from some of the more aggressive 3pc diffusers available from the aftermarket for the F80 cars, it’s not reserved at all, and definitely looks a bit busy, but it’s by no means the conversation point of the cars design. It’s perfectly suitable, more aggressive than I would have guessed it to be – and may make aftermarket diffusers totally superfluous. Had the front clip not changed so drastically, the discussion points of this car likely would revolve around how aggressive the rear finishing is now, where did the shoulder line go, and what is up with these door handle cups (two of the three have been beaten to death already since G30 intro).

Unfortunately, I just didn’t get a chance to go eye level with the rear bumper to see how bad or how much better the muffler diaper is on this generation. With how aggressive the diffuser is now, that would have offered the perfect opportunity to hide the full muffler can, but spy shots have showed that as unlikely – still, it may be much better on this front out of the box than the F8x was, but an unknown.

Notable thing; the roof is way different than the F80 panel. There are two raised ribs starting, IIRC, about 40% of the way back from the windshield, and they are notably raised. I didn’t notice any middle section height difference, as in the F8x cars where the roof is sort of raised over the seating areas, with the middle section being lower in profile. I didn’t notice that on the front of the G8x roof, only the ribs. I may have missed it though, so YMMV here.

The rear wheel arches/haunches/hips didn’t look as pronounced to me as those fitted on the F80, but lighting and setting can impact this impression, so this stays as a true unknown to me.

From most angles, the car looks BIG. The grille announces a large car coming through, and the rest of the car follows the announcement. From any of the front angles, the car wants to hide behind the grille treatment though.

As others have mentioned here, the shown car was fitted with CCB’s. The staffer also said to me they were standard, but we always know marketing and press people tend to not live down in the weeds with accurate information. This is going to be a wait and see one I think. No matter – the single rear floating caliper really looks cheap on a CCB equipped car. I walked from this CCB G80 to my CCB F80 and the brakes all around really look the business on one of the older models. On the newer M3, the rears – not so much. Especially if that is a 9k+ upcharge item for our next generation, I’d be skipping it 7 days a week.

The front clip – it doesn’t get much better in person, IMO. It is more 3D than the renders/leaks we’ve seen lead us to believe, with the grille curving back towards the axel line as you go from badge to lip. The transition from grille lower frame to the bumper integrated lip was done as well as it could have been with that as a starting point. The nose surely conveys motion, but looks like two different design teams led the charge to get this design penned either way. The grille/bumper/hood integration is just sloppy. So many lines and angles, and none of them are really complementary.

Headlights are the right size and angle of attack to be married with this front end; they’re headlights, nothing groundbreaking to report here; the concept headlights do not make it to production, as usual.

The LIDAR sensor just looks awful up front, the discontinuity hurt my brain. The guy working in the booth said three times to me ‘they have to put it there because it needs to see the front’ - no shit Sherlock; it’s not that it needs to be in the front, it’s that it should either be well hidden, or centered… unfortunately the design team from Weber didn’t care about integrating the sensor uniformly, and nobody decided to hide it after that.

Ok now, real talk; I cannot shake the Dodge Charger feel when I was looking at the front end – the early/mid 2010’s version using the crosshair as a separating element. No, it’s not a charger, and won’t be mistaken for one – but the front end, the grille split and size/angle, the bird-bath insets in the hood – all of it made me unable to shake that comparison – and that is NOT a good thing, IMO.

I tried to keep this in some sort of logical content layout, but I know I’ve been all over the place. Apologies, and thanks for sticking with me.

Closing thoughts: Rewind the clock 13 years, I went to a first-reveal of the E9x M cars; walked out hoping to buy one asap. Now, rewind the clock 6 years, I went to a first-reveal of the F8x M cars; walked out to order mine the minute I could get one locked up. Rewind the clock 24 hours, I went to a first-reveal of the G80, walked out happy to be holding onto mine for a while longer. Still, patiently awaiting the LCI and will re-evaluate my opinion then, though I still think the car looks bigger than I’d want it to and that won’t change. For now, personally, it’s impossibly hard to make the argument for this car at this price with this face.

When I got home from the preview, my wife says 'well, what did you think?' I responded, 'eeeeh, I think we're still going to Stuttgart next year'.