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      02-28-2021, 09:08 PM   #1
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Surprise G80 M3 Manual First Drive and Impressions

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When picking up a car at one of my local dealerships, my contacts offered me a chance to be one of the first non-employees to take the M3 out for around an hour.

For context, I drove my M2 CS down to the dealer, and we have a 2015 F82 M4, 2019 i8, 2020 228i, 2018 X2, and 2010 135i between my partner and I.

My initial impressions are as follows:
  1. The car feels quite a decent chunk bigger than the F8X, and it definitely shows in the space for the ear passengers.
  2. The S58 sounds completely different than any other BMW engine I can remember. Not anything like an S55, and it did not remind me of the B58, N55, or N54 - if anything it sounds much closer to what you'd experience with a Porsche flat six like the one in the 718 GT4, which was a very pleasant surprise.
  3. I really appreciated the addition of an Exhaust button in the configuration, and overall there setup is even more flexible than it was in the F8X generation. I was surprised that you could even adjust the brake-by-wire feel between Comfort and Sport.
  4. I was surprised that BMW developed the manual for this car to feel quite a bit different than the previous generation. The shift feel is quite a bit shorter and feels more direct - not quite the same rubberyness you got with the F8X and E9X cars. The clutch itself has a different feel too, one that I didn't really like because it was much less of a linear progression than the previous car.
  5. It's very quick, except at first it feels slow because of how quickly the computers kill your torque especially in cold temperatures. It's also much less obvious when your inputs are being dampened than it was in the F8X, to the point where I was completely blown away when we turned all the safeties off.
  6. I hate the electronic parking brake and it took me a hot second to figure out where it even was.
  7. Black is a very safe color on this car, but its also very difficult to photograph the styling on this one. I think that any highly reflective color or colors that really help cast shadows around the different geometry (like the frozen colors) are going to work really well.\
  8. I personally don't care for the new shape of the carbon fibre roof. There's a weird transition between being flat in the front to these two fins/creases towards the rear, and I think the previous generation did this better.
  9. The interior is next-level compared to what came before it. Much closer to what you'd expect in and M5 than what you'd see in M3s of days past.
  10. I especially love the M version of Live Cockpit and all of the sensors integrated in the car. We were already exposed to this with our 228i GC, and this just has more of everything as you'd expect.


    Edit: Since this got pinned to the front page, I wanted to go ahead and clarify that this is in fact a demo unit that has already been driven a decent bit and that the traction off part of the clip was shot with one of the store managers in the car on the second trip out. No reputable store would ever do this with a customer car.

    Edit #2: Some of you may have noticed that the video is currently unavailable. I've locked it down by request from BMW, who are requesting that all content creators hold off on publishing until after the 9th.

I didn't bring my normal gear with me because I didn't expect to get a shot at driving this car until sometime next week, but here is a short video with some of my initial impressions from the drive:

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Last edited by Silber; 03-03-2021 at 07:48 AM..
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      02-28-2021, 09:22 PM   #2
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Thanks for sharing your input specially as your current fleet gives you good insight to compare.

Your comment about the sound being non-BMW like, don't you think that's due to the pumped-in engine sound?
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      02-28-2021, 09:29 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by M3AWD View Post
Thanks for sharing your input specially as your current fleet gives you good insight to compare.

Your comment about the sound being non-BMW like, don't you think that's due to the pumped-in engine sound?
I think some of it definitely is due the ASD, but it sounds way better than the ASD in the F8X cars. It's less trying to be a V8 and instead does sound like a smooth six, I just don't think it sounds like an inline layout as much as it does a flat six.

I like the sound and I probably wouldn't turn off the ASD liked I did on my F82, it's just not a sound characteristic I'd normally associate with a BMW.
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      02-28-2021, 09:35 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Silber View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by M3AWD View Post
Thanks for sharing your input specially as your current fleet gives you good insight to compare.

Your comment about the sound being non-BMW like, don't you think that's due to the pumped-in engine sound?
I think some of it definitely is due the ASD, but it sounds way better than the ASD in the F8X cars. It's less trying to be a V8 and instead does sound like a smooth six, I just don't think it sounds like an inline layout as much as it does a flat six.

I like the sound and I probably wouldn't turn off the ASD liked I did on my F82, it's just not a sound characteristic I'd normally associate with a BMW.
I just watched a quick review by someone who made a similar comment that it sounded like a 911 Carrera S! Very interesting you're not the only one saying so
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      02-28-2021, 09:37 PM   #5
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Sounds pretty decent, that's a pleasant surprise.
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      02-28-2021, 09:49 PM   #6
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G80 M3 manual flogged a bit on first drive

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      02-28-2021, 09:56 PM   #7
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the suspension is firm as expected - that’s good news.
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      02-28-2021, 10:02 PM   #8
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Silber, are you on Comm. Ave in Boston?
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      02-28-2021, 10:03 PM   #9
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I recall it having a nice metallic sound out of the pipes when revved in one of the videos. P-car boxers also have a more metallic sound than typical BMW FI I6 engines. Very cool that it comes through from the driver seat

Thanks for making a video and in text review, very exciting observations!
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      02-28-2021, 10:04 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by calibro9 View Post
Silber, are you on Comm. Ave in Boston?
Yeah, I was down in Boston for this.
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      02-28-2021, 10:20 PM   #11
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Baby M5, room for 5, hauls ass, sounds decent, and has a manual. All the new vids and customer reactions have me excited for this car.

Last edited by seis-speed; 03-01-2021 at 12:35 AM..
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      02-28-2021, 10:29 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Silber View Post
When picking up a car at one of my local dealerships, my contacts offered me a chance to be one of the first non-employees to take the M3 out for around an hour.

For context, I drove my M2 CS down to the dealer, and we have a 2015 F82 M4, 2019 i8, 2020 228i, 2018 X2, and 2010 135i between my partner and I.
url]
Would you trade your M2 CS for it?
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      02-28-2021, 10:40 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by danf72 View Post
Would you trade your M2 CS for it?
I would not. The CS is a perfect car for me personally and does something completely in terms of driver engagement while the G80 is more in the realm of what the M5 used to be - a luxury land missile.

I am going to be selling my F82 and 135i though, and will consider a G8X as a replacement grand tourer, maybe even replacing the spot that the i8 currently hold in the garage. But if I use it in that role, I'd probably wait for the AWD variant, or maybe even the i4.
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      02-28-2021, 10:46 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Silber View Post
Yeah, I was down in Boston for this.
From you drive it looks lie the gearing is pretty tall and you have to rev it a lot.
How is torque down low?
Any lag?
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      02-28-2021, 10:52 PM   #15
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I second the idea of the ASD. I thought my F82 sounded amazing and was staring at people I was driving by thinking they were hearing the same amazing only to realize it was essentially all in my head. The engines do sound nice, but it's a bit of augmented reality inside the car. The idea of being able to turn it on and off though is nice.

Dealers there must be more liberal with letting people test drive M's. My dealer told me I could only take the F82 out only a few miles from the dealer because "M buyers want low miles on their cars." So the idea that the CA took it home and you drove it for 30-60 min is surprising.

Also, I wouldn't want to know that the sales guy "beat the piss" out of the car I'm buying.

I love that they finally have an electronic brake. I have it on my Jeep and love it. Much easier and obviously way more compact than a big lever you have to wrench up.
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      02-28-2021, 11:06 PM   #16
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If this thing turns out to be both athletic on the track and feel like a luxury GT car around town and on the open road it will be such a desirable car. The E9X and 992 are the best I’ve experienced so far in balancing athleticism and GT duty. Will the G8X have a higher average score, I guess we have to wait for a proper track review...

Last edited by solstice; 02-28-2021 at 11:11 PM..
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      02-28-2021, 11:09 PM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by snareman View Post
Dealers there must be more liberal with letting people test drive M's. My dealer told me I could only take the F82 out only a few miles from the dealer because "M buyers want low miles on their cars." So the idea that the CA took it home and you drove it for 30-60 min is surprising.

Also, I wouldn't want to know that the sales guy "beat the piss" out of the car I'm buying.
Less CA and more like GM, and this is a demo car. It’s there to be driven, and eventually will be sold at a decent discount. I had driven the F82 the same week it arrived when those first came out as well, and that was also a demo car. Maybe in other parts of the country the dealers don’t enable you in the same way.
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      02-28-2021, 11:11 PM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by solstice View Post
If this thing turns out to be both athletic and feel like a luxury GT car around town it will be such a desirable car. The E9X and 992 are the best I’ve experienced so far. Will the G8X have a higher average score, I guess we have to wait for a proper track review...
With traction and stability off it pulls way harder than the F8X did. Probably about as hard as my M2 CS and that car is a good bit lighter. I think it’s a bit of a shame that you can’t get a Comp with the manual, but to be frank you don’t need any more power or torque in this car for street use.
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      02-28-2021, 11:13 PM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Silber View Post
Less CA and more like GM, and this is a demo car. It’s there to be driven, and eventually will be sold at a decent discount. I had driven the F82 the same week it arrived when those first came out as well, and that was also a demo car. Maybe in other parts of the country the dealers don’t enable you in the same way.
Ah ok. I think my dealer is definitely too small to get demo M's
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      02-28-2021, 11:14 PM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Silber View Post
With traction and stability off it pulls way harder than the F8X did. Probably about as hard as my M2 CS and that car is a good bit lighter. I think it’s a bit of a shame that you can’t get a Comp with the manual, but to be frank you don’t need any more power or torque in this car for street use.
That’s really cool to hear, the power is there but It remain to see how athletic and balanced it is on track style transitions. Tht said I’m not downplaying the power and with AWD, competition engine and nannies off it should be quite a beast.
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      02-28-2021, 11:36 PM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Silber View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by snareman View Post
Dealers there must be more liberal with letting people test drive M's. My dealer told me I could only take the F82 out only a few miles from the dealer because "M buyers want low miles on their cars." So the idea that the CA took it home and you drove it for 30-60 min is surprising.

Also, I wouldn't want to know that the sales guy "beat the piss" out of the car I'm buying.
Less CA and more like GM, and this is a demo car. It’s there to be driven, and eventually will be sold at a decent discount. I had driven the F82 the same week it arrived when those first came out as well, and that was also a demo car. Maybe in other parts of the country the dealers don’t enable you in the same way.
By "decent discount" it will probably be MSRP rather than a mark-up for some poor bastard that doesn't want to wait a couple of months
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      02-28-2021, 11:38 PM   #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by solstice View Post
That’s really cool to hear, the power is there but It remain to see how athletic and balanced it is on track style transitions. Tht said I’m not downplaying the power and with AWD, competition engine and nannies off it should be quite a beast.
The AWD version will probably be like a 4 door GTR.

Also makes you wonder how much of a premium they'll charge.
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