2015 BMW M4

The M4 designation was new in the US for the 2015 model year at BMW. No longer would there be two- and four-door 3-series cars. Now the 4-series would be the name for the two-doors and their four-door siblings would retain the 3-series moniker... unless they had fastback hatches in which case they were "Gran Coupes" and badged as a 4-series. BMW's naming was getting a little incoherent if you ask me, but I don't have a degree in marketing so probably you shouldn't.

The F82 was the designation for the M coupe derived from the regular F32 4-series. Motorvated by BMW's S55 twin-turbo 3.0L DOHC inline six rated at 425 SAE net horsepower, the car could be had with the buyer's choice of a ZF six-speed manual or a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic.

When Car and Driver put a 2015 car with the dual-clutch gearbox through its testing procedure, the 3,615 pound coupe laid down a 3.7 second sprint to sixty and scorched the quarter in twelve flat at a buck nineteen. The governor shut off the fun at 163mph.

The base price for the M4 was $65,150 but options like the $8,150 carbon-ceramic brakes and $2,900 DCT box pushed the MSRP of the test car up to $86,225, which is about $121,500 in current coins.

The Yas Marina Blue example in the photos was snapped a couple times back in July of 2021 using a Sony RX100.

2021 BMW 440i xDrive

Oh, hey, look! It's a G22-series BMW M440i! Hey, that's a pretty slick-looking ride from the side.

Let's walk around to the front of the car and see what's shakin' up there...

YIKES! It looks, to steal a line from my friend TC, like a Mustang had sex with a naked mole rat. That, or some sort of angry cyborg attack beaver. That snout is going to take some getting used to, not gonna lie. I realize that, thanks to Audi and Lexus, great gaping maws of grille up front are the style of the time (the latest iteration of the Genesis sedans look like they might accidentally inhale a Smart or Scion iQ) but BMW's traditional split grille does the look no favors aesthetically.

I get that all the new BMW's got to be rolled over to some variation of the giant beaver-toothed snout. It's the marque's new design language and will be with us for the next 5-8 model years in some variation or another. But Mercedes finally gave up on even the faintest hint of a faux radiator shell decades ago and Lincoln Continentals lost the vestigial fake spare tire hump about the time they lost rear wheel drive, yet BMW is going to find a way to keep the now meaningless kidney blobs on the front end from now 'til doomsday.

I'd say I was never going to get used to it, but I also have to acknowledge that I used to say that about the Bangle era and now, with the right wheels, the E60 5-series is among my favorite Bimmers.

At least the numbers on this thing are solid. The 382hp turbocharged and intercooled 3.0L inline six gets a little nudge from the 48v mild hybrid motor to push the car to sixty in 3.8 seconds according to Car and Driver, and blitzes the quarter in 12.3 at 112mph. Still, between the AWD and the hybrid gear it weighs about a load of groceries short of two tons, which feels like a lot for the successor of the 2002ti.

This one was photographed using a Fujifilm X-T2 and XF 16-80mm f/4 R OIS WR zoom lens in April of 2021.

1987 BMW M6

Introduced in '83 and known in its home market as the M635CSi, for 1987 BMW of North America imported the Motorsport-tuned performance version of the E24 6-series coupe as the M6, keeping the name in line with the M3 and M5 already being sold in US showrooms.

This Henna Red example in my neighborhood is just crazy hot. Quite the rara avis, too, as only about 1,677 were imported to the North American market out of a global production run of 5.855.

It used a DOHC version of BMW's 3.5L inline six that put out a claimed 256bhp in US trim at the time, which isn't a lot by modern standards but back then the tuned-port 350 in a 'Vette was only rated at something like 245. The 150+ mph M6 was legitimately big iron in its time, the second fastest production car from BMW up to that point, second only to the M1.

In Car and Driver's testing, it laid down a 14.7 second quarter at 94mph and sprinted to sixty in 6.1 seconds. Slower than the Euro version, due to fewer ponies and big, clunky bumpers, top speed was measured at 144mph. Price as tested was $58,720 in 1987 dollars, which comes to $168k in current money.

The lower two photos were taken with a Nikon D7100 and a 16-80mm f/2.8-4E VR zoom lens in June of 2022, while the upper was snapped in May of 2025 using the same camera and lens.

2000 BMW M5

The first two iterations of BMW's high performance sedan built on the 5-series platform used the classic inline-six motors for which the manufacturer was famous. When the E39-based version of the M5 debuted for the 1999 model year, however, it packed a brawny V-8 under the hood.

The S62, displacing 4.9 liters, was an all-aluminum DOHC 32V V-8 that featured BMW's double-VANOS system, which gave variable valve timing on both the intake and exhaust valves. Each cylinder had its own throttle body and the compression ratio was 11.0:1. The result was a motor that wailed out 400 SAE net horsepower at 6,600 RPM.

In Car and Driver's testing, the 2000 M5 hurtled to sixty in only 4.8 seconds and dispatched the quarter mile in 13.3 seconds at 108mph through the traps. Top speed was measured at 156, it circled the skidpad at 0.90g, and the brakes hauled it to a stop from 70 in 156 feet. The car easily outperformed the Jag XJR and E55 AMG Benz against which it was pitted in the test and is one of the last times C/D reviewed an M5 without having to insert caveats.

Price as tested was $73,874, which is about $140k in current money.

This one was photographed in August of 2021 using a Hasselblad Lunar and a Sony Vario-Tessar T* 16-70mm f/4 zoom lens.

2023 BMW M2

Middle age bloat, it seems, can come for the best of us. Subaru's Forester started as a scrappy little tall wagon and now it's the size of an early Ford Explorer, the Ford Thunderbird began life as a close-coupled two seater on a wheelbase very deliberately the same length as the Corvette's and in twenty years was a bloated 5,000lb hardtop on the platform of the Lincoln Continental Mk.IV, and the Honda Accord's wheelbase has grown almost twenty inches since the mid 1970s.

Similarly, the BMW 3-series has gone from a compact little sports sedan to a plush near-midsize car, and this means the sporting cars spun off from it, the M3 and M4 have ballooned in size, weight, and price.

The 2-series coupe and convertible that showed up in 2014 was something of an antidote to that. Size-wise, it harked back to the now-classic E36 3-series coupes.

Like those coupes, there was an M-version and 2013 saw the second generation of the M2. The original North American market E36 M3 coupe of 1994 was powered by the S50B30US, a 240hp 3.0L DOHC straight six. The 2023 version of the M2 is also powered by a 3.0L DOHC straight six, but this one, the S55, has a pair of intercooled turbos bolted to it and belts out 453 ponies.

The result is eye-watering acceleration: in Car and Driver's testing of the 6-speed manual version, 3.9 seconds was all it took to sprint from a standstill to sixty and the quarter mile flashed past in 12.2 seconds at 118mph through the traps. The eight-speed automatic was even quicker. (The E36 M3 performed those same feats in 5.6 and 14.3 seconds, with a 98mph trap speed, for comparison's sake.)

Alas, the 2023 second generation of the M2 is following the seemingly inevitable trajectory of all things automotive, having gained an inch of wheelbase and a hundred pounds of avoirdupois over the outgoing generation.

This Alpine White one was photographed in August of 2024 using a Pentax K20D and a DA 18-135mm F3.5-5.6ED zoom lens. 

2010 BMW 535i xDrive Sports Wagon

It was not that long ago that we had a twin-turbo wagon available in rear wheel drive or all wheel drive versions that came with a 6-speed manual as the base transmission from the factory...and everyone went and bought a crossover SUV instead. In retrospect, maybe we didn't deserve the E61 535i xDrive Sports Wagon; we just weren't worthy of its longroof splendor.

Under the hood of this righteous sled was BMW's N54B30, a 3.0L DOHC 24V twin-turbo straight-six with double-VANOS variable valve timing, putting out 300 SAE net horsepower. This was enough motor to slam the speedo needle to the 60-mph marker in only 5.8 seconds.

This Jet Black example was photographed in November of 2018 using an Olympus OM-D E-M5 and an M. Zuiko Digital 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO zoom lens.

2002 BMW M3

The first BMW M3 debuted in the latter Eighties as a homologation special for touring car racing based on the E30 3-series coupes, powered by a gnarly DOHC 2.3L 4-banger.

The second generation, based on the E36, upped to an inline six and added a sedan version, the latter to supposedly cover a gap in the generations of M5 sedans.

The E46 third generation, like the Alpine White example in the photo, returned to being offered only as a coupe. Debuting as an '01 model, it was the first version where the US market and Euro cars used the same engine (although the NA imports were still down a couple ponies, 333 vs. 338, to their overseas counterparts.)

Car and Driver tested a 2001 sample and managed a 4.5 second sprint to sixty and a 13.1 second quarter at 107 miles per hour through the traps. On the skidpad it displayed 0.87g roadholding and stopped from seventy in a mere 160 feet. Just ten years earlier those were the sort of acceleration numbers returned by Vipers and 911 Turbos.

This one was photographed in May of 2021 using a Nikon D5000 and 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR II zoom lens.

1986 BMW 325i Cabriolet

For the 1986 model year, thee second generation of BMW's 3-series, the E30, received a light styling upgrade. The top performance engine's displacement was bumped from the 2.3L M20B23 inline-six to the 2.5L M20B25, and the zoomy six was made available in North America for the first time. Finally, the convertible became a factory production offering. (The aluminum diving board bumpers wouldn't get replaced with more compact body-colored units until the major '87 mid-cycle refresh.)

In the go-go years of the mid-'80s, the 325i...especially the cabrio...was the "it" car for yuppies to have. If you were making a Brat Pack teen movie and wanted everyone to know the antagonist was a stuck up jerk of a rich kid, you'd have him drive a 325i. Its popularity even exceeded that of the 944 and the only reason that Miss Christina in the opening lyrics of David + David's smash hit "Welcome to the Boomtown" didn't drive one instead of a 944 is that "Cabriolet" doesn't rhyme with "pores".

They were zippy, responsive performers. Even the sluggards at Consumer Reports could granny-shift their way to a ten second zero to sixty time

The Cinnabar example seen here was photographed with a Hasselblad Lunar and a Sony PZ 18-105mm f/4 G OSS zoom lens in September of 2017.

1974 BMW 2002tii

The final iteration of the compact BMW 02 Series was the sportiest, and its timing couldn't have been better.

Preceded in the US market by the 1602, the 2002 was at least partly in response to importer Max Hoffman's pleas for a bigger-engined version of the 02 series that would sell well in America. In the late Sixties and early Seventies it was mostly the province of the sort of motoring nerds who also fancied British roadsters and had read the earnest paeans to the 2002 written by Car and Driver editor David E. Davis:

Down at the club, Piggy Tremalion and Bucko Penoyer and all their twit friends buy shrieking little 2-seaters with rag tops and skinny wire wheels, unaware that somewhere, someday, some guy in a BMW 2002 is going to blow them off so bad that they'll henceforth leave every stoplight in second gear and never drive on a winding road again as long as they live.

In the suburbs, Biff Everykid and Kevin Acne and Marvin Sweatsock will press their fathers to buy HO Firebirds with tachometers mounted out near the horizon somewhere and enough power to light the city of Seattle, totally indifferent to the fact that they could fit more friends into a BMW in greater comfort and stop better and go around corners better and get about 29 times better gas mileage.

Mr. and Mrs. America will paste a "Support Your Local Police" sticker on the back bumper of their new T-Bird and run Old Glory up the radio antenna and never know that for about 2500 bucks less they could have gotten a car with more leg room, more head room, more luggage space, good brakes, decent tires, independent rear suspension, a glove box finished like the inside of an expensive overcoat and an ashtray that slides out like it was on the end of a butler's arm—not to mention a lot of other good stuff they didn't even know they could get on an automobile, like doors that fit and seats that don't make you tired when you sit in them.

But the 2002 really came into its own when the dual-carb ti was replaced with the fuel injected tii. This bumped output from 118 to 128 SAE net horsepower. This might not sound like a lot, but consider a few things related to the car in the picture above: The bumpers indicate that it's a 1974 model. That means it was in the country just in time for the Oil Embargo of 1973. Meanwhile, domestic cars were having compression ratios lowered, emissions controls added, and advertising was changing from SAE gross to SAE net numbers.

All that means that for the '74 model year the base 302 2-barrel V-8 in a Mercury Montego MX was rated at 140 horsepower, and the Chevelle Laguna S-3 came with a 145hp 2-barrel 350 small block. Suddenly 128 horsies in a gnarly little sports coupe doesn't sound too shabby.

The '72 2002tii tested by Car and Driver managed a 9.0 second zero-to-sixty performance and put the quarter away in 16.8 seconds at 81 mph with a top speed of 115mph. Not only would it outhandle most anything from Detroit, but it would keep up with the more vanilla variants of even the sportiest cars. Remember that for every Super Duty 455 Trans Am and 460-4V Gran Torino, there were a bunch of lesser 350-engined Firebirds and 302-motored Torinos, all set to be surprised by this zingy little Bavarian.

This one was photographed in April of 2022 using a Fujifilm X-E1 and XF 23mm f/2 R WR lens.

1988 BMW 325i Touring

Take the most acclaimed sports sedan of its day, with a zingy-yet-bulletproof inline six and a slick 5-speed manual gearbox, and then make a wagon version... but never officially import it to the USA.

This gray market E30 wagon makes me go weak in the knees every time I see it.

Apparently the origins of the 3 Series Touring came from a BMW engineer making a home-brewed conversion on an existing sedan.

Incidentally, this was the first wagon BMW ever offered for sale. The Black (or Schwarz if you want to sound like a fanboi) one was snapped in the top photo with a Canon EOS 7D and EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS zoom lens in November of 2022, and the bottom photo was also taken in that month, but with an Olympus E-5 wearing a Zuiko Digital 12-60mm f/2.8-4 ED SWD. 

1985 BMW 635CSi

The original version of BMW's 6-series grand touring coupe debuted as a 1977 model and continued in production all the way through the 1989 model year before being supplanted by the V12-powered 850i coupe.

While the E24 6-series was launched in the U.S. as the 630CSi with the 176 horsepower 3.0L SOHC inline six, the best known variant was the 635CSi, which came along in 1985. Featuring the bored and stroked 3430cc M30B35 SOHC six, the North American version had an 8.0:1 compression ratio and was rated at 182 SAE net horsepower. (Euro motors sported a 10.0:1 compression ratio and put out 215hp.)

In 1985, Car and Driver magazine put a 5-speed 635CSi through its paces and recorded an 8.2 zero-to-sixty time and a quarter in sixteen seconds flat at 85 miles per hour. Top speed was 132 mph, while the four wheel discs would haul the 3,375 pound luxocoupe down from 70 to a stop in 189 feet, braking performance equivalent to the contemporary Corvette and only a few feet short of the Porsche 928S.

Like now, it was definitely a premium set of wheels. Base price was $41,315 and the only option on C/D's test car was a limited-slip diff, which brought the total sticker to $41,705, which is the equivalent of $122,000 in today's dough.

The 1985 635CSi in the picture was snapped with a Nikon Coolpix P7000 in December of 2015.

1986 BMW 528e

If one had to pick a year for the peak of the Malaise Era in the American auto market, one would not go far wrong by picking 1982.

That was the year that BMW launched one of the least Bimmer-like motors, designed specifically to boost its corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) numbers in the USA.

They took their high-winding 2.5L inline six and increased the stroke by a quarter inch, bumping the displacement to 2.7L. They also fitted a head with smaller ports, altered the cam profile, reduced the compression to 9.0:1, and added a 4,800 RPM rev limiter.

It was judged that the increase in low-end torque would offset the drop in peak power to 121hp, making for a car better suited to American urban and suburban driving, to say nothing of our Interstates, which were still saddled with the 55mph National Maximum Speed Limit.

The resulting car was called the 528e, the e standing for "eta", signifying "efficiency". It may have looked like a savage Bimmer sports sedan, but struggled to top 110mph or crack the 10-second barrier in the 0-60 sprint.

The gold BBS wheels on the Jet Black 1986 528e in the picture are Peak Eighties. I want to pop a vaporwave mix tape in the Blaupunkt and go cruising. It was photographed in November of 2023 using a Nikon 1 V1 & 1 Nikkor 18.5mm f/1.8 lens.