2025 BMW M4 CS review: Time to rethink the 911?

It gives me no pleasure to say it, but the only true BMW M car of recent times to which I’ve felt a proper connection is the baby of them all, the M2. As an alternative to a Porsche Cayman for those in need of rear seats it’s the possible choice you can make. It could be lighter – a lot lighter indeed – but it’s quite compact, well-balanced, more than fast enough and once properly wound up, really good fun. A far cry from the new M5 at the other end of the spectrum which is not merely a bit overweight, but astonishingly so, and more than sufficient for this burden to ensure that, however objectively impressive, that key driver interaction without which no M car should wear the badge is notable only for its absence.

And I don’t think I held high hopes for this new M4 CS either, which sits as a sort of halfway house between the ‘standard’ M4 Competition and the M4 CSL which appeared in 2022 and lasted as long as it took to sell the limited run of 1000 units. I’ve said in the past that I preferred the M2 to the M4 and the most recent M4 I drove took on (in estate form) an M340i, which is not a proper M car, and an Alpina B3 and came last. And the CSL was just too firm and too much of a handful in the wet for my tastes.

The positioning of the CS could be interesting except that at over £122,000 it costs nearly as much as did the £128,000 CSL (though there has been some inflation since), but it’s not limited in number so lacks exclusivity and instead of shaving fully 100kg off the weight of the standard car, it’s a mere 20kg lighter, which doesn’t sound like much when BMW is asking more than £30,000 over the price of an M4 Comp for the privilege.

But CS comes with the same 542bhp-specification engine as the CSL, a meaningful upgrade of almost 20bhp, plus its carbon ceramic brakes and part titanium exhaust system. Inside you’ll find carbon-shell bucket seats too. What has not trickled down, and the reason the CS is so much heavier than the CSL, is the latter’s deletion of its front drive shafts making it a rear-drive only machine. The CS retains all-wheel drive though, but like many an M car it can direct all its power to the rear wheels alone. It comes with settings for the steering and suspension common to neither the CSL above or the Competition below.

Expectations under firm control, I set out and was immediately pleased to see it still rode well and was not uncomfortably noisy at speed. It remains an eminently practical every day car, as every four-seat M-car should be. And as the roads opened up I found myself enjoying the CS more and more; more indeed than I had expected.

It is not the sort of thing that lends itself to easy explanation other than it seems to have found some kind of sweet spot. What it adds to the driving experience is not offset by an equal and opposite number of new disadvantages. The engine is a marvel, with a massive rev-range and such a voice and throttle response you might kid yourself it’s not even turbocharged. Even the automatic transmission, which seems so out of place in a car like this, works damn near as well as the double-clutch transmission you’d ideally choose for such a car.

But really it’s those unique chassis settings which hoists the CS above both the M4 Comp and CSL. Despite the additional weight in its nose (relative to the CSL) it finds its way into a corner with all the accuracy I want from a four-seat road car, with none of the accompanying nervousness I really don’t. There’s all the grip any sane person could wish for from such a car and a change in the weather no longer requires you to alter your driving style beyond that required to account for the lower grip lever. Or, indeed, your underwear.

Most of all it’s the way the car is damped I find so appealing. There’s enough of the body movement we subliminally all require just to ensure a car doesn’t feel like an arcade game, without the chassis ever relinquishing control of its primary movements. There’s ample compliance there to soak up all manner of mid-corner lumps and bumps which might destabilise a more stiffly suspended car. Yet its ability to maintain its ride height over crests and into dips is massively impressive for a car adapted to become, rather than purpose-built, as a sporting car.

“It’s hard not to invoke images of a girl sat at a table eating porridge”

In such circumstances it’s really hard not to invoke images of a young girl sat a table eating porridge that’s neither too hot nor too cold because that’s the truth of it: the M4 CS is the Goldilocks sporting 3 Series and a welcome return to form by the BMW M department. If it didn’t cost more than a Porsche 911 Carrera T (which can be specified with manual gears), I’d like it even more. In just the same way as the M2 is a fine substitute for a Cayman, so the M4 CS is just as worthy a practical alternative to a 911. Perhaps even more so.

BMW M4 CS 

• Price £122,685
• Engine 3.0 litres, six cylinders, petrol, turbocharged
• Power 542bhp
• Torque 479lb ft
• Weight 1625kg (DIN)
• Power to weight 308bhp per tonne
• Transmission Eight-speed automatic, four-wheel drive
• 0-62mph 3.4sec
• Top speed 188mph
• Economy 28mpg
• CO2 232g/km
• Verdict Worthy of the M branding.