TorqueNews Best of 2015 - BMW M4: 4 reasons you shouldn’t buy one

Automotive journals are a sick bunch and all you need to do is look at the Torque News Best Cars of the Year list to see why. I admit I’m a sick individual. I get pumped about driving a new Kia minivan for a week. It’s because I get to drive it on mountain roads, around tight corners, and through one-lane wooded roads all week. Some days I have to pinch myself to see if I’m dreaming. Colorado is the ultimate place to push vehicles to their limit even if it’s a grocery-hauling minivan.

It’s the ideal location to spend a week in my Torque News Best Cars of the Year, the BMW M4 Coupe. The manufacturers bring their cars here from all over the world to test them in the rarified air and see how they perform in the mountain curves. Rocky Mountain Automotive Press holds annual events here so journalists from all over can drive all makes and models in an incredible mountain setting and why not? I have been privileged to be able to drive hundreds of cars here on a weekly basis over the past 15 years.

Why the M4 for Torque News Best Cars of the Year?

My favorite press vehicle for 2015 was an easy choice to make because I’m a performance enthusiast first and an automotive journalist second. If a car gets my heart rate up and scares the daylights out of me, it’s going to be my top pick every time. That’s why I picked the new 2015 BMW M4 Coupe. It has the M badge because it comes from German motorsport heritage and that means it dials up driver engagement about as far as you can crank it. It’s a performance enthusiast’s car yet it’s definitely not for everyone. Let’s first look at why you probably shouldn’t even consider buying one.

Why you should stay away from the M4

There’s a number of reasons why you probably don’t want the M4. It’s not a practical car you’ll load the kids up and take to the soccer game. It’s only got two doors. You won’t use the performance car to commute to work or use it as a grocery hauler on the weekends. It’s rear wheel drive will keep it in the garage in cold climates 4-5 months out of the year and you can’t use the back seat for much more than a storage area. It’s about as impractical as a snow shovel in Florida.

Why pick a car that is impractical?

This isn’t an M4 review so we won’t bore you with all the technical details. You can read the full review on the M4 here if you are really serious about buying one. Why would I pick a car that is impractical for the average consumer? The same reason our other TN writers John, Will, Parks, Aaron and Patrick chose their top picks for 2015. It’s all about pegging the fun-to-drive meter on mountain roads, enjoying tight curves and having a smile plastered on your face like the Joker from Batman that lasts for days after you give the car back. Auto journalists are a strange breed and we do this because we are sick and need an adrenaline rush often. We whine and cry if we have to drive a Toyota Prius for a week. So who cares about practical when it comes to picking the TN Best of the Year awards?

M4 dials it up

It’s all about the new M4 absolutely pegging the fun-to-drive meter. Sure you can use the M4 as a daily driver, but few do. This is a high-performance car you take out on the weekends to try to impress your hot date. Actually, she won’t be impressed at all. She will be thinking about how impractical your car is and how she will get you to sell it right after she gets you to marry her and have your first kid. It’s the valet who you give the keys to at the front door of the fancy restaurant you take her to that will be impressed. It will be the guys at the cars and coffee event you go to once a month on Saturday mornings that will be drooling on your hood.

I admit that I’m sick and need to do this because it’s therapy. I need to sit in the cockpit of a high-performance coupe, grip the leather-wrapped steering wheel, and hold on for life. It’s a healing thing when my eyes are wide open and if concentration is lost for one second, the rear wheels are spinning and you’ll find yourself jumping the center median and staring down a car in the oncoming lane. It’s because being pushed deep into the performance M4 seat after you punch the accelerator to the floor makes us grin for days. The new M4 is an assassin in a finely tailored suit. That’s why I picked the 2015 BMW M4 Coupe as the Torque News Best Cars of the Year. Oh yeah, we are a sick bunch of automotive journalists at Torque News.

Source: BMW and Colorado's mountain curves