BMW M3 review

Available as both a four-door saloon and estate, the BMW M3 is one of the very best all-round performance cars on sale

RRP £91,485

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• Used

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Available now from: £78,999

RRP from: £91,485

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From £78,999

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From £1,242

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What Car? indicative Personal lease example (subject to status)

BMW M3

Expected annual mileage 5000 Term months 60 Deposit months 12 Monthly payment £1,242.14 Initial payment £14,905.68

Step-by-step

Leasing works a bit like a long-term rental. You drive it, but you don’t own it.

• Choose your car, pick your terms and apply for lease credit online
• Pay monthly rental payments for your chosen term length
• Drive it, enjoy it, then give it back at the end

What you get

When you lease with Autotrader you get all of this:

• Full manufacturer’s warranty
• Road tax and roadside assistance included
• Free returns within 30 days*

Excess mileage charges and return conditions apply. Subject to availability and credit status. 18+ T&Cs apply.

In partnership with

£15,151 total upfront (£14,906 initial rental plus £245 processing fee) | 5000 miles | 60 months

• Lower total monthly cost than PCP/HP
• No balloon payments
• Road tax included

0-62mph in less than 6 seconds

5-Star

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Jump to:

Introduction

Performance & drive

Interior

Passenger & boot space

Buying & owning

Dan Jones

Updated: 22 January 2026

How we test cars

Don’t worry: this M3 review isn't about a road from Surrey to Southampton. In fact, the BMW M3 couldn’t be more different to the motorway it shares a name with.

Since the mid-eighties, the M3 has been the fastest and most exciting version of the BMW 3 Series executive car, building up a cult following among performance car fans. Over the decades, it’s gone from being a two-door coupe to a four-door saloon, while the current generation saw the arrival of the M3 Touring estate car to broaden that appeal even further. Indeed, you can still have a coupe version, but it’s called the BMW M4.

New car deals

Best price from £78,999

What is What Car? best price?

The What Car? best price shows you the cheapest way to buy your new car, whether it's by choosing an in-stock car through our partner Autotrader or placing a factory order.

Available now from: £78,999

RRP from: £91,485

Available now

From £78,999

Leasing deals

From £1,242

About our price indicator

What Car? indicative Personal lease example (subject to status)

BMW M3

Expected annual mileage 5000 Term months 60 Deposit months 12 Monthly payment £1,242.14 Initial payment £14,905.68

Step-by-step

Leasing works a bit like a long-term rental. You drive it, but you don’t own it.

• Choose your car, pick your terms and apply for lease credit online
• Pay monthly rental payments for your chosen term length
• Drive it, enjoy it, then give it back at the end

What you get

When you lease with Autotrader you get all of this:

• Full manufacturer’s warranty
• Road tax and roadside assistance included
• Free returns within 30 days*

Excess mileage charges and return conditions apply. Subject to availability and credit status. 18+ T&Cs apply.

In partnership with

£15,151 total upfront (£14,906 initial rental plus £245 processing fee) | 5000 miles | 60 months

• Lower total monthly cost than PCP/HP
• No balloon payments
• Road tax included

BMW M3 Touring twin test video

In fact, the M3 Touring's versatility will be perfect for lots of people, because it allows you to go for a couple of quick laps at Brands Hatch at the weekend, then fill its huge boot with furniture on the way home. That’s something you can do with the estate version of the Mercedes-AMG C63, but not with the rival Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio.

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So what are the BMW M3 and M3 Touring like to drive, and how do they stack up against the best performance cars? Read on as we put them to the test against the C63 and the Giulia Q…

Verdict

Whether you go for the saloon or estate car (Touring) version, the BMW M3 is a brilliant performance car that blends usability with a huge amount of fun. We’d go for the M3 Competition Touring because it provides the best balance of both worlds. Yes, it's expensive, but if you can, you absolutely should.

What's new?

• January 2026: BMW M3 Touring wins What Car? performance car of the year award
• May 2024: Facelift brings new LED headlights, 523bhp engine, fresh wheel designs, new interior trim options
• January 2023 - M3 CS arrives with 542bhp, restricted to 188mph

Pros

• Staggering pace and grip
• Surprisingly comfortable ride
• High-quality interior

Cons

• M3 Competition doesn’t sound that special
• Pricey to buy
• As expensive to run as you'd expect

What's new?

• January 2026: BMW M3 Touring wins What Car? performance car of the year award
• May 2024: Facelift brings new LED headlights, 523bhp engine, fresh wheel designs, new interior trim options
• January 2023 - M3 CS arrives with 542bhp, restricted to 188mph

Trims available

Competition

The M3 is reasonably well equipped on the safety and luxury front, although you might be surprised to learn you have to pay extra for keyless entry and (on the saloon) a powered tailgate. The xDrive badge means this version is four-wheel drive.

New car deals

Available now

Leasing deals

Performance & drive

What it's like to drive, and how quiet it is

Strengths

• Involving to drive
• Seriously capable
• M3 Competition is surprisingly comfortable

Weaknesses

• Doesn’t sound that special

Most modern performance cars give you some control over settings, but the BMW M3 takes that concept to extremes. Next to the stubby gear selector (which has its own button to vary the aggression of the gear changes) you’ll find a button labelled "Setup".

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Prodding it brings up a list of options on the infotainment screen, allowing you to change everything from the sensitivity of the brakes to the loudness of the exhaust.

The sheer number of configurations can seem a little overwhelming at first, so it’s handy that the M3 has several presets that work well straight out of the box.

Once you get more familiar with the car, you’ll appreciate being able to fine-tune it to better suit your own tastes. You might want to leave the steering in its light Comfort mode and the engine its most responsive, for example, and then save that to the customisable M1 and M2 shortcut buttons on the wheel.

With everything in Comfort mode, the standard version – the M3 Competition – is a surprisingly relaxing and refined daily companion. The turbocharged six-cylinder engine remains hushed at low revs, and the standard eight-speed automatic gearbox shuffles through its ratios smoothly (there’s no manual gearbox option).

The M3 Competition's adaptive suspension allows the car to flow along the ups and downs of a subsiding B-road, only showing a hint of brittleness over the very worst sections.

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Despite its compliant ride, Comfort mode keeps body lean in check, but if you really want to push on, the firmer Sport setting is better for making the most of country roads. It helps the car feel even more tied down, while also giving the steering a little more heft, so you can gauge your inputs more accurately – but without it feeling unnaturally heavy.

If you really want to test the M3, you'll want the M3 CS Touring. You see, while its more aggressive and track-focused set-up might lose some of the everyday smoothness, it makes it even better through corners, with more direct steering and suspension that eliminates body lean almost entirely.

When you aren’t threading the M3 through a series of corners, every version is blistering quick in a straight line. Indeed, with the M3 Competition offering 523bhp and the M3 CS Touring 543bhp, they’ll fire you from 0-62mph in around 3.5secs. Effectively, no matter which body style you go for, it'll match a Porsche 911 Carrera 4S.

The only real let down is that the Competition doesn’t really sound that special, even when you’re at high revs with the sport exhaust switched on. Luckily, the CS fixes that and is generally louder, adding to the experience.

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Both M3s take a bit of getting used to before you can really explore what they’re capable of through corners. There’s so much front-end grip and rear-end traction you have to chip away at the limits before you feel truly confident to grab it by the scruff of its neck.

Happily, once you get there, you’ll find both versions of the M3 are far more nimble and involving than the Mercedes-AMG C63 S e Performance and have higher grip limits to expose than an Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio.

Every M3 comes with xDrive four-wheel drive as standard. It’s a brilliant system, allowing you to make the most of the car's power even in poor conditions, while still allowing you to access a more playful side if you want to.

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That’s because you can put the car in a rear-wheel-drive mode, and if the rear wheels break traction in a corner, the resulting slide is easy to manage. There's also a 10-stage system (part of the expensive M Race Track package or standard with the CS) so you can fine-tune how much wheel-slip is allowed before the traction control cuts in. In the Giulia Quadrifoglio, traction control is either on or off.

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There’s a mild level of road noise on the motorway (a bit more than in a Giulia Q), but the engine and exhaust note fade into the background when you take it out of the car’s sportier drive modes. Indeed, if you want a performance car that’s even quieter and smoother to drive, the pure electric Porsche Taycan is worth a look.

As standard, the M3 has steel brakes, with carbon ceramic ones available as part of the aforementioned M Race Track Package or a standalone option on the CS. The standard brakes can be a little grabby around town, but the rest of the time they're progressive, consistent and massively powerful, so it's not vital to upgrade them.

I do find the BMW M3 Competition’s sound a little uninspiring in some modes. The exhaust is quite muted, and while the engine noise is loud and bassy, it sounds a little fake.

Steve Huntingford, Editor

Interior

The interior layout, fit and finish

Strengths

• High quality interior
• Great driving position
• Intuitive infotainment system

Weaknesses

• Lack of physical climate control switches

In traditional M-car fashion, the BMW M3 is very similar inside to any other BMW 3 Series. That’s no bad thing: the 3 Series has one of the best interiors in the executive car class and the M3 is different enough that you feel like you’re behind the wheel of something special.

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For example, you get heavily bolstered and supportive sport seats with integrated headrests, seatbelts in M Division colours, a bright red starter button, some carbon fibre trim and a sports steering wheel with contrast stitching (which is covered in Alcantara in the CS).

Depending on your tastes, you can choose from interior colour schemes that range from black on cream to bright blue on day-glow yellow.

The driving position in the M3 can be adjusted to the nth degree. In their lowest setting, the optional M carbon bucket seats almost place your backside on the floor of the car, which is handy for taller drivers who want to wear a crash helmet for a track day.

The M3's head-up display beams plenty of information onto the windscreen, and the 12.3in digital driver's display can be set up in a range of configurations.

The 14.9in infotainment screen can be operated using an iDrive dial between the front seats, which is much less distracting when you’re driving than using it as a touchscreen. The Giulia Q adopts a similar setup but the M3’s super-intuitive layout and responsive operating system is superior. We also prefer it to the touchscreen-only system in the Mercedes-AMG C63.

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The only disappointment is that when the BMW 3 Series was facelifted, it lost its physical simple-to-use climate-control switches, so in the latest M3 you adjust the temperature using the touchscreen or voice control.

On a more positive note, the M3's many gadgets include Android Auto and Apple CarPlay smartphone mirroring, wireless phone charging, a DAB radio, a 16-speaker Harman Kardon sound system and a wi-fi hotspot.

The standard equipment list also includes front and rear parking sensors, and a rear-view camera. That's handy because the chunky front and rear pillars can obscure your vision when parking.

As always, the iDrive infotainment system is one of the best, largely because of that rotary dial. I’m still not totally sure about the gimmicky gesture control, though, because it rarely works as intended.

Steve Huntingford, Editor

Passenger & boot space

How it copes with people and clutter

Strengths

• Versatile rear seats
• Surprisingly practical especially in Touring form
• Plenty of interior space

Weaknesses

• Saloon has small boot opening
• M3 CS Touring lacks interior storage

One of the best things about the BMW M3 (or any performance car for that matter) is that you get sports car performance and handling in a package that’s as practical as a regular saloon – or, in the case of the M3 Touring, estate car.

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To that end, there’s enough space in the back for a couple of six-footers (three at a push). True, the optional carbon fibre front seats have a hard back, so they're not as comfortable to rest your knees against as the standard ones, but this is mitigated by the fact that they're so slim they free up a bit more space.

Storage in the front is good in the M3 Competition, but the CS Touring’s focus on weight saving means a redesigned, much lower and carbon fibre covered, centre console. As a result, it loses the central armrest and has no cupholders – you do, at least, still get a wireless phone charging tray.

Usefully, both versions come with 40/20/40 split-folding rear seats for those occasions when you need to carry extra long paraphernalia, giving you the option of poking items through from the boot without sacrificing the outer seats.

In the M3 saloon, the boot opening is small, but there’s enough room inside for up to seven carry-on suitcases. As you might expect, the M3 Touring’s hatchback boot opening is more user-friendly, while the load area gets an extra 20 litres of space beneath the load cover, taking the total to 500 litres.

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You get a powered tailgate as standard on the estate car version. If you want one in the saloon, you have to add the optional Technology pack.

I found it really useful that the BMW M3 Touring’s rear window can be opened independently of the tailgate. It makes it really easy to quickly pop it open and grab smaller items.

Dan Jones, Senior Reviewer

Buying & owning

Everyday costs, plus how reliable and safe it is

Strengths

• Slow depreciation
• Lots of standard kit
• Plenty of safety features

Weaknesses

• Quite expensive (especially M3 CS Touring)
• Costly to run

As a cash purchase, the BMW M3 Competition in saloon form costs a little more than the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, while the Touring adds a slight premium and ups the price further. Even so, they’ll both still cost you a fair bit less than the Mercedes-AMG C63. Going for the CS Touring, meanwhile, makes the M3 really expensive and a match for the Porsche 911 Carrera 4S.

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All versions of the M3 are predicted to lose their value a little more slowly than the Giulia Q though, which helps to keep PCP finance rates competitive. It also means it might be worth more if you decide to sell in three years.

Ways to buy

Cash from £78,999 Own the car outright. No monthly payments.

Lease from £1,242pm Drive a new car every few years. Lower upfront costs.

£14,906 initial payment , 60 month contract , 5000 miles p/a . Subject to status and conditions.

Available Now from £78,999 Choose a car from stock. Drive away today!

Don't expect any M3 to be a cheap car to run – in our Real MPG tests the M3 Competition averaged 26.3mpg, which is not bad for something with more than 500bhp, but hardly parsimonious.

You’ll also need deep pockets to run an M3 as a company car because its hefty CO2 emissions place it in the top 37% band. An electric performance car such as the Porsche Taycan will be much cheaper for BIK tax.

On the plus side, the M3 Competition is well equipped. It has 19in alloy wheels up front and 20in ones at the back (what BMW calls a staggered set-up), a leather interior, dual-zone climate control, cruise control, a carbon-fibre roof and heated seats. The one surprise is that you have to pay extra for keyless entry.

There are loads more options, many of which can be bundled into trim packs. For example, the (very expensive) M Race Track Pack lumps together carbon fibre exterior highlights and the fantastic carbon bucket seats. The Ultimate Pack adds many of those plus laser headlights, keyless entry, a heated steering wheel, a more advanced parking function and extra safety kit.

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Going for the CS Touring increases the price tag but also adds a lot of those optional packs as standard equipment, including the M Race Track Pack. Indeed, the only options are carbon-ceramic brakes, acoustic glass and upgraded headlights.

The M3 hasn’t specifically been appraised for safety by Euro NCAP but the BMW 3 Series scored the full five-star rating when it was tested by safety experts in 2019. That said, the testing regime has become more strict since then so it’s hard to compare against newer cars.

You get plenty of standard safety kit, including automatic emergency braking (AEB), lane-keeping assist, an attentiveness alert and a rear crossing-traffic warning.

While the M3 as a model didn’t feature in our latest What Car? Reliability Survey, the 3 Series did very well, finishing in second place in the executive car class. BMW as a brand claimed sixth place out of the 30 included manufacturers, ahead of Alfa Romeo and Porsche, and way above Audi.

As with the regular 3 Series, the M3 comes with a three-year, unlimited mileage warranty, which is the same as what you get with the Giulia Quadrifoglio and Mercedes-AMG C63.

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Buy it if...

- You want performance thrills with a good dose of practicality

- Has a good amount of space for four adults

- You like to spend time setting up your performance car

Don’t buy it if…

- You are expecting something as loud as a sports car

- You are hoping it’s more affordable to run than rivals

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While it's quite expensive, I’d add the Ultimate Pack to the BMW M3 Touring, simply because it brings useful features including a heated steering wheel and adaptive LED headlights.

Lawrence Cheung, New cars editor

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If you're interested in finding a BMW M3, or any of the other performance car cars mentioned here, head over to our Cars available now pages to find new cars listed for sale at great prices.

BMW M3 specifications

RRP price range

£91,485

MPG range across all versions

27.7

Available fuel types (which is best for you? )

Petrol

Available colours

Number of engines (see all)

1

Number of trims (see all)

2

Warranty

3 years

Company car tax at 20% (min/max)

£6,407

Company car tax at 40% (min/max)

£12,814

FAQs

How much does a BMW M3 cost?

Cost depends on which version you go for, with the M3 Competition saloon costing a little more than the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, the Touring adding a little more to the price tag and the CS Touring taking the price as high as a Porsche 911 4S.

Is the M3 Touring a good car?

Yes. In fact, we think it’s so good that we’ve named it Best Performance Car for two years running at our Car of the Year Awards.

Why is the M3 so popular?

The BMW M3 has been a popular choice for many people for the best part of four decades now, and its recipe has hardly changed: offer blistering performance with everyday usability and practicality. The M3 – in both saloon and touring form – remains competitively priced among its rivals too, which helps its trusted reputation go even further. 

New car deals

Best price from £78,999

What is What Car? best price?

The What Car? best price shows you the cheapest way to buy your new car, whether it's by choosing an in-stock car through our partner Autotrader or placing a factory order.

Available now from: £78,999

RRP from: £91,485

Available now

From £78,999

Leasing deals

From £1,242

About our price indicator

What Car? indicative Personal lease example (subject to status)

BMW M3

Expected annual mileage 5000 Term months 60 Deposit months 12 Monthly payment £1,242.14 Initial payment £14,905.68

Step-by-step

Leasing works a bit like a long-term rental. You drive it, but you don’t own it.

• Choose your car, pick your terms and apply for lease credit online
• Pay monthly rental payments for your chosen term length
• Drive it, enjoy it, then give it back at the end

What you get

When you lease with Autotrader you get all of this:

• Full manufacturer’s warranty
• Road tax and roadside assistance included
• Free returns within 30 days*

Excess mileage charges and return conditions apply. Subject to availability and credit status. 18+ T&Cs apply.

In partnership with

£15,151 total upfront (£14,906 initial rental plus £245 processing fee) | 5000 miles | 60 months

• Lower total monthly cost than PCP/HP
• No balloon payments
• Road tax included

BMW M3s available to buy

In partnership with

BMW M3

3.0 BiTurbo Competition Steptronic M xDrive Euro 6 (s/s) 4dr

RRP £91,485

£79,898

BMW M3

3.0 BiTurbo Competition Steptronic M xDrive Euro 6 (s/s) 4dr

RRP £95,635

£81,655

BMW M3

3.0 BiTurbo Competition Steptronic M xDrive Euro 6 (s/s) 4dr

RRP £96,185

£82,750

BMW M3

3.0 BiTurbo Competition Steptronic M xDrive Euro 6 (s/s) 4dr

RRP £95,310

£82,785

BMW M3

3.0 BiTurbo Competition Steptronic M xDrive Euro 6 (s/s) 4dr

RRP £97,935

£82,995

BMW 3 Series Saloon

3.0 BiTurbo Competition Steptronic M xDrive Euro 6 (s/s) 4dr

RRP £96,510

£82,995

BMW M3

3.0 BiTurbo Competition Steptronic M xDrive Euro 6 (s/s) 4dr

RRP £96,235

£83,489

BMW M3

3.0 BiTurbo Competition Steptronic M xDrive Euro 6 (s/s) 4dr

RRP £97,135

£83,500

BMW M3

3.0 BiTurbo Competition Steptronic M xDrive Euro 6 (s/s) 4dr

RRP £94,785

£83,790

See all available cars

About the writer

Name: Dan Jones

Title: Senior Reviewer

Follow Dan Jones on

Dan joined What Car? in 2021 and is now the road test team's Senior Reviewer. In that role, he produces new car reviews for Whatcar.com and What Car? magazine, alongside occasional contributions for Autocar and Move Electric.

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