Is the BMW M440i the poor mans M4, or the thinking mans M4? We took the helm for a week to see if the £52,000 4 Series made financial sense.
Looks
Not as brazen, angry or brash as the full-blown M4, the M440i is a much subtler statement. It has the performance without all the ‘look at me’ styling. Although you do have to get past that snout, it’s going to be a marmite thing, I’m sure.
Optional extras on the outside include the 19″ Jet Black M light double-spoke alloys, black mirror caps and high gloss Shadow Line with extended contents. Oooh. All part of the aforementioned ‘Shadowline Plus’ pack for £500.
Drive
Fitted with a 3.0 litre turbocharged inline-six means there are 374 horses under your right foot, along with a healthy 540 Nm of torque. xDrive badging, that means all of that power can be pummelled into the asphalt at every corner, which is always handy when there’s this level of power on tap – especially in the wet.
0-62 is a brief 4.5 seconds, plenty quick enough for anyone’s everyday driving needs, and just 0.6 seconds off of the M4. Not bad, considering the nearly 22k price difference.
Power delivery is silky smooth, with a nice burble and the right amount of growl as the revs rise. It’s tough to fault the slick eight-speed gearbox; no matter if you’re in Sport Plus or Comfort, it switches between savage despatcher of the horizon to sedate cruiser incredibly well.
Pushing through some B-roads and the BMW M440i is the type of car that feels the limit of what a normal human should be allowed to own. It compresses the time between corners in a supercar manner, come to the next bend and body roll is well controlled. It’s not bone shakingly rigid and lets the BMW move around a little, playful almost.
You do, however, notice all 1,740 kg of this German machine. It feels like a big, heavy car. There’s no escaping that for all the technical wizardry beneath you. More fun could certainly be had in a comparably priced Cayman.
Steering sensation is, well, void-like. You’re too well insulated from what the front wheels are doing; there’s not a sniff of feedback – par for the course these days; maybe that’s something the M4 improves on fractionally?
Turn all the safety net off, and you can expect that rear-biased xDrive to swing the back out a little while burning rubber. Keep the power in, though, and the front wheels will pull you to safety.
Interior
Inside is, well, a little generic BMW. There are a few gimmicks like the gesture audio control, BMW Drive Recorder – basically, Tesla Sentry Mode that can act like a dashcam utilising all four cameras. Both were luckily optional extras as part of the £3,650 ‘Technology Plus Pack’.
Part of the comfort pack added a heated steering wheel, making the whole thing seem girthier than you’re used to. Welcoming in the depths of winter, but entirely necessary?
There were a few gremlins in terms of build quality, the front centre panel had an awful creak about it whenever it was opened, and the seat belt assister/arm thingy had a ridiculously loud motor. The latter is no doubt a fact of life; the former I’d certainly be taking back to the dealership having spent £52k on a new car.
Even though the electric front seats had lumbar adjustment, they just weren’t the most comfortable. They seem pretty stiff with a lack of support in the main body, you can pump up the sides to hug you more, but some deeper padding in general could have helped.
Boot space is 440 litres, which beats the comparative Merc by 40 litres, but can’t outdo the Audi A5 with its 450 litres of space.
BMW M440i Coupe Conclusion
Not everyone wants a car that looks like it’s going to eat the nearest Fiesta alive, nor one that’s going to make the neighbours’ windows vibrate whenever you start it up.
As a driver’s car, the M440i makes total sense; it’s understated, well balanced and gives near as dammit M4 performance for a lot less money.
The BMW M440i is the thinking man’s M4.
