Would you buy the BMW M3, M4, M5 or M6 with all-wheel drive, if they had it optionally available? Turns out, you may just be able to do that close to the turn of the decade, as Motoring reports the Bavarian brand is thinking about expanding the use of all-wheel drive throughout the range of sporty M cars, not just the SUVs.
It seems that cold climate countries’ desires (and Audi) have ruined the image of the sports sedan (and estate) for good in the collective mind, making everybody think that all-wheel drive is some kind of requirement for good sales and wide appeal. BMW was the last of the manufacturers to give in, after Mercedes-Benz started offering all-wheel drive in more of its AMGs.
Apparently, the intention at BMW is to finally bring the brand completely into the mainstream, and compete directly with both its home brands, and other rivals like Lexus, Jaguar, Cadillac, Porsche and even Maserati. This, however, will only happen once the current-gen M5 and M6 are phased out, in 2016-2017, and M5 and M6 variants of the next-gen car are brought to market, so at least another year after that.
“I’ve looked at the numbers and 70 to 80 percent of E63 AMGs are all-wheel drive in the US now,” BMW M’s president Friedrich Nitschke told the news site. “On our cars we are thinking of all-wheel drive, but it won’t come before we get the successor of the M5 and M6,” he said.
Nitschke admits that it’s not an easy decision, however. “It’s not all as simple as it seems. If you look at Audi, they had no choice but to make a rear-wheel drive car so they might as well do all-wheel drive. AMG made a decision to go that way and it seems to work for them, but we are not all the same,” he said.
Regarding the M3 and M4, it seems that there is currently a consensus not to make them AWD too – but it takes one positive market study to make them completely forget about it and just do it for extra market share.
“The M5 and M6, maybe in the next generation they could get AWD, but not with the M3 or M4. Never,” he said.
By Andrei Nedelea
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