James May’s beloved ‘Unpimp My Ride’ series on Drive Tribe is back with its latest episode, this time focusing on a BMW 420i.
The 420i is quite a very nice premium coupe, offering decent performance with a plush interior and striking good looks. However, this particular Estoril Blue 420i has a black M4 badge stuck onto the tailgate. If this isn’t a crime which should be punishable with jail time, we don’t know what is.
For May, putting M badges on a non-M car from BMW is wildly inappropriate and he swiftly removes the badge to return the car back to standard. Or so it seems.
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The Grand Tour host soon reveals that the owner of this BMW has also had some fun with the car’s front end and painted three of the vertical slats of the kidney grille in the colors of the BMW M division. They look cheap and tacky and appear to have been painted on with plastidip or something. This means it only takes a couple of seconds for the color to be peeled away and the grille to be returned to normal – in the words of May, all very “casual.”
We’ve never understood why owners of certain brands (BMW, Mercedes-Benz etc.) so frequently affix M or AMG badges to their non-performance vehicles, as they fool absolutely no one with even the slightest knowledge about cars. Guess they’re interested in impressing all the rest – and to hell with being ridiculed by those who know.