2025 BMW M4 Competition Convertible: Brutally Fast Winter-Beating Drop-Top

If you want a blisteringly fast convertible that you can drive all through the year, then the 2025 BMW M4 Convertible makes a lot of sense. It is surprisingly warm, comfortable and cossetting if you want to go for a top-down cruise in winter, but put the top up and dial everything up to Sport+, and it transforms into a true M car.

A Stunning New Color

As I was driving away from the BMW Romania headquarters, where I picked up my G83 BMW M4 Convertible finished in stunning Velvet Orchid II, the first thing that struck me was just how comfortable it is. Even with the large standard wheels (19 inches in the front and 20 inches in the rear), if you put it in Comfort mode, it feels like a proper cruiser with plenty of give in its suspension.

This unexpected comfy edge pairs very well with the S58 engine’s ample low-end torque and the pleasant deep exhaust thrum, creating a very luxurious experience. My tester had the standard seats, but the two-tone (black and light Silverstone grey) Merino leather helped the interior feel very plush, even if the car was lacking the extended leather pack that covers the entire dashboard in cowhide.

It was also missing the neck warmer integrated into the front seats below the headrests. This only costs a few hundred dollars, and it makes top-down winter driving even better. However, while I had the car, I drove it almost exclusively with its top down in temperatures hovering just a few degrees above freezing, and I even drove it on the highway in these conditions, and it was surprisingly good.

Between the heated seats, heated steering wheel and powerful climate system, the car can easily keep you nice and toasty inside as long as outside temperatures don’t go extremely low.

New Steering Wheel

BMW made improvements to the steering wheel in the 2025 M4 facelift, resulting in a better, more comfortable grip compared to the pre-LCI model, despite its similar appearance. I’m not talking about the flat bottom, but the rim itself, which is still nice and thick, but it feels like you have a better grip and more control of the car as a result.

Lots of Digital Changes

Even though the M4 didn’t launch with the curved screen array comprised of a 12.3-inch display in front of the driver and a 14.9-inch central screen, this got added in the pre-facelift model’s second year of production. What BMW did with the LCI model was to remove virtually all buttons on the center console, forcing you to do more things through the screen.

While its iDrive 8.5 infotainment system is better than version 8, having to operate the screen for any of the climate functions is a step back. BMW also removed the physical button for steering wheel heating, even though I noticed that there’s still a physical button where the third prong meets the wheel’s rim. It’s definitely a button that clicks and not a piece of loose trim, but it doesn’t seem to do anything.

My First Rodeo with an xDrive M3/M4

This was my first time driving a G-series M3 or M4 with all-wheel drive. I had only experienced the M3 Competition and M4 Competition without xDrive, and while I absolutely loved both, it was sometimes frustrating that they couldn’t put their power down in lower grip conditions.

My xDrive-equipped tester had no problem giving everything it had over and over again even when the tarmac I was launching it on was a bit damp and greasy. The difference xDrive makes here is frankly night and day, and while it does add extra weight, complexity and cost, after trying it, I wouldn’t buy a rear-wheel-drive M4.

Sending power to the front wheels can also corrupt some of the feedback that the driver feels through the steering wheel. However, the steering in new BMWs (M cars included) feels so detached that there doesn’t seem to be a difference between cars with and without xDrive. Steering feel is probably the only area where this M4 convertible tester didn’t live up to my expectations.

I should have known, having previously driven G-series M cars (the latest being an M2 Competition), that steering feel isn’t a strong point of these cars. However, I noticed that it didn’t really affect my confidence to push the car into corners as it made up for the lack of feel through its precision and the well-judged variable ratio.

Weight Doesn’t Matter. Much

Another thing that didn’t seem to affect the car much through the corners was the convertible model’s extra weight. Between the extra chassis strengthening meant to maintain torsional rigidity when taking the roof off and the electric folding top, the convertible weighs about 330 pounds (150 kilograms) more than the coupe.

I try to take most special BMWs to drive them on my favorite twisty mountain road, and the 2025 BMW M4 convertible was no exception. I also drove the M4 coupe on the same road, so I had a pretty good idea about what it felt like. What surprised me in the drop-top was that even with the extra weight (which pushed the car over 2 tons with a driver on board), it felt fantastic through the corners.

It didn’t feel like there was more inertia pushing you off your desired line. It felt almost identical to the hardtop, although it didn’t feel quite as sharp or stiff. This became immediately apparent when I drove over some unevenness in the road, which made the entire steering column feel like it moved from side to side.

The convertible’s lower stiffness became obvious when the dashboard creaked and seemed to move when going over potholes or sharper bumps. I never noticed anything of the kind in any hardtop M car, so I’ll attribute it to the cabrio body. However, neither of these was a real problem, and over most types of road imperfections, you don’t notice it.

A Marvelous and Powerful Engine

With 523 horsepower (530 PS) and 497 pound-feet (650 Nm) of torque under your right foot, accelerating in a 2025 BMW M4 convertible is truly breathtaking. This is the case in any BMW with the S58, but you really feel all the performance in an xDrive-equipped model, especially launching from a standstill.

With only 20 horsepower more than non-xDrive models and the same torque, you may not be prepared for how much quicker it feels off the line—I certainly wasn’t. It feels way quicker than the claimed 3.7 seconds to 62 mph (100 km/h) would suggest, and it keeps pulling hard through the first four gears.

A Refined Transmission

BMW may have also tuned how the eight-speed automatic gearbox feels in the setting with the most brutal shifts. The best compliment I can pay it is that it feels like a very, fast single-clutch, SMG-type transmission that gives you a kick in the back with every shift. Couple this with the sport exhaust that seems to cause explosions behind you and going through the gears in one of these cars becomes quite a special and satisfying experience, even when you don’t rev close to the red line.

Pops and Bangs

The exhaust was another highlight of this car, made even better by the fact that it was a convertible. I’m sure some sound is pumped in through the speakers, but the engine with its intoxicating straight-six sound and the characterful cacophony coming out of the back. It sounded fantastic given the fact that it also had a particulate filter, which is known to make exhaust sounds less exciting.

What I would have liked, though, is for the pops, bangs and crackle produced by the exhaust to be a bit less even and predictable. After spending some time with the car, you start to anticipate when it’s going to make which of those types of noises, and it starts to feel a bit artificial. Mercedes-AMG does this better than BMW, and cars like the new AMG GT 63 sound really exciting as a result.

Expensive, But Worth It

Overall, I was really impressed by the 2025 M4 Competition Convertible LCI, which cost over €126,000 as tested. It’s expensive, sure, and a bit heavy, plus you can really drive the price up if you start ticking options boxes. However, it has bonkers performance that’s easily accessible thanks to xDrive and all the settings that you can play with, and it can also feel like a luxurious and sophisticated cruiser when you want it to.